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.

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.

Inclusion: Include all employees you wish to be active in Culture Amp.

Required Fields: At a minimum, include Name, Email, and Employee_ID.

Date Formats: Use YYYY-MM-DD, mmm dd, yyyy or MMM DD YYYY.

XML Overrides for Age and Tenure: Culture Amp looks for Birth_Date and Start_Date to trigger automatic Age and Tenure banding. Use XML override columns to change your fields to these titles if they differ.

Standard Formatting: See our standard Employee Data Template for other formatting tips.

Calculated Fields: If you are using calculated fields for logic, ensure the ISU has permission to view the underlying data sources.

Excluding Employees: You can use Workday filters to exclude specific employee types. Alternatively, create a custom field called Exclude from Culture Amp; users with this field set to "Yes" will not be imported. Refer to the field mapping section for more information.

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: Any employee filtered out of the report will not be sent to Culture Amp. If an existing Culture Amp user is removed from the report via these filters, they will be made inactive as a former user upon the next sync.

How it works: Create a custom field in your Workday report titled exactly: Exclude from Culture Amp.

Logic: For any employee where this field is set to "Yes", Culture Amp will ignore the record and will not import or update them during the sync.

Existing Hierarchy: If you have already validated your hierarchy in the past, the Workday integration will update it automatically as long as you have set up your Workday field mapping to point to the exact demographic title currently used for your hierarchy.

New Hierarchy: If you have never validated a hierarchy in Culture Amp before, we recommend completing your first Workday sync, then follow the manual validation process outlined in our Add Your Hierarchy guide.

Navigate to Settings > Employee Data > Demographics.

Look for the hierarchy icon and note the title exactly as it appears (e.g., "Manager Email").

Important: Your Workday mapping must match this title verbatim. Because Workday adds underscores (e.g., Manager_Email), you must have Support map this to your clean title (e.g., Manager Email) before your first sync. If the titles do not match exactly, the hierarchy will not update.

Decide on your hierarchy anchor (Manager Email is recommended).

Ensure this field is included in your Workday report and mapped by Support during Step 4.

Once your first sync is successful, you will then proceed to our Add Your Hierarchy guide to perform the one-time validation.

Identifier Type: Use Manager Email (recommended) or Manager ID. You cannot validate or sync a hierarchy based on Manager Name.

Data Inclusion: Ensure all managers are included in your Workday RaaS report. If a manager is missing from the sync file, their direct reports cannot be correctly placed in the hierarchy.

Top Leader: Leave the Manager Email field blank for the leader of your organization to establish the top of the tree.

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.

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.)

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.

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.