What the Workday integration does
Alva connects to Workday as an assessment vendor, through our integration partner Kombo. Workday drives the process: it places an assessment order with Alva, Alva invites the candidate, and the result is written back to the candidate in Workday as a score and a link to the full report.
Setting it up takes two steps, and both are needed before anyone can be assessed: connect the two systems, then add your Alva tests in Workday.
For sending assessments and reading results once the setup is done, see How to Use Alva with Workday.
Before you start
You need to be an administrator in Workday. If you cannot find the View API Clients task, your account does not have sufficient permissions — ask your Workday administrator to take over the setup.
Set aside around 30 minutes for the whole setup.
Workday has four separate Kombo connectors — ATS, HRIS, Assessments and LMS. Alva uses the Assessments connector. Each one asks for a different set of permissions, so make sure you are following the Assessments flow.
Step 1: Connect Workday to Alva
Prepare Workday. Follow Kombo’s guide to linking your Workday account: create an integration system user (ISU) and a security group, assign the permissions to that group and activate the changes, then generate an API client.
Generate the connection link in Alva. Go to Settings > Integrations > Add integration > Workday.
Complete the connection flow. Open the link and enter your Workday service URL and the API client details from step 1. The integration is created only when this step finishes.
💡Note: Always use an unconstrained integration system user. Constrained ISUs are a known source of data quality problems in the integration.
Step 2: Add your Alva tests in Workday
Your Alva test profiles and interview templates are offered to Workday as assessment tests, but Workday cannot import them. Each one has to be added by hand, once, and a test that has not been added cannot be ordered.
💡Note: Coding tests cannot be ordered from Workday. A candidate who needs one has to be invited from Alva.
Put together your list of tests
Every test is added to Workday as a name and a Reference ID. These are the ones available to you:
Name | Reference ID |
Psychometrics: <test profile name> | Psychometrics:<test profile ID> |
Interview: <interview template name> | Interview:<interview template ID> |
Logic test only | Psychometrics:logic-only |
Personality test only (with default profile) | Psychometrics:personality-only |
The two bottom rows are fixed - the logic test on its own, and the personality test on its own scored against your default profile. For the other two, fill in one row per test profile and per interview template you want to be able to order. The ID is in the address bar in Alva: open Assessment > Test profiles and select a profile, and the address ends in /test-profiles/ followed by the ID. Interview templates work the same way, under Assessment > Interview templates.
💡Note: The Reference ID has no space after the colon, the name has one. Alva works out which test to send from the Reference ID, so it has to match exactly. The name is only what your recruiters see when they pick a test in Workday.
Add each test in Workday
Search for the task Maintain Recruiting Assessment Tests.
Click the + button at the top left.
Paste the name into the Test Name column and click OK.
On the next screen, hover over the magnifying glass next to the test you just created and click the three dots, then hover over Integration IDs and click Edit Reference ID.
Check that the name at the top is the test you meant, paste the Reference ID into Reference ID Value and click OK.
Repeat for every test on your list. Kombo’s guide to setting up assessment test packages shows each step as a screenshot.
💡Note: Do the same for every test profile and interview template you create later. It is available to the integration as soon as you create it in Alva, but it cannot be ordered until it has been added in Workday as well.
If the connection fails after you have granted the permissions
Two things account for most failed connection attempts:
The security policy changes are still pending. Workday holds domain security policy changes until you run the Activate Pending Security Policy Changes task. Until you do, granting more permissions and trying again produces the same error every time.
The ISU is not a member of the security group. Setting the domain security policy is not enough on its own — the integration system user has to be a member of the group as well.
Any Questions?
Use the chat in the bottom right corner to connect with a member of our support team.
