Sunbelt Rentals is part of FTSE100 Ashtead Group plc. As a leader in the equipment rental industry, Sunbelt Rentals has a vast network of locations across North
America, Germany, France and the UK and Ireland and an expansive portfolio of products and services.
Having implemented Eploy’s ATS & e-recruitment platform in 2019, branded internally as Aspire, in 2021 Sunbelt Rentals implemented Workday as their Global HCM and HR & Payroll system.
The project was a collaboration with North America and Canada, introducing a dual-tenant solution as part of their 3.0 Digital Transformation programme. The project involved building a comprehensive integration between Eploy and Workday. The integration utilises both the Eploy API and the Workday API to transfer data between the systems across four primary interfaces:
• Companies Synchronisation (Workday > Eploy)
• Contacts/Users Synchronisation (Workday > Eploy)
• Vacancies (Workday > Eploy)
• Placements Export (Eploy > Workday)
Integrating the ATS & Recruitment CRM with HCM and the HR & Payroll system enables newly hired candidates to be seamlessly exported from Eploy to Workday HR & Payroll. The key benefits include controlling headcount accuracy and removing the need to input new starter information following onboarding manually.
In addition, the integration has helped to improve the candidate experience.
• Remove system admin and manual inputs
• Streamline recruitment and HR/Payroll processes with Best of Breed solutions
• Accurate control of organisation chart and headcount data
PWC, who specialise in Workday integrations, were appointed by Sunbelt Rentals to develop the integration, working with the UK team and Eploy. This included co-ordinating the Sunbelt Rentals teams involved; IT, Recruitment & HR and the North American support team.
Planning for success
In the initial planning stages, the team reviewed the options for a Workday to ATS integration, deciding which system would be the master solution for job requisitions and understanding the technical and business requirements. Following this, the team undertook detailed data and field mapping to understand the impact of the integrations across business areas and teams. In addition, the team had to consider the global differences in Workday setup, understanding
which elements are shared between regions and which need to align with North America. For example, ‘Creation of a Job Requisition’ was determined to be a shared process based on the NA configuration. In contrast, Vacancy Approvals could have different Workday business processes in each region.
Companies Synchronisation
Companies Synchronisation updates the Company structure into Eploy, based on the ‘Supervisory Organisation’ data held in Workday. Each Eploy Company record represents a department, an area, or a store, for example, in a parent-child hierarchy. This maps to an element within the Workday Supervisory Organisation structure. The ‘ImportID’ field against the Eploy Company is set to match the unique reference used against each supervisory organisation record.
Whenever a Supervisory Organisation record in Workday is changed, a PATCH API call updates the equivalent Eploy Company record with a matching ImportID.
Whenever a new Supervisory Organisation record is created in Workday, an INSERT API adds a new Company record in Eploy, setting the ImportID to the same unique reference and setting the Parent Company to put the new Company into the correct location in the hierarchy.
Before the integration, the Recruitment Team had to manually maintain the company structure, a highly time-consuming task and difficult to maintain 100% consistency across systems.
Contacts/Users Synchronisation
The contacts/users synchronisation updates the Contacts and Hiring Manager Users in Eploy, based on the people data held in Workday for anyone identified as involved in recruitment activity, such as a Hiring Manager.
Each Eploy Contact record maps to a person within Workday. The ‘ImportID’ field against the Eploy Contact is set to match the unique reference used against each person in Workday.
The integration also synchronises the User data for Hiring Managers and sets the username to the Workday Employee ID, which is used by their Single Sign On provider – Okta. Together, this securely connects the right people to the right technologies at the right time. In addition, this proactive approach saves significant user administration time.
The integration between Workday and Eploy also recognises internal moves and re-hires; this results in significant advantages in tracking who has joined the Company, moved internally, or left the business. Considering the scale of Sunbelt Rentals organisation, with over 500 Contacts/Users, this has invaluable benefits.
Linking system functionality
When Sunbelt Rentals initiate vacancies in Workday, an equivalent Vacancy record is created in Eploy automatically, enabling the recruitment team to advertise and source candidates. The ‘ImportID’ field on the Vacancy record is set to a unique identifier that identifies the job requisition in Workday. Sunbelt Rentals then continue to use the Eploy core system, hiring manager portal and candidate portal as the candidates progress through the recruitment workflow. The integration also updates vacancies in Eploy if the status changes – for example, if a position is ‘frozen’ or no longer required.
Once a successful candidate has been identified, the offer process, contract acceptance and preemployment checks take place within Eploy, including any required offer salary approvals.
Once a candidate completes this part of the onboarding process and accepts their contract of employment via e-signature, their record is integrated to Workday for the latter part of onboarding to commence in Workday.
At the heart of the integration, the Recruitment Team wished to ensure that all candidates continued to experience a fantastic onboarding experience, including avoiding any duplication of data input.
This seamless process automatically picks up re-hires or internal moves and will update the existing employee ID record, to avoid creating duplicate records in Workday and other Sunbelt Rentals IT systems. The Payroll Team no longer need to manually input new starter data, saving significant work for the team, improving timeliness, and ensuring data accuracy.
“Following the success of ‘Aspire’ in the UK business we were keen to continue using Eploy’s
agile ATS combined with system integrations to deliver a flexible and best-in-sector recruitment technology solution. It allows us to harness the benefits of implementing a Workday HCM solution. In addition, it enables close collaboration with the North American and Canadian business for a global approach to lead together by example. “I’m incredibly proud of how the Recruitment, HR, Payroll, IT and Project teams worked together to implement these highly complex API integrations, successfully connecting our technology platforms and delivering efficiencies and improvements for all of our stakeholders.” Tracy Edwards, Recruitment Manager, Sunbelt Rentals
Reporting Improvements
Dashboard reporting within Eploy continues to provide a wealth of data. Dashboards have been reconfigured to include the most up-todate available reports following the integration, reducing the challenge of reporting accurately on the organisational structure and monitoring any exceptions of Eploy and Workday API data to identify any actions required ahead of payroll.
Chris Bogh CTO, Eploy commented, “The integration of Eploy and Workday utilises both API integrations to seamlessly transfer data and remove manual inputs that improves the candidate experience on a global scale. Eploy acts as the hub of the online recruitment strategy, connecting candidates with jobs, connecting the recruitment team and hiring managers, the end result is streamlined recruitment and HR/ Payroll processes using Best of Breed solutions.”