HR System Integrations and APIs: What You Need to Know - HRLocker

What integrations does your HR system have? Do you have an open API? These are questions we’re asked a lot by new customers.

In theory, having your HR software talk to other systems your business uses seems to make sense. But is it really that simple, realistic or affordable?

Most potential customers we talk to in people management functions are not technical and don’t have a budget or the ability to request heavy work from IT. Most haven't thought through what data they want exactly to collect and integrate, and usually don’t have a clear idea of how much their investment will need to return to pay off.

The most commonly requested integration is with payroll. A lot of providers will advertise integrations. But you need to look at these closely and make sure that the outcomes you have in mind exist.

A lot of integrations offered are not really seamless. Typically, they are merely compatibilities of data that can be used and exported from one to another - but they still have to be transferred manually. 

Any HR software worth its salt will have reporting functionality to extract that data, commonly called a 'user integration'. But that’s not an actual integration! Let’s clarify some definitions...

APIs (Application Programming Interface)

What on earth is an API?  In short, APIs pull data from one source into your system, send information to another system, or sync between two systems on request.

These kinds of linkups can be on a 1-way or 2-way basis, and can be synced in real-time, or pushed/pulled at a defined interval. You could be subject to lag times, too, depending on the systems involved.

If you want to utilise an API, you’ll need technical know-how or access to time from your IT team and a clear plan on what you want to have in place. 

Out-of-the-box connectors

This would be the ideal scenario. But, nothing’s straightforward, especially in systems that cross departmental functions.

Apps connecting to other apps are common in many sectors. For example, the CRM that your sales team uses talks to your finance system to issue quotations and invoices based on deals created in the CRM.

However, as you may have already found, HR system providers can be either slow on the uptake, or truly direct integrations don’t really exist, especially for small businesses.

Enterprise-level HR software vendors are notorious for having closed APIs. That is, they have integrations, but they want to charge significant fees for customisation. Or prevent customers from using alternative tools to offerings they have in their wider suite already, which is also expensive.

Many organisations use tools such as Zapier to connect systems, especially for sales and marketing activities. Zapier is really useful, and we’re big fans of it for automating internal tasks. There are possible solutions with Zapier using something called webhooks. Again, though, you might need some IT backup with that one.

If you find a good, straight-out-of-the-box integration, you still have some work to do to ensure that all the desired data fields match exactly and that all necessary information is included. Yet again, that level of technical expertise is likely to exist in IT and not HR. That’ll be part of the work involved when planning your ideal integration setup.

HR System Integration Checklist

• What data do you want to be shared or synced? How often?
• How much time will this integration ideally save? Are these admin tasks, or does the data still need judgment calls made with it, where it could be assessed in its original form and location? Is it just one or two regular tasks that a potentially large IT project is saving? You need to get a clear idea of the returns you want from an integration. This can vary wildly from one side or type of business to another.
• What’s the desired end-user experience and process? Maybe sketch that out. These types of processes need a certain element of design. What happens if you have a change of personnel? Will they need to be trained on how to deal with common bugs and the fixes required? You’ll need to have your team document what they did for the next person picking up that job.
• What’s your budget? Is this budget in line with the returns you’ll expect?
• Is this a show-stopper? If it’s not possible to integrate to the level you’re expecting at the budget you have? We talk to loads of people who spend a tonne of time and resources only to find they can’t achieve what they want. They usually end up with nothing, except maybe a headache—we call this 'analysis paralysis'. Or a hefty bill for something that’s not 100% workable or future-proof.
• What time is IT willing to give to this? Do they have the right expertise? If not, can you feasibly manage subcontractors to carry this out? Will you need a consultant if you don’t have in-house IT support? What ongoing maintenance will be required? Are you at the mercy of the system pushing data out or the incoming system changing what data calls can be made? And, perhaps most crucially, will this request for integration be like opening a can of worms for wider IT and integrations across the business?
• Will the integrations and suppliers meet GDPR compliance or required Information Security standards for the data stored and transferred in each system that’s linked?

Separate Systems or All-in-One?

Of course, one way around many of these issues is to use a wider all-in-one solution. We’d certainly be in that bracket. Our HIRE recruitment software can integrate with HRLocker, for example.

For the payroll issues we most commonly encounter, the best workaround is that the relevant personnel in finance who need data from hours worked and have the right permissions to pull the reports they need, this is called a payroll export. Customers use those CSV export files to upload into their payroll software each payroll cycle.