Who can use this feature?

Account administrators, Employee data full permissions

Available on:

All Culture Amp subscriptions.

You can sync employee data directly from Workday into Culture Amp using a secure, one-way connection (Reports as a Service - RaaS). This ensures your employee list and demographics are always up-to-date.

Data Flow: Employee Data flows from Workday into Culture Amp (one-way sync). Changes made in Culture Amp will not sync back to your HRIS.

Initial Setup Timeframe: The full setup and validation process for Workday typically takes 1–2 weeks. Timelines are good-faith estimates and fluctuate based on the complexity of your data model and the responsiveness of internal technical stakeholders during testing. We recommend involving your Workday administrator early in the process to ensure report and ISU configurations are set up correctly.

Choosing Your Integration Method

We offer two primary ways to connect your employee data. The table below briefly outlines both and should help with the decision on which is the best approach for your organization:

Method	Type of Import	Best For	Key Difference
Full Native Integration	Full Employee Import	Organizations seeking real-time, daily automation of all employee data that the integration supports.	Data transfer is handled automatically via a secure native integration. If an employee has an End Date in the HRIS, they will automatically be marked as a former user on that date. If an existing Culture Amp user is removed entirely from the HRIS report (with no End Date provided), they’ll be marked as a former user upon sync, and their End Date will be set to the day before the import.
SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol)	Partial Employee Import	Organizations requiring manual control over file creation or highly unique filtering requirements.	You generate a data file and securely transfer it to Culture Amp at scheduled intervals. Unlike the native integration, users missing from an SFTP file are ignored rather than deactivated, unless an explicit End Date is included in the file.

Integration Checklist

Use this checklist to navigate the Workday integration setup. Each step links to a more detailed section below.

Access Requirements & Terminology — Prerequisites and system logic.
Step 1: Create Custom Report — Setting up the RaaS report in Workday.
Step 2: Generate Report Credentials — Generating the JSON URL and ISU credentials.
Step 3: Connect Integration — Entering credentials into Culture Amp.
Step 4: Field Mapping — Aligning Workday fields with Culture Amp.
Step 5: Run First Sync — Reviewing and importing employee records.
Troubleshooting/FAQs — Solving errors, workarounds, and useful tips

Before You Start: Access Requirements

Setting up a Workday integration requires a "handshake" between two different systems. You will likely need to coordinate between a Culture Amp Administrator and a Workday (HRIS) Administrator.

Platform	Role / Component	Required Access	Rationale
Culture Amp	Culture Amp Admin	Account Administrator or Employee Data Administrator	To access Integration settings and save the credentials/report URL.
Workday	ISU (Integration System User)	Security Group Assignment	The background service account used to fetch employee data.
Workday	Custom Report	Enable as Web Service	Essential: Allows the report to be accessed via the RaaS API.
Workday	Domain Security Policy	View Access	The ISU must have "View" access to all data domains included in the report (e.g., Personal Data, Contact Data). If this is missing for a specific field, the sync will finish but show "Blank Values" for that demographic.

Important Considerations & Data Limitations

RaaS & JSON Focus: The integration specifically targets a Workday report enabled as a Web Service in JSON format. It does not use a standard REST API.
Test Environment: Culture Amp does not have a formal test environment for Workday. To validate your data before going live, run a manual sync once connected to review the Import Summary. You can cancel the sync before the data is applied to your production account.
Whitespace & Underscores: Workday replaces spaces in demographic headers with underscores during transfer (e.g., "Office Location" becomes Office_Location). We recommend following the Workday mapping process before your first sync to prevent duplicates.
Value-Level Mapping: Culture Amp can map demographic headers (titles) only. Any data cleanup for values (e.g., converting "Dept_602" to "Marketing") must be performed within Workday.
Project Planning & Timelines: Plan for a setup and validation window of 1–2 weeks. This timeframe depends on the complexity of your data model and the responsiveness of internal technical stakeholders.
Hierarchy Data: Include both Manager and Manager_Email in your report. To ensure the hierarchy builds correctly, leave the Manager Email field blank for the top leader in your organization.

Step 1: Create a Custom Workday Report

In Workday, create a custom JSON report that includes your required fields and all users who should be active in Culture Amp. Before adding fields, ensure your report meets these structural requirements:

Report Type: Must be an Advanced report.
Format: Must be set to JSON.
Web Service: Check "Enable as Web Service" in the report settings.
Ownership: The report owner (ISU) must have access to all demographics included.

Workday Configuration Reference

Use the following visual guide to ensure your report settings are compatible with Culture Amp.

Note: These screenshots may vary slightly depending on your Workday UI version. If you get stuck, please contact your Workday administrator.

Report Builder & Filter: When adding fields, use the Column Heading Override XML Alias to ensure your field names match Culture Amp's expectations (e.g., Birth_Date and Start_Date). Refer to the Core Demographics section below for the specific naming conventions required.
Filtering Your Population: Use the Filter tab to define which employees are sent to Culture Amp. Any employee already in Culture Amp but excluded here will be made inactive upon sync.
Enabling Web Services Under the Advanced tab, ensure the Enable As Web Service checkbox is selected. This generates the RaaS endpoint.
Sharing with the ISU: Navigate to the Share tab and ensure the report is shared with the Integration System User (ISU) created for Culture Amp.

Core Demographics: Field & Data Requirements

Ensure your Workday Report uses the exact column headers below and includes all active employees. Each record must include Name and either Email (recommended) or Employee ID.

Refer to the Employee Data Template for full formatting and requirements.

Typical Workday Field Label	Culture Amp Field Name (Destination)	Notes
`Name`	Name	Enter the users full name. Use the format: `First Last`.
`Preferred_Name` or `Preferred_First_Name`	Preferred Name	Used for survey and cycle communications.
`Employee_ID`	Employee ID	Unique identifier; must be unique for each employee.
`Email`	Email	Unique identifier; used for all communications.
`Birth_Date`	Date of Birth	Enables Age banding. Use XML Override if titled differently.
`Start_Date`	Start Date	Use XML Override if titled differently.
`End_Date`	End Date	Marks employees as inactive/former; enables tenure banding. Use XML Override if titled differently.

Tip: Date Formats: Use YYYY-MM-DD, mmm dd, yyyy or MMM DD YYYY. Apply a yyyy-MM-dd format mask to calculated fields or set the ISU to the en_US locale.

Custom Demographics

Include any additional demographics (e.g., Department, Division) to filter your data. To unlock full platform functionality, we recommend including the following:

Field Name	Notes
Language	Sets the employee’s preferred platform language Use the appropriate two-letter System Code (e.g., `en`, `es`).
Manager Email (Work Email of referenced Manager)	Hierarchy: Automatically builds your org structure using the Work Email of each employee's manager. If you have an existing hierarchy, this header must match your validated title verbatim (found via the Account Demographics page).
Exclude from Culture Amp	Recommended: Use Workday Report Filters for bulk exclusions (see below). Alternatively, create a custom field called Exclude from Culture Amp in your workday report; users with this field set to "Yes" will not be imported.

Recommended: Excluding Employees via Workday Report Filters

Manage specific groups (e.g., contractors or legal entities) directly within your Workday report configuration for the most efficient setup.

How it works: Use the Filter tab in your Workday report builder to define specific inclusion or exclusion criteria (e.g., Employee Type is none in the selection list: Contractor).
Impact: Employees filtered out are not sent to Culture Amp. If an existing user is removed from the report via filters, they will be marked as Inactive (Former User) upon the next sync.

Step 2: Generate Report Credentials

Before connecting to Culture Amp, you must identify and retrieve the specific credentials from your Workday instance.

URL in JSON format: Locate the endpoint under Web Service > View URLs in Workday. Note that the end of the URL specifies the report format.
- Example: https://wd5-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/service/customreport/hool/12345/Hooli_Culture_Amp?format=json
Username: The specific integration Username (not an email address) for the Integration System User (ISU).
Password: The unique Password associated with the ISU.

Tip: To speed up the configuration, you can introduce Culture Amp Support directly to your IT team or Workday representative. We recommend verifying these credentials by pasting the JSON URL into your browser; if you can log in using the ISU credentials and see raw data, the credentials are valid.

Step 3: Connect and Authenticate Your Workday Account

Now that your report is configured and you have your credentials ready, follow these steps to establish the technical connection.

Sign in to Culture Amp with an account that has Account Administrator or Employee data administrator access.
Navigate to your Settings > Account > Integrations page.
Select the Workday tile from the list of integrations.
Enter the Username, Password, and URL you retrieved in the previous step.
Click Validate Credentials
Enable Daily Syncs (Optional): If enabled, your data will automatically sync every day between midnight and 4:00 am (International Date Line West). If disabled, you must trigger syncs manually.
Select Notification Email: Choose the Email Address to receive prompts regarding blocked syncs and other integration communications (this must belong to an Account Administrator or Employee data administrator).
Click Save Integration > Finish

Note: Workday can occasionally take a long time to respond to credential validation requests. If it takes longer than a minute, the linking flow may time out and show a generic error. This usually happens because of limited API server resources on the Workday side. If this occurs, simply re-attempt the validation.

Step 4: Setting Up Custom Workday Field Mapping

After authenticating your connection, contact Culture Amp Support to finalize the mapping for your custom fields.

Workday replaces spaces in headers with underscores during transfer (e.g., "Office Location" becomes Office_Location). Mapping prevents the system from creating duplicate demographics (e.g., Manager_Name vs. Manager Name) by telling Culture Amp how to read those fields.

Pre-Submission Checklist

Active Integration: Confirm the integration is marked Active on your Data Integrations page.
Custom Fields Only: Do not include core demographics (e.g., Name, Email). These sync automatically without underscores and cannot be remapped.
Existing Demographics: If you have already set up demographics in Culture Amp, your requested "Culture Amp Field Name" must exactly match the casing and spelling already in the system. Go to your Account Demographics page to check.
Titles Only: Mapping applies to demographic titles (e.g., Location), not the values within them (e.g., London).

Note: If demographic values (e.g., Department names) differ between Workday and Culture Amp, you must align them using either Demographic Comparison Mapping (to preserve survey history) or Manual Value Updates before your first sync.

Custom Mapping File Requirements

Provide a file to Culture Amp Support with the following two columns to ensure your data displays correctly:

Workday Field Name (XML Alias/Header)	Culture Amp Field Name
The label exactly as it appears in Workday, including underscores (e.g., `Department_Code`).	The clean label you want displayed in Culture Amp (e.g., `Department Code`).

Core Demographics: Automatic Mapping

These core demographics will sync automatically without underscores. Do not include these in your request, as they cannot be remapped or renamed.

Workday Field Name (Source)	Culture Amp Field Name (Destination)
`Name`	Name
`Preferred_Name` or `Preferred_First_Name`	Preferred Name
`Employee_ID`	Employee ID
`Email`	Email
`Birth_Date`	Date of Birth
`Start_Date`	Start Date
`End_Date`	End Date

Step 5: Sync Your User Data

You can now begin syncing your employee data. Even if you have enabled daily syncs, we recommend running a manual sync initially to verify your mapping and data health.

Click Sync on the Data Integrations page
Review the Import History to ensure all users and demographics are accounted for.
Verify Hierarchy: At this stage, you can confirm if your manager data is flowing correctly. If you have an existing hierarchy, ensure the manager email data is populating the exact validated field identified by the hierarchy icon.
If comfortable, click Confirm to finalize the sync.
If errors appear, click Cancel to stop the sync and troubleshoot the flagged issues.

Add or Update Your Hierarchy (Optional)

The process for managing your hierarchy depends on whether you have previously validated a hierarchy demographic in Culture Amp.

1. Confirm your Path

Existing Hierarchy: If you already have a validated hierarchy, ensure your Workday mapping matches your current demographic title exactly (e.g., Manager Email). Check your Settings > Employee Data > Demographics page for the hierarchy symbol to verify your current title.
New Hierarchy: If this is your first time setting up a hierarchy, complete your first Workday sync first, then follow our Add Your Hierarchy guide to perform the one-time validation.

2. Technical Requirements

To ensure the sync builds your tree correctly, your Workday report must adhere to these rules:

Identifier Type: Use Manager Email (recommended) or Manager ID. Hierarchy cannot be built using Manager Names.
Data Completeness: All managers must be included in the Workday RaaS report. If a manager is missing from the file, their direct reports cannot be placed in the hierarchy.
Top Leader: Leave the Manager Email/ID field blank for the CEO or top-level leader. This identifies the "top" of your organizational tree.
Support Mapping: Because Workday adds underscores (e.g., Manager_Email), you must have Culture Amp Support map this to your clean title (e.g., Manager Email) during Step 4.
Refer to the Add Your Hierarchy article for full guidance.

Troubleshooting/FAQs

General Data Integrity & Import Management

The first step when investigating any data issue is to check the Import Summary Screen for your most recent import.

Go to Settings > Employee Data > Import History.
Select your most recent import to view details.

This screen provides information on the state of your integration, any specific errors, or will prompt you to run a manual sync to identify problems.

Common Workday Integration Errors

Error Message	Potential Cause	Suggested Fix
Invalid credentials	The Username, Password, or Report URL provided in Culture Amp does not match on Workday.	Verify that the Integration System User (ISU) credentials are correct and the Report URL is the JSON endpoint from Workday.
Re-hired employees are missing or inactive	The sync detects a historical End Date that is more recent than the new Start Date. Since Workday doesn't automatically clear old End Dates, the system assumes the user is still terminated.	Option 1 (Distant Future Dates): Assign a date like `2099-07-09` to re-hires in Workday to force reactivation. Option 2 (Calculated Field): Create an Evaluate Expression calculated field in Workday: `IF Term Date > Most Recent Hire Date, return Term Date; ELSE blank`. Add `End_Date` to the XML override column for the integration to recognize the field.
Expected users are missing from the sync	Workday report filters may be too restrictive.	Check your Workday report filters to ensure you haven't accidentally excluded specific employee groups.
Generic Error / Connection Failed	API Timeout.	Workday may be slow to respond to the request. If validation takes over 60 seconds, refresh your browser and re-input your credentials.
403 Forbidden	The ISU does not have permission to view the report or specific fields within it.	In Workday, ensure the ISU is added to the Report Sharing tab. Also, verify the ISU has "View" access in the Domain Security Policies for all fields in the report.
404 Not Found	The report URL is incorrect, "Web Services" is disabled or the report has been deleted/renamed in Workday.	Double-check the URL in Culture Amp. Ensure "Enable as Web Service" is checked in the Workday Report Definition.
Blank values or missing demographics	The ISU lacks permission to view specific domains or calculated field dependencies.	Domain Access: Ensure the ISU has "View" access to the relevant domains (e.g., 'Worker' object). Calculated Fields: If using calculated fields, the ISU needs permission for every underlying field used in the logic. (See Proxy Testing below).
Start Date or Date or Birth not syncing	Culture Amp expects specific naming conventions for these demographics, and they may be titled differently on Workday.	Ensure you've named these core demographics `Start_Date` and `Birth_Date` on the Workday report. Use XML Override to retitle if needed.
Unexpected underscores in titles	Workday converts spaces to underscores (e.g., Job_Title) by default.	This is expected behavior for Workday. Contact Culture Amp Support to apply Workday field mapping to convert these back to spaces.
Sync takes multiple hours (or 12+ hours) to complete	Report Calculated Fields are performing logic at the time the report is run.	Change report-level fields to Global Calculated Fields to allow Workday to perform calculations prior to the report sync.
Users are not excluded despite "Exclude from Culture Amp" being set to "Yes"	The custom field may be outputting internal codes (e.g., 0, 1) rather than the display value.	Ensure the field outputs the text "Yes". You may need to change the field type to Text or use a Calculated Field to convert codes to values.

How to Troubleshoot Missing Data (Proxy Testing)

If your sync is successful but specific data is missing, you likely have a permissions gap. Workday often returns a blank value rather than an error message when permissions are missing.

What to Check:

Domain Access: Ensure the ISU has permission to view the relevant security domains for the Business Object (e.g., the ‘Worker’ object).
Calculated Field Dependencies: If using calculated fields, the ISU must have permission to view every underlying field used in the logic/conditions.

To see exactly what Culture Amp "sees," view the report results as the ISU:

Login as the ISU: Use the Integration User’s credentials to log in to Workday.
Download JSON: Download the .json report while logged in as that user.
- Note: If you don't know the ISU password, perform this in your Sandbox environment first so you can reset the password without breaking the production sync.
Verify Data: If the JSON file is missing values that you can see under your own admin profile, you have a permissions gap.
- Reminder: If you reset the ISU password in Production, you must update the credentials in the Culture Amp Data Integrations page immediately.

Integration Permissions in Workday (Domain Security)

Switching From CSV or Other Imports

If you are moving from CSV uploads or a different integration, keep the following in mind:

Demographic Consistency: When mapping fields, you must map the data to the exact same demographic field you used historically (e.g., mapping to "TEAM" is different from mapping to "TEAM NAME"). Using an incorrect or slightly different title risks discontinuity in your trended survey results.
Recommended Action: To avoid confusion, we recommend navigating to Settings > Employee Data Demographics and deleting the old, unused demographics after your first successful sync. (This won't impact any previous survey results.)

Handling Duplicate Employees

Culture Amp uses two fields as unique identifiers for user profiles: Email and Employee ID.

As long as at least one of these remains consistent between Workday and Culture Amp, the sync will successfully update the existing profile rather than creating a new one.
Duplicate Risk: If you change both the Email and the Employee ID simultaneously in Workday, the sync will not find a match and will create a duplicate profile.

If you see a duplicate profile error flag during your import and are unsure how to proceed, please stop the sync and contact Culture Amp Support for assistance before applying changes. Alternatively, you can try the following steps:

Scenario	Action to Take
A. Before Changes Are Applied	During the first sync review screen, stop the sync. Update the employee emails in Culture Amp to match those in Workday. Go to the Culture Amp Users page, Click on the name of the employee you want to update. Update their email. Click Save and Exit to update. Repeat for all duplicated employees. Then, retry the integration sync.
B. After Changes Are Applied	To clean up the duplicated profiles: Go to the Culture Amp Users page, Locate the newest duplicate profile for that user. Click on the name to open up their profile. Remove existing Email/Employee ID and assign a fake Email or Employee ID to the user and save. Deactivate this updated profile. Update the original user profile to match emails in Workday. This keeps the history on the existing employee record.
Further Guidance	Check out our dedicated support guide for further information on duplicate employee clean-up.

Sync Blocked to Protect Employee Privacy

Your automated daily sync might be blocked if Culture Amp detects a high-risk change for an employee. You will receive an email notification if this occurs.

When It Happens: The sync is blocked if a combination of an employee's Name, Date of Birth, or Email is changed simultaneously.
Purpose: This prevents one employee from accidentally getting access to another employee's private information (like performance reviews).
Fix: If you've intentionally changed the employee's details, you can run a manual sync to push the change through. Go to Settings > Employee Data > Users, click Import data, and select Sync. Culture Amp will guide you through the rest.

💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.

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