Leadership Update: Workday Implementation Off to a Great Start; More Enhancements Coming

A message from Jeff Francis, vice president and chief financial officer

Methodist Health System launched the implementation of Workday in January. As you may recall, this was the first significant finance, human resources and supply chain update since 2001. I believe the transition to Workday has gone smoothly, but significant work continues as those behind the scenes continue to improve the user experience.

There is so much that Workday can do for us as an organization. Various teams have implemented new features while others continue to explore components that will further enhance the overall experience.

Let’s take a look at what’s been happening with Workday and some of the exciting features we have coming.

Finance

Workday has allowed Methodist’s Finance team to:

• Fully automate the employee expense reimbursement, including the approval process
• Stabilize the processing of payroll and invoices while completing these tasks in nearly the same time frame prior to Workday implementation
• Improve the accuracy of invoice approvers

Items on the horizon for Finance include the implementation of:

• Further automation in as many areas as possible
• New ways to reduce manual edits to time cards
• A program that “reads” non-Workday invoices to simplify and improve that process

Supply Chain

Workday has allowed Methodist’s Supply Chain team to:

• Realign buyer staff to be more facility focused
• Offer a running Teams chat forum, which has allowed supply chain staff to respond in real time
• Continually update job aids and provide helpful hints for system requestors to improve the employee experience

Items on the horizon for Supply Chain include the implementation of:

• A request tool that will provide requestors with more detailed information
• A tool that will share product data effortlessly between the system and Shared Services in an effort to be more proactive with back order issues

Human Resources

Workday has allowed Methodist’s Human Resources team to:

• Transition the employee retirement plan to Fidelity
• Create reports and dashboards to make the experience more streamlined for employees
• Create manager reports related to full-time employees and earning type
• Develop a dashboard for staff development nurses, which will become available to leaders later this year
• Improve and update the external applicant questionnaire for better alignment with career opportunities
• Enhance the disposition process (when an employee has been rejected) to ensure that  the correct employee is being selected

Items on the horizon for HR include the implementation of:

• An improved notification system for expiring licenses and certifications
• A management dashboard for better employee tracking
• A new performance review system
• Automated internal applicant notifications along with a more streamlined process for job creation and approval

As you can see, the initial implementation was just the tip of the iceberg with Workday. I applaud our teams for their forward thinking and always striving to explore ways for our organization to be better and more efficient. I also applaud you, our employees, as I acknowledge the transition to a new system can be challenging. Thank you for your adaptability and welcoming this new initiative.