Workday Technology Yields Ease and Efficiency

January 7, 2019, saw the successful launch of Workday, the new HR and Payroll technology implementation that consolidates UVA’s Human Resources activities across the University and Health System. The new technology is a major catalyst in UVA HR’s massive transformation to a new customer-focused service delivery model, which was introduced in July 2018.

“Our new service model supported by the capabilities of Workday together represent a sea change in the employee experience at UVA,” said Kelley Stuck, former UVA Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. “We are now equipped with the flexibility to evolve with the workforce into the future, continuously adapting to employee and administration needs.” 

The Workday launch was the culmination of work dating to summer 2015 when the Ufirst HR Transformation Project began. University leadership recognized that a positive faculty, staff, and team member experience was essential to the missions of the University and Health System, and that HR systems were rife with redundancy and inefficiency. “The Ufirst program merged three independent HR and Payroll organizations as we collaborated with a broad base of stakeholders to configure Workday,” said Sean Jackson, Ufirst executive director. “Our agile approach emphasized customer-focused quality, change impact analysis, and continuous improvement.”

University leaders including deans, associate deans, faculty members, staff and executives across all entities – the Academic Division, Medical Center, University Physicians Group and College at Wise – worked with HR leaders to develop the new HR service delivery model. HR is now organized into three Communities of Expertise – Service, Talent and IMPACT – that interact to support the daily HR needs of faculty, staff, students and team members. When fully implemented, the new HR service model will offer streamlined processes and consistent service for an improved experience for everyone working at UVA. 

Workday is a state-of-the-art technology designed to meet the evolving needs of the UVA community. It supports the community with a breadth of HR services accessible in one place including recruiting, performance management, payroll, benefits and more. Its simple, user-friendly interface improves the employee experience over the previous 70+ disjointed legacy HR systems increasing efficiency and reducing complexity. Workday is one more way that the new UVA HR delivery model will free-up employee and team member time and effort so they can focus on achieving their professional potential. 

Richard Bednar, who works in Health System Technical Services, has logged into Workday several times for HR services and provided the following feedback: “Workday is a one-stop shop for all your time and benefit needs wrapped into an easy-to-navigate website. What’s not to love?”  

To support the Workday launch, UVA HR took the extra step of setting up a Workday Command Center of technology professionals to join the HR Solution Center, poised to immediately answer Workday-related questions from the UVA community and resolve issues. The Command Center has answered over 6,500 questions as of February 14, and earned an average satisfaction rating of 4.4 out of 5 from users. 

Lisa Wentzel, SCPS faculty member, called the HR Solution Center with a Workday related question. She found the service to be exceptional. “The representative was outstanding. She was polite, extremely patient and most importantly helpful!” 

“Workday is a big step in UVA HR’s transformation to a more customer-centered service delivery model, and we couldn’t be more pleased with its reception across Grounds,” said Stuck. “With this piece in place, we will continue to build on this foundation to create the type of work environment in which every member of our UVA community can thrive now and in the future.”