If you use HiBob as your HR platform, you can easily automate your learner imports without needing to write custom scripts. We're here to guide you through the process and make it as smooth as possible.
There are a few reasons why you might have arrived at this particular guide:
you're tired of manually uploading CSV files every week.
you want to ensure new starters get access to their learning from day one.
you want to make sure leavers have their access revoked automatically.
Before you start configuring HiBob
You'll need to contact our support team to create a SFTP site configured to your platform, and we will securely send you the SFTP login credentials you need for the setup. This will include:
URL/Hostname
File Path (usually /home)
Username & Password
Getting HiBob’s IP addresses whitelisted
Because HiBob will be sending your data directly to our servers behind the scenes, we need to make sure our system recognises them as a trusted source. To do this, you'll need to obtain HiBob's static outbound IP addresses (you can get these by asking HiBob's support team or checking their help centre) and pass them along to us. We will then 'whitelist' these IP addresses on our firewall so your automated reports can flow through securely.
We can send your SFTP setup information to any client administrator on record once the IPs are whitelisted.
Creating your learner import file in HiBob
Now that we have the secure connection ready, you need to tell HiBob what data to send us.
Go to your Analytics menu and pick Reports, then choose Start from scratch.
You need to build a custom report that matches the structure we use to create learner accounts. Add these columns to your report:
Column Name | Description |
Employee ID or Email | This is a unique identifier for each person so they can login to the online learning platform. |
First Name | The learner’s first name. |
Last Name | The learner’s last name. |
The email address of the learner (work or personal). We need it to send forgotten password reminders. | |
Department | The place where we should put someone. It can be a store, a department, or a cost centre. Use your HiBob department field. |
Country Code | The default country. As HiBob has no default setting for this you can manually set it in the file as: Default value: en |
Language Code | The default language. As HiBob has no default setting for this you can manually set it in the file as: Type: Text Default value: GB |
Job title | The code and description for a learner’s job type. We’ll use this in the reporting tools. |
Start date | The date the learner began employment with the company. |
Termination date | If you can give us a leaving date then we can automate your leavers as well. |
Save this report with a name you'll remember, like "Upskill People Sync".
Connecting the pipes
The final step is to plug in the credentials we gave you and put your report on a schedule.
Go to your Settings menu and pick Integrations.
Find the SFTP tile and choose Add SFTP destination. Name it "Upskill People" and select the Credentials option under Identification. This is where you plug in the Hostname, Username, Password, and File Path that we sent to your team.
Now, head back to your Analytics > Reports menu and find the "Upskill People Sync" report you just built.
Click the More dropdown at the top right and select Schedule:
SFTP: Pick the destination you just created.
File Format: Choose CSV (the structure must be comma-separated, not pipe-separated).
File Name: Use a hardcoded filename, e.g.
client_user_import.csv. When the daily import routine has finished processing the supplied file, we will move it into a “processed” location and apply a date time stamp automatically.Frequency: We recommend sending a single daily file (and the earlier, the better), but this can be set more frequently as required.
Click Save and run and that's it! Automating your learner imports from HiBob is as simple as that.
What can possibly go wrong with that?
Well apart from changing the structure of the CSV file from what was agreed (like re-ordering the columns or changing the date format), the most likely thing that could go wrong is with the actual SFTP connection itself.
If the file is reaching us but things aren't importing as expected, you should check your error logs. Don’t worry, we’ve a handy guide on what to do with your import file warnings as well.