Workday Guide to Configuring Custom Fields for Future Employee Manager Info
Due to a limitation of the Workday API, Merge Workday connections do not include manager information for future employees. The standard API behavior only makes an employee's manager available once they become active, i.e., after their start date. This is a problem for HRIS-imported onboarding sessions because without manager info prior to start date, we cannot send preboarding messages to managers. Additionally, because Merge syncs data from each HRIS once a day, there is a possible 24 hour delay before we get the manager details after employees become active.
Fortunately, customers can set up a workaround Integration System + Field Override configuration within their Workday instance. This allows access us to import manager info for employees before their start date. This document outlines the steps to configure this workaround within Workday, and the necessary steps within Merge and Donut to start parsing manager details for future employees.
Workday Configuration Steps
These steps need to be executed within Workday by an admin with access to a customer’s Workday instance. Ideally these steps would completed during the Workday configuration required to set up a Workday Merge connection user.
1. Create Integration System
Run the task ‘Create Integration System,’ select the ‘Core Connector: Worker’ template, and give the integration name
INT_For_FieldOverrides
2. Create Field Override Service
Click + on the Integration Service and select the ‘Create Integration Field Override service’ as shown below.
In the Create Integration Field Override Service enter the following details: Name =
Get_Worker_FO, Business Object =Worker, and add a field calledManagerEmail. See example shown below.
💡If you encounter an error message stating, "There are Integration Attributes enabled for this Integration System that are marked as "Required for Launch" but do not have a Value assigned to them," Go to the Related Menu Item (Integration System>Configure Integration Attributes) and provide the latest version to the Version attribute.
3. Configure Eligibility Criteria and Calculated Field Logic for ManagerEmail field
Go to the related menu item (Integration System > Configure Integration Field Overrides) to provide the Eligibility Criteria and The calculated field to fetch the Manager email for the Future Hires as shown below.
Configure calculated field logic for ManagerEmail field
Fetch Manager as of Termination Date for Terminated employees:
Fetch Manager as of 12/31/9999 for Future Hires:
Configure evaluated expression to pick manager at suitable snapshot
Configure calculated field to fetch primary work email from Manager lookup field
Ensure the ManagerEmail Field Override has Value Type and Value parameters matching the screenshot below (Specific Value and Null respectively)
4. Update domain security policy permissions for the Donut ISU to match the screenshot below and activate the permissions changes.
There are additional policies that the Donut ISU needs access to in order to be able to populate the ManagerEmail calculated fields.
5. Validate the calculated field
Create a report in Workday for a known pending employee and verify that the ManagerEmail field is being populated as expected for this employee. If the ManagerEmail value is missing, this indicates that something is incorrectly configured in the calculated field logic. Please review the calculated field logic in Workday and validate it matches in the logic defined above in steps 2 + 3.
6. Make a GetWorkers call for a pending employee as the Donut ISU and ensure the ManagerEmail field is being populated
This can be done using Workday Studio. You will need to authenticate the request using the Donut ISU username and password and ensure your request includes the Integration_System_ID you created above as part of the Request_Criteria in your request payload. See example:
<bsvc:Request_Criteria>
<bsvc:Field_And_Parameter_Criteria_Data>
<bsvc:Provider_Reference>
<bsvc:ID bsvc:type="Integration_System_ID">INT_For_FieldOverrides</bsvc:ID>
</bsvc:Provider_Reference>
</bsvc:Field_And_Parameter_Criteria_Data>
</bsvc:Request_Criteria>
This step helps verify that the Donut ISU has the required permissions to access the ManagerEmail field. If the ManagerEmail value was properly validated in step 5, but has a null value in the API response, that indicates the Donut ISU may be missing a required permission. Please review screenshot of required permissions in step 4 and ensure your ISU has all of them.
7. Reach out to Donut Support
Please reach out to support@donut.ai and let the team know you have completed the above steps. We also ask that you share the name of the integration system you created along with a screenshot. There will be a few action steps needed from Donut's Engineering team to finalize the updates.