Add new colleagues and manage your colleague list

You can add people to your colleagues list, manage your colleagues by using groups, and restrict who can see them.

In this article

Overview

Add a new colleague

Add someone as a colleague when you visit his or her profile

Add someone as a colleague from your My Site

View new colleague suggestions

Add a colleague to a new group

Move a colleague to another group

Remove a colleague

Overview

When you add people as colleagues, you can follow their activities in your Newsfeed, such as when they receive a promotion or update their profiles. They are also added to your Colleagues list. You can organize your colleagues into groups, so that you can easily browse and manage your colleagues list.

Your Colleagues list typically starts with your manager, people who report to your manager, and any direct reports. Depending on how your My Sites are set up, you might also see other colleagues that you have worked with. You can add and manage other colleagues whom you frequently work with or want to stay in touch with.

You can also apply the My Team privacy category to manage who sees some of your personal information, such as some personal details in your profile, your memberships, and your colleagues. For example, you might want to share your personal phone number with members of your team, but not share it with all your colleagues. Someone doesn't need to share your same manager to be added to the My Team category. For example, you might add someone from another team whom you work closely with or know well.

Sharing your Colleagues list with people in your organization is useful for building relationships and growing your personal network. When people visit your My Site, they can see who you work with and in what capacity. By using this information, the people might be able to find the contacts and information they need to do their work.

To help recommend colleagues, SharePoint Server can identify people you frequently send mail to from a SharePoint compatible e-mail program, such as Microsoft Outlook. You can view the recommendations from your colleagues list, as well as receive suggestions for colleagues in e-mail. Find more information about managing these settings in the See Also section.

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Add a new colleague

There are many ways to locate a colleague on your SharePoint site. You can find someone by searching for people, or by clicking a person's name when it appears as a link, such as when someone modifies a document or tags relevant content.

If you and your colleague use an instant messaging application that is compatible with SharePoint Server, such as Microsoft Office Communicator, you may be able to click a drop-down command to browse to his or her My Site.

When you add someone as a colleague, their activities will appear in your Newsfeed. You might also see activities from people who are not your colleagues if they tag content with a keyword you are following as an interest.

Add someone as a colleague when you visit his or her profile

When you visit someone's profile, you will see Add as colleague under the person's profile picture, if you aren't following him or her as a colleague. If you are already following someone as a colleague, the Add as colleague link will not be displayed.

1. Use search to find the person's my site, or if his or her name appears as a link on your site, click the name.

2. Under his or her picture, click Add as Colleague.

3. In the Add to Group section, select whether or not to add the person to your team. You can use the My Team privacy category to provide access to some details that you don't want to share with all your colleagues.

4. Under Add to Group, do one of the following:

   • To add a colleague to an existing group, click Existing group, and in select a group from the drop-down list. Groups help you organize and easily browse through your colleague list, but you cannot apply unique privacy categories to each group.

   • To create a new group for this colleague, click New group, and then type the name of the group. You can add other colleagues to this group later.

5. In the Show To section, select a privacy category under Show this colleague to, if you only want to show this colleague to a specific set of people, such as just your manager or just your colleagues.

6. Click OK.

Add someone as a colleague from your My Site

Your status message will appear on the public view of your profile, and in the Newsfeeds of people who follow your activities.

1. Do one of the following:

   • If you are already viewing someone's profile or a page on your My Site, click My Profile.

   • If you are viewing a different type of page on your SharePoint site, click your name in the upper right corner , and then click My Profile.

2. Click Colleagues.

3. Click Add Colleagues.

4. In the box in the Colleagues section, type the person's name – separate multiple names with semi-colons. Click Check Names to determine if the person's name is found in the directory service. To find people, click Browse .

5. In the Add to Group section, select whether or not to add the person to your team. You can use the My Team privacy category to provide access to some details that you don't want to share with all your colleagues.

6. Under Add to Group, do one of the following:

   • To add a colleague to an existing group, click Existing group, and then select a group from the drop-down list. Groups help you organize and easily browse through your colleague list, but you cannot apply unique privacy categories to each group.

   • To create a new group for this colleague, click New group, and then type the name of the group. You can add other colleagues to this group later.

   • In the Show To section, select a privacy category under Show this colleague to, if you only want to show this colleague to a specific set of people, such as just your manager or just your colleagues.

7. Click OK.

Tip:  When someone adds you as a colleague, you might receive an e-mail notification that contains a link to follow that person as a colleague, so that you can follow their activities.

View new colleague suggestions

1. Do one of the following:

   • If you are already viewing someone's profile or a page on your My Site, click My Profile.

   • If you are viewing a different type of page on your SharePoint site, click your name in the upper right corner , and then click My Profile.

2. Click Colleagues.

3. Click View Suggestions.

4. When prompted whether to view suggestions from your messaging programs, click Yes if you feel comfortable receiving suggestions based on people you frequently send e-mail to.

5. To add any of the suggested colleagues, select the check boxes next to their names, and then add them as you would any colleague.

Add a colleague to a new group

1. Do one of the following:

   • If you are already viewing someone's profile or a page on your My Site, click My Profile.

   • If you are viewing a different type of page on your SharePoint site, click your name in the upper right corner , and then click My Profile.

2. Click Colleagues.

3. Select the check box next to the colleague or colleagues you want to add to a new group.

4. In the Add to Group section, select whether or not to add the person to your team. You can use the My Team privacy category to provide access to some details that you don't want to share with all your colleagues.

5. To create a new group, click New group, and then type the name of the group.

6. In the Show To section, select a privacy category under Show this colleague to, if you only want to show this colleague to a specific set of people, such as just your manager or just your colleagues.

7. Click OK.

Move a colleague to another group

1. Do one of the following:

   • If you are already viewing someone's profile or a page on your My Site, click My Profile.

   • If you are viewing a different type of page on your SharePoint site, click your name in the upper right corner , and then click My Profile.

2. Click Colleagues.

3. Select the check box next to the colleague or colleagues you want to move to a different group.

4. In the Add to Group section, select whether or not to add the person to your team. You can use the My Team privacy category to provide access to some details that you don't want to share with all your colleagues.

5. Click Existing group, and then select a group from the drop-down list. Groups help you organize and easily browse through your colleague list, but you cannot apply unique privacy categories to each group.

6. In the Show To section, select a privacy category under Show this colleague to, if you only want to show this colleague to a specific set of people, such as just your manager or just your colleagues.

7. Click OK.

Remove a colleague

You can remove names from your Colleagues list as you change projects or move to a different department. You have access to all of the names listed in your directory, so it is easy to add a name back to the list if you change your mind.

1. Do one of the following:

   • If you are already viewing someone's profile or a page on your My Site, click My Profile.

   • If you are viewing a different type of page on your SharePoint site, click your name in the upper right corner , and then click My Profile.

2. Click Colleagues.

3. Select the check boxes next to the colleagues you want to remove.

4. Click Remove Colleagues.

5. When prompted to make sure you want to remove the colleague, click Yes.

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