Message from Jack J. Blanchard, Associate Provost for Enterprise Resource Planning:
It has been a summer of milestones for the Elevate Program. The Elevate team, which had been teleworking since the start of the project, finally returned to an office environment in the Manokin Building in College Park, MD. After months of Zoom calls, we were finally able to collaborate in person, joined by our consulting partners from Huron.
We are delighted to have two new executive sponsors: Jennifer King Rice, Senior Vice President and Provost, and Greg Oler, Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer. We also have three new members of our Executive Steering Committee: Lillian Nash, Controller; Dylan Baker, Interim Assistant Vice President, Finance and Personnel; and Colleen Auburger, Executive Director, University Budget Office. The Elevate Program is grateful to have ongoing support and guidance from Maryland leadership.
We are developing and building upon our partnerships with staff and leadership from the University of Maryland - College Park, University of Maryland - Eastern Shore, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the University System of Maryland Office. We have been fortunate to have had participation from subject matter experts from across all four entities. To date, key stakeholders and subject matter experts have contributed 1,730 volunteer hours to this project. We are grateful to the staff across these institutions for generously contributing their valuable time and expertise to the Elevate Program, which will help ensure the successful implementation of Workday.
Save The Date
Elevate Town Hall
We are excited to bring all of our stakeholders together for the first time since the project began at public Town Hall meetings on November 3 and 4, 2021. Join us at one of four identical Zoom sessions to learn more about what led to this transformative effort to replace our existing HR, Finance and Student systems, and our accomplishments thus far. Keep an eye on your inbox for more information!
We are now more than three-quarters of the way through the Architect Phase for Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) and Financials. During this phase, the Elevate team focused on understanding our requirements and analyzing how Workday will be configured to meet those needs. A thorough review of key Workday business processes was completed in order to plan for how things can be in the future (as described below).
Future State Process Design (FSPD) Process
The Future State Process Design (FSPD) process has helped Elevate define the who, what, when, and where of Workday’s major business processes, such as Recruit to Hire and Award Setup and Management. Business processes are the foundation for how HCM and Financial transactions are performed in Workday, and our goal is to design business processes for Workday that improve efficiency and effectiveness.
With the help of 62 subject matter experts across all four entities, Elevate conducted FSPD Drafting, Review, and Playback sessions for 23 separate HR and Finance business processes. These experts included individuals in both academic and administrative units who have HR and/or finance responsibilities and functional knowledge. The success of these sessions hinges on the substantial contribution made from these stakeholders, and we appreciate the many hours devoted to ensuring that Workday is successful.
The Initial Drafting and Review sessions documented process flows and best practices for 23 separate business processes, and the Playback Sessions showed participants how the future state processes would be configured in Workday. During the Playback Sessions, our teams identified a number of transformational benefits that Workday will provide, including:
- Employees will have the ability to initiate processes they weren’t able to kick off before, such as a legal name change or updating their personal information, including their address.
- Employees will be able to attach relevant supporting documentation when making changes to their personal information.
- When an employee has multiple paid positions, there will be one single time sheet to complete and it will be visible to all applicable supervisors.
- The ability to track employee talent data, including work experience, competencies, and certifications.
- The ability to utilize a centralized location for easy access to manage all training offered to staff and faculty.
Adaptive Planning Update
Adaptive Planning, Workday’s budgeting and forecasting module, will deploy after HCM and Financials in January 2024, in time for the FY25 budget cycle. Workday’s Adaptive Planning module will greatly improve our budgeting processes with enhanced reporting and analytics. This decision was made based on feedback from Elevate governance, advisory groups, our consulting partners Huron, and Workday.
Campus Engagement: PIT (Project Implementation Team) Crews
The Elevate Program’s Change Management Team is organizing PIT Crews, which are small teams within Schools and Colleges or administrative groups that help employees prepare for and understand the upcoming changes. PIT Crews will be critical in ensuring a successful implementation by planning and implementing Workday program decisions for their units, providing input about impacts to current work processes, and more. This approach provides a deeper opportunity for a wider community of employees to be involved, heard, and supported. The Elevate Change Team will equip the PIT Crews with the necessary tools, resources, and support needed to ensure all units are ready for Go Live in 2023.
Words of Workday
Compensation Grade
Legacy Term: Pay Band
Standard compensation range for a given job or job level that serves as a guideline when entering compensation for an employee.
Initiator
Legacy Term: Creator
The user that starts the business process event. Only users with the proper security can initiate a business process.
Earnings and Deductions
Legacy Term: Pay Components
An earning (such as base salary or bonus) or deduction (such as federal withholding taxes or medical) that applies to a worker’s gross-to-net pay calculation or tax liability.
ElevateR Spotlight
Janice Oakley
Grants Lead
Janice Oakley comes to the Elevate Program with over 20 years of experience between the federal government and higher education. In Janice’s prior role as an Assistant Director of Sponsored Programs Accounting, she managed a team of 12 financial administors responsible for the invoicing and financial reporting for all of the University's sponsored agreements.
This is not Janice’s first transformational project. Janice was part of the KFS Implementation Team, and also worked on the conversion of the current Billing and Accounts Receivable System (BARS) to a web-based solution. As the Grants and Effort Lead for Elevate, Janice says she is excited about being part of implementing a system that takes the research enterprise to the next level.
Shelby Byrd
Learning Lead
Shelby joined University Human Resources in 2017 as a Learning and Talent Development Consultant. You might recognize her from online and in-person events such as Foundations of Supervision (formerly LDI), New Employee Orientation, HR Growth Workshops and Master Facilitator. Shelby was also instrumental in the development of several self-paced online programs including last year's Return To Campus Safety Training and Emergency Preparedness Training, and if you listen closely you'll hear her voice as Laura the Hotel Reception Desk Hacker in the Defending Your Shell Security Awareness Training.
“It's been a long time since I've been on such a project of this magnitude,” says Shelby. “The transformational benefits for our campuses are thrilling, but the opportunity to guide the implementation of a Training Management System designed specifically for our employees’ professional development and success is fantastic."
Frequently Asked Questions
What systems will Workday replace?
Workday will replace current systems involving Human Resources and Finance, including PHR, eTerp, and Kuali Financial Systems in July 2023. Our Student Information System will also be replaced by Workday, but will go live at a later date (Fall 2026). When Workday goes live in July 2023, a sampling of activities that will be covered are:
- Recruiting, hiring and onboarding new employees
- Sponsored awards setup, management, billing, and receivables
- Procurement of goods and services
- Timesheet reporting and requesting leaves of absence
- Managing an employee’s training and career development
When will I be trained on how to use Workday?
The Elevate Program will be designing and developing end-user training that will start in May 2023 to prepare for Workday’s launch in July 2023. This timing is meant to ensure all end-users receive the training they need close to go-live so that the knowledge is retained.
This training will be available for all end-users across the four partner entities through a variety of modalities, with many courses available online 24-7, some instructor-led in-person courses and some webinars.
There will be other opportunities to learn more about Workday prior to end-user training at events like Functional Overviews and Town Halls.