HCMWI team engages ASU community to support employees

The Human Capital Management Workday Innovation project’s organizational change management team has engaged various university employees and departments over the past several months to gain insight into how they can best support the ASU community when implementing large-scale projects.

The OCM team’s outreach initiatives included surveying select ASU employees to gauge perceptions of institutional change. The team also met with HCM project human resources partners to understand their unit needs. 

The organizational risk and readiness assessment survey, administered in March 2023, asked how well ASU does the following:

• Communicates about change.
• Implements change across the university. 
• Makes employees feel heard during change initiatives.

The feedback will help the OCM team better prepare Sun Devils for Workday HCM’s launch in spring 2025.  

Overall, employees indicated they are willing to embrace change and value consistent communication about why it is needed and what ASU expects of them. 

The survey found that employees prefer discussing job-specific changes with their direct supervisor, team and unit leadership. Ultimately, they prefer to discuss changes with the people they work with.

The OCM team reviewed more than 100 pages of essay responses and recognized five themes that will guide their work on the HCMWI project:

1. Address the “why,” “what,” and “employee expectations” for making the change. 
2. Communicate to affected employees through multiple channels, with the strong involvement of direct supervisors and unit leadership.
3. Ensure all employees are informed about the Workday HCM changes and how to perform their jobs when it launches. 
4. Involve impacted employees in discussions to consider their feedback.
5. Learn current business processes and develop employee-specific initiatives while making the change.

From June–October 2023, the OCM team met with 45 employee leaders and over 110 readiness coordinators to help understand each unit’s unique HR needs and processes.

The top three most important outcomes are as follows:

1. There must be a seamless payroll system when the system launches and the ability to approve time when supervisors are on vacation. 
2. Reporting capabilities that reduce manual work.
3. Allow HR administrative teams to provide support to HR teams across all units.

The OCM team will continue to administer surveys, polls, focus groups, etc., to ask how well the team addresses these voiced concerns throughout the project.  

Please email the HCMWI project team with questions or for more information.