Workday Insights October 2024

It has been 115 days since Workday went live at Williams, and what a journey it’s been!  But we can’t begin to talk about where we are and where we’re headed without first taking a moment to thank you and our entire community for your patience and collaboration through this once-in-a-generation project.

Change is hard and personal because it impacts each of us and the work we do every day.  Learning new tools and ways of doing things doesn’t happen overnight, and we are here to hear your feedback and provide training and support every step of the way.

We may have gone live with Workday three months ago, but a lot has happened!   This transition has been a massive undertaking, and given the scope and timeline of the change, it has gone remarkably well. Here are a few highlights:

1,025 – Number of Workday help desk tickets answered
297 – Number of enhancements and fixes made to Workday since going live
1,028 – Number of students hired
2,653 – Number of Expense Reports completed
251 – Number of Workday training classes held
631 – Most help article views (Direct Hire a Student Worker)
1 – Number of biannual Workday releases completed

Some of the nearly 300 enhancements and fixes include things like:

  • Allowing users greater flexibility in controlling their system-wide notification preferences
  • Expanding access to the creation of Job Requisitions to start recruitment
  • Adding access for Managers to create delegations on an employee’s behalf
  • Expanding access to the Cost Center Manager dashboard for budget and actuals reporting
  • HR and Financial role assignment updates
  • Updates to the student employment hiring process to update rules and approval flow

Although a lot is happening, we know there is more to do.  Going forward, you can expect the continual release of enhancements, updates, and new features as Workday and our needs evolve.  As such, we continue to work on a number of in-progress and future updates.  These updates include significant changes and minor tweaks, but most are based on user experience and follow a few themes, including streamlining process notifications, refining security and access to information, and streamlining business process workflow.  Updates that are in the works include items like:

  • Review of system notifications to evaluate consistency and usefulness
  • Allowing the use of “For all Business Processes” when delegating tasks
  • Reviewing improvements to the student hiring process

We are also actively planning targeted user group workshops, like the upcoming Student and Temporary Worker Support workshop, to debrief users after this fall’s student and temp hiring season. These sessions allow us to engage directly with the community on opportunities to improve the process, documentation, and support.

In addition to ongoing updates, we are excited to roll out a few new features in the coming year. That includes launching Performance Management in January, allowing staff to complete their annual performance review process in Workday with their managers. This spring, we will begin implementing Workday’s budgeting module to modernize our budgeting tools and process for the FY2027 budget cycle.  We have also started work on the Workday Student implementation scheduled to go live in 2027.  You will hear more about these projects in future updates.

Finally, we remain committed to providing the tools and resources to support our community in successfully navigating work in Workday.  We continue to add content to our growing library of help articles and videos, so stay tuned to daily messages to learn when new materials are released.  In addition to training materials, we continue to offer in-person and virtual training classes.  New this fall, we will be offering help office hours for individualized support.  Visit williams.edu/workday for more information on the training resources available.

Thank you again for your continued support and collaboration throughout this project.  We are all navigating this change together and welcome your feedback and questions.  You can reach the project team any time through itsupport​@williams​.edu and the project website.