According to a 2018-2019 Sierra Cedar HR Systems Survey, 25% of respondents reported that Workday “always” meets their needs and 70% of respondents reported that Workday meets their needs “most of the time”. Those are lofty satisfaction numbers for sure and in the chart below, this reflects Workday’s inclusion in the upper echelon of Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS).

But what about when Workday does not quite meet your needs? Since Workday is a SaaS (Software as a Service) system, you are dependent on the functionality that is provided, and you could not customize the system even if you were so inclined to do so. Consider the following examples that we have seen with our clients where the existing functionality did not align with the business needs.

• While creating Feedback templates for the Performance Management process, we discovered that you could not add Quantitative Scoring on the templates. The templates only allowed open text boxes that are typically used to support Qualitative feedback
• Enabling the Team Time Off Calendar for Managers to view their team’s Time Off schedules generated unexpected results. In the Calendar, all Contingent Workers were shown as well even though they were not eligible for Time Off. Including the extraneous data cluttered the Calendar, particularly for the Managers with large teams and Contingent Workers. The existing configuration options do not provide any ability to remove Contingent Workers from the view
• Delegating Managers’ Time Off Request capability to their Executive Assistants proved difficult as we could not perform a mass data upload. The mass data upload would have been performed via Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) and unfortunately, an EIB to do this was not available, making the initial data load (and future data loads) more difficult than expected

Running into scenarios where functional changes are desired is not unexpected and Workday provides mechanisms to actively and passively solicit client feedback and requests. As such, let Workday know about any frustrations or enhancement requests and your voice will be heard. Workday offers several channels to submit and solicit requests that you should take advantage of.

Workday Community

• Post or vote on Brainstorms (product enhancement ideas). Be detailed in your Brainstorm and provide the business case you are trying to solve. The more votes your (or any other) Brainstorm gets, the more traction it gets, and Workday will be more likely to meet the request
• Subscribe to topics of interest so that you will be notified of any new posts relevant to the topic. You will be notified of the latest posts from fellow Workday customers and posts from Workday. Who knows – another customer may provide a work around for your issue or you may see a Workday request for specialty group participation such as:
  • Design Partner Group – actively influence the enhancement design and product road map
  • Early Adopter – become an early user/tester before the enhancement is officially released
  • Product Surveys – provide feedback on pain points on specific features such as Identifying Incorrect Accounting Transactions

Customer Success Manager (CSM)

• Your CSM is there for you, use them. Let them know your pain points, the business case behind the idea and have them be your advocate
• Express interest to your CSM about partnering with Workday for the enhancement. With enough traction for the enhancement and your known interest, you can be selected to be a part of the design process/Design Partner Group
• Participation in the Design Partner Group is limited, so be sure to give your CSM plenty of reasons why you should be a part of the group
• Express interest in becoming a Fast Follower where you will be one of the first to implement the enhancement after it is officially released

The Bottom Line

While Workday will meet most of your business requirements out of the box, there are pieces that are not quite there and often times you are not quite sure how to get Workday to listen to your request. FinServ has been through these situations before with our clients and we know how to work through the Workday support channels. We can help you craft a thorough enhancement request and actively manage/monitor the request. And while the request is being considered, we can help design and implement any work around that will support your business needs in the interim.

To learn more about FinServ Consulting’s services, please contact us at info@www.finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.