Foundational Concepts

• Supervisory Organizations: The backbone of Workday’s HCM structure. Supervisory orgs arrange workers into hierarchical structures for reporting, management, and approvals. This structure forms the basis for many HCM processes.
• Staffing Models: These models dictate how your organization creates and manages positions or jobs. Workday’s core staffing models include:
• Position Management: Highly granular control, with unique positions defined for each specific role.
• Job Management: Provides more flexibility by grouping similar roles under job profiles.
• Business Processes: Workday workflows comprised of a series of steps to accomplish HCM tasks (e.g., hiring an employee, changing compensation, performance reviews). Business processes are highly configurable to match your organization’s procedures.
• Security: Workday uses role-based security to determine who can access and manipulate specific data and processes. Security groups and domains meticulously control permissions.

Key Components

• Business Objects: These are the fundamental data units in Workday (e.g., Worker, Position, Compensation Package, Organization). All HCM information is represented and stored through business objects.
• Worktags: These are like metadata tags applied to business objects, allowing for categorization and targeted reporting (e.g., location, job family, cost center).
• Reports: Workday offers a vast array of standard reports, as well as the ability to build custom reports. These provide insights into workforce data, performance metrics, and more.
• Workday Integrations: Workday can connect with other systems (e.g., payroll, benefits providers, talent acquisition platforms) through its robust integration framework.

Specific HCM Areas Supported by Workday

• Talent Acquisition: Recruiting, onboarding, internal job postings.
• Compensation: Salary plans, bonuses, merit increases, setting up complex pay structures.
• Benefits: Plan administration, enrollment, open enrollment processes.
• Time Tracking and Absence Management: Time entry, leave requests, accrual calculations, attendance policies.
• Performance Management: Goal setting, performance reviews, continuous feedback mechanisms.
• Learning & Development: Course catalogs, training assignments, skills tracking.
• Payroll (In some countries): Workday offers integrated payroll functionality for select regions.

Let’s illustrate with an example:

An employee named Sarah gets promoted. This would likely trigger the following in Workday:

• Supervisory Organization: Sarah’s position in the org chart would be updated to reflect her new manager.
• Business Process: A “Change Job” business process could be initiated, capturing necessary approvals.
• Business Objects: The “Worker” object for Sarah would be updated with her new title, compensation details, and potentially new worktags.
• Security: Sarah’s access and view permissions might change based on her new role.

Important Notes:

• Workday is incredibly configurable. These core concepts provide the foundation, but your organization’s setup will influence how they are used in practice.
• Workday is continuously evolving with new features and refinements.