Hi Wendy
Totara is able to connect to a variety of external databases that HR systems use. Once the databases are connected the fieldnames to be imported into Totara can be mapped to the relevant Totara field . This import can be set to be scheduled at a specified time.
To evaluate an HR system check what fields are being stored that you want to import into Totara (you can add extra user fields in Totara for fields that are stored in HR system that would be useful in Totara).
Check the type of database the HR system uses - you may need to add a database driver for the database if your Totara install doesn't use the HR database.
Also note that the data that is imported into Totara needs to come from one table in the HR system for each Element in Totara. This may need queries to be created to make this happen.
The other option is instead of connecting directly to the HR database is to create a csv file from the HR system with the required data included.
regards