The University of North Florida will begin using a new software system for its employees this Monday: Workday.
Brian Verkamp, the vice president and chief information officer of IT Services at UNF, says the university has been working on the transition to Workday for almost two years. He says this is the first of many steps to modernize its systems.
The university’s ongoing digital transformation project, OspreyRising, aims to replace Ellucian Banner’s current HR and finance systems with Workday.
“UNF is investing in this,” Verkamp said. “Although it is a big change for everyone, this is our future that the university is tying to our strategic plan—which is to grow.”
According to its website, Workday is a cloud-based software platform for finance and HR management. It is also used at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Its goal is to streamline workforce administration while assisting companies—especially those with several locations—in managing payroll, benefits, HR and employee data.
Verkamp said one of Workday’s advantages is its more practical time-off feature. Full-time employees can view a calendar while requesting their time-off dates.
“Maybe a coworker is taking time off, and maybe an office is saying somebody can’t take off work,” Verkamp said. “Those are real advantages to quality of life.”
All UNF employees will use Workday to maintain personal information, check pay stubs and track time worked and time off. It will also be used to complete tasks previously done on Banner.
Verkamp said Workday will include many in-house software programs, and data access will vary depending on your role at UNF. He said this will increase efficiency and security.
“If you have many systems out there, it’s hard to put security around it,” Verkamp said. “Based on your role at the university will be the level of access and data you can see.”
This is just the start of Workday’s introduction to UNF. Verkamp plans to eventually implement a Workday program for students who will continue using Banner for now. There is not an official start date for this yet.
“The goal for this next year is to stabilize our system,” Verkamp said. “This will have an impact on everyone that works at UNF.”
To ensure a smooth transition, UNF provides Workday training to help faculty, staff and student employees navigate the new system.
UNF will have a Workday Support phone number available from July 1 to August 31 to help with employees’ questions or concerns. President Moez Limayem emailed faculty members yesterday to encourage them to download the Workday mobile app.
“As long as people can find help, we will succeed,” Verkamp said. “Even if something is wrong, we can fix it.”
Visit the OspreyRising webpage to learn more about how Workday will affect the university and what employees need to do once it’s implemented.
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