Message from Jack J. Blanchard, Associate Provost for Enterprise Resource Planning:
With the start of 2024, we wanted to provide an update on the Elevate Program since we announced the implementation delay in September 2023. We understand that everyone is eager to learn about the revised timeline and, given progress made, we expect to be able to announce a new Go-Live date in the coming weeks. Below is a summary of our activities and accomplishments that build toward our Workday Go-Live in 2024.
Following the delay announcement, the Elevate, Payroll Services, and DIT team completed a review of all PHR payroll integration documentation. We updated our Workday payroll integration logic to match this documentation, and we sent a full-volume test payroll file for all UMD employees from Workday through the USM Consolidation Site and Central Payroll Bureau. The file passed successfully the first time, which was a very positive result. Elevate and Payroll Services then began processing a parallel test that compared the amounts of every person’s paycheck between PHR and Workday, which also had a positive result. We are currently performing the first of two additional parallel cycles now. We will continue planned rigorous testing and refinement of the payroll system to ensure that it meets our needs.
In addition to work on payroll, our Elevate Program team has been working on enhancements that will improve user training and the user experience for our staff, faculty, and graduate students. During the initial roll out of Workday training, we received over 6,000 user surveys as well as feedback from our PIT crews and central offices (UHR, Finance, Procurement) on ways that we could further improve training. This feedback has led to nearly 200 enhancements to training courses and materials including the creation of detailed process flows for key business processes and the creation of crosswalks and guides for users to understand how prior activities in PHR and KFS will be conducted in Workday.
Additionally, the Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) Time System went live on December 5, 2023. This cloud-based time clock system replaces the Kronos and CSTime Card Swipe Systems. The UKG Time System offers improved functionality and reliability and will pave the way for a simplified transition to Workday. The Elevate Program team worked with departmental card swipe time administrators, time keepers, and DIT partners to implement this new system. This transition impacted 90 time clocks and 5,500+ employees with card swipe positions across Facilities Management, Student Affairs, Athletics, Dining Services, RecWell, Residential Facilities, Health Center, Engineering and DOTS.
Improvements to elevate.umd.edu
To further enhance communications with campus, in late fall of 2023 our team conducted a website usability test to identify any potential issues that impact the overall user experience of the site and to provide suggestions for improvement.
These suggestions are guiding a website overhaul that is currently underway. You can see the following enhancements on the website today:
- We have enhanced the search engine functionality of our website to only return results from elevate.umd.edu, as opposed to all UMD websites, to ensure that users are easily able to find the correct information on Elevate.
- We have combined Training and Resources into one menu item to simplify navigation and reduce confusion between the two. This section includes information on training courses, Learning Hubs, the Glossary, and more.
- We are redesigning the home page to better educate users on Elevate terminology upfront and guide users on how to navigate our website.
This project is ongoing and you will see more improvements made to the website over the next few months, so stay tuned. For now, visit elevate.umd.edu and take a look!
Words of Workday
Driver Worktag
A Driver Worktag is the primary funding source for the transaction. The types of worktags that can be a driver are Grant, Project, Gift, or USource.
Gift
A worktag that represents gifts of money as a funding source. They will be used to manage expenses and revenue against spendable gifts, endowment funds, and investments. Gifts will be a "Driver" worktag and will have related worktags of Fund, Cost Center, Balancing Unit, and Higher Ed Function Code
USource
A USource is a worktag that represents former KFS Accounts that are not Grants, Projects, or Gifts. This includes, but are not limited to, State, DRIF, Agencies, and Auxiliaries accounts, USource will be a "Driver" worktag and will have related worktags of Fund, Cost Center, Balancing Unit, and Higher Ed Function Code.
Featured FAQs
How will I format manual time entries in Workday?
Workday records time in decimal format instead of HH:MM. You can use this HH:MM to Decimal Time Converter for assistance. For example, if you work for six hours and thirty minutes, Workday records that time as 6.5 hours. A thirty minute meal break would be 0.5 hours.
Will the absence calendar be used for full days off only? For example, what if I want to take 2.5 hours for a doctor’s appointment?
Absences can be requested for a full day or as a partial day by the number of hours to be taken. Hours can be entered incrementally using decimal format (e.g., 2.5 hours).
ElevateR Spotlight
Lisa Drouillard
Payroll and Time Manager
Lisa Drouillard came to the Elevate Program team in October 2023. Previously, she worked as the Director of Payroll and HRIS for the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She was hired at UMBC 20 years ago to assist with their PeopleSoft implementation, and has participated in various system upgrades and implementations since then. More recently, Lisa created automated workflows for high volume HR transactions at UMBC, making the processes quicker, reducing errors and creating more user friendly processes for departmental end users.
When asked what brought her to the program, Lisa said that the main driving force behind her coming to UMD was to be part of the HCM Workday implementation. “I am most excited to see all the business process enhancements come together in one system,” she says.
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Your Questions Answered
From big picture planning to the impact of daily routines, the Elevate team is available to answer your questions and address your concerns.
Browse our list of FAQs or click the button below to ask our team a question.