How to Find Users Without a Manager in Microsoft 365

Consider a scenario where your organization recently hired interns and later transitioned them into full-time employees. If their guest accounts were converted to internal user accounts without assigning managers, they could be left without proper supervision. This lack of oversight can disrupt workflows, delay approvals, and create accountability gaps in your Microsoft 365 organization.

Set manager for multiple unmanaged users in Entra ID

With the latest Bulk Edit Users feature in the Microsoft Entra admin center, you can assign a manager to multiple users simultaneously.

• Go to the All Users page in the Microsoft Entra admin center.
• Select the unmanaged users for bulk manager assignment.
• Click Add Manager, choose a manager, and hit Select to assign the manager to all the selected users.

But this method is inefficient as it requires manual checks and may overwrite existing managers. Therefore, we built a PowerShell script with multiple use cases to assign user managers. This script has the capability to assign a specific manager only to all unmanaged users and assign managers based on the user properties of unmanaged users.

Bulk assign manager to all the users without managers using PowerShell script

• To bulk assign a manager, download and run the above PowerShell script with the -GetAllUnmanagedUsers parameter.
• Replace the <RefObjId> with the manager's user object ID to assign a manager to all unmanaged Microsoft 365 users.
• After adding a manager to all the unmanaged users, the execution report will be saved in a .txt file.

.\SetAzureADUserManager.ps1 -GetAllUnmanagedUsers -ManagerId "<RefObjId>"

Add a manager to Microsoft 365 users based on unmanaged user properties

• To bulk assign managers to unmanaged users based on specific properties, download and run the above script in PowerShell using the -ProcessOnlyUnmanagedUsers parameter.
• Filter users by specifying attributes such as department, job title, company name, city, and more as comma-separated values, as shown in the execution example.
• Finally, specify the manager by providing the manager’s UserPrincipalName or ObjectId.

.\SetAzureADUserManager.ps1 -ProcessOnlyUnmanagedUsers

In Microsoft 365, it is essential to track users under a specific manager to maintain departmental framework and chain of command. Whether for auditing, workflow automation, or management insights, you can easily find the number of users reporting to a manager using PowerShell or the Entra admin center.

List all direct reports under a manager using Entra admin center

• Log in to the Microsoft Entra admin center.
• Navigate to Identity»Users »All users and select the Add Filter option.
• Set the filter to Manager == <Manager UPN> and click Apply.

Get all Microsoft 365 users under a manager using PowerShell

Connect to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module with the required permission using the cmdlet below.

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "User.Read.All"

To find all the direct reports of a specific manager, run the below command.

Get-MgUserDirectReport –UserId "<Manager’s UPN>" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty AdditionalProperties|Foreach{
	[PSCustomObject]@{
		'Display Name' = $_.displayName
		'User Principal Name' = $_.userPrincipalName 
	}
}

Replace <Manager’s UPN> with the actual UserPrincipalName of the manager whose direct reports you want to retrieve.

A small startup with fewer than 50 employees may not require managers for direct reports, as a limited workforce results in minimal friction within the management layer. However, in mid-sized or large enterprises, having managers at each level simplifies employee management. Users without a manager can impact task delegation, access reviews, and overall organizational efficiency.

Here are some of the main challenges faced by Microsoft 365 organizations with users who have no manager:

To avoid these mismanagement issues, it is best to ensure that every user within the organization is assigned a manager.

In Microsoft 365, users who do not have managers can often go unnoticed, potentially resulting in delayed approvals, missed critical updates, or unmonitored performance issues. For example, when employees switch roles or move to a different department, failing to update their manager assignment can cause workflow disruptions and communication gaps.

Unfortunately, Microsoft 365 does not offer a simple method to configure periodic notifications for such users.

• Go to the 'Users Without Managers' report in Admindroid and click Schedule ⏰ in the top-right corner.
• Set the notification frequency as daily, weekly, or monthly as needed to get it delivered via the mailbox.
• Choose the export format for the report, add recipients of your choice, and click Save.