Workday and Methodist: 2023 in Review, and Looking Ahead to 2024

A message from Jeff Francis, vice president of Finance and chief financial officer; Paula Pittman, vice president of Human Resources; and Kent Sona, vice president of Information Technology and chief information officer

The new year is often a time of reflection. A time to look back on accomplishments from the prior year and look forward to what is to come. Launching Workday in 2023 was a significant initiative for the health system. There was much excitement, as well as some speculation. We knew the program would be a significant improvement for the health system – but would it be received positively?

We can answer that question with a resounding “YES!” We believe – and we hope you agree – that Workday has been a tremendous addition to our health system, improving workflows through easier navigation and the ability to add enhancements to the platform based on our growing needs.

We readily admit that the “go-live” wasn’t perfect, but we felt that the “go big or go home” approach to our launch was the right thing to do. Thanks to our Workday teams, hundreds of issues that impacted users across the organization were resolved in a timely manner.

We want to share substantial achievements in 2023 and what’s on the horizon for 2024. 

2023 Achievements

Finance

Accounts Payable converted around 40 vendors to the Workday electronic funds transfer (EFT) process – moving them from manual check to electronic payment and remittance advice. Additionally, two vendors were converted to the Workday scanning tool, which automatically converts a scanned invoice to an invoice within the system. We will continue to convert vendors in the future.

Human Capital Management/HR

We debuted the Workforce Analytics Dashboard, fulfilling a request from health system leaders to provide more robust data related to turnover and hiring activity, headcount, FTE utilization, and termination types and reasons. 

We also launched and successfully completed the 2024 open enrollment process in Workday. The simplified and more efficient effort leveraged customized announcements for managers and employees based on the status of their enrollment activity.

We finalized the design of the new annual performance evaluation process and template, which will debut in 2024. Training on the new platform will occur in early 2024, with the evaluation process kicking off in March. 

Additional employee enhancements included systemwide e-learning, reports and dashboards for an improved experience, transition of retirement benefits to Fidelity, and an enhanced license and certification notification system. 

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management continued building detailed composite reporting that provides actionable data to the health system. We continue to explore opportunities for role-based dashboards to help manage spending at the cost center level.

Our learning and growth within Workday has allowed us to better understand supply spending throughout the organization. This has led to the development of dashboards to assist team members with their day-to-day operations, proactively minimizing stock/inventory.   

We have worked closely with IT to construct data management tools that will consolidate information into a centralized data source. This will result in a more efficient process for data management/reporting.   

What’s in Store for 2024?

In 2024, Workday will undergo upgrades in March and September. These will result in little to no impact on the health system. 

Finance will focus on optimization by having Workday review and recommend projects.

The big news for Human Resources will be the rollout of the new annual performance evaluation process for the health system. Enhancements to the job requisition process for new positions and replacements are also slated for this year. 

Finally, Supply Chain will be looking at revamping its new supplier request functionality as well as optimizing the ability to capture all purchasing data.

We thank you for all you have done to make our first year with Workday a success – from your notes of thanks and praise to alerting us about performance issues that made workflows and processes challenging. We want your feedback and ask that you continue to share your insights.

We are excited about expanding our Workday capabilities in 2024 and continuing to make your use of the platform a positive experience each day.