What You Need to Know About UMD’s Transition to Workday

Did you wave goodbye to the campus’ creaky old time-reporting system? Because along some other tired tech systems, it's entering a well-deserved retirement.

On Friday, UMD’s Elevate program will launch Workday, a state-of-the-art cloud-based system for human resources and finance. Designed to streamline time and absence reporting, hiring and onboarding, payroll and benefits access, and more, it will replace systems developed in the 1990s like Payroll and Human Resources (PHR), eTerp and Kuali Financial System (KFS).

“We need modern, sustainable and secure systems with functionality that supports the complex work of a leading research university,” said Jack Blanchard, associate provost for enterprise resource planning.

To prepare for the transition, find answers to some common Workday questions below, and visit elevate.umd.edu for more information and resources:

Who will use Workday?
All employees and affiliates at the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; and the University System of Maryland Office will use Workday.

What will they use it for?
Most employees will use Workday to manage their personal and contact information, view pay slips, request absences, enter time and complete other self-service tasks.

Administrative staff who have HR and/or finance responsibilities will use Workday for their daily duties.

What is included on the Workday site?
The new system, available at workday.umd.edu, includes two main categories:

The HR, or human capital management, modules are recruiting, hiring and onboarding, academic appointments, payroll, compensation, time and absence, academic information, benefits, and talent/performance. 

The finance modules are procurement, payroll and benefit accounting, grants and effort reporting, supplier accounts, supplier contracts, university receivables, business assets and financial accounting.

Why do we need the new system?
UMD’s core administrative systems are at the end of their useful lives and in need of replacement. Workday will modernize the university’s administrative computing systems and improve the user experience, enabling better strategic decision making through improved data management, reporting and access to information.

What’s next?
Workday will also replace UMD’s Student Information System (SIS). The Elevate program has begun to prepare for Workday Student, and major work will formally begin in early 2025 for an expected launch in Fall 2028.