Platform access level: Org Admins (anyone who sets up integrations)

Arist connects to the HR system you already run, whether or not it is one of the large named platforms, so your learner roster stays current without anyone exporting a file by hand. If your HRIS can share data through an API or a scheduled file, Arist can integrate with it. This guide explains how the connection works, what employee data flows in, and how Arist uses it, and it is written for the IT and HR stakeholders who set it up.

1. Overview of the HRIS connection

Arist reads employee data from your HRIS on a schedule, typically once a day, and uses it to create and target learners. The connection runs one of two ways, and both end with the same result in Arist.

API integration: Your system or an integration platform sends employee records to Arist's API, or Arist reads from your HRIS's own API.
CSV flat file: Your team places a file of employee records on a secure SFTP location on a schedule, and Arist reads it.

Note: The sync is ongoing, not a one-time import. Each run reflects your current workforce, so joiners, movers, and leavers flow through automatically.

2. How your HRIS data is used

The employee attributes Arist reads do two jobs, which is why choosing the right fields matters more than sending everything.

Automations: Attributes like role, region, and hire date place each person into the right courses and cohorts automatically, so you target training by who someone is rather than by a hand-built list.
Analytics and reporting: The same attributes segment your reporting, so completion and outcomes can be viewed by any dimension Arist receives, such as by department, location, or manager.

3. Employee data Arist reads

Arist groups the fields you can send into four tiers by how each is used. Identity is required, and the rest are recommended or sent as a specific program needs them.

Group	Fields	Why it matters
Identity (required)	Employee ID, work email, name, and mobile number for SMS	Creates each learner and matches them across systems
Organization (recommended)	Job title or role, department or division, manager, location, country, worker class	Becomes the audience filters L&D targets and reports on
Lifecycle (recommended)	Hire date, employment status, termination date, worker type	Triggers automations like onboarding, and pauses or deactivates a learner
Delivery (as needed)	Preferred language or locale, time zone, and any program-specific fields	Tailors how and when lessons reach the learner

Tip: Bring in a field only if you would name it in a sentence about who gets training or how results break down. A shorter, purposeful list is faster to get security sign-off on and easier to keep current.

4. Choosing a stable identifier

Arist matches each learner on a stable, unique identifier that survives job changes, transfers, and rehires, which is the Employee ID rather than email. Arist searches for the Employee ID first and falls back to work email, because email-only matching drifts when an address changes on a name change or domain migration.

Important: The stable identifier is the one decision worth settling before launch. It is the key that keeps a learner's record and their course completions attached to the right person for their whole tenure, and it is the same identifier the completion writeback relies on.

5. Connecting by API or flat file

Both methods move the same fields on the same schedule. Choose the one that fits how your HRIS shares data and what your security team allows.

API: Arist's External API uses a single per-organization key, sent in an Authorization header, to receive employee records. Your integration platform sends to it, or Arist reads from your HRIS's own API where one is available. This suits systems with a live API and near-real-time needs.
CSV flat file over SFTP: Your team produces a file, one row per employee, and places it on a secure SFTP location on the agreed schedule. Credentials are exchanged securely and the transfer is encrypted. This is the reliable fallback for any system that can produce a scheduled export.

6. Decisions to settle before mapping

These questions define who syncs and what happens as people's situations change. Settling them up front keeps them from surfacing mid-build.

Question	What to decide
Who is in scope	Full-time only, or also part-time and contingent workers, and any excluded populations such as executives or specific countries.
When new hires enter the feed	At what point in onboarding a new hire appears, and whether they arrive with a work email or without one. A record sent before its email is populated cannot be reached and is filtered out until the email is added on a later sync.
How active and inactive are handled	Whether someone on leave keeps receiving training, pauses, or deactivates, driven by syncing employment status as a field.
What happens at termination and rehire	How quickly messaging stops, whether the learner is deactivated or removed, and whether a rehire reuses the same ID.
How often the feed runs	Daily is typical. Say so now if transitions must reflect within hours.

7. What your team provides

Arist sends you an integration data request workbook to capture the specifics. You fill the source field for each Arist field with the exact field name from your system, confirm the scope questions above, and return it so Arist can build the mapping.

For an API connection: The endpoint URLs, credentials, and access scope, plus the exact location of every field, meaning which system, which endpoint, and how it is nested.
For a flat file: The SFTP details and a sample file, so Arist can confirm the format and the identifier before the first full run.

LMS Integration - API or Flat File
HRIS and LMS Integration - Technical Guide

Note: Need help at any point? Reach out to your Arist Customer Success contact, or email [email protected].

HRIS Integration - API or Flat File