Identity and access management
Workday to Google Workspace integration: Google accounts and file handover from HR
With an integration between Workday and Google Workspace, every new colleague in Workday automatically gets a Google account, in the right organisational unit and with job title, department, manager and groups. After the last working day the account is suspended and the Drive files go to the manager, so nobody has to work out who takes them over.
What the integration does
Anyone running HR in Workday and using Google Workspace for mail and collaboration has IT create Google accounts from a Workday notification and place them in the right organisational unit by hand. On departure it stays unclear who takes over the files in Drive.
- HR completes a hire in Workday for a company that belongs to this Google domain.
- Before the start date the Google account is ready, in the right organisational unit and with job title, department and cost centre from Workday.
- The manager is set and the employee is in the groups for company, location and job.
- If you want, the new email address goes back to Workday as the work address.
- On the last working day the account is suspended and the Drive files go to the manager from Workday.
What to watch for with Workday and Google Workspace
- Google records the manager through their email address. The manager therefore needs a Google account already; KoppelHet processes a new manager and their team in the right order.
- A departure is often set in Workday weeks before the last day. KoppelHet only suspends the account on that day, so the employee keeps access to mail and files until the end.
- On departure KoppelHet hands the Drive files over to the manager Workday lists on the employee's last day.
- Writing the work email back to Workday runs through the contact details process in Workday, including any approval steps you have set up there.
- Workday data that has no place in the standard Google profile, such as the worker type and employee number, is kept in a custom field on the account. Groups or exceptions can later be based on it.
- A global Workday environment often serves several Google domains or countries. The company in Workday decides the email domain and organisational unit, so a Dutch employee gets the Dutch policies.
- Workday shows the preferred name when there is one. We use it for the name in Gmail and Meet; the legal name stays in Workday for contracts.
This integration is also part of joiner, mover, leaver.
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
Can employees sign in to Workday with their Google account?
That is single sign-on and separate from this integration. The integration does make sure the email address is the same in Workday and Google, which makes it simpler.
What happens to the mailbox after departure?
The account is suspended first. What happens next, such as forwarding or archiving, is agreed up front.
Do contingent workers get a Google account too?
If you want them to. They then get their own organisational unit, so different policies can apply.
Does this work if not all of Workday should go to Google?
Yes. The company or country in Workday decides which employees the integration includes. The rest stays out of Google.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- Workday is read through Workday Web Services (Get_Workers) or a RaaS report with an Integration System User, on completed Hire, Change Job and Terminate processes. Writing back the work address through Maintain_Contact_Information.
- Google is written through the Admin SDK Directory API (primaryEmail, name, organizations with title, department and costCenter, relations with type manager, orgUnitPath, customSchemas for Employee_ID and worker type, suspended) and the Data Transfer API for the Drive handover.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in Workday | Field in Google Workspace | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Naamgevingsregel | primaryEmail | Required and unique; may not be an alias of someone else |
Preferred_Name_Data | name.givenName en name.familyName | |
Business_Title | organizations[].title | |
Supervisory organization | organizations[].department | |
Cost center | organizations[].costCenter | |
Manager uit de supervisory organization | relations[] met type manager | The value is the manager's email address |
Company en locatie | orgUnitPath | |
Employee_ID en worker type | customSchemas | Own schema for Workday data |
Termination_Date | suspended = true |
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