Welcome! to the first edition of our bimonthly e-newsletter, Workday@Yale, with news on the University’s transition to the campus-wide unified Human Resources, Payroll and Finance information system, Workday. The Workday@Yale newsletter is one way we will keep you informed with insights and updates. We are excited to begin and look forward to working with and hearing from you. Please send your suggestions, comments and feedback to the Workday@Yale.edu email.
Workday is a next generation business system that will enable Yale University to improve the delivery of business services across finance and human resources functions.
FAQs
You Asked. We’re Answering.
For answers to your frequently asked questions such as “who is on the Workday@Yale program team"?, "how are you engaging the community?”, “when will Workday be launched?”, please refer to the FAQs section on our website.
What’s Been Happening?
- Discovery Workshops - We are currently in the Vision and Plan phase of the program. In order to begin documenting our current practices and challenges, we have been conducting discovery workshops for Human Resources (HR), Payroll and Finance. These workshops help define our current processes and experiences, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of our current operating structure and needs, so that we can best plan for our transition. Community input, especially knowledge and feedback, is essential to the success of this program. To view a list of attendees, and a brief description of the workshops, please visit the Discovery Workshop section of the website. We will also be posting presentations from the various workshops soon.
- Service Groups – Service Groups will begin forming later this fall to help ensure new administrative processes meet the community’s expectations and to serve as a focal point for building a strong community understanding of the Workday system. Each group will be assigned an individual administrative service to evaluate from the end users’ perspective, including staff and faculty in the academic and research areas as well as central process owners. Groups will also help create multiple processes to fit cohesively together to form end-to-end administrative services that are efficient and compliant and also support teaching, research and service at Yale. Additionally, team members will balance the need for standardized processes that enable the unique requirements of individual academic and administrative departments.
-
Program Vision Statement - On Tuesday, September 3, the Steering Committee members and Workstream Leads developed a draft vision statement during an interactive session. The vision statement will support a successful implementation by functioning as a filter where decisions can be considered. Moving forward, the Steering Committee will help support the vision statement and review and develop updated program objectives, guiding principles, and communication plans. Congratulations to all those that participated in the session for their excellent work!
The picture depicts the beginning of the session with the participants up and moving during an icebreaker activity. - Overview of Workday to Senior Leadership - On Monday, August 26, Yale Administrative Leaders were provided with an overview of Workday which included topics on human resources, payroll, financials, security and reporting. The session was well-received by the leadership in attendance, kudos for a job well done!
The People Behind the Program
Meet members of the Program
View the current Workday@Yale Program Team org chart
Marc Ulan, Workday Program Co-Lead
As the co-lead of the Workday program, Marc shares responsibility for the successful transition from our current systems to Workday. In addition to his responsibilities on the Workday program, and as the Associate CIO for the Business Systems Group, Marc also has responsibility for the day to day operations and improvements to Yale's finance, HR, payroll, faculty lifecycle, business intelligence, and data warehouse systems. When asked what was one of the key selling points for choosing Workday, Marc responded “this is a powerful, intuitive, cloud-based system which will move us toward the innovative technology arena where a University such as ours should be.” When not at work, Marc enjoys spending time with his wife and 6 year old son, playing ice hockey, and racing cars on road courses in the New England area.
Jacqueline Tucker, Workday Program Co-Lead
Jackie is Senior Director of Business Solutions for the Division of Finance, and co-lead of the Workday program. As chief steward for University’s financial applications and business intelligence systems, the Workday project is more than just a technology change, it “is our chance to make some fundamental improvements to how we work and support the missions.” Jackie also notes that while you need a lean and nimble team to execute core project activities, the program is reaching out far and wide across the Yale community to engage as many people as possible in shaping the outcome. You can look forward to hearing from Jackie and the rest of Workday team a lot more over the next few years!
Did You Know…Yale is one of a select group of institutions who will be working with Workday to design new functionality just for higher education?