About Workday in Research

Workday training is split into two sections:

1. A Self-Paced Learning Series that consisting of brief videos, powerpoints and simple exercises designed to get you aquainted with general terms and basic navigation in Workday
   
   Access to the self-paced modules is open to pretty much everyone.
   
   The last step in this series is a Learning Review Qualtrics survey designed to test how much you retained from the learning series.
   
   Once you complete the 30 question review, the results are submitted to the Workday Training team, who will then email you with the results of your review. Pass 80% of it and your transcript in UTLearn is updated to reflect that you've completed the Self-Paced Learning Series and can move on to additional training.
    
2. A series of Instructor-Led Online Classes that cover common processes related to HR functions, such as hiring and onboarding, costing allocations, how to use the faculty summer job costing tool (JCT), and other topics
   
   The Instructor-Led Online Courses are restricted access and available only to people whose completion of the self-paced classes is confirmed in the UTLearn system, AND who also already hold the particular roles in Workday that relate to the training topics.
    
   • It's understandable that the Workday training team would need to gate-keep who gets into this type of training.
      
   • It's also the case that this lock-down of training makes it TOUGH to gain the Workday experience needed in order to obtain the roles that are required to... take the training! Talk about a Catch-22!
     ​​​​​​
   • Instructor-Led Courses start with a discussion about the types of tasks Workday handles and then jump straight into having participants navigate Workday to complete those tasks. If you're new to Workday, this transition can feel jarring, as you are transported into a system that doesn't resemble anything else out there that we use at UT. This is especially the case for folks who have been at UT long enough to compare previous HR systems!

 

Gaining some overarching perspective about the way Workday generally functions may help with the Instructor-Led Courses. Check out the section below to try to soak up some of that perspective.

When you access Workday for the first time, or head into the Qual Workday Environment to practice using it, there is an overarching concept that may be helpful to understand.

• For the most part, Workday Business Processes (aka BPs) are cyclical in nature - meaning that whichever specific thing you need to accomplish comes with a series of steps, or cycles, or mini-processes that have to be completed in specific order, one at a time, as you step through. 
   
  • When you initiate a BP in Workday, you'll find yourself cycling through the first step, and then submitting it. Then the second step shows up in your Workday inbox, or you click where you left off, and then move on to the next step, then submit that one, and so on.
    
    Of course, during the training, you are taken to each step, but (as of August 2024) it's not really explained just what you are seeing and why. This may be why some people get thrown off their game when navigating Workday for the first time.
     
    • If you're not expecting this cyclical process, it can be disorienting. Intuitively, when you hit a submit button, it seems like you should be finished, but in Workday, that first submit button is usually the first of several steps, and several submit buttons! 
      ​​​​​​​
    • Another way to think about it is... Every time you step into Workday to accomplish something, you are tasked with putting together a tiny jigsaw puzzle. Each step, process or layer is another piece to the puzzle that you fit into place. The last piece of the puzzle is that final approval that causes the process to appear as successfully completed in Workday.

Even if you aren't familiar with Workday just yet, check out the summarized steps below that demonstrate the cyclical quality of, for example, processing a Job Change request.

As soon as you click on the job change option, you're going to have some decisions to make about the type of change you need to process --and you'll need to know the Workday jargon to get this right. Once you get that out of the way, you're off and running with that first step in the process...

1. Initial Step/Cycle
   Assign Supervisory Organizations (sup org), and add or update 'funded by' accounts that establish approval routing
   (the sup org establishes or updates the job's management hierarchy, and making sure funded-by accounts are added ensures the right people see and approve the request), then submit.
    
2. Second Step/Cycle
   Compensation Change
   (this can come in the shape of a raise, a supplement, or no changes because you're changing something else), then submit.
    
3. Third Step/Cycle
   Costing Allocation for Data Change
   (Which account(s) are covering the employment and at what percentage), then submit.
    
4. Fourth Step/Cycle
   Data Change
   BP moves through approvals behind the scenes, such as the Funded By Manager (which is the funding source approver), Cost Center Manager (which can be the same or a different approver as the Funded By Manager), etc.
    
5. Fifth Step/Cycle
   Required Confirmations
   All remaining behind-the-scenes process confirmations & 'higher tier' approvals (which you can track in the Worker's History under the Actions link of the employee's profile summary page).
    

Submission of each step has to 'take' -meaning proof of that submitted step shows up in your inbox in Workday, which you can click on to review your progress, finalize that step, or access next step(s) as part of the overall process.

• NOTE: Some of the required steps in a given process (especially when hiring or onboarding someone) include additional steps in other systems within UT, that live outside of Workday, such as UT's Background Check System and the UT EID Confirmation Process.
   
  • This can seem confusing at first because clicking on these related links in Workday take you OUT of Workday and you suddenly find yourself having to navigate a completely different system.
    
    What's helpful to understand is that Workday is holding on to your Workday progress.
    It's all in your inbox.
    
    So even when you click away to satisfy required steps outside of Workday, just head back to your inbox and look for the steps you've completed with the particular business process (BP) that you're working on and you can pick up right where you left off.
     
    • The more familiar you get with Workday terminology, the more comfortable you'll feel with using your inbox to recognize where you left off with each process, and to pick right back up again.
       
    • Each BP in your Workday inbox is labeled with the name of the process and also includes the name and EID of the employee the change process is for.
       
• Some steps you submit require additional review and/or approval before being completed - meaning approval is not automatic and is likely sitting in someone else's inbox/que. You have to wait for it to get processed before you can proceed. This is especially true during busy times.

Each college chooses its approach to Workday.

The College of Liberal Arts Workday approach consists of a mix of direct and centrally-based processing. Some business processes are handled by CoLA HR, some are completed by CoLA's Finance team in the Dean's Office, and some are processed at the dept/unit level.

• Some of CoLA's centrally-processed requests have forms that must accompany the requests to assist the central teams with accurate processing.
   
• The nature of centrally-processed Workday requests can make it difficult for department and unit-level staff to have a clear understanding of how, when and by whom their requests are handled, especially when staff are new.
   
• Because Research & Grant Admins in CoLA often do not hold the Workday security roles needed to access, process, oversee and/or manage some HR and Finance aspects that are part of their job duties, some transparency and self-sufficiency are lost along the way. 
   
  • A considerable amount of Workday training is restricted and access depends on which roles an individual already holds. This makes it difficult to transition into an expanded role or to obtain or improve Workday skill sets that could lead to greater autonomy.
     
    • Because of this limitation, the intention here is to bring information about Workday (from a Research Administrative perspective) to this spot to help folks navigate a little easier.
       
    • Another option exists that may be worth pursuing.
      The university's Workday Training Coordinator is available to conduct topic-specific training sessions that can be set up in advance for larger groups. Let us know if this interests you. This could be a way to gain understanding of processes that you're interested in handling.
       
      • CoLA HR has indicated in the past that an individual who demonstrates the ability to process Workday BPs accurately, someone who can get the calculations correct the first time, and step through processes without committing time-consuming errors may be eligible to gain additional access/roles for direct processing. If you want this, reach out!

I am required.

Panel 5. Add body text in this space.