Article summary: User Sync is a powerful automation tool designed to streamline user management. It ensures that your Speakap network remains perfectly aligned with your HR records by automatically handling invitations, departmental transfers, and account deletions.
1. Why use User Sync?
Effective user management is the foundation of a successful Speakap network. While manual management works for smaller organizations, larger companies require a more scalable solution. User Sync removes the administrative burden of manually inviting every new hire or updating profile details every time an employee changes roles.
By automating these processes, you ensure that:
- New hires are invited to the network on their first day.
- Internal transfers automatically gain access to their new location's, department’s and/or group’s feed, knowledge base, files and news etc.
- Offboarded employees immediately lose access to the platform once they leave the company, maintaining network security.
2. How it works
The User Sync application acts as a bridge between your HR system (the "source of truth") and Speakap. It periodically reviews your employee records and translates changes into actions within your network.
To function, the application relies on two core components:
- The employee record: A data export or API feed from your HR tool containing a list of all active employees and their organizational data (e.g., store ID, department name, function).
- Mapping rules: A set of logic that tells Speakap how to interpret your HR data. For example: "If an employee has Department ID '102' in the HR system, place them in the 'Supply Chain' department in Speakap."
3. Key automated actions
Once configured, User Sync manages the following lifecycle stages:
- Onboarding: It identifies new records and sends out invitations via email, SMS (if configured) or creates credentials for printable invites.
- Mutations: If an employee’s data changes (such as a name change, new job title, or moving to a different location), User Sync updates their Speakap profile and shifts their group memberships accordingly.
- Offboarding: When an employee is no longer found in the active employee record, User Sync automatically deletes or anonymizes their account based on your network's preferences. Note: the account is kept ‘suspended’ for 30 days in case of the need to recover it.
4. Implementation best practices
- Avoid manual changes: When User Sync is active, and you make manual changes to users' organizational units in Speakap, these additional memberships will not be overwritten during the next sync. For example, this will be the case when you add a User to an additional Business Unit(s) or Department(s), if this is needed to align with their work reality. The User Sync will not manage these manual changes. Good to know, you cannot remove memberships manually that are managed by the User Sync. Only updates in your HR system will create a change in Speakap to the primary Business Unit, Department and Groups.
- Data consistency: Ensure that the organizational names or IDs in your HR system exactly match the mapping rules established in the User Sync configuration. The better the consistency in your HR tool, the better the data can be adopted in Speakap.
Monitor the sync: Check your sync reports regularly to identify any users who could not be processed due to missing data (like a missing email address, name or unrecognized department code).