Last month the University completed the shift to Workday, an online human capital management software for employees on campus — including student workers, faculty members and support staff — which integrates hour logs and payroll tracking.
Physical worksheets have been completely replaced by the online time tracking system, which allows students to claim hours from multiple job positions and from different departments, according to the University Workday website.
“Student workers have the ability to view payroll information, make direct deposit elections and federal withholding elections and submit hours worked in Workday,” wrote Elizabeth Warner, director of compensation and organizational services, in an email to The Herald. “Many paper-driven, labor-intensive business processes” will be automated, “making it easier and faster to submit and track payroll information,” she wrote.
One of the other major advantages of Workday is that it can be accessed 24 hours a day, Warner wrote, adding that managers can more easily circulate information and direct human resources.
“The Time Tracking functionality on Workday has been a wonderful tool to use, as keeping track of our worked hours was previously done on time sheets that could often get lost and delay student payment,” said Jennifer Reis ’13, a human resources student office assistant. “It’s also a much easier way to see the process through, from submitting our hours, to getting them approved and eventually being paid,”
Some students have experienced trouble with Workday. “I’ve had some problems with it. It seems very easy to use on the surface, but it doesn’t always work the way you would think it would,” said Nicolas Baird ’14, who works at the Office of Residential Life. “The first time I tried to use it the ‘submit your time’ button wasn’t there at all. But I do think it’s an improvement on the paperwork we’ve had to do in the past.”
There are a few departments that don’t use Workday — namely the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Facilities Management, Warner wrote.
Student employees for Brown Dining Services use a swipe system called KRONOS, but that information is eventually imported onto the new Workday software. This means that even though they don’t actually log their hours into the new system, the KRONOS software does rely on Workday for payroll processing, Warner wrote.
Workday, Inc., also provides services for financial organization.
“With the initial (human capital management) phase of the Workday project behind us, we are now looking forward to implementing Workday Financials. Our goal is to go live on July 1, 2013,” wrote the Workday Executive Sponsor Group — which includes Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper, Vice President for Human Resources Karen Davis, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Computing and Information Services Mike Pickett and Assistant Vice President and University Controller Don Schanck — in a message on the Workday website. “This system will meet Brown’s financial reporting and management needs, provide greater transparency, streamline business processes and provide easier access to financial information,” the message stated.
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