How to Use Handshake's Workday Integration

1. Click Jobs from the left navigation bar, then click the black button Create job in the upper-right corner of the page. 

• Existing jobs in Handshake cannot be linked to Workday — a new job posting is required.

2. Choose the job listing from Workday from the Select ATS job to link dropdown.

• The job must be marked as Live in Workday for it to be available in Handshake!

3. Job details from Workday will automatically populate in Handshake. Confirm details are accurate and formatted as desired.

• By selecting to request a CV, you can also receive applicant packages from Handshake.

4. Complete your job posting and post your job to institutions. For guidance, refer to How to Post a job.

Students can search for and apply for jobs on Handshake. If your job is of interest to them, students may complete the application as required.

• Students can apply by clicking Apply Externally on the job posting in Handshake, which will launch the Workday application.
• Students will complete their application as configured within Workday.
• After completing the application, their application will appear in Workday automatically (within a few minutes).
• In Handshake, the job posting will update to ask the student to confirm whether their application was submitted. The student can click Yes or No to confirm. 

Tip: Source the most qualified candidates by creating campaigns that target students with specific skills and experience. Learn more about Campaigns: Create a job Campaign.

After a student has applied to a linked job, their application will appear automatically in Workday with their information. 

The application will include the following candidate details: 

• First name, Last name, and email address
• Source as Handshake
• CV and Cover Letter (if required for the application process)

Review the application as usual in Workday.

After reviewing the application in Workday, the application status in Handshake updates automatically on an hourly basis.

The application status in Handshake is dependent on the application in Workday and will reflect one of the following statuses: 

• Pending: Indicates the application wasn't fully submitted in Workday
  • The student clicked on the Apply Externally button on the job posting on Handshake but did not complete the external application.
• Applied: Indicates the application has been submitted successfully in Workday
• Hired: Application was marked as "Hired" in Workday
  • A job posting with only one vacancy will expire automatically in Handshake after a candidate is marked as "Hired" in Workday.
• Rejected: Application was rejected in Workday

Note: If you expire your job posting in Workday, the job posting will also expire in Handshake.

Handshake's ATS integrations automatically sync candidates that initiate the application process directly from within Handshake as well as with the ATS posting outside of Handshake to allow for clearer attribution available in Talent Analytics: Applicants.

The job's Applicants tab includes an additional filter titled Origin, which allows you to easily distinguish between applications submitted through your ATS and Handshake. Learn more in our Job Applicant Management Guide.

Employers that wish to opt out of this feature can reach out to their CSM or reach out to our Support team. 

Getting started

1. What is the timeline for setting up and validating?
It takes 5–10 days for setup and validation to complete.

2. Is there a testing environment?
Yes. Handshake refers to it as Staging, and validation testing takes place there. After successful testing, the configuration will move to production.

3. What does Handshake do with non-Handshake candidate data gathered during testing?
The testing process takes place in the implementation tenant on Workday and Handshake’s development environment. The test data used will not reflect real applicant information.

Candidate & applicant data

4. What is the candidate experience once the integration is complete?
Students search and apply for jobs in Handshake. When they click Apply Externally, they are taken to Workday to complete the application. Within a few minutes, the application appears in Workday automatically. The Handshake posting then prompts the student to confirm whether their application was submitted.

5. Does Handshake access applicants that don’t come from Handshake?
Handshake pulls all candidates from the specific job posted in Handshake after a candidate is referred from Handshake to apply in Workday. Pulling all applicants is necessary to pair candidate records between both systems, since candidates may re-enter the application flow without the appropriate source tracking. Only candidates with details that match those referred from Handshake are synced. We do not log any candidates that are not paired through this matching process.

6. What applicants do we access with the permission "Compliance re: security group ‘Get Only - Candidate data: Job Applications"?
Refer to #5.

Jobs & postings

7. Are jobs automatically posted in Handshake?
No. Employers must still post new jobs in Handshake to link them to Workday.

8. When jobs close in Workday, are they also closed in Handshake?
Yes. Jobs close in Handshake within an hour of closing in Workday.

Integration capabilities & limitations

9. Can we integrate multiple ATSs (e.g., Greenhouse, Workday, iCIMS) simultaneously?
Not at this time.

10. Is application status updating bi-directional?
No. For compliance reasons, Handshake cannot push updates regarding changes to application statuses. Updates only flow from Workday to Handshake. Because Handshake is not an ATS, it would be inappropriate for Handshake to update an ATS’s application records.

Technical details

11. Which Workday Web Service does the integration use?
Recruiting: https://community.workday.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-hosting/productionapi/index.html

12. Does the integration require certificate updates?
No. Workday may periodically send communications about certificate updates, but these do not apply to our integration with Workday.