Blog
October 15, 2024
Key Takeaways from Attain Partners’ Workday Experts – Part I
Attain Partners has served as PMO for large institutions nationwide as they implement and transition their teams to Workday. Our extensive expertise ranges from tailoring custom solutions for unique institutions to managing successful Workday go-lives with multiple entities using the same tenant.
In this blog series, join five of our experts as they share best practices to consider as institutions embark on Workday implementations in the following areas—Human Capital Management (HCM), Financial (FIN), Technical, Project Management Office (PMO), and Organizational Change Management (OCM).
“It has been such a privilege to work with this incredible team on several Workday implementations,” said Francis Quinn, PMO Director. “The success of our projects is a testament to the hard work of our team members and the thoughtful planning of our leads. The leaders we have across our Workday team are committed to teaming for speed and leading with boldness and integrity. I asked a few of our talented leaders to share key takeaways from their work so that we may help others embarking on implementation journeys and continue to overdeliver to all of our clients.”
In Part I of our blog series, hear from our Workday HCM team leader, Pat Tretina, with personal insights and key takeaways for Workday implementations.
Human Capital Management (HCM) Insights from Pat Tretina
Strong Collaboration
Effective collaboration across all client workstreams and consultant teams is critical to the success of any project, regardless of scale. This process is anchored by strong PMO leadership, which is essential for creating a cohesive plan, ensuring accountability, and fostering constructive and healthy collaboration for the benefit of both the client and the project. If collaboration breaks down in even one workstream, it can disrupt the entire project and jeopardize its progress. Concentrate on how the team interacts, address minor issues before they escalate, and consistently uphold a high standard of collaboration among all members. The true rewards will come when challenges arise and things get difficult—the group will come together and persevere.
Data Integrity
My colleagues will laugh that this is only number two on the list as I am something of a data nerd. Data is everything on the HCM side of the house. The saying “Bad data in, bad data out” has never been more relevant than in today’s ERP landscape, especially with a platform like Workday. Poor, missing, or incorrectly mapped legacy data can derail a project, wasting valuable time and leading to many sleepless nights. While setting aside time for data cleanup might seem tedious or unnecessary, it’s crucial within the HCM space. With clean data, your conversion, validation, and testing processes will run like a well-oiled machine.
Designing for Tomorrow, Not Just Today
The project planning process often falls victim to thinking more in terms of a legacy lift-and-shift and less about the long-term utilization of the platform. When combined with an overreliance on past project knowledge and outdated thinking about ERP implementations, this mindset can lead to disastrous results. Instead, treat each new project as unique, even if it’s within the same industry, and take the time to fully understand the strategic goals for the organization. Design your processes with a forward-thinking perspective, considering how the organization or business units will evolve in the future, not just how they function today. Just because something is done today doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be built for the future—your end-users will appreciate the foresight! For example, for one of our clients, contract generation was simplified and time to signature significantly reduced by using auto-populating templates. Time and absence management was also streamlined giving staff real-time, automated time tracking as well as self-service absence requests and automated approvals and notifications.
The Nuts and Bolts are Important
The importance of trackers, RAID logs, project charters and plans, ticket documentation, testing docs, configuration runbooks, and similar cannot be stressed enough. While these tasks might seem minor and cumbersome compared to larger deliverables, they are crucial and must be handled with thoroughness and dedication. This was a key component for us on the HCM side; without detailed trackers and similar tools, our testing approach would have flopped, outstanding items would not have been executed on, RAIDs would have just become footnotes in a meeting, and ultimately, we wouldn’t have had such a successful launch. We accomplished this by laying the groundwork on the intangibles and sticking to them.
Celebrating Wins
Celebrating successes is often an overlooked piece of managing and working through any project. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle of due dates, milestones, and blockers and forget to recognize when team members go above and beyond. Acknowledging these efforts is vital to preventing burnout, which can set in quickly during the “grind” of a project, and is crucial for project morale. By recognizing and appreciating the team’s hard work and talents, you show them the value of their contributions in almost real-time. Remember, a project is only as strong as its weakest link; taking time to celebrate achievements helps strengthen the bonds of the team as a whole.
Stay tuned for Part II of this informative series featuring Workday Financials (FIN) insights.
Attain Partners – Digital Transformation Experts
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Meet the Expert – Pat Tretina
Pat Tretina is a seasoned HCM Expert and Executive Project Manager specializing in Workday technical & functional solutions. As a Workday Pro Certified resource, Pat has been in the ecosystem for nearly a decade holding roles in complex configuration, to product owner and executive project manager. Pat has brought his robust higher education industry experience from his time with The University of Chicago and The University System of Maryland to Attain Partners. Most recently, he has served as the HCM PMO Lead for the MD Connect Project at the University System of Maryland.
