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ElevateR

The ElevateR | May 2023

Photo of Jack J. BlanchardMessage from Jack J. Blanchard, Associate Provost for Enterprise Resource Planning:

As you may have heard, the Elevate Program has a new Go Live date for Workday Finance and Human Capital Management (HCM): November 15, 2023. This date was selected after consulting with key stakeholders across our partner entities, and it is our hope that this extended timeline will provide plenty of time for staff and faculty to prepare for the transition to Workday. You can learn more about this decision by reading the announcement from the executive sponsors, which was emailed to all staff, faculty, and student workers on May 15, 2023.

The Elevate Team has been hard at work planning for this new Go Live date. For the most up-to-date information about last day activities and “freeze” periods in systems being replaced by Workday, visit the Drive to Go Live page on our website.

As you plan for summer, make sure to remember that Elevate’s end user training will launch July 17, 2023! Starting on this date, all employees will be able to enroll in and complete on-demand computer based training courses, as well as access over 400 job aids. June’s ElevateR will be focused solely on training, and all employees will receive emails with their recommended training courses and more information this summer.

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Workday Student Update

During Spring 2023, the Elevate program was expanded to include preparation for the implementation of Workday Student. As the first segment of this workstream – the student, faculty, and staff experience – has recently concluded we wanted to share insights with our UMD community. Our team engaged with 164 UMD faculty, student, and staff constituents to understand challenges in our current systems as well as opportunities for the future. We distilled the takeaways from these discussions into six themes:

  • Interconnectivity - UMD needs greater communication across campus offices and colleges
  • System Integration & User Experience - Users need information and tasks pulled together in one location
  • Automations - Manual processes need to be streamlined and automated
  • Data Governance & Analytics - UMD needs role-based access to institutional data 
  • Advising & Registration - We need a more integrated and effective advising and registration process
  • Change Management - Communication and engagement with faculty, staff, and students will be critical to our success

Learn more about how we are preparing for the Student implementation by visiting our newly updated Timeline page.


  

Words of Workday

Workday Logo

  • Salary Plan: The Salary Plan is used to associate eligible salaried employees with the appropriate base salary compensation elements. Salary plans can be assigned as part of the Hire transaction, as part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer), and as a result of using the Request Compensation Change task. Workday automatically feeds the compensation to payroll for the regular pay period payment.
  • Hourly Plan: Used to associate eligible hourly employees with an hourly rate amount. Hourly plans are assigned as part of the Hire transaction, as part of another staffing transaction (promote, demote, transfer), and as a result of using the Request Compensation Change task. Workday sends the compensation and the actual hours to payroll for the regular pay period. Workday uses the indicated hourly amount to calculate how much to pay employees in their regular pay checks.

Photo of Alesia RuizElevateR Spotlight

The Elevate Program is thrilled to have a team of full-time employees that have a wide breadth of experience and institutional knowledge. In each issue of the ElevateR, we will shine the spotlight on a staff member who is working hard to make our project a success.

Alesia Ruiz
Compensation Lead

Having grown up in Adelphi, MD, Alesia spent much of her childhood playing pinball at the Stamp Student Union. Now, she’s spent nearly ten years as a Human Resources professional at the University of Maryland. Alesia has worked for both University Human Resources and the Department of Public Safety before accepting her role as Compensation Lead for the Elevate Program. Alesia created and administered the employment verification program for the College Park City - University Partnership homeownership program, which is an initiative that provides University of Maryland - College Park employees with down payment assistance towards purchasing a home in College Park. About her experience on the Elevate Program, Alesia says it is exciting to see all the hard work that has been accomplished so far. “I feel very honored to work with a talented project team and campus subject matter experts,” 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.

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