BambooHR

How to integrate BambooHR with Webflow

HR teams need automated ways to keep public team directories, career pages, and application systems synchronized with employee records and job openings. Manual website updates create delays between HR system changes and what visitors see on your site. Connecting BambooHR with Webflow eliminates these delays and reduces administrative work.

You can integrate these platforms through automation tools like Zapier and n8n for quick setup with visual workflow builders, or build custom integrations using the BambooHR API and Webflow Data API for bidirectional synchronization and specialized business logic. The BambooHR API documentation provides REST endpoints for employee data, applicant tracking, and time-off management.

Use Zapier or n8n for automation

Zapier and n8n connect BambooHR with Webflow through pre-built integrations that handle authentication, error retries, and data mapping. These platforms use visual workflow builders that typically take 30 minutes to 2 hours to configure for basic integrations.

Zapier offers a pre-built template that creates BambooHR employee records when someone submits a Webflow form. The Zapier BambooHR + Webflow integration page documents available triggers and actions. Zapier uses polling to check for changes, with intervals of 15 minutes on free plans, 2 minutes on Professional plans, and 1 minute on Team and Enterprise plans.

n8n provides visual workflow design with more technical control. The n8n BambooHR node supports employee CRUD operations, document management, and company reports. The n8n Webflow node handles CMS items, form submissions, and publishing operations. n8n supports webhooks for faster updates compared to Zapier's polling intervals.

Some common workflows using these platforms include:

• Employee onboarding automation: Webflow career page form submissions trigger new employee record creation in BambooHR with application data transferred automatically
• Team directory synchronization: Changes to employee records in BambooHR update corresponding Webflow CMS collection items for public team pages
• Job posting management: New job requisitions in BambooHR create CMS items in Webflow career page collections
• Application tracking: Candidate submissions through Webflow forms generate applicant records in BambooHR's ATS system

Important limitations: Pre-built Zapier templates typically sync data in one direction only (BambooHR to Webflow or Webflow to BambooHR). You can configure bidirectional workflows with custom Zapier setups, though this requires more configuration. Polling intervals on free and lower-tier plans create delays of 2 to 15 minutes between when data changes in one system and when it updates in the other.

Build with Webflow and BambooHR APIs

Building with APIs gives you bidirectional synchronization, webhook-based real-time updates, and custom data transformations. This approach requires backend development skills but removes the constraints of middleware platforms.

Sync employee data to Webflow CMS

The BambooHR Employee API provides employee directory data through the GET https://{companyDomain}.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{companyDomain}/v1/employees/directory endpoint. You retrieve employee information and transform it for Webflow's CMS structure.

Authentication uses HTTP Basic Auth with your API key as the username and "x" as the password. BambooHR is migrating to OAuth 2.0 with OpenID Connect for new integrations, which offers token-based authentication.

Use the Webflow CMS API to create and update collection items. The POST /v2/collections/{collection_id}/items endpoint creates new CMS items, while PATCH /v2/collections/{collection_id}/items/{item_id} updates existing records. The Webflow Authentication Reference explains Bearer token authentication.

Implementation pattern for syncing employee data:

1. Fetch employee data from BambooHR using the Employee Directory endpoint
2. Transform employee fields to match your Webflow CMS collection structure
3. Create or update Webflow CMS items using the Data API
4. Publish changes using the Webflow Publish API

Process webhook events for real-time updates

There are two webhook types you can choose from. Global Webhooks are configured through the admin interface and Permissioned Webhooks are created via API.

Webhooks trigger for three employee record actions: Created, Updated, and Deleted.

All webhook endpoints must use HTTPS. BambooHR includes X-BambooHR-Signature and X-BambooHR-Timestamp headers for HMAC-SHA256 verification.

CORS limitation: Direct browser-based API calls from Webflow custom code will fail due to missing CORS headers. You must implement server-side endpoints using serverless functions (AWS Lambda, Netlify Functions, Cloudflare Workers) or traditional backend servers to receive webhooks and proxy API requests. This limitation applies both to receiving BambooHR webhooks and to receiving Webflow form submission webhooks in client-side code.

Webhook workflow steps:

1. Configure webhook endpoint in BambooHR pointing to your server
2. Verify HMAC-SHA256 signatures on incoming requests using the X-BambooHR-Signature header
3. Extract employee event data from the payload (checking the employees array, id, action, timestamp, and changedFields)
4. Fetch complete employee details from BambooHR if needed using the employee endpoint
5. Transform the data to match Webflow CMS field requirements
6. Update corresponding Webflow CMS items via the Webflow Data API (PATCH endpoint)
7. Publish updated items to the live site (respecting the 1 publish per minute rate limit)

BambooHR attempts webhook delivery up to 5 times with exponential backoff intervals of immediate, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 40 minutes. Webhooks that repeatedly fail will deactivate automatically without guaranteed notification, so implement health monitoring on your webhook endpoints.

Create applicant records from form submissions

The Webflow Webhooks documentation explains how to receive form submission events. Configure webhooks through POST /v2/sites/{site_id}/webhooks with triggerType: form_submission.

When Webflow sends a form submission webhook to your endpoint, extract applicant data and create records in BambooHR using the Applicant Tracking API. This requires a server-side implementation because direct client-side API calls from Webflow fail due to CORS restrictions.

You must implement a serverless function (AWS Lambda, Netlify Functions, Cloudflare Workers) or backend server to receive the Webflow webhook, validate the signature, transform the data, and make authenticated requests to BambooHR's ATS endpoints.

Implementation steps for creating applicant records:

1. Set up Webflow webhook for form submissions
2. Verify webhook signatures using HMAC-SHA256 validation
3. Parse form data from the webhook payload
4. Map form fields to BambooHR applicant structure
5. Create applicant record via BambooHR API using POST https://{companyDomain}.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{companyDomain}/v1/applicant_tracking/applications
6. Return HTTP 200 response to Webflow within timeout window

Field mapping considerations: BambooHR expects specific data structures for applicant records. According to Lever's BambooHR troubleshooting guide, trailing spaces in names and case sensitivity cause common mapping failures. Field type mismatches and permission scope issues can also prevent data synchronization. Validate and normalize data before sending to BambooHR, and verify that your API credentials have sufficient permissions to access all required employee fields.

Manage multi-locale content

The Webflow Data API Overview supports multi-locale content management for international teams. Create CMS items with localized field data using the locales object in your API requests.

Create localized CMS items with this structure:

POST https://api.webflow.com/v2/collections/{collection_id}/items

{
  "fieldData": {
    "name": "Software Engineer",
    "slug": "software-engineer"
  },
  "locales": {
    "en-US": {
      "fieldData": {
        "job-description": "Join our engineering team to build innovative products",
        "requirements": "5+ years of experience in software development"
      }
    },
    "es": {
      "fieldData": {
        "job-description": "Únete a nuestro equipo de ingeniería para crear productos innovadores",
        "requirements": "5+ años de experiencia en desarrollo de software"
      }
    }
  }
}

This structure enables job postings and employee profiles in multiple languages while maintaining a single CMS item. Each locale contains its own fieldData object with translated content.

What you can build

Integrating BambooHR with Webflow lets you automate employee data management and recruitment workflows across your web presence and applicant tracking system.

• Dynamic team directories: Employee profiles update automatically on your Webflow site when HR makes changes in BambooHR, keeping public team pages accurate without manual website edits
• Automated career pages: Job openings sync from BambooHR to Webflow CMS collections, creating dynamic career pages that reflect current hiring needs with proper formatting and descriptions
• Applicant record creation: Candidate submissions through Webflow forms create complete applicant records in BambooHR's tracking system, eliminating manual data entry and reducing response times
• Self-service employee onboarding: New hire information collected through Webflow forms generates employee records in BambooHR with all required fields populated, reducing HR administrative work during onboarding