# Assign a Designation

Give a job title to one person or to many, and what happens to the title they held before.

A person holds one designation, so assigning a new one replaces the old one rather than adding to it. That single fact is the whole difference from assigning a department.

- Open the designation and select **Assign**.

  ![The Assign Employees form for a designation, with the breadcrumb Worklink, Designations, Accounts Assistant, Assign Employees. A Designation section names Accounts Assistant and reads Active, Sales and purchase ledger processing. A Select Employees section has a search box reading Search by name, designation or department, with 29 available at the right, above a table with columns Employee, Current Designation, Department and Status. Cancel and Assign Selected buttons sit at the foot.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/worklink/designations/assign-designation.png)
- Read the **Current Designation** column before ticking anybody. It is what you are about to overwrite.

  ![The Select Employees table on the designation assign form. Columns read Employee, Current Designation, Department and Status. Eleanor Whitfield is Managing Director in Operations, Graham Whitfield is Engineering Manager in Engineering and Maintenance, Marcus Thorne is Operations Manager in Operations, Fiona Kerr is HR Manager in People and HR, and further rows show Ruth Alderman, Hazel Bidwell, Lorna Fairweather, Bethan Lloyd and Nita Chakraborty with their own titles and departments.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/worklink/designations/assign-table.png)
- Tick the people and select **Assign Selected**. The count on the button is your last check.

## Departments and designations assign differently

**Assigning a designation** (one at a time)

- Yes: Replaces whatever title they held.
- No: No member or primary choice; there is only one slot.
- Yes: The Current Designation column warns you what is being replaced.

**Assigning a department** (one or many)

- Yes: Adds a department without removing another.
- Yes: Offers Add as member or Set as primary.
- Yes: People already in it are greyed out rather than replaced.

> **Note:**
>
> **The previous title is not kept on the person**
>
> The employee shows the new designation from the moment you assign it. What the change leaves behind is an entry in their activity panel, under Career, which is where a promotion is evidenced.

> **Tip:**
>
> **For one promotion, edit the person instead**
>
> Coming at it from the designation is built for moving several people at once. A single promotion is fewer clicks from the employee's own record, on the Work tab.

## What changes once it is assigned

| Where | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| The employee roster | The Designation column shows the new title. |
| The designation list | The Employees count moves between the old title and the new. |
| Department pages | The member table shows the new title against the person. |
| Their activity panel | A Career entry records the change and when it happened. |