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 Donut 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 done in Workday by an admin with access to your companies Workday instance.
1. Create an Integration System and Field Override Service
Follow the Workday configuration steps in Merge's guide to creating an Integration System and Field Override Service. When configuring your Field Override Service, use these specific values:
Integration System name:
INT_For_FieldOverridesField Override Service name:
Get_Worker_FOBusiness Object:
WorkerField name:
ManagerEmail
Before moving on, confirm your Integration System ID — you'll need this in Step 7. Follow Step 2 of Merge's guide to locate it. Note that the Integration System ID and the Field Override Service name are two different values.
⚠️ If you get this error message: "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 Integration System>Configure Integration Attributes and provide the latest version to the Version attribute.
2. Configure Eligibility Criteria and Calculated Field Logic for ManagerEmail field
You will be taken back to the Configure Integration Services pop-up. Finish the initial creation of the Integration System by selecting OK
On the Integration System page, navigate to Integration System > Configure Integration Field Overrides
Provide the Eligibility Criteria and the calculated field to fetch the
ManagerEmailfor 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 12/31/2080 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)
3. Update domain security policy permissions for the Donut ISU
There are additional policies that the Donut ISU needs access to in order to populate the ManagerEmail calculated field. Missing any of these permissions will cause issues — the field will appear configured correctly but will return empty or malformed data, which can silently prevent onboarding sessions from being created.
Please double-check each permission in the screenshot below before moving on.
4. 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 in steps 1 + 2.
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 Integration System ID of the integration system you created (note: this is different from the Field Override Service name) along with a screenshot. There will be a few action steps needed from Donut's Engineering team to finalize the updates.