You track expiring certificates in the HR system by automatically writing completed training from the learning platform back to the employee, with the date on which it expires. In AFAS that becomes a course with Geldig tot (valid until), in Workday a certification with an expiry date, and HR can then build an overview of what is about to expire in its own system.
Without an integration, completed certificates often sit only in the learning platform. Anyone who has to repeat a VCA or NEN training (Dutch safety and technical certifications) then ends up in an Excel list alongside HR. For an audit, HR exports an overview from the learning platform and looks up the employees in the HR system. With the certificates in the HR file, HR sees in one place who is missing a mandatory training or has to repeat one soon.
Where a certificate lands in the HR system
Every HR system has a different place for training. Whether you can report on expiry dates depends on that place.
- AFAS records a training as a course on the employee. With Certificaat behaald (certificate obtained), Geldig van (valid from) and Geldig tot (valid until) may be filled in. You then build an overview of expiring certificates in AFAS itself.
- Workday has separate storage for training and certifications. A course with a validity period becomes a certification with an issue and expiry date. The rest becomes a training.
- Visma Raet YouForce receives the certificate or diploma as a document in the personnel file, through the Learning API. The name and date of the training are in the file name and description.
- Personio also receives the certificate as a document in the file.
- HiBob gets a row in the Training table, with the PDF as an attachment.
In AFAS and Workday the expiry date is therefore a field you can filter on. In YouForce and Personio the certificate sits as a document in the file.
When the learning platform supplies no expiry date
Not every learning platform passes on an expiry date. GoodHabitz does not supply one. For a mandatory training, KoppelHet then fills in the validity with a term that HR chooses per training, for example one year. That way there is still a Geldig tot in the HR system.
aNewSpring does not supply a PDF through the API. For YouForce, which expects a document, KoppelHet creates a proof with name, course, date and grade.
Which results come back
A learning platform records far more than completed certificates: started trainings and individual lessons. Only a completed course or a passed test becomes a row in HR. The rest stays in the learning platform, so the file does not fill up. Which trainings come back is agreed with HR in advance.
Every result gets a fixed key. If the learning platform sends the same notification twice, that does not produce a duplicate training in HR.
Matching trainings and course codes
A training in the learning platform has its own ID. A course in AFAS has its own code. HR records per training which AFAS course it belongs to. When a new training is added, KoppelHet puts it on a list, so HR can classify it before anyone completes it.
In HiBob it works differently. There, Bob holds a fixed list of training names. KoppelHet first adds a new name to that list itself, and then writes the row in the Training table.
Edge cases on leaving and in the first version
- Leaving with Bob Learning. Bob Learning no longer accepts a result after someone has left. When someone leaves, KoppelHet first sends on the last completed courses and only then deactivates the user in Docebo.
- Background processing. An upload to YouForce is processed in the background. KoppelHet checks the status, so no certificate goes missing unnoticed.
- Not in the first version. With Nmbrs, Personio with 360Learning and SAP SuccessFactors, certificates do not go back in the first version. That can be added later as an extension.
How KoppelHet builds this
KoppelHet builds the integration per organisation on its own platform. Per HR system we choose the place where a certificate belongs and where HR can report on it, and agree with HR which trainings come back. Often this is the second direction of an integration that already sends employees to the learning platform; how that first direction works is described under employees to the learning platform.
Examples of combinations are AFAS and StudyTube, AFAS and GoodHabitz, Workday and 360Learning, YouForce and aNewSpring and HiBob and StudyTube. More about the systems is under StudyTube and GoodHabitz.
Read more about certificates back to HR, see the whole pillar training and certificates, or read how qualifications reach the schedule under skills matrix and availability.