Mobing list items in folders

So my question is relevant in this scenario:

I want to create a list of personnel records in which 3 different departments can access. 

Since I only want each department to have access only to personnel of their own data (but HR can have access to all of the data), my solution was to create 3 folders "A", "B" and "C" and break permissions for each, so Department A can have access to folder "A" only, and so one.

If this happens through a sharepoint list, it works 100%. However, I want to use a powerapp, and this is what I've tried:

1. Setting the Folder by updating the '{Path}' field of the item, does not work since the user is not allowed to change system fields.
2. Changing the folder after an item is created using a Workflow. This would use the "Folder" field. This does not work for reasons I am not aware.

Any ideas?