Map HRIS Organizational Data to Access Permissions for Role-Based Access Control

Implementation: Extract and Map Role Information from HRIS

Step 1: Extract Job Titles and Organizational Structure from Employee Data

Begin by syncing the organizational context available in Knit's standardized employee data models. While HRIS platforms don't provide a unified "role" API, they all maintain organizational structure information that indicates employee responsibilities and appropriate access levels.

Key organizational fields for RBAC:

• designation (job title): Primary indicator of job function and responsibility level
• department: Functional unit that determines baseline access requirements
• manager relationship: Enables approval workflow routing and permission inheritance
• employmentType: Contractors vs. full-time employees often have different access policies
• Custom fields: Organizations store access-relevant attributes in custom HRIS fields

Step 2: Use Passthrough API for HRIS-Specific Role and Group Data

While standardized employee models provide organizational structure, some HRIS platforms maintain proprietary role assignment or group membership systems. Use Knit's passthrough API to make direct calls to HRIS-specific endpoints when you need access to platform-specific role data.

Passthrough API Endpoint: POST https://api.getknit.dev/v1.0/passthrough

When to use passthrough vs. standardized models:

• Use standardized models when job title and department provide sufficient role context
• Use passthrough API when the HRIS has specific role/group assignment features
• Use custom fields when organizations store role data in unmapped HRIS fields

Step 3: Map HRIS Roles to Application Permissions and Access Policies

With organizational attributes and any platform-specific role data extracted, implement the mapping logic that translates HRIS roles into your application's access permissions.

Access policy patterns:

Policy Type	HRIS Attributes Used	Access Rule Example
Department-based	department	All employees in "Finance" department receive ERP system access
Job-title-based	designation (parsed)	Job titles containing "Manager" receive approval permissions
Hierarchy-based	manager relationship	Managers receive access to direct reports' data and approval authority
Employment-type-based	employmentType	Contractors (CONTRACT) receive restricted access vs. full-time (FULL_TIME)
Custom attribute	customFields	Employees with "Security Clearance: Confidential" receive classified system access

Key APIs and Employee Fields for Role-Based Access Control

Model	Field	Access Control Use Case
employee_orgStructure	designation	Job title-based permission assignment (e.g., "Senior Engineer" → development environment access)
employee_orgStructure	department	Department-based baseline access (e.g., "Finance" → ERP system access)
employee_orgStructure	manager	Approval routing and permission inheritance
employee_profile	employmentType	Contractor vs. employee access policies (FULL_TIME → full access, CONTRACT → restricted)
employee_customFields	Platform-specific attributes	Custom role indicators (e.g., "Security_Clearance: Confidential" → classified system access)

Job Title Parsing Patterns for Role Classification

Job Title Pattern	Role Classification	Typical Permissions
Contains "Manager," "Director," "VP," "Head of"	Management role	Approval authority, team resource access, elevated permissions
Contains "Senior," "Lead," "Principal"	Senior individual contributor	Write access, code review approval, mentor permissions
Contains "CEO," "CFO," "CTO," "Chief"	Executive role	Organization-wide read access, strategic approvals, audit access
Contains "Engineer," "Developer"	Technical role	Development environment access, code repository, technical tools
Contains "Analyst," "Specialist"	Operational role	Functional tool access based on department, read-focused permissions

Wrapping Up: Systematic Role-Based Access Control from HRIS Data

Implementing role-based access control becomes systematic and audit-ready when built on authoritative HRIS organizational data. Instead of maintaining separate role assignment spreadsheets or relying on manual permission requests, extract job titles, departments, manager relationships, and custom role attributes directly from the HRIS source of truth.

Key capabilities unlocked:

• Standardized organizational data: Extract designation (job title), department, and manager relationships from 30+ HRIS platforms in unified format
• Job function-based access: Parse job titles to automatically categorize employees and assign appropriate baseline permissions
• Department-based permissions: Use department assignments to grant functional access
• Manager-based approvals: Extract manager relationships to automatically route access requests to appropriate approvers
• Platform-specific role access: Use passthrough API to retrieve HRIS-specific role assignments when standard fields are insufficient
• Audit-ready role assignments: Create documentation showing access permissions derived from verified HRIS data