What to look for in the Workday 2023 Release 1
Twice a year, in March and September, Workday releases major upgrades that increase the functionality of the HRIT system and improve the user experience. In this blog, Tom Wijers and Peter Veldman, who are managing this release at SuccessDay, talk about the most significant changes and explain which steps you can take to be well prepared for the Workday 2023 Release 1 (2023R1).
The Workday spring 2023 release will be available in the weekend of 11-12 March. Most of the software updates focus on back-end improvements that aren’t visible to end users, but there are also updates that users will notice. A methodical approach is essential if you want to take full advantage of the release. This means that organizations should ensure that the relevant people within the organization are aware of the expected changes.
Extensive testing can be carried out in advance in the test environment. This Preview-tenant is a copy of the Production-tenant and includes features that will become available in the next release. Around half of SuccessDay’s customers use the test environment to start getting used to the upcoming release. “Some organizations can’t wait to get started and free up resources for the testing phase, while other organizations let it pass them by. We always advise our customers to test, in order to avoid sudden surprises and so that they can immediately make optimal use of the new features”, explains Peter.
What’s New Report
The experts at SuccessDay compile a What’s New Report for each release, for the customers who need it. “It started off as a simple Excel file but has now become a white paper that we discuss with the customer”, says Tom. In the report, the SuccessDay specialists present the most important new features and functionality per module, and explain what impact they will have and how much work is involved in successfully implementing them.
Tom and Peter are pleased to be able to explain several important new features and functionality of Workday 2023 Release1 in this blog:
- Business Object Transporter Update (OX 2.0)
Business Object Transporter OX1 will no longer be available after the new Workday release. The new version (OX 2.0) has already been available since the 2022R1 and must now be used to migrate objects from one tenant to another. Unlike OX1.0, OX 2.0 can only be used from the Customer Central (the Workday toolbox for migrating data and configuration between tenants). - Submitting a request on behalf of an employee
Workday has extended the request functionality so that it is now possible to initiate requests on behalf of both employee and non-employee roles. This feature increases flexibility, to include requests from students, external users and users with multiple roles, for example. This reduces the need to use third-party applications. - Set local reasons for leaving employment per country (mandatory or voluntary)
Users will be able to adjust which countries are allowed or required when completing the termination of employment, in order to keep track of reasons for local employment termination. This brings organizations more in line (compliant) with local legislation than when they use the global reasons for employment termination. - Customizable addresses per country
Workday allows organizations to configure address components per country, which gives them more control over address information. Tom: “Organizations can now collect only the address details that are relevant to their local legislation, which reduces the chance of integration errors and improves the user experience.” - Entering multiple reference sources on the ‘working at’ site (career site)
The new release enables users to select multiple sources in the reference source field on the ‘Create vacancy site’ and ‘Edit vacancy site’ tasks. This will allow candidates to choose from multiple reference sources when applying for a job. - No longer necessary to enter an ‘instructor’ (teacher), ‘assessor’ or ‘location’ when creating a training course
This change makes it easier for organizations to create a training session or course, which can speed up the process. - Integrate employee goals/objectives with a third party
This update allows goals to be displayed in Microsoft Teams and Slack, for example, which improves employee engagement and the visual overview.
Advice and Support
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. In short: organizations working with Workday will soon see all kinds of changes. SuccessDay can support organizations with this. The Eindhoven-based company can provide advice and also take on testing roles for customers. Tom: “It’s best for customers to do this themselves, because their own employees know the HRIT system best, but it can be a challenge to find sufficient resources, especially with today’s limited labor market. We can carry the load. Sharing ideas with a SuccessDay expert is always possible. We work with test scenarios and scripts for regression testing. Allow 3 to 4 hours of testing per module, depending on the configuration.”
According to Tom, customers like to have a clear overview of the new Workday features and functionality in advance, summarized and in order of importance. “We can make recommendations and compile a roadmap together with the customer.” For example, Peter is currently helping a large bank with this. He has a two-hour daily online meeting with the people who are testing. “I help them on their way and give them advice. And I am also training a new employee so that he will be able to operate more independently on the next release. For him it’s a good way to expand his Workday knowledge in a short space of time, and for me it’s nice to see him grow.”
Teamwork
This way of working is in keeping with the SuccessDay ethos: personal, service-oriented and focused on collaboration and partnership. “We tackle it as a team, together with the customer”, explains Peter.
