Workday Recruiting: January implementation update
The following message was shared with UW leaders and the HR Community of Practice on January 16, 2025.
As we enter the new year, we want to take a moment to recognize the dedication of the Workday Recruiting project team, who worked tirelessly throughout the holiday season to keep this critical project moving forward. Their hard work has positioned us well for the next several weeks as we prepare to enter unit testing, followed by end-to-end testing—a significant milestone in our implementation phase.
Successfully navigating a bumpy project road
The implementation phase has seen its share of challenges, from staffing turnover on teams supporting the project and holiday time offs to needing to find alternative solutions to meet a few of our business requirements. While these have caused some delays, we’re thrilled to report that we are successfully working through these issues as they arise. The expertise and commitment of our project team and implementation partner are helping us make up for lost time and we don’t expect these issues to impact our overall timeline.
A reminder of the implement, adapt, and evolve model
As we move forward, it’s helpful to revisit the phased approach guiding this program:
- Implement (Fall 2024 – Summer 2025): Focused on replacing UWHIRES with core Workday Recruiting functionality.
- Adapt (Summer 2025 – Spring 2026): Led by UWHR resources, this phase will refine and enhance the system based on user feedback.
- Evolve (Spring 2026 and beyond): In partnership with our clients and UW-IT, UWHR will ensure the platform evolves with the University’s needs.
Success metrics and time-to-hire realities
Our recent engagement with the Change Champions Network has been instrumental in shaping how we measure success during the initial implementation. A key takeaway from these discussions is a shared desire to tie time-to-hire metrics to the system change. While Workday Recruiting will streamline some processes by consolidating functionality into a single platform, we don’t anticipate significant changes to department-level time-to-hire metrics.
In the University’s decentralized hiring model, time-to-hire is influenced by factors such as:
- Individual hiring managers’ ability to review resumes and advance candidates through selection.
- Internal departmental review and approval processes for requisition creation.
- Initial candidate screenings and offer approvals.
This context will be important as we continue refining success metrics together.
Thank you for your ongoing partnership as we work through the complexities of implementation. Your collaboration remains key to ensuring a smooth transition and a successful launch this summer.