IRP hosts first Workday Demonstration for HR and Finance Systems

July 30, 2019

Improved collaboration across campuses. Real-time reporting and data. Streamline processes. Better user experience. 

These are just some of the biggest outcomes that UBC will see when Workday launches in April 2020.

On July 30, the Integrated Renewal Program (IRP) hosted a major Workday demonstration and live streaming event. Over 800 individuals registered, and a further 300+ joined via livestream, all to get a first-hand view of some of Workday’s features and functionality, and the enhanced user experience derived from implementing the new integrated workplace solution.

“We are talking about modern, intuitive systems and simpler processes that support UBC – that meet the needs of our learning, research and working environment” spoke Andrew Szeri, Provost and Vice-President Academic at the event. “That’s why we’re undertaking this transformation – to make work a little easier and free up our time to invest into more strategic priorities.”

The demonstration focused on the Human Resources (HR) and Finance administrative systems, which will be fully integrated in April 2020. The HR demonstration showcased the new system for absence tracking, which will replace UBC’s current Personal Absence Tracker (PAT), and time tracking, which will streamline calculations for hourly staff. The demonstration also revealed the new processes in submitting expenses and purchases through the Workday App.  

“We talk a lot about Workday, but the IRP is about more than Workday” said Kate Ross, Associate Vice-President, Enrolment Services & Registrar. “There is a lot of related effort underway to help transform how we work at UBC.” In addition to the IRP, Procurement Modernization, the Application Ecosystem Project, and the Enterprise Maintenance Management System are all underway to improve and modernize our systems and processes.

The high interest in the online Workday demonstration that day brought on unforeseen technical challenges with the livestream webcast. The IRP team is currently working with the IT department to identify the exact cause of the issues to ensure a smoother webcast demonstration for future events.

The video recording of the demonstration can be viewed here.

This event was the first community-wide Workday demonstration open to the UBC, and similar events to further showcase Workday will be held in the fall and New Year. Monthly demonstrations are hosted by the IRP to help answer questions regarding either HR or finance systems, as well as Workday Wednesdays with UBC Okanagan.