The number of businesses wishing to install new Human Capital Management (HCM) systems and shift existing on-premises HR systems to the Cloud has significantly increased over the last several years.

Determining the cost of Cloud HCM solutions is a necessary step in the procurement process, but frequently, this approach can constrain the purchasing decision, which may have a negative impact; companies must ensure they are adequately resourced for the realities of owning these solutions.

A firm understanding of the cost of Cloud HCM is necessary to make smarter purchasing decisions for long-term benefit. According to the Capterra report, the greatest internal barrier for an organization is investing in software. The report shows a trend where businesses are worried about the outrageous expenditure cost of acquiring software that can go over the set budget.

The risk of going over budget is quite serious unless you know the exact cost of owning the software. It could also impact the financial planning and business roadmap of the organization. 

Most organizations have unrealistic expectations of how much their HR systems cost. Making smarter purchasing decisions and ensuring that organizations are adequately resourced for the reality of longer-term ownership of these solutions depend on having a thorough grasp of the cost of Cloud HCM.

The business must have a strong hold on the cost of cloud HCM to make smarter purchasing decisions and invest in necessary resources. This is where TCO (Total cost of ownership) comes into play. 

What is TCO?

The total cost of ownership (TCO) estimates how much it will cost to buy, deploy, use, and retire a product or piece of equipment. Here is how to calculate TCO:

The importance of TCO is such that with a precise understanding of it, developing a business case and accurately evaluating the costs and benefits of a system from a business perspective is meaningful.  

True TCO involves many years and phases of implementation. According to a Fosway study, TCO should be calculated over a 5-year period (instead of a 3-year term) and consider not just the expenses of licensing and implementing the solution but also those associated with discovering, acquiring, using, and innovating it throughout that time. 

Typically, a license costs around 35% of the overall cost of ownership over time. For an enterprise organization, deployment expenditures typically account for 20% of overall costs, while expenses for continuing maintenance and support account for 30% of total costs. About 7% of overall costs go toward innovation, although this cost is typically either not tracked at all or covered up by new initiatives. 5% of the cost goes towards Discovering suitable software and 3% towards acquiring its services. 

Understanding Key Aspects of Pricing HCM model: 

Organizations with HR systems often need to pay more attention to the cost of HR systems as they do not account for the cost of operating the system. Most of them turn a blind eye to the actual cost of owning and running HR systems and solely focus on how much the license of that HR system would cost. According to the Fosway study, a license costs only 1/3rd of the actual HCM solution over a contracted period of time.  

The following phases of expenses should all be included in the total TCO calculation: 

1. Explore:

Based on the issues in your organization, you need to understand the needs and do market research options accordingly before even considering acquiring the solution’s service from a particular vendor.

2. Attain:

The cost of engaging with the market to find a correct solution for your organization includes the Request for Proposal (RFP) suggestions for improvement.

After implementing feedback, the final request for proposal is issued; and selecting the right solution. 

3. License:

The pricing of licenses, the phasing of license payments for modules, or full upfront charges, regardless of module adoption, must be discussed while negotiating and contracting the solution. Most of the license choices are evaluated using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscriptions. 

4. Implementation:

Vendors may charge a one-time fee when you make your purchase to integrate the software and get it running at your company. Costs associated with implementation may also go toward requirements like: 

Vendors could waive this fee if you can install the program on your own. 

5. Administration:

Evaluating how much it will cost to run a software solution over a period of time, this process includes –  

6. Innovation:

This step involves all the things post-live update, such as – how much it will cost to adopt and leverage new opportunities, updates, features, support, functions, and procedures.  

Workday Training cost:

For Workday training Vendors may also impose a separate, elective price for further training, even though a software licensing cost normally includes access to assistance files and discussion boards. This training might be a reasonable investment so your employees can quickly become familiar with the platform, depending on your selected software’s complexity and how essential it is to your organization. 

Although some vendors provide web-based solutions as part of the deal, you, as the customer, must pay extra for in-person training, End-user training, video/self, group, department, and training of veteran users may be included in the price. 

Workday offers a variety of learning delivery options ranging from independent, self-paced offerings to traditional in-class training. Let us have a detailed look at training offers from them: 

A. Learn In-Person:

Learners are prepared to meet their employment needs through this conventional instructor-led in-classroom training. It blends lectures with group discussions, product demonstrations, and practical exercises. 

B. Learn Remote:

Online instructor-led training is available through Learn Remote. The same real-time collaboration, teacher engagement, and learning benefits are provided for both groups by combining in-person and online students into a single session. You can save time and money by not having to travel. 

C. Learn Virtual:

The benefits of having live instructors are available in our online classroom without the cost or travel time. Students join the training environment remotely, participate in practical exercises, and communicate with teachers and other students. 

D. Learn Independent:

Learn Independent from Workday gives consumers training freedom. With a blend of videos, interactive games, job aids, and quizzes, Learners can study from anywhere, at any time, and at their speed. Students may start when it is most convenient for them, and if their Learning Center accounts are active, they will always have access to the course materials. 

E. Learn On-Demand:

With Learn On-Demand, students finish quick videos and job aids on certain topics on their own time. Students get direct access to course information through this training, which complements instructor-led sessions. This material frequently acts as a review of certain subjects covered in instructor-led courses. 

F. Workday Pro:

The highest level of client accreditation is Workday Pro. It is intended for people who wish to become deeply knowledgeable about Workday. This type of training prepares Workday Pros to provide value on par with that of an outside Workday-certified consultant.

There are several tracks in this accreditation program, each having pertinent courses and an online test. Accredited Workday Pros have free access to the Workday Touchpoints Kit, participate in the exclusive Community group, and update training with every new Workday release. 

G. Adoption Kit:

An effective Workday rollout is made possible by the Adoption Kit’s ability to hasten the creation of end-user training materials and the utilization of self-service features and functionality. Along with graphic assets, facilitation manuals, and marketing materials, it also contains a combination of videos and job aids for typical employee and manager self-service activities.

These resources may be used by training teams as-is, or content can be modified to match specific organizational needs. 

H. Workday Touchpoints Kit:

The Workday Touchpoints Kit is a set of flowcharts, heat maps, and organizational details that show the connections between all the Workday suite’s product categories. Both clients and consultants can utilize these capabilities with the ultimate objective of optimizing the Workday application. 

The approach you choose for your business will largely determine the cost of Workday and depends on factors such as: 

1. End-user training 
2. Group training  
3. Video -training  
4. Train the trainer 

The following are the estimates to calculate the cost of training for workday training: 

Workday Service cost: 

Price limitations for HR software are often based on the number of employees. The cost of HR software typically varies between $5 – $15 & $16 – $25 per person each month; for most of the software, these costs are also determined by how strong the package that is selected is in terms of features, and they may not include set up or training costs. 

In the case of Workday, it follows primarily two common pricing models – Perpetual License and Subscription (Software-As-A-Service) License. 

A. Perpetual License:  

The conventional way of buying software is referred to as a perpetual license; you pay for the license upfront and have unlimited access to the product. You could also be permitted to obtain software updates and receive technical assistance under the terms of a perpetual licensing agreement. However, frequently, these rights are only granted for a certain period, after which you’ll need to pay.  

However, it’s feasible that updates and support will always be available without cost. 

B. Subscription (Software-As-A-Service) License: 

The system is accessible online rather than being deployed on-premises under this pricing model. Either a per-user fee or a subscription fee is charged for the service. Customers should be compelled to pay a recurring monthly price to use the product for a set amount of time. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) programs increasingly frequently use the subscription price model. 

Due to the lack of flexibility with SaaS solutions in this area, upfront costs for modification and integration are lower than those for perpetual licenses. Customers must pay a subscription fee on a monthly basis; thus, the recurring cost is higher. Customers who need premium support services must also pay an additional cost. 

Workday charges businesses on an annual subscription basis. Workday is the most premium product available in the market. Even for bigger businesses, Workday annual memberships may cost up to $40-160 PEPM (Per Employee Per Month) and normally start at approximately $300K-$800k. 

Following negotiations, customers stated that they are paying $48 per user/year at a cap of 500 users. The initial price was $72 for each user per year. With the exception of the eLearning module, another customer reported $800k per year for 5000 users, which works out to $160 per user per year for the entire suite. 

Why Apty DAP is a must-have when implementing Workday: 

Because Workday implementation significantly reduces the organization’s total budget, you should utilize a Digital Adoption Platform like Apty to make the most of your HR application investments. 

Your Workday adoption rate will rise thanks to Apty’s user-friendly, interactive onboarding, real-time contextual assistance, and in-app tutorials; these help you with efficient Workday implementation and training. Apty assists organizations in obtaining ROI from their Workday. Self-service is made possible within the application, which acts as a support tool and is there to help around the clock. 

The in-app tutorials and real-time contextual guidance complement the conventional form of training and, in some cases, reduce the dependency on it. 

To determine whether activities are being abandoned, Apty analyses employee activity on Workday. It identifies the area of process friction and suggests improvements that can be made with workflows.  

Apty is not at all complex; it sits on top of the Workday application without any issues with the application. Capabilities of Apty are not just limited to analytics and In-app tutorials if required; you can use it as a repository to store all your important documents and videos that your employee might require.

You can get immediate insights on customer service and business operations using Apty. These insights are useful to improve strategies that can immediately help you to optimize the employee experience, enhance the business performance and boost the ROI of your organization. 

Why you need a Digital Adoption Platform for Workday

8 Steps to Create an Ideal Workplace Training Plan Template

Today’s workforce expects modern and innovative training techniques. So, think outside the box when developing the training plan for your employees.

Your workplace training plan shouldn’t just be your new hire walking in and you drop all of the information on their desk. To ensure that your employee training yields the best results, there should be a clear understanding of what they need to know when they need to learn, and the time duration by which they need to consume the training material to effectively contribute to the company.

Training plans are essential for a strong onboarding process and to create a productive workforce, quicker. Providing effective training early on can boost employee productivity and help them develop their skills as they continue to work and be an asset to the company.  

However, when these plans aren’t well defined and managed, goals are not met, details slip through the cracks, employees end up receiving contradictory information, and the process takes far longer than necessary.

What are the Must-Haves in Workplace Training Plan Template?

The 5 must-haves in your employee training plan template are:

Here are eight steps you can take to make the perfect workplace training plan for your organization.

1. Write Down the Training Plan

This step is fairly self-explanatory. You’re laying out the process, in detail, leaving no room for misinterpretation. 

The document should clarify who the training applies to, including step-by-step instructions, safety protocols if relevant, and other additional information. The goal is to make the training feel intuitive, clear, and simple.

This is the stage in which you start designing the training courses and learning routes that will assist your employees to gain the required knowledge and skills. If you’re having problems coming up with a workplace training plan, you might want to consider leveraging tools that can assist in training your workforce.

2. Assess Training Needs and Align Goals

Identifying and assessing needs (Training Needs Assessment) is the first stage in creating a workplace training program. It is used to determine performance requirements and the knowledge, abilities, and skills employees need to gain from the training initiative. You’ll need to examine which areas to focus on if you’re creating a training program from scratch.

A must-have when creating a training plan template is to have a section focused on setting goals and tracking the associated metrics and KPIs. This aspect of a training plan is important because it helps make training outcomes easier to quantify. The big picture is easier to understand when there are clearly defined goals and steps to get there.

You must align your employee training goals with your business goals when you are crafting your plan. This means, to first identify your organization’s needs and then to ensure that those are in line with training initiatives. All employees will want to know the purpose of what they are being trained for and knowing this will make it easier for them to be engaged in the training program. 

3. Identify Gaps in Your Training Programs

Any gaps in your current training activities and employee skill sets will be identified through the training needs assessments (administrative, task, and individual). These gaps must be prioritized and translated into training goals for the organization.

The ultimate goal is to construct a training program that bridges the gap between the current and desired performance. At the employee level, training should be tailored to the areas needing improvement, which can be identified extensively through feedback and evaluations.

If there are any existing training programs or workshops, determine whether they should continue to be part of the program. For example, if your company already has a mentorship program that is working well for the company, it may not need to be included in the new plan.

If any new training practices need to be added, determine the best way to fill those needs with a new program. For example, if you have been receiving requests from employees for certain types of training, then it may make sense to add them into your workplace training plan after evaluation.

4. Determine Training Frequency

Gartner’s research says that almost 70% of workforces have not mastered the skills required to perform their jobs today. So, re-training must be conducted for employees lagging behind or struggling to complete daily tasks and to keep them proactive and engaged. 

Identify how often employee training needs to be offered and what will be the best time to train your employees. For example, if you have several new employees each month, it may make sense to include monthly training in your workplace training plan.

Choose the training that will be most beneficial to your employees and your company’s goals. Ensure to include different types of training to provide all your employees with the choice of training method. 

5. Determine Leadership Alignment

Leadership alignment begins with a clear understanding of business objectives and sharing the expected business outcomes that will result from the training. This should resonate through visible support from leadership. The best-laid training plans can collapse if they do not have alignment from the top.

Draw employees into learning when you are creating your training plan template. Craft a solid creative hook for your organization as this makes your training program more appealing. Overall, your workplace training plan template should have fun elements in order to be engaging for your learners. 

Leaders must be open to feedback and must be flexible to change the plan, if necessary. Integrated feedback allows learners to give and receive feedback throughout the program. This approach boosts learner engagement, empowers employees, and can provide valuable insights to improve training. 

6. Put Your Plan Into Action

The degree of training and the employee learning styles must be addressed while creating the program. Many organizations test run their training initiatives and obtain feedback before rolling out the program to the entire company.

This is the stage in which you put your employee training plan into action. You may need to make slight adjustments to the real implementation during training. Similarly, you may observe that some employees complete their training more quickly or more slowly than you anticipated. This means you should alter the training plan to meet their needs. 

7. Invest in the Right Tools

Automating business processes can save a lot of time. It eliminates redundancy, helps avoid confusion, and allows L&D leaders to focus on the most significant parts of the workplace training program.

Having a template is important for your employee training program but to create a scalable and ideal workplace training plan, you need the right software. In large Enterprises, employee onboarding and training demands a lot of investment of time and money. 

According to Training industry statistics, 93% of employees want easy-to-complete training and 91% want training to be personalized and relevant. Organizations often find that using a best ATS helps streamline candidate onboarding and aligns training readiness much more efficiently.

So, if you want to create effective workplace training with personalized content then use tools like Digital Adoption Platforms. An intelligent DAP like Apty provides help at the exact moment of need, improves user experience, and provides targeted assistance. You can customize the training content and deliver the training lessons without wasting your employees’ time. 

8. Evaluate & Revise Training

Best practices change over time, and what works this year may not be the best solution next year. Reviewing your training ensures that it doesn’t end up being outdated down the road. The workplace training program should be constantly monitored. The program should also be assessed to see if it is helping your organization attain its goals.

Feedback must be obtained from all stakeholders to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Analyzing responses and reviewing employee performance will allow the organization to identify any weaknesses in the system. If targets or expectations are not fulfilled, the training program or action plan can be altered.

Furthermore, after the training, there should be a post-training assessment survey which should be included in your plan to help you establish the next training plan for your company. This could help your organization stay ahead of the market demands and gain more growth.

With a Digital Adoption Platform like Apty, you can assess employee performance and identify where they are getting stuck. Apty’s in-app walkthroughs can provide targeted assistance and make your workplace training smooth and effortless. Apty not only trains your employees but also increases their productivity and ensures seamless product adoption.

Workday has drastically improved its capabilities and features since its inception in March 2005. Today it serves more than 8000 customers and that number is growing at a rate of over 23%. More companies are realizing the importance of having Workday in their application stack.* 

Workday change initiatives are not limited to the core HCM. It expands with time and as an HR Director, it is important to keep tabs on what new modules are being added. 

There are different types of modules like global compliances, workplace planning, recruiting, talent management, learning, compensation, benefits, payroll management, time & absence, reporting, and analytics. 

The difficulty of Workday change initiatives increases as the number of modules and stakeholders involved increases. 

The pace at which technology changes is faster than the pace of peoples’ behavior. So, consider this while planning the adoption process. 

In this guide, we will discuss in detail how to design, implement, and analyze a change management strategy for Workday.  

Workday Change Management Strategy

Workday change management strategy is a way of managing changes made to Workday at your enterprise while achieving the desired objectives and outcomes. While designing it, Workday experts consider all the practical possibilities and design an action plan that will help the company to manage any HR and financial challenges effectively.

Planning your Workday change management initiatives can be done in consultation with a service partner or a Workday consultant, or with other stakeholders who will be impacted by its implementation. 

HR directors and managers have to plan the sequence of actions that best suits the organization’s needs. They must also take into consideration that the organization’s environment can change during the whole Workday change management cycle. 

Workday Change Management Plan  

A Workday Change Management plan involves considering future changes that are going to be made to Workday and their impact on the organization. It is a future-oriented action that requires the HR director to set goals for each phase and create alternative courses of action. 

Then, based on testing, research, and analysis, the HR director has to select the best action plan which will help the organization to achieve business goals. 

Workday change management initiative is complex and as a result, sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Create a backup plan that acts as a safety net if things go wrong. Workday planning needs to be flexible to accommodate the number of people involved. 

As a project owner, it is crucial to maximizing the potential of the workday change management initiative. It is only possible by proper digital transformation and adoption within the organization by minimizing risks.

To ensure successful Workday change management, an organization must capitalize on these three things: 

A. Leadership Alignment:  

Most teams fail with Workday projects because of poor goal setting and lack of decision-making. There is no doubt that companies need efficient processes and consolidated systems but how will they achieve success? 

It needs efficient leadership where the leaders of respective departments and teams have the decision-making power to address the problems. Usually, the bureaucracy of an organization creates resistance in the decision-making process. As a result, there is a delay in the execution of the Workday change initiative. 

To overcome this challenge, it is important to have a Leadership Alignment Program that helps set the project’s vision and objectives and allows them to measure success. 

These programs involve the Executive Sponsor, HR team, finance executives, department heads, and IT leaders. 

In this stage, it is important to understand which internal and external stakeholders will get involved. Once that is clear, get things aligned by creating a strategy map and project governance model. 

A Leadership Alignment Program requires the following: 

B. Strategy Map:  

A strategy map defines the vision of the initiative with clear directions that give the project a line of sight and purpose.  

The purpose of a strategic map is to align decisions to support the future state and commit to the purpose of the Workday change process. The team must collaborate with executives to decide on common goals and guiding principles. 

Buy-in is critical. A corporate strategic vision could be aspirational but what does it mean to a common employee and their manager? 

This stands true for other stakeholders as well like department heads, c-suite executives, and job candidates. 

Each stakeholder should be considered to facilitate the adoption and ownership of the change. Outline the purpose of each persona and define how to measure their success. 

You must quantify the efficiencies and targets that the organization needs to achieve.  

To quantify outcomes and metrics, you must first view the current processing baselines, then measure the adoption and performance before and after -go-live at each quarter.  

Your goals should be to change the behavior and transform how the organization conducts business operations. Based on this, identify improvements and trends, and take corrective action as needed. 

C. Governance Model: 

The governance model commits the organization to the vision and roadmap that is set in the Strategic map and provides a framework to achieve the vision. 

It defines the process and provides a mechanism that promotes decision-making, ownership, and transparency. It also helps understand whether the organization has deployed the correct resources to make those decisions.   

Another key component of the governance model is the communication model. You must relay important information to the stakeholders. Analyze closely the performance of the Workday project and inform the setbacks and successes to the management. 

Lastly, the organization must be clear about each employee’s role and empower the decision-makers to make crucial calls at important junctures. 

For workday HCM, finance, payroll, and student implementation, governance plays a crucial role.

It is foundational to both production and implementation. Governance is not merely procedural, as it guides transformation, decisions, people, and technology which are foundational elements. 

However, misaligned governance can give rise to inconsistency, confusion, and conflicting priorities which may put the change initiative at risk. 

If this happens, the time spent in creating the strategic map will go in vain and lose its significance. 

On the other hand, a strong governance model ensures that change initiatives align with the vision statement (that is defined in the strategic map) and guides the Workday change in the right direction. 

2. Defining the path 

One of the most common questions that people ask when dealing with Workday is “where should we start?” 

We have created templates that help you identify major points to achieve success within the parameters of the project timeframe. 

Workday project execution can take different forms and is heavily dependent on the consultants, service partners, and the organization’s DNA. Some methods are prescriptive for big organizations while other growing organizations opt for accelerated deployment methodologies. 

The accelerated deployment methodology ensures rapid Workday implementation and helps the business realize small victories during the implementation phase.  

So, an organization goes with the method that best suits its requirements and ideology. 

Change Leaders must learn about the organization in and out. Communication Leaders should be able to communicate the message to every level of the organization. These basic factors play a major role in expediting the deployment phase. 

There are usually a lot of change management activities to be conducted but the key objectives are to: 

This can help remove resistance and poor opinions or judgments. 

It is important to document critical moves and create a visual plan that tells who needs to do what and when. This helps organize a team into their respective roles and create a clear path to a successful implementation process. Using design templates makes this process even easier by providing a structured visual framework that teams can quickly adapt. They help ensure consistency while saving time during planning and execution.

Moreover, future users and stakeholders are usually hesitant about the concept of a new process or change. To counter this problem, it is important to have a “clarity management plan”. It should be a proactive action plan that can prevent employee resistance and turn the uncertainty of employees into ambassadorship of the Workday change project.   

Involve key stakeholders and provide clear change management guidance. Let them know about the backup plans and who to rely on in the case of failure. Assign a team to support them with answers to their queries, and make them understand the benefits of undergoing the whole Workday change process.  

Script critical moves i.e., completing activities to make success achievable in a given timeframe. The major focus is to prioritize key activities that can help achieve desired results. 

The creative below shows us the summarized view of Workday change initiatives. 

Here you can see the: 

This information can help any business document their change initiative well and get desired results.

#Step 1: Assess Stakeholders Group: The first step is to create a stakeholder matrix to document all key stakeholders and audiences across the organization. It also takes note of employees who are resistant to the change and helps you assess the benefits that the resistant employee group might enjoy if they accept the change. 

#Step 2: Resistance plan: The resistance plan comes to the picture after the assessment phase. It is a set of actions designed to engage key stakeholders in the Workday project and help them realize its value by using various change instruments. Here, the feedback of employees, management, and key stakeholders are taken to get their perspective and analyze the underlying trend that might be future roadblocks. 

#Step 3: Clarity Management: It helps overcome resistance through actions. The resistance plan is executed in this stage. Various tools and training methods get center stage in this plan which will help employees understand the power of Workday to understand it better. They witness the real-world benefits of Workday. 

#Step 4: Change Champion: The stakeholder analysis is also used as an entry point for the creation of a network of change champions. It includes successfully engaged and influential stakeholders with in-depth knowledge of the project. They act as an extension of the Workday project team.  

#Step 5: Training Analysis & Delivery: The change impacts and benefits are the core of any change program. A clear understanding of these benefits helps device training programs for audiences. The training can be done through a variety of methods. 

#Step 6: Communication Analysis & Delivery: All the change needs and gaps cannot be covered by the training program alone. Communication also plays a crucial role in showcasing the value of change. So, a failsafe communication protocol is designed which includes emails, video conferencing, in-app notifications, and other relevant media. 

In addition, the change impact per stakeholder group can be measured to incentivize the stakeholders as a part of the clarity management activity(#step 3). 

The actual Workday change management activity can be more detailed than this but the above-mentioned activities can be a starting point to drive your initiative in the right direction. 

Usually, the change plan helps reduce the complexity of change into manageable and easily understandable sets of actions. Each successful completion of each action also motivates the team and the positivity encourages them to speed up the change process. 

All these elements contribute to a successful Workday change management deployment.  

3. Measuring Success and Enabling Adoption 

If we look back at the strategy map, it encourages self-efficiency to increase Workday adoption and self-service to reduce pressure on customer support. These are the key goals and the company must have a system in place to measure the impact of the change initiative.

Tools like Digital Adoption Platforms help measure and analyze whether the task is completed the way it is intended. It also helps the organization identify whether the objectives were completed within the set timeframe. So, it is key to measure success through these pre-defined adoption and usage indicators. 

The organization should also look at the experience and satisfaction metrics to improve employee engagement rates. The company can understand the state of experience with the help of surveys & feedbacks. The change champion network should be active even after the post-go-live stage to learn how the employees feel about the Workday change.  

Additionally, you can empower your employees with a tool that provides in-app assistance (walkthroughs) and an in-app help deck (repository of knowledge and onboarding content) within the Workday platform. This can be achieved through a powerful Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) like Apty. 

Even after all this, how does an organization know if their Workday implementation is successful? 

Find the answers to the following questions to understand if your implementation is successful: 

There could be a number of reasons why any of these results are not as per your expectations. Factors like poor communication, ineffective training, or a lack of clarity about the process among frequent users can be the major reasons.  

Workday usage metrics generated via DAP provide a greater overview of adoption and help you realize the application’s real-world functionality. It also helps understand the processing efficiency of the production tenants and training enhancements. This information can be compiled and shared with the respective project teams. 

If you look closely at the strategy map created in phase zero, there were key goals such as “ensuring successful completion of the process” and “filing of clean data”. 

If the Workday processes are not followed by a selective few in a particular group, ask the engagement managers to notify them through announcements in the Workday application. This team can then revisit the in-app onboarding flows or use the knowledge content that can instantly train them about the processes.  

Key features like Data validation will help ensure clean data which will eventually be helpful to make crucial decisions without any speculation of it being tainted. 

Apty helps enhance the user experience on your Workday deployment and gain insights on adoption metrics. It not only helps the company to be at the forefront of Workday change initiatives but it helps manage digital transformation efforts as well. 

The main goal of Apty is to help an organization realize how its Workday ecosystem can be utilized at its fullest potential. Apty’s AI-powered analytics helps the organization measure the return on investments by tracking key indicators.  

It helps the organization see where the employees are using self-guided workflows, how they are completing their objectives (like filling in expense details, time entry, attendance, and report creation). It also gives you a complete overview of how far the processes were followed, and the number of objectives completed. 

Apty provides a clear understanding of your Workday training content. If a majority of your employees are failing to complete activities, either the training is inefficient or the processes are too complicated.   

Irrespective of where you are in the Workday change management journey, a Digital Adoption Platform like Apty will help you strategize and monitor the change process to ensure success. 

*Source: Workday’s Growth

The Biggest Missing Link In Your Workday HCM Training And How To Address It

Workday is the world’s leading Human Capital Management (HCM) application, now serving over 10,000 organizations across 175 countries, including over 50% of the Fortune 500 companies. In fiscal 2024, Workday HCM training has become pivotal for companies seeking to harness the full potential of this robust platform, which reported total revenues of $1.87 billion.

Workday‘s rapid growth reflects the world’s increasing recognition of the critical importance of efficient human resource management.

Despite its powerful capabilities in solving HR and finance problems, Workday’s complexity can make user adoption challenging. Numerous courses, training programs, and tutorials exist to help users master the platform, each with its own perks and shortcomings.

This blog will help you understand Workday HCM training, explore the best training methods, and uncover the major missing link in mainstream training programs. It will focus on how digital adoption platforms like Apty can bridge these gaps.

Why do employees need to be trained on Workday?

The Human Resource technology field is getting bigger and bigger. The problems associated with people, processes, and finance are immense. To address problems like these, growing organizations need a solution like Workday.

It helps streamline the HR and Payroll process. Workday is also relatively easy to integrate with third-party applications and use the data to make informed business decisions. 

The top-level executives and managers can access information about their employees 24/7 from any device. It streamlines the HR and Payroll process seamlessly and provides a single hub for all HR-related data.

Workday is one of the few HR applications in the market that can bring together recruiting, onboarding, payroll, time management, attendance, talent, and HR management under one umbrella.

Workday is a comprehensive tool that empowers businesses to achieve their goals by providing a centralized platform for workforce data. So, it is always better to be trained on Workday and use it to its fullest for maximum impact. 

Workday software training:

Workday implementation mainly varies from 6 months to 14 months, and on average, it takes 8.2 months to perform across any organization. When the implementation process gets delayed, it results in a negative ROI. 

Organizations must implement Workday and get their employees onboarded quickly to ensure faster ROI. The Workday free training service offers the Overview of Workday essentials and some of the Workday modules. In order to reap the full benefits, organizations must provide additional Workday software training.

Read More: Why you need a Digital Adoption Platform for Workday

Workday training cost:

The cost of training employees on Workday will vary depending on the size and complexity of your organization. In general, the larger and more complex an organization is, the more it will cost to train. However, every organization is different, so it’s important to consult with a Workday implementation expert to get an accurate estimate for your specific situation.

The cost of Workday certification is determined by the module you select based on your needs. Here are a few Workday training courses along with their pricing:

Relevant Read: The Hidden Cost of Workday Implementation

How long will it take to learn Workday?

Workday implementations typically take between 9 and 18 months, depending on the size and complexity of the organization. Post-implementation, you need to train your employees on how to make the out of Workday. The time to learn Workday depends on your training program. With the assistance of free tutorials, you can learn the workday basics in 2-3 days, but additional training is required to understand Workday core concepts.

That’s where the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) comes in. A DAP can help your employees learn Workday in real-time and ensures user adoption (More on this later!!)

What are the best Workday training methods?

For Workday training, companies usually prefer the following methods: 

a. Classroom program: Some companies arrange special classroom-led training. Here, the instructor directly connects with the employees and tries to address their problems with the software. It takes a few weeks to a month to complete the course.  

b. Live-Online sessions: Online training methods are catching up and companies prefer it over classroom programs as it is affordable and flexible. Employees get the opportunity to interact with their instructor and get a better perspective. They can attend it from any location of their choice and focus on learning. 

c. On-demand Videos: Sometimes employees are busy and they may not have the time to attend the classroom or online training. For such employees, on-demand videos can be the perfect solution as they can access the course at any time or location. On-demand videos act as a great training tool that can complement online or classroom training methods. 

d. Certification Program: If the company is a Workday partner, employees might have an opportunity to get Workday certified and understand the application in great detail. Workday HRMS is the most popular certification and provides in-depth knowledge to the learner. 

After the training sessions are complete, employees must be able to refer to video snippets, knowledge base links, specific documents, contact support and have a collaborative session with peers. 

Benefits of Using Workday HCM Training

How Workday HCM Training Delivers Value

Workday HCM training starts by significantly enhancing the onboarding process. Quickly integrating new hires ensures they become familiar with company policies, culture, and tools, reducing the time needed for productivity. This seamless transition is crucial for new team members to effectively contribute immediately and sets the foundation for their ongoing development.

Following onboarding, continuous learning and development play a pivotal role in Workday HCM training. The platform offers diverse training modules, enabling employees to upgrade their skills and stay current with industry trends. This culture of growth not only helps employees improve but also maintains the organization’s competitive edge. Supporting long-term career development ensures that employees are always prepared to meet new challenges.

Employee performance and talent management are further enhanced through Workday HCM training. Employees with the right tools and knowledge can perform their tasks more effectively. Managers can leverage real-time data and analytics to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and implement targeted training interventions. This comprehensive approach ensures that talent is efficiently managed from recruitment to succession planning, aligning individual growth with organizational goals.

Finally, Workday HCM training significantly boosts engagement and efficiency. Interactive and user-friendly learning experiences make employees feel valued and invested in their development, leading to higher job satisfaction and retention. The platform’s real-time support and adaptability ensure that training content remains relevant and aligned with organizational needs. This adaptability helps employees stay updated and quickly adjust to changes, enhancing overall performance and productivity.

Why Apty is the missing link in Workday Training Programs

Even after going through a variety of training, employees are unable to show immediate results through Workday. The major reason for this is that people tend to forget at an increasing rate because of the forgetting curve. 

We, as human beings, have a habit of learning by doing things in real-time. Businesses are investing heavily in training and onboarding but they still incur heavy losses. According to Grovo, organizations lose $13.5 million per year per 1000 employees because of skill gaps and low employee engagement. 

It is unfair to expect employees to straightaway understand and use the Workday application as it takes time. There should be a few solutions that can help overcome this problem. 

The missing link in all these training programs is the unavailability of a solution that can address the immediate need of the employees and guide them at the point of need. 

One such solution is a Digital Adoption Platform, like Apty, which can guide employees through Workday and help them accomplish their tasks. It can also guide employees to other third-party web applications smoothly and help them take relevant actions with no prior knowledge about that application. 

DAPs make it easy for organizations to accelerate their Workday adoption rate and increase the software ROI in record time. A proactive DAP like Apty include capabilities like: 

1. Announcement for better communications:

This is one of the most important aspects of a Digital Adoption Platform. It notifies employees about any change within the HR processes or Workday application. It is also possible to launch a guided Walkthrough through an announcement to show employees the changes or any new feature update.

This type of feature comes in handy when companies change HR policy, process, or undergoes a Workday update, which happens frequently. 

You can embed videos, images, or just plain text in the announcement window and give employees the option to either see the knowledge doc, watch a video or launch a walkthrough. Such an option caters to both tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy audiences. You can also enhance your visuals by using design templates, ensuring consistency and professionalism across all your images. This not only saves time but also helps maintain a cohesive brand identity in every announcement.

2. In-app Learning for Effectiveness:

Learning should never be a task that employees dread but rather something fun that makes them confident about their job responsibilities. With Digital Adoption Platforms, companies can do just that.

They create walkthroughs for each functionality and let you customize workflows for specific job roles. It becomes easy for new users to consume this content as it is customized and segmented as per their profile.  

This way, they learn what is required and spend less time learning the information they don’t need. It saves time and effort that they can invest in their actual job. 

3. In-app Onboarding for Better Experience:

When employees use Workday for the first time, they may be overwhelmed with all its functionalities. To get them started, create a customized onboarding tasks list with your DAP and help them complete one task at a time. When they click it, a walkthrough is launched to guide them through the task seamlessly. 

Once they complete one task, they can start the next, and like this, they get familiar with the application in no time. Even if they forget anything, they can access these walkthroughs or the same content in a format of their choice, for example, PDFs, PPTs, videos, or knowledge base links. This way, a user masters the application over time without even leaving their desk. 

4. In-depth Analytics for Improved Decision Making:

Apty empowers businesses with application and user analytics which provides organizations insight to make important decisions. This insight involves aspects such as activity engagement rate, login/logoff time, avg time spent, objective completion rate, task completion rate, a task initiated vs abandoned, and more.

These analytics help companies identify gaps in their existing HR process and allow them to create better training content to overcome those gaps. It helps them create meaningful and contextual content for employees. 

Get Your Training and Onboarding Right with Apty

Workday is proving to be a revolutionary change for organizations by providing them with a comprehensive tool to manage HR. Enterprise-level companies are gaining better visibility into their employees but for that to happen, it has to be fully adopted by HR employees.  

This is where Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP) like Apty come into the picture. Be it employee guidance or gaining actionable insight with analytics, DAPs have got you covered. A good DAP can significantly boost your ROI as it lets you analyze the application usage, gain insights on who needs help and where it is needed, create personalize training content, and improve user adoption. 

There is no denying the fact that a tool like Apty is the missing link in successful Workday training and implementation. Apty’s proactive approach to workday adoption covers all bases, even before it is deployed. 

*Source: Workday Market Share

Workday HCM Training: The Complete Guide for Enterprises

Workday is one of the most widely used Enterprise HCM and Financial Management applications with over 42 million users across 5000 companies around the globe.

It a powerful yet complex application that is mostly used by big corporations or enterprises for a variety of functions within an organization such as payroll, finances, and human management.

This application is capable of helping various departments and teams across the organization to accomplish their tasks without any delay.

It is loaded with all the necessary features that a large organization could ask for which makes it a must-have solution, despite the complexities it comes with.

To overcome this challenge most of the organizations train their employee on Workday to bring them up to speed and harness its full capabilities.

In this blog post, we will discuss the different types of Workday training. Let’s get straight to it.

Types of Training

There are many options to choose from so far as Workday HCM  training and onboarding techniques are concerned, ranging from the Workday certification program to an online program – This depends on the need of the company and that of your employees.

a. Workday Certification Program for Complete Knowledge

A Workday certification is worth its weight in gold as it gives a holistic understanding of the entire application to a new professional. The criterion to attend the Workday Certification Program is that one must either be a part of Workday or should be associated with one of its partners.

The certification program should be completed within a month but if you fail to get the certification in your first attempt then Workday allows you to re-do your training.

This Enterprise application undergoes numerous minor updates and 2-3 major updates in a year. Whenever a major update takes place the user has to go through the training again and get the certification. This is done by Workday so that all the users remain on the same page.

Once you finish the Core Workday HCM training you can go ahead and complete courses on payroll, compensation, and more.

Automating the administrative tasks and payroll transactions have helped the HCM function to grow drastically. It will propel the career, simplify your job, and help you save valuable man-hours.

b. Online Training to Get Started

If you are not an employee of Workday or any of its partner companies, it is impossible to gain a Workday certification.

However, you can still learn about Workday through online courses. You can either learn through recorded sessions or live one-on-one training. If you work for an organization where many people use the application, then you can also opt for corporate training.

Corporate training for Workday is generally divided into three categories that are self-paced, live-training, and face-to-face. It depends on the size of the organization to opt for the training method that helps them achieve their goals.

c. On-demand Training to Reinforce the Learning

Sometimes the employees do not have time to go through a full-fledged Workday training. In such a scenario, it is ideal to rely on training that can be consumed as per the convenience of the employees.

On-demand training helps them achieve that as they can access it as and when they want it. Depending on their requirement, time constraints and such, they can choose to consume an hour-long video or refer to a particular snippet from a document to accomplish their task.

Even if your employees are trained, it is not possible to remember everything and this is why on-demand training (or microlearning, as it is known) comes into plat as it ensures that the knowledge is reinforced.

You can enable it by using multiple mediums such as Learning Management System, Learning Experience Platform, and Digital Adoption Platform.

With a  Learning Management System, you can design your curriculum and help your employees learn not only Workday but also all the applications that are integrated with it. The only drawback is that creating a course on an LMS can be time-consuming.

A Learning Experience System is the extension of an LMS in that it comes with a lot of other features. You can create a social channel within your organization and make external online courses available seamlessly unlike on an LMS.

This way you not only save time but also create a culture where employees share the best available course in the market with one another and could even discuss on the topic within the LXP.

A Digital Adoption Platform helps you to understand how your employees use the Workday application. Based on that you can create walkthroughs for them which will help them to be familiar with the platform and also makes them confident while using it as they are being guided on each step.

Why a Digital Adoption Platform is Important for Workday Training

When a powerful cloud-based HCM solution like Workday is implemented, it becomes difficult for the end user aka your employees to grasp the application completely.

Even after spending months on the application, they might constantly encounter new challenges and could forget certain features that are not used often.

To overcome this challenge, a Digital Adoption Platform is helpful as it first helps you to understand how the employees are using the application, where they are struggling, which processes they are finding difficult to complete and how much time they spend within the platform while completing a particular task.

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These insights will help you to not only design the walkthroughs but also to align your curriculum in line with what your employees want to learn and what the organization might want to impart.

With a DAP, you can guide your employees from one step to another and could create practically any number of workflows to cover all the bases and ensure the efficiency of your employees.

The capabilities of the DAP are not only limited to walkthroughs and analytics. It also acts as a repository of all the relevant documents and videos that your employees might require.

Interestingly, all this is available within the Workday platform as the DAP sits on top of the application without even affecting the original application!

Implementing any new enterprise software is difficult, but especially one as robust as Workday. Software implementations typically run behind schedule and over budget.

Even after fulling implementing Workday, you could still be struggling with poor adoption and user errors. If you are trying to overcome these challenges, it might be time to deploy a Workday adoption survey.

A well-designed user survey can help you identify problems and correct them. In this guide, we’ll cover:

What is the Purpose of a Workday Adoption Survey?

The primary purpose of a Workday Adoption survey is to help you optimize your Workday implementation. A survey can help in two ways by identifying issues and measuring adoption.

First, the survey can help you identify employees’ needs and pain points to optimize your end-user experience and training. You can’t support your users if you don’t know where they’re struggling. A survey can help you focus on the most common hangups faced by your users.

Second, software adoption is sometimes difficult to measure. A survey can help you gauge how successfully you were in integrating enterprise software like Workday into your everyday business processes.

Use the survey to ask users if they’re aware of certain features or quiz them on how they complete specific tasks to see if they’re using Workday in the way you intended.

Workday Adoption Survey Sample Questions

Feel free to use these questions as a starting point in building your survey. You’ll want to customize them to the features and processes you utilize most in your organization.

Ease-of-use Questions

Use questions like these to determine how employees view using Workday and the quality of support you provide.

How comfortable are you with using Workday?

How well does Workday work for your job?

How easy is Workday to use?

How helpful was the training you received on Workday?

How satisfied are you with the support you receive for Workday?

Process and Task Related Questions

Use questions like these to measure the effectiveness of your Workday training and adoption.

Note: These are just examples of some tasks performed in Workday. You’ll want to use functions that are unique to your organization. The survey will also be more impactful if you customize it by role, so users are only asked about the tasks related to their job.

How often do you perform these tasks?

As with the previous question, you’ll want to customize the lists of tasks in this question by role, if possible.

How would you rate your skills on the following tasks in Workday?

Open-Ended Questions

Depending on how many users you have, you may not have the time or resources to sort through a bunch of open-ended questions.

If you do want to include an option to get more details from your employees about the experience with Workday, consider asking:

When And How Should You Distribute The Technology Adoption Survey?

Coming up with the questions for the survey is only the first part. Now you need to figure out how you’re going to distribute it to your team.

Consider following these best practices to ensure a better response rate.

a. Keep it short

Keep the survey simple. Aim for a length that would allow an employee to finish the questionnaire in 5 or 10 minutes at the most. If employees are falling behind due to technical issues, they don’t have time to fill out a lengthy survey.

b. Ask for Feedback Frequently

One way to ensure your surveys are brief is to ask for feedback regularly. This allows you to keep the number of questions low while also keeping employees engaged in the process. You’ll want to deploy an adoption questionnaire before, during, and after your initial implementation of Workday.

c. Focus Heavily On Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice questions are easy to fill out. Asking employees to leave a comment takes more time. Stick to multiple-choice questions when possible. It’s easier and less time-consuming for employees, meaning they’re more likely to complete the survey.

d. Make Sure Each Question Serves A Purpose

Often companies put redundant or irrelevant questions. Get rid of those. Check the questions that you’re asking on the survey, and make sure that they are needed. If they’re not, get rid of them. If two questions could be combined into one, do that. The survey needs to be short and concise. Get all of the information that you need in as few questions as possible.

Final Thoughts: How to Use Your Workday Adoption Questionnaire Responses

A Workday adoption survey helps you stay in contact with your employees, gauge their skill set, and help mitigate the risk and fallout of a failed HCM adoption.

You can judge how well your current system works and how happy your team is with it. Before you make any significant changes, you need to see how productive your team is with the current technology and support systems in place.

Once you have identified weaknesses, you’ll need to make a plan for addressing them. That’s where a Digital Adoption Platform, like Apty, can help.

Apty analyzes your Workday usage to help you understand where users are getting stuck and allows you to publish on-screen guidance to solve user’s adoption issues.

With Apty, you won’t waste time or money creating training users don’t need. Apty’s insights and your adoption survey should help identify precisely where your users need help.

New Employee Training Checklist: Enterprise Applications Onboarding

Extracting the best out of employees is the ultimate goal of an employee training and development program. It is important for both the professional and personal growth of employees. Employees are more likely to stay in companies that invest in their development and career growth opportunities.

An employee training program can be successfully implemented only when a proper checklist is in place. A training plan checklist will outline the objectives, needs, strategy, and curriculum to be addressed when training new users on the enterprise applications.

Moreover, the employee training plan checklist includes the format of the educational program, the list of topics to be covered, resources required, materials, time, execution, and proposed schedules. All this can help companies onboard their employees and make them use the enterprise applications to the fullest potential.

Why is new hire training important?

A successful employee onboarding and training is the one that engages new hires in the process of learning and reaps the desired upskilling results.  

When your new hires are engaged, 87% of them are more likely to stay in your company. They are 5 times less likely to leave than those unengaged employees. This clearly shows the importance of employee engagement, which can be achieved via effective onboarding and training.  

Now, let’s look at the employee training plan checklist that can help onboard the new hires effectively on your enterprise applications. 

Your HR department probably provided you with a checklist for training new employees covering everything from benefits to using the phone system.

But does it include the systems they’ll use the most – your enterprise applications?

Ensuring employees are fully onboarded to the software they’ll use on a daily basis like Salesforce, Oracle, Netsuite, or Workday, improves employees’ productivity.

Unfortunately, out-of-the-box user guides and support sites are not adequate for getting new employees up-to-speed.

Utilize the following New Employee Training checklist to make sure you’re prepared to successfully train and onboard new hires.

The New Employee training checklist & template is divided into two segments:

New Employee Training checklist: Before a New Hire Starts

Onboarding new employees to your enterprise applications requires adequate preparation. Before your new employee’s first day, you’ll want to:

For many people, documentation is a huge headache. One of the main challenges with applications like Oracle or Salesforce is the support documentation is not tailored to your processes so you create your own support content.

Unfortunately maintaining up-to-date documentation is time consuming and frequently not a top priority. Before a new hire training process starts is an excellent time to review your existing support documentation to see what needs to be updated.

When you review your documentation ask:

PRO TIP:- Apty automates the process of updating your documentation. Instantly turn any guided workflow into a downloadable PDF with screenshots and instructions.

New Employee Training checklist: New Employee’s First Day and Beyond

After making sure everything is up-to-date, it’s time to welcome your employee. As a part of their first day, make sure you:

Many new employee onboarding programs make the mistake of having employees work in a learning environment working on fake tasks. Following the best practices for new employee training will help employees to learn better and retain more.

Appoint a training buddy to walk the employee through each of their most common tasks and make sure the employee knows how to get help if they need it.

The complete checklist for training new employee

Before an Employee Starts

After an Employee Starts

Sample New Employee Training Template

The following new hire training schedule ensures a successful start for your new hires. 

New Employee Training Checklist: Before Employee Starts

New Employee Training Checklist: First Day

New Employee Training Checklist: First Week

New Employee Training Checklist: 90 Days and Beyond

How a New Employee Training Checklist Can Boost Business Performance

The onboarding stage of a new hire is crucial to shape their perception of the company. Their first impression of the company has a significant impact on their opinion about the company and its culture.

When the onboarding process is smooth and helpful, the employee starts on a good note and starts being productive earlier on.

On the other hand, when the process is full of obstacles and takes a long time, the employee is demotivated and disengaged, leading to low performance and productivity.

When you have an onboarding checklist in place, you make sure you cover everything that needs to be communicated or provided to the new employee. This makes the process smooth and you ensure that the employee has a great experience.