Workday integration is essential in multi-app HR workflows, acting as a bridge connecting islands of HR apps. Without integration, manually transferring data between disconnected apps can be tedious and error-prone. By building a bridge, data flows freely between apps like a network of interconnected islands, improving efficiency and accuracy while eliminating the need for manual data entry.
While Workday offers an array of features, many HR departments prefer to use an assortment of HR apps with a specific focus—going beyond tools that fit in the Workday toolbox, such as a dedicated applicant tracking system (ATS), background checks system, payroll app, or benefits systems.
Workday integration connects Workday with other HR systems, sharing data in real time and eliminating manual data entry tasks. By automating data transfer, integration enhances productivity, accuracy, and data reliability across all systems.
What is Workday?
The Workday app for HR departments is a comprehensive cloud-based solution that offers a range of functionalities to streamline HR operations. Workday encompasses various modules such as human capital management (HCM), payroll, benefits, time tracking, and analytics, among others. So, how does Workday work? The Workday app for HR departments aims to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness in managing human resources within an organization.
Here are some of the key features of Workday:
- Human Capital Management: This module empowers companies to streamline HR tasks, from tracking employee records and managing pay to attracting top talent, boosting performance, and strategically planning for the future.
- Payroll: Workday’s payroll system simplifies payroll processing, handling everything from calculations and tax compliance to direct deposits, making it easier for organizations to manage their payroll with confidence.
- Benefits: Workday streamlines the management of employee benefits programs, taking care of everything from enrollment and legal compliance to reporting, so organizations can focus on supporting their teams.
- Time Tracking: Workday’s time-tracking tools allow large companies to keep tabs on employee attendance. By utilizing payroll and HR functions, Workday takes the hassle out of workforce management.
- Analytics: Workday’s dynamic analytics and reporting tools turn your HR and financial data into clear, actionable insights, making it easier to make informed decisions and push your organization forward.
Why Do You Need Workday Integration?
While Workday is an excellent platform and popular amongst HR departments, most HR teams rely on multiple apps each with a different user interface and operating characteristics. According to Capterra’s 2023 HR App Sprawl Survey, the average HR department uses an average of five software systems for all of their company’s HR needs, and HR employees say 50% of those systems perform overlapping functions. When HR departments are required to manually reenter the same information across multiple apps, productivity and security tanks.
Connecting Workday with other HR systems makes it possible for HR applications to share data automatically and in real-time, getting rid of boring manual tasks and the mistakes that come with entering data twice. Plus, automation keeps data consistent and reliable across all systems.
What Does Workday Integration Do?
Integration connects the data between Workday and your other HR apps and bridges the gap between Workday and your applicant tracking system (ATS), candidate assessment systems, background check system, payroll applications, and beyond.
Workday Integration Examples
There are multiple ways or use cases that Workday connects with your other systems. Each business and HR department relies on multiple apps that serve various purposes, and integration bridges the data gap between those systems.
Workday with an ATS
As hiring and onboarding are the main functions of HR, many HR departments find value in integrating Workday with their ATS (applicant tracking system). With data connectors, job requisition data from Workday is sent to your ATS to empower a faster hiring process. New hire information from your ATS can also integrate with Workday to speed onboarding. New employee data like name, address, social security number, and salary information automatically share with Workday to manage employees. Workday integrates with any ATS application, like BambooHR, Greenhouse, Taleo, Workstream, and more.
Workday with Candidate Assessment Apps
Integrating Workday with candidate assessment apps makes HR professionals’ lives easier. For instance, when Workday integrates with a candidate assessment app like Predictive Index or Cultural Index, an assessment is automatically triggered when a candidate reaches a particular step in the Workday application. Recruiters are no longer required to check on the application process and switch between apps to proceed in their work flow. After the candidate completes the assessment, the scores are automatically returned to Workday so the HR manager never has to leave Workday to evaluate a candidate’s fit.
Workday with Payroll Apps
Upon pressing the "hire" button within your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), a new employee record is generated in Workday. This record includes essential data such as name, address, social security number, and salary, all meticulously mapped for seamless integration.
A Workday payroll integration ensures that all employee data needed to process payroll is up-to-date for current employees. When using a payroll application such as ADP or Paylocity, any time employee data changes in Workday, the data automatically updates in your payroll system.
You can find more specific details about 11 Most Popular Use Cases for Workday integration here, plus Workday integration case studies.
What Are the Benefits of Workday Integration?
Integration can be a huge lifesaver for businesses who are finding their HR departments bogged down by the tedious process of manually entering the same data multiple times across a number of different applications. When integration takes over, the benefits trickle throughout the entire organization.
Saves Time
Integration saves employees time by removing the need for manual reentry of the same data across multiple systems. Instead of spending time on tedious data reentry tasks, employees can concentrate on strategic tasks that grow the business. Automation is freedom to work smarter.
“With data integration from Flexspring, we no longer manually duplicate work in both Workday and ADP," said Cristi Johnson, Compensation/Benefits Manager, EOS North America. “Our HR administrator saves about 15 hours a week by not doing manual updates. We now have data integrity and never worry about mismatched data between systems because everything connects. I definitely recommend data integration to anyone in HR.”
Improves Accuracy
Integrating Workday with payroll apps removes the need for reentry of data across multiple apps, which removes room for human manual data errors that may have occurred previously in the process. With automation, employees can rest assured that their compensation remains accurate and timely. Data integration also saves headaches that come from backtracking and correcting payroll errors.
“When we migrated to Workday, we wanted to keep our systems in sync with ADP Vantage HCM without burdening our HR department. We didn’t have the internal expertise to deal with ADP’s complicated APIs,” says an HRIS Manager at a Global Manufacturer and current Flexspring client, “our Workday to ADP integration is a major key-stroke saver. It saves our HR departments a ton of time.”
Improves Morale
Productivity tanks in an HR department when employees are required to spend their time manually reentering the same data across multiple apps. When integration takes over, employees can refocus the time spent on data reentry to more fulfilling tasks and initiatives that will propel the business forward instead of feeling trapped in the busy work of reentering data. No one joined HR to do manual data entry!
Streamlined Workflows
Integration works as a Workday connector, streamlining the necessary data to ensure your workflow is as efficient as possible. Integration removes the need to jump back and forth between applications to retrieve the necessary data you need. Instead, the data is consistent between applications and ready when you need it. A streamlined workflow results in efficient work.
Scalability
Data integration boosts a company's scalability by eliminating the need for time-consuming double data entry. By seamlessly connecting various systems and consolidating data, integration allows companies to automate routine tasks, reduce errors, and free up valuable time for more strategic activities. This efficiency accelerates operations and supports growth, as companies can handle increased volumes of data without being bogged down by repetitive manual processes. As a result, businesses can scale more effectively and focus on driving innovation and success.
Better Decision-Making
Data integration synchronizes HR and financial data through analytics and reporting tools. A comprehensive view of this data allows organizations more accurate and timely insights and enables leaders to make well-informed decisions based on a complete understanding of both human resources and financial performance. By aligning data from various sources, integration ensures that decisions are grounded in reliable, up-to-date information, ultimately driving better outcomes and strategic success.
How to Use Workday Integration
There are a few ways that integration can work for you. Custom integration creates a data connector that’s the exact fit for you and your business’ needs. With custom integration, unlimited custom fields and custom-tailored business rules seamlessly match data between your apps. Most often, fast growing or large businesses with complex HR processes and custom fields in their data integration choose custom integration.
The second method is turkey integration. These integrations are prebuilt connectors that already match a common set of fields and rules between your apps. Turnkey integration is generally the right fit for you if you just need the basics.
Flexspring offers both custom and turnkey integration for Workday integration. Flexspring fully manages the integration services so that you do not need to spend additional resources to create integrations. It’s the perfect solution for IT departments who already find their workload full or HR departments who want to delegate a complex process that’s often outside of their field of expertise.
“It’s important to do integrations in a logical fashion, and the Flexspring team is very methodical in its approach. They easily took us through the process of mapping standard and custom fields—and that’s usually a painful experience. We’re very happy with the partnership.” - Mark Jenkins, Vice President, Human Resources, Logicalis.
Flexspring creates, hosts, and supports your data integration on the Flexspring iPaaS platform (integration platform as a service) to ensure your integration runs smoothly and meets your business needs.
More Ways to Learn About Workday Integration
While the need for Workday integration to streamline HR operations is clear, it’s worth exploring the nuances of your particular integration needs with more information. Flexspring offers free integration guides that illustrate how Workday integrates with various other apps you use. You can also find the 11 Most Popular Use Cases for Workday integration here to continue learning about the value of integration, or, talk with an expert at Flexspring today.
