An HRIS (Human resources Information system) often used interchangeably for an HRMS or HCM, are software solutions used for people-centric tasks within organizations.
Think hiring, onboarding, payroll, deductions - An HRIS is a centralized hub to keep track of these different data formats for organizations of all sizes.
Studies say that the average HR team today use 6-8 different HR-Tech applications.
For different HR-Tech solutions to deliver value quickly and consistently, data-connectivity between these different systems must be streamlined through the right Integrations.
Read on to learn more in this guide about HRIS Integrations:
The Basics - What and Why are HRIS Integrations Important?
Types of HRIS Integrations
HRIS Integrations - Detailed Integration Guide for Top HRIS APIs
Understanding HRIS Integrations
What are HRIS Integrations?
HRIS integrations connect Human Resource Information Systems [HRIS] with other software applications to facilitate faster and effortless exchange of employee data.
Think of HRIS integration like this: You have two systems - one that keeps track of employee info and another that handles paychecks.
Without integration, if an employee moves to a new address, someone has to update it in both platforms. But with an HRIS Integration, you update it once, and it's changed everywhere.
No double work, no mix-ups. It's an automatic, consistent sync between the two platforms. That's what HRIS integration does - it makes data connectivity as easy as a breeze.
Why are HRIS integrations important?
HRIS integrations or go beyond simple data connections with HRIS systems. Here’s how they improve overall efficiency of an HR-department:
Customer Satisfaction
A broad range of HRIS Integrations means organizations get to benefit from your product faster. Products that reduce TTV (Time-to-value) can see customer satisfaction increases ranging from 10% to 30%.
Secure your Organization’s PII (Personal Identifiable Information)
Data connectivity shouldn’t come at the cost of risking employee data. Manually transfer through flat files bring in a number of worst-case scenario that can impact both a platform and their customer.
Outsourcing Integration requirements to an Unified API would enable HR-Tech platforms to offer more control to their customers’ data.
Improve Employee Experience
Robust, reliable Integrations helps HR teams accelerate on people-centric tasks, while also enabling secondary users (employees) to get real-time value through product integrations.
Types of HRIS integrations:
Customer-facing integrations
These integrations connect your product with third-party HRIS used by your customers, facilitating quick and easy exchange of employee data.
For example, when a new employee is added to the HRIS, integrations can automate tasks like creating email accounts, assigning training modules, or setting up payroll.
Internal integrations
These enable data sharing within an organization's own tech stack, connecting HRIS with tools like ERP, accounting, or communication systems.
For instance, integrating HRIS with Slack can trigger automated notifications, ensuring everyone is informed of key changes such as promotions or new hires.
Top HRIS APIs for Integration
The HR software (HRIS, HRMS, HCM) market is highly fragmented, mainly due the differences in functionality and target markets.
Read on for a comparative analysis of top 10 HRIS systems
That said, here’s a detailed overview on the top HRIS APIs with their corresponding market-share, standout feature, and key Integration details.
HRIS Integrations - Key API Concepts
In order to effectively integrate HRIS APIs, it’s essential to understand the key concepts that underpin HR systems.
Interested in Payroll APIs instead? Read complete Integration guide here.
This section will break down the core components you’ll need to know for Integrating with any HRIS.
Companies and Employees
Every HRIS system revolves around companies and their employees.
These two entities form the foundation of all HR operations and API interactions.
- Companies: Represents the organization responsible for managing employee records and HR operations. Key data includes:
- Company name
- Tax ID or EIN (Employer Identification Number)
- Address and contact details
- Employees: Individuals who work for the company and whose personal and employment data are managed by the HRIS. You’ll typically work with data fields like:
- Employee ID
- Full name and contact information
- Job title and department
- Employment status (full-time, part-time, contractor)
Employment Periods and HR Activities
Employment periods are the time frames during which an employee's status, job role, and compensation are tracked in the HR system. HRIS systems also manage key HR activities like onboarding, promotions, and terminations.
- Regular HR Activities: These occur at predefined intervals (e.g., annual performance reviews, contract renewals).
- Off-cycle HR Events: These are one-time events, such as promotions, disciplinary actions, or offboarding due to resignation or termination.
Jobs and Roles
Each employee holds a specific job role, which typically includes their responsibilities, pay grade, and reporting structure.
- Job: Defined by a title and the employee’s specific responsibilities. For instance, “Software Engineer” or “HR Manager.”
- Roles and Hierarchies: Each employee's position within the organizational hierarchy, including reporting managers and team structures.
HRIS API Data Schemas
HRIS API data schemas define how employee data, job roles, and organizational structures are structured and exchanged between applications.
Employee Data Schema
The employee data schema typically includes the following fields:
- Employee ID: A unique identifier for each employee.
- First and last name: Employee’s full legal name.
- Contact details: Address, phone number, and email.
- Employment status: Whether the employee is full-time, part-time, or a contractor.
- Job title: The employee's position within the company.
- Manager: The employee’s reporting manager or team lead.
Example Schema:
Organizational Data Schema
HRIS APIs need to manage organizational data to track department structures, team hierarchies, and employee reporting lines.
Key fields include:
- Department: The employee’s department or business unit.
- Team: Subdivisions within departments.
- Manager ID: The employee’s supervisor or direct manager.
- Org Level: The employee's level in the organizational hierarchy.
Example Schema:
HRIS API -High-Level Integration Overview
To directly integrate with any HRIS platform, the guidelines and documentation might differ with each platform.
But here’s a high-level overview of the entire process.
1. Prerequisites
Before starting the integration, ensure the following prerequisites are met:
- API Access: Obtain the necessary API keys, tokens, or credentials from the HRIS provider (or your end-user, i.e., HR teams in this case).
- This may require registering your application with the provider’s developer portal.
- Development Environment: Ensure your development environment is set up with required libraries (e.g., axios, requests, or fetch for HTTP requests).
Example Libraries:
- For JavaScript/Node.js: axios, fetch
- For Python: requests
- For Java: HttpClient
- Postman or cURL: Familiarity with API testing tools for validating API requests and responses during development.
2. API Authentication
Most HRIS APIs require secure authentication to access their endpoints. The two most common authentication methods are:
A. OAuth 2.0:
- This method provides a more secure, token-based authentication, usually involving multiple steps: obtaining an access token via a client ID/secret and using it for authorization.
Steps:
- Obtain client ID and secret from the API provider.
- Exchange these credentials for an access token.
- Use the access token in API requests.
B. API Keys:
- Simpler than OAuth, this involves passing an API key in the header of each request.
Example Request with API Key:
GET /employees
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEYActionable Tip: Make sure to store API keys and tokens securely, and never hard-code them in your source files. Use environment variables or secure vaults to manage sensitive information.
3. Key API Endpoints
Understanding and correctly utilizing key API endpoints is critical for efficient HRIS integration.
Here are common endpoint categories you will interact with:
- A. Employee Management:
- Create a New Employee:
POST /employees
Example Request Body:
{
"firstName": "John",
"lastName": "Doe",
"email": "john.doe@example.com",
"jobTitle": "Software Engineer",
"startDate": "2024-01-01"
}- Retrieve Employee Details:
GET /employees/{id}- Update Employee Information:
PUT /employees/{id}
- B. Organizational Structure Management:
- Create a New Department:
POST /departments
Example Request Body:
{
"name": "Engineering",
"managerId": "123"
}- Update Department Structure:
PUT /departments/{id}
- C. Reporting:
- Generate Employee Reports:
GET /reports/employeesTip: Before sending requests, ensure you understand the required and optional parameters for each endpoint. Refer to the API documentation to avoid missing fields that could lead to errors or incomplete data handling.
4. Data Formats
Most HRIS APIs use JSON for data exchange.
Ensure that the requests you send and responses you handle are correctly formatted. Proper handling of JSON will ensure that the data sent to and received from the HRIS is accurate.
Example Request Body (Create Employee):
{
"firstName": "John",
"lastName": "Doe",
"email": "john.doe@example.com",
"jobTitle": "Software Engineer",
"startDate": "2024-01-01"
}Response Format (Employee Information):
{
"employeeId": "001",
"status": "Active",
"employee": {
"employeeId": "1234",
"name": "John Doe",
"jobTitle": "Software Engineer",
"department": "Engineering"
}
}Tip: When handling JSON, validate both the structure and data types before sending a request or processing a response to avoid runtime errors and invalid data submissions.
5. Error Handling
Most APIs return HTTP status codes along with error messages to help developers identify and fix issues.
Example Error Response (401 Unauthorized):
{
"error": "Authentication failed",
"message": "Invalid API key or token"
}Actionable Step: Implement a retry mechanism for transient errors (e.g., 500 Internal Server Error), but ensure there are limits to prevent endless retries. Also, log errors with sufficient detail for debugging, but avoid logging sensitive information (like tokens or API keys).
6. Testing the Integration
Before deploying the integration into production, it's critical to test every API endpoint and workflow to ensure proper functionality. Use the following tools to test the API and validate the integration:
- Postman: Use this for manually testing API calls, inspecting responses, and simulating workflows before implementing the integration in code.
- cURL: A command-line tool to quickly test API endpoints and review the output.
Testing Steps
- Authentication: Ensure that API keys or OAuth tokens are working as expected.
- Endpoint Responses: Test all the endpoints your application will use to ensure data is returned correctly and in the expected format.
- Error Scenarios: Simulate common error scenarios (e.g., invalid employee data, incorrect API keys) to confirm that your application handles errors gracefully.
- Edge Cases: Test edge cases like creating employee records with missing data or updating employee roles for a terminated employee.
Common HRIS Integration Use Cases
1. Automating Employee Lifecycle Management
The employee lifecycle—onboarding, updating, and offboarding—forms the core of both an HRIS as well as HR operations.
HRIS Integrations can automate this process, providing consistent and real-time data management across systems.
Onboarding
Syncing new hire data from the HRIS into key systems (e.g., payroll, benefits) upon employee addition can significantly reduce manual input and errors.
Offboarding
Proper deprovisioning ensures terminated employees lose access to sensitive systems and its functionalities promptly.
This is critical for maintaining security and compliance across HR-Tech platforms.
2. Time Tracking and Leave Management
HRIS integrations enable time tracking and leave management systems to automatically sync employee work hours and time-off data.
By pulling from employee census records, these integrations eliminate the need for manual data entry, significantly reducing the administrative workload for HR teams.
3. Employee Engagement and Performance Management
Integrating workforce management tools with HRIS systems centralizes key functions such as daily tasks and performance tracking.
These integrations allow employee engagement and performance management platforms to access vital employment information—such as job roles, organizational structure, and manager details—triggering automated workflows that enhance both engagement and performance.
4. Data Accuracy with Real-Time Syncs
Accurate employee data is essential for payroll, benefits, and compliance.
HRIS integrations can sync this data in real-time across all platforms, eliminating discrepancies and ensuring uniformity. Keeping employee information (such as job titles, departments, and compensation) in sync across systems ensures that every platform has the most current data.
Simplify HRIS Integrations with Bindbee
Regardless of your role as an HR leader or a tech vendor, at the end of the day, everything done in this space called ‘Human Resources’ is to benefit the most valuable asset for you and your customers:
People.
So why not go down the route that is faster, easier, and affordable for all?
With Bindbee, anything and everything Integrations is simplified for all parties involved.
Our Unified API is engineered with three-core functionalities - targeted data access, agility, and transparency in end-to-end operations.
No more added bandwidth from your engineering talent for In-house maintenance, no more complexities, no more back-and-forth between your customers’ HR and IT teams.
Just fast, easier, and robust Integrations that are as efficient as efficiency can get.
Don’t take our word, talk to one of our experts today to find out why we’re the perfect fit for your connectivity requirements.
Skip the wait, Book a demo today.
