Drawing a substantial audience of more than 1,000 employees, the MyWorkday Change Network met last week at its July 27 meeting. Gathering virtually, these departmental readiness leads and change agents continued June’s discussion of how the implementation of the new Workday software will affect Human Resources workflows and processes.
Leading the conversation again was Senior Director of HR Administration Karen Rolling, who addressed several critical HR-related topics, including absence management (PTO and leaves) and how it will work in Workday. She discussed how this information flows among related systems: VandyWorks and Kronos. She also provided more information on performance management, such as annual reviews, and the transition away from Performance Central. Additionally, Rolling introduced the audience to the new Workday Help module, which will help the team track and manage support requests or questions from employees. Complementing the discussion was a demo of this Workday functionality by Director of Business Education Diana Ormsby.
In addition to the HR topics, MyWorkday Executive Director Adam Lange provided more information about the process known as “cutover,” or when VUMC transitions away from using existing systems and begins using Workday and Tecsys. As part of the effort, there will be “hard” and “soft” freezes–limitations or suspension of certain functionality in existing systems, as the team prepares the organization for the new tools. He also gave an update on the overall project.
Finally, Susie Lyons, who works on the MyWorkday change management team, offered more detail on the Super User program for both the Workday and Tecsys implementation. She discussed the difference in approaches for both parts of the project as they relate to Super Users. Specifically, the Tecsys support team members will be known as “at-the-elbow” support.
Senior Director Claudia Fontaine, who leads the project’s change management effort, served as emcee for the event. She also offered the attendees more detail on how the manager role will evolve with the transition to Workday, as these managers will now initiate, own and complete many administrative supervisory tasks within the system. With this change, managers have better control of the tasks and data that they “own.”
The Change Network attendees comprise both department readiness leads and change agents. They are tasked with communicating to and engaging with their local team members about the MyWorkday project. The goal of this meeting (as with all Change Network meetings for the program) was to educate the attendees about MyWorkday so they can pass information and support to their work areas.
Those interested can view the meeting recording and meeting slides.
While the MyWorkday project will touch in some way every employee of the Medical Center, a key point emphasized again was that information and training would be available to make sure that employees are knowledgeable and prepared for the changes. Employees can expect to see the new system later this fall.
In addition to the Change Network, information will be communicated in the form of the MyWorkday website, emails, town halls, via training sessions and super users in each department, who will help with the transition. Videos featuring the MyWorkday “spokescloud,” MW, will be released every few weeks to highlight aspects of the project. These videos will be shared in MyVUMC and are available for viewing here. Again, these videos share highlights of the project and thorough training will be available prior to go live.
The MyWorkday project at VUMC involves the implementation of two new cloud-based systems, Workday and Tecsys. MyWorkday will transform VUMC’s business systems, bringing several benefits:
- Modernizing and simplifying VUMC’s technology architecture by moving us away from a patchwork of outdated systems to truly integrated cloud-based solution
- Giving VUMC more visibility into business data and making it easier to gain insights from that data
- Supporting VUMC’s continued growth with best-in-class technology
- Providing a streamlined, consistent, and modern user experience for a wide variety of business needs, including human resources, supply chain, finance and accounting, and research and grants
The next Change Network meeting is set for Aug. 24. Because the HR topics are so expansive, Rolling will return to continue the discussion of HR impacts and processes in Workday. The team will also discuss the Super User plan and introduce the process of “cutover,” or how and when the transition from VUMC’s existing systems to Workday and Tecsys will take place.
To learn more, visit the MyWorkday website: https://www.vumc.org/myworkday.
