ATS to HRIS: why new hires get typed in twice

The offer is signed on Thursday. Someone in HR operations types it into the HRIS on Monday, and gets the start date wrong by a week. Provisioning, payroll and the laptop order all start from that record, so all of them start late, and the new hire’s first day begins with apologies.

Turning the offer into the worker record is the first stage of the employee lifecycle. Every later stage waits for it.

What is an ATS to HRIS integration?

An ATS to HRIS integration creates the worker record in the HRIS, such as Workday or BambooHR, from the hire in the applicant tracking system, such as Greenhouse or Lever, as soon as the offer is signed. It carries the start date, role, manager, location and pay, and leaves the recruiting data behind.

Why new hires get typed in twice

1. The handoff waits for a person. Nothing happens until someone in HR copies the offer across, usually in a weekly batch.
2. Typing introduces errors. A start date, a salary or a manager’s name is entered wrong, and nobody notices until something downstream fails.
3. Fields don’t map. The ATS has a job title the HRIS doesn’t recognize, or a location that isn’t set up, and the record waits in a queue.
4. Recruiting data leaks across. Interview notes, scores and rejection reasons end up in the HR record, where they don’t belong.
5. Changes after signature are lost. The start date moves, the record in the HRIS still has the old one, and provisioning runs on the wrong day.
6. Nobody checks that every hire arrived. A signed offer with no worker record is someone arriving to nothing.

What it costs

Every day between the signature and the worker record is a day onboarding can’t start. Accounts, equipment and payroll all need lead time, and a record created the week before the start date means a first week spent waiting.

Errors cost more. A wrong salary is a payroll correction, and a wrong start date sends the laptop and the logins to the wrong week.

What to fix first

1. Trigger on the signed offer. Create or update the worker record when the offer is signed, not on a schedule.
2. Map every field, and fail loudly. If a title or location doesn’t exist in the HRIS, stop and tell HR operations, instead of dropping the field.
3. Leave recruiting data behind. Send only what the HR record needs.
4. Carry changes after signature. A moved start date or a changed manager updates the worker record and everything that depends on it.
5. Reconcile every week. Compare signed offers with worker records, and report any hire with no record.

The guide to building an ATS to HRIS sync has the prompts for each step.

What it changed for one HR team

The HR team at a leading social network was hand-typing most of each new hire’s 30 to 40 onboarding fields, about 10 hours a month, because the native Greenhouse to BambooHR integration carried only 7 of them. With onboarding rebuilt on Tray.ai, each new hire’s profile is ready up to two weeks before they start.

Where it fits

Everything else in onboarding starts from this record. Accounts and access before day one depends on the start date and role being right, and so do payroll and equipment.

For all eight stages, see the hire-to-retire process.