BYU employees shared challenges and successes with Workday, BYU's new employment system.
Last semester, on Dec. 20, 2024, BYU Workday posted a video declaring the official launch of the new software. Another video on the same site said HR and finance functions would be fully implemented on Jan. 2, 2025.
“Given the scope of the change, I think it's gone really well,” Marden Clark, HR Operations office manager, said. “We have had less problems than I thought we would.”
Clark said the struggles he’s seen have less to do with the problems in the system, and more to do with retraining everyone on the new app.
“I think it's more understanding what we need to be doing in the system, rather than the system not working,” Clark said.
While students were generally open to sharing their experiences with Workday, some faculty were hesitant to give their thoughts.
However, of those willing, there were a couple complaints on how certain features were labeled and how that affected their experience with Workday.
Keryn Ross, an adjunct professor at BYU, said some of her TAs were confused by the instructions to submit a time card. Ross said students were told to submit a timecard every week, but Workday tells them they are submitting it for the next two weeks.
“No matter how many times we go over it, somebody's always like, ‘But if I submit this now, does that mean I can't work next week?’ So that's been ambiguous and frustrating,” Ross said.
Sela Harris, a student employee at the Research and Writing Center, shared similar insights.
“The ‘enter time’ button you only ever use to submit your timesheet, so if that had just been renamed to ‘timesheet’ or ‘submit timesheet’ that would be more intuitive,” Harris said.
While not all concerns have made it to the top management of Workday, the BYU’s Workday team expressed gratitude to all who have helped in implementing the new app.
“I've been really grateful that people are putting in good work (and) being patient. I think those things that they're waiting for will iron out with time and this will be a nice improvement for campus,” Tony Gunn, the change communications manager for BYU Workday, said.
Beyond challenges, there were aspects of Workday that employees enjoyed as well.
"Something else I really love about Workday is being able to correct my time when I forget to clock out or clock in," Harris said. "It's so nice to just be able to just undo that."
Ross shared aspects she liked about the software too.
"I love that I can assign my students training and it literally takes them to the module," she said.
Overall, all groups involved seemed to share a common understanding and support for the new software.
“No matter what we do, change is always going to be hard. There's going to be frustrations and me whining about things, but, you know, it's life,” Ross said. “It's okay to have to change and to have to grow a little bit.”