As workflow stabilizes, ISD's second phase turns to outreach and improvement

In the three months since Workday and improved service delivery (ISD) launched July 1, human resources and finance ISD teams have been hard at work processing transactions in Workday and handling employee issues and requests through ServiceNow. An initial spike in transactions after go-live and another starting Aug. 19 when faculty and students returned kept both teams focused on a high volume of requests.

Now that the workflow is beginning to stabilize, phase II of ISD has begun. That includes additional training, team members continuing to develop relationships with units and departments, and leadership teams responding to campus feedback on Workday, ServiceNow and ISD team performance.

While implementation has been an overall success, there have been bumps along the way -- some expected and some unexpected. As project leaders said in the lead-up to go-live, full stabilization will take months.

"With the significant amount of change that has occurred through the implementation of Workday, ISD leaders have heard feedback from some of you that things are not working in a way that is helpful yet. We take this feedback very seriously and are working diligently to deliver the improvements that Workday and ISD will bring," said Dwaine Heppler, associate vice president for human resources services and strategy.

ISD advisory committee

The ISD advisory committee has met four times since July 10. Charged with providing ongoing feedback and guidance on the ISD model, the 15-member committee represents a diverse group of stakeholders, establishes accountability and serves as a link for campus engagement. Since go-live, the committee had learned:

• Finance and HR service delivery teams continue to work through what business process information both teams should be able to see, creating the perception that finance and HR service delivery teams are not working well together.
• Handoffs between finance and HR service delivery teams are not smooth, and there are too many of them.
• Information is not visible in Workday, or instructions on how to access the information in Workday are not clear.
• Faculty, staff and managers are processing too many Workday transactions.
• Hiring faculty and staff requires more steps, and ensuring funding is available and securing needed approvals has been significantly impacted by new people in roles, people in different roles and lack of clarity about Workday. Job management (JM) support, graduate assistant (GA) support and timekeepers don't know how to process Workday transactions or are pushing initiation of those transactions to faculty and staff.
• Issues or requests submitted through Finance_Delivery@iastate.edu or HR_Delivery@iastate.edu are not addressed quickly or are passed around. In some cases, individuals are notified an incident is resolved though they don’t feel the root cause of the issue was addressed.

Action steps

Actions that have been taken or are planned as part of phase II include:

• Finance and HR ISD teams are contacting and meeting the departments and units they serve. Contact your local ISD team for its outreach schedule or to request a session with them. Benefits of connecting with your ISD team include:
  • Deepening relationships to enable direct contact and issue resolution
  • Reviewing business processes and learning Workday tips
  • Ensuring appropriate delegations are set so faculty and managers can focus on their work and not Workday approvals
  • Helping local staff in Workday support positions (JM support, GA support, timekeepers, cost center managers, business unit managers) better understand their roles
• Finance and HR teams are holding working sessions and trainings to understand their respective business processes and how to collectively ensure that transactions flow smoothly.
• ISD staff are receiving advanced training on ServiceNow to enable better customer service.
• HR coordinators emailed all employees over the past week to introduce the HR teams, including the HR partner, staff recruiting specialist, senior HR partner and the coordinator's backup. The memo also encouraged recipients to escalate service issues within the organization with specific information so items of concern can be addressed quickly with specific solutions.
• Starting Oct. 1, finance and HR delivery teams will solicit feedback via a customer satisfaction survey in ServiceNow automatically sent to each employee after an incident is resolved. The four-question survey also will allow open comments.

Going forward

Heppler said ISD leaders will continue to listen to feedback and address issues as they become known. They ask campus users to:

• Please be patient. Service team members are still learning Workday and ServiceNow as well as their roles, customer bases and how local processes have been affected by Workday.
• Contact your local HR coordinators or finance specialists for help. They can help set up Workday to ensure you receive the right information and approvals, or connect you with the appropriate local Workday support staff.
• Continue to provide constructive feedback. Service delivery and Workday can improve only with timely and specific feedback.
• If you are not satisfied with the level of support provided by your service delivery team -- or finance or university human resources overall -- please forward your concerns up the service organization's management chain.

Related story

• Leaders present improvement plans for Workday, service teams, Sept. 12, 2019