The PeopleForce integration allows you to automatically transfer employee data to AcademyOcean, significantly simplifying the onboarding process and helping maintain an up-to-date learner database 🙌
Key Features
After connecting the integration, you will be able to:
Automatically create and update learners based on data from PeopleForce.
Support the entire employee lifecycle: creation, updates, termination, and reinstatement.
Configure flexible field mapping between PeopleForce and AcademyOcean.
Automatically assign learners to AcademyOcean teams using Team Mapping.
Send welcome emails to newly created users.
Access detailed synchronization logs and integration settings history.
Employee filtering based on PeopleForce data to select which users should be synchronized.
Synchronization of AcademyOcean learning metrics with PeopleForce as employee KPIs.
Obtaining an API Key in PeopleForce
Before setting up the integration in AcademyOcean, you need to create an API key in PeopleForce.
To do this:
1. Log in to your PeopleForce account.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Scroll down to the API Keys section:
4. Click + New:
5. Enter a name for the new API key.
6. In the Permissions settings, grant View access to the following items:
People compensation
Vacancy base compensation range
Candidate desired base compensation
Candidate sensitive fields
7. Click Generate to create the API key:
⚠️ Important! The API key will be displayed only once after it is generated. Be sure to copy and store it in a secure location, as it will not be possible to view it again in PeopleForce later.
Once you have obtained the API key, you can proceed with setting up the integration in AcademyOcean 🙌
Setting Up the Integration in AcademyOcean
To get started, navigate to Academy Settings → Apps & Integrations → Integrations → PeopleForce: https://app.academyocean.com/account/settings/academy/integrations/peopleforce
When opening the integration for the first time, only the main settings tab will be available. Additional tabs will become accessible after a successful connection.
To connect the integration:
1. Generate or obtain an API key in PeopleForce.
2. Paste it into the API Key field:
3. Click Test Connection to verify the connection.
4. Once the connection is successfully verified, click Save.
After saving, additional integration settings will become available:
Choosing a Synchronization Method
The integration supports two primary synchronization methods.
PeopleForce Webhooks
When this option is selected, AcademyOcean will generate:
A Webhook URL
A Secret Key
The Webhook URL must be added in your PeopleForce settings.
The Secret Key is required to securely receive webhook requests.
⚠️ Requests without the correct secret key will not be processed.
The following webhook events are supported:
Employee Created
Employee Updated
Employee Deleted
Employee Terminated
Employee Reinstated
Once configured, changes made in PeopleForce will be reflected in AcademyOcean almost instantly.
Daily API Synchronization
Alternatively, you can use automated daily synchronization.
In this mode, AcademyOcean performs a full synchronization request to PeopleForce once per day and updates employee information accordingly:
The synchronization runs automatically every day at 03:00 UTC.
Additional Synchronization Settings
You can also configure the following options:
Welcome Email
Choose whether newly created users should automatically receive a welcome email.
Empty Value Handling
You can define how the system should behave when a field is empty in one of the systems.
For example:
If a field is empty in AcademyOcean but contains a value in PeopleForce, it will be updated.
If a field contains a value in AcademyOcean but is empty in PeopleForce, you can choose to:
Clear the value in AcademyOcean.
Keep the existing value unchanged.
Field Mapping
After connecting the integration, open the Field Mapping tab.
Here, you can define which PeopleForce fields correspond to AcademyOcean fields.
For example:
PeopleForce | AcademyOcean |
First Name | First Name |
Last Name | Last Name |
Position | Position |
Department | Department |
The Email field is mandatory and cannot be modified:
During the initial synchronization, email addresses are used to match PeopleForce employees with existing AcademyOcean learners.
After the initial match is established, future synchronizations use internal identifiers:
Employee ID in PeopleForce
Learner ID in AcademyOcean
Team Mapping
In the Team Mapping tab, you can configure automatic learner assignment to teams:
To do this, create mapping rules between PeopleForce field values and AcademyOcean teams.
You can:
Create multiple rules.
Edit existing rules.
Delete rules.
If no rules are configured, learners will not be assigned to teams automatically.
Employee Filters
In the Employee Filters tab, you can configure which employees from PeopleForce should be synchronized with AcademyOcean:
By default, if no filters are configured, all employees from PeopleForce will be synchronized. To limit the list of employees, create one or more filtering rules. Only employees who match at least one of the configured filters will be synchronized.
For example, you can create a filter based on a specific PeopleForce field value to synchronize only employees from a particular department, with a specific position, or with another required attribute.
💡 Leave the filter list empty if you want to synchronize all employees.
Learners linked to PeopleForce employees who no longer match any of the configured filters will be removed from the academy. If these employees start matching the filters again later (for example, after changing or removing a filter), they will be automatically synchronized again.
⚠️ Please note that learners who were manually deleted from AcademyOcean will not be restored this way.
All changes to the filters are applied during the next synchronization.
KPI Synchronization
In the KPI Synchronization tab, you can configure which learning metrics from AcademyOcean should be transferred to PeopleForce as employee KPIs:
For each metric, you can:
— Enable or disable its synchronization.
— Specify the KPI name that will be displayed in PeopleForce.
The following learning metrics are available:
— Average Quiz Score — the employee's average score across quizzes.
— Quiz Attempts — the number of quiz attempts.
— Courses Completed — the number of completed courses.
— Overall Score — the employee's overall learning score.
— Certificates Earned — the number of certificates earned.
— Badges Earned — the number of badges earned.
— Time Spent in Academy (min) — the total time the employee has spent in AcademyOcean, measured in minutes.
⚠️ You do not need to create KPIs manually in PeopleForce before synchronization. During the first synchronization of the metrics, the integration will automatically create the corresponding KPIs on each employee's profile.
KPIs created manually in PeopleForce will not be picked up by the synchronization.
Manual Synchronization
To synchronize data immediately, click the Sync Now button.
This will trigger a full synchronization of employees from PeopleForce to AcademyOcean:
Synchronization Logs
The Logs section allows administrators to review the results of every synchronization.
The logs include information about:
Created learners
Updated learners
Skipped records
Deactivated learners
Synchronization errors
You can also review the history of integration settings changes:
Important Notes and Limitations
⚠️ Please keep the following limitations in mind:
One-Way Synchronization
The integration works in one direction only.
AcademyOcean receives data from PeopleForce but does not send any data back to the HR system.
One Integration per Academy
A single PeopleForce integration can only be connected to one AcademyOcean academy.
This limitation exists because PeopleForce does not provide a mechanism for distributing employees across multiple academies. Connecting the same integration to multiple academies could result in duplicate users being created.
Learner Deletion
If a learner is permanently deleted from AcademyOcean (Hard Delete), future synchronization for that learner will no longer occur.
The integration will not recreate the learner or update their information.
Email Changes
After the initial user matching process, email addresses are no longer used for synchronization.
If an email address is changed either in PeopleForce or AcademyOcean, it will not be updated through the integration.
Email addresses are only used during the initial matching process.
✅ Done! Once configured, employees from PeopleForce will be automatically synchronized with AcademyOcean according to your selected settings.













