Recruitment to HR
SmartRecruiters to Workday integration: the built-in HCM connector, and when custom work is needed
SmartRecruiters lists Workday as one of its ready-made HCM connectors, and for many organisations that is the first choice to get hired candidates into Workday. KoppelHet builds the integration between SmartRecruiters and Workday when that connector does not fit, for example when a different position or company must be chosen per country, or when recruiters must see in SmartRecruiters whether the hire in Workday succeeded.
What the integration does
Organisations that recruit in several countries through SmartRecruiters and manage workers in Workday run into two things. Per country or site a hire needs a different company and position, and after the hire recruiters do not know whether the new employee is already in Workday. Without an integration HR picks those values by hand and the recruiter follows the outcome by email.
- The recruiter sets the candidate to hired for the job in SmartRecruiters.
- SmartRecruiters sends a notification with only the application number. KoppelHet fetches candidate, job and offer itself.
- The job location determines the company in Workday, the job determines the position.
- The pre-hire is created in Workday, and KoppelHet starts the hire with the start date from the offer.
- KoppelHet sets the onboarding status in SmartRecruiters to successful or failed, so the recruiter sees the result.
What to watch for with SmartRecruiters and Workday
- SmartRecruiters has an onboarding status per hired candidate, intended for the system that takes over the employee. KoppelHet only sets it to successful once Workday has accepted the hire, not already at the pre-hire, so the recruiter does not think everything is done too early.
- A candidate can have a status on several jobs in SmartRecruiters. KoppelHet stores the combination of candidate and job as reference in Workday, so a second hire of the same person, for example from seasonal work to a permanent role, comes in as a new hire.
- Workday needs a position or organisation for a hire. SmartRecruiters does not know them. When a job is opened we record the Workday position ID; without a position KoppelHet stops with a notice and sets the onboarding status to failed with the reason.
- SmartRecruiters limits the number of requests per second and the number of concurrent requests. After a large hiring day KoppelHet processes the hires in sequence, and Workday receives them one by one within its own business process.
- Start date and salary are held in SmartRecruiters in the offer properties, which each organisation sets up itself. Workday calculates compensation per country with its own plans. By default KoppelHet only takes the start date; HR enters salary in Workday, and taking it along can come later as an extension.
- Since its acquisition SmartRecruiters is part of SAP, which has its own HR system in SuccessFactors. For organisations that keep Workday this changes nothing in the integration, but it is a reason to check at every contract renewal what the built-in Workday connector still supports.
How we build and run it
- The integration runs on the KoppelHet platform, hosted in a data centre in the EU.
- Every sync and every error is visible in the functional log; on an error your administrator is notified.
- A change that cannot go through is not half-applied but queued for another attempt.
- KoppelHet is ISO 27001 certified. Data travels encrypted and stays on the platform no longer than needed.
- After go-live we manage the integration and adjust it when your process changes.
- The integration fits next to your existing integration layer. Only the fields in the design are transferred; the platform keeps no register of its own.
Implementation and price
This is not an app you switch on. We build the integration for your organisation on our platform, with building blocks we reuse on every project. So it is custom work that does not start from scratch.
A consultant prepares the intake and analyses both systems. We then record the mapping and exceptions field by field, test in the test or acceptance environment and go live at a moment you choose. Costs are a one-off amount for the setup and a monthly amount for platform, monitoring and support.
Frequently asked questions
Are approvals in Workday skipped?
No. KoppelHet starts the hire and Workday runs the steps you have configured.
What does the recruiter see when it fails?
The onboarding status in SmartRecruiters is then set to failed, and HR gets a notice with the reason, such as a missing position.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- SmartRecruiters through a webhook subscription (activation with X-Hook-Secret; notification with only the ID; HMAC-SHA256 in smartrecruiters-signature; up to ten retries; 30-day callbacks log) and the Customer API with OAuth 2.0 client credentials. Onboarding status through PUT /candidates/{id}/jobs/{jobId}/onboardingStatus. Limit 10 requests per second and 8 concurrent.
- Workday through the Staffing web service with an Integration System User. Put_Applicant for the pre-hire, then Hire_Employee with Position_Reference, Hire_Date and Location_Reference. Workday now calls an applicant a pre-hire; the operation names have not changed.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in SmartRecruiters | Field in Workday | Notes |
|---|---|---|
id (kandidaat) en jobId | External_Integration_ID_Data | Combination of candidate and job, because someone can apply for several jobs |
firstName en lastName | Legal_Name_Data | |
email en phoneNumber | Email_Address_Data en Phone_Data (privé) | |
location (job) | Company en Location_Reference | Through a table per country and site |
Job (refNumber of eigen veld) | Position_Reference | Record the position ID when the job is opened |
Startdatum (offer property) | Hire_Date | |
Resultaat in Workday | onboardingStatus | ONBOARDING_SUCCESSFUL or ONBOARDING_FAILED |
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