Using HiBob actions in action flows

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

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Summary: ◀▼

You can connect action flows to HiBob to automate employee management tasks like looking up, creating, and updating employee records, managing time off requests, and retrieving department lists. Use a dedicated service account for secure authentication. These actions help streamline HR workflows by integrating employee data and time off management directly into your support processes.

By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as HiBob, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.

Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:

• Connecting HiBob to action builder
• Using HiBob actions in action flows

Connecting HiBob to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:

• All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
• All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
• When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.

The HiBob connection requires the following authentication credentials:

• Service user ID: Your HiBob service account username.
• Service token: Your HiBob service account API token.

  Store your service token securely. It provides access to your HiBob data and should be treated like a password.

You can generate service account credentials in your HiBob account settings under Integrations. The service account should have appropriate permissions to perform the actions you intend to use in your workflows.

To connect action builder to HiBob

1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
2. Create or edit an action flow.
3. Open the step sidebar.
4. Under External actions, click HiBob.
5. Enter your HiBob Service user ID and Service token when prompted.
6. Click Connect.
7. Follow HiBob's prompts to authenticate and complete the connection.
   Note: All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for HiBob.

Using HiBob actions in action flows

The following HiBob actions are available:

• Look up employee
• Create employee
• Update employee
• Update employee email
• Getting employee employment
• Create time off request
• Get time off balance
• Get who's out
• List departments

Looking up an employee

Use the Look up employee action to retrieve employee information by employee ID or email address.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Optional: Employee ID, Email
Output	Employee details including ID, name, email, department, title, manager, employment status, and other configured employee fields.

Creating an employee

Use the Create employee action to add a new employee record to HiBob.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Email, First name, Surname, Start date, Site Optional: Display name, Title, Department, Manager, Work phone, Personal email
Output	Employee details including ID, name, email, department, title, start date, and other configured employee fields.

Updating an employee

Use the Update employee action to modify existing employee information.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Employee ID Optional: First name, Surname, Second name, Display name, Title, Department, Work phone, Work mobile, Personal email, Home phone, Home mobile
Output	Updated employee details including ID, name, email, department, title, and other configured employee fields.

Updating an employee email

Use the Update employee email action to change an employee's email address. If the email cannot be changed directly, an invitation will be sent to the new address for verification.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Employee ID, Email
Output	Success status, employee ID, and updated email address.

Getting employee employment

Use the Get employee employment action to retrieve employment history and current employment details for an employee.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Employee ID
Output	Employee ID, employment history array with type, contract, dates, FTE, and hours, plus current employment details including tenure.

Creating a time off request

Use the Create time off request action to submit a new time off request for an employee.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Employee ID, Policy type, Start date, Start date portion, End date, End date portion Optional: Reason
Output	Request details including request ID, employee ID, policy type, start date, end date, days count, status, created timestamp, and approval requirement flag.

Getting a time off balance

Use the Get time off balance action to retrieve an employee's available time off balance for a specific policy.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Employee ID, Policy type Optional: Date
Output	Balance details including employee ID, policy name, point in time date, annual allowance, starting balance, total balance, total taken, and adjustment values.

Getting time off request details

Use the Get time off request details action to retrieve detailed information about a specific time off request.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Employee ID, Request ID
Output	Array of request objects containing request ID, employee details, policy type, dates, duration, status, reason, approver information, and timestamps, plus total count.

Getting who's out

Use the Get who's out action to retrieve a list of employees who are out of office during a specified date range.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: From date, To date Optional: Include hourly, Include private, Include pending
Output	Two arrays (out today and out in range) containing employee details with ID, name, email, department, policy type, time off dates, and return date, plus total out count.

Listing departments

Use the List departments action to retrieve all departments in your HiBob account.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	None
Output	Array of department objects containing department ID and name, plus total count.