Macquarie University futureproofs HR with Workday

Putting people first

Macquarie University was planning a five-year-long digital transformation and decided to begin with its most important asset — its people. It had no overarching human capital management system (HCM), but rather multiple siloed systems that required too much manual work. It required a modern HCM to synchronize its data, enabling greater efficiency and data-driven decision-making for both its HR professionals and people managers.

Macquarie University chose Workday because of its comprehensive HCM functions, intuitive design and regular functionality upgrades. It sought Accenture’s support because of its track record delivering Workday in Higher Education and its agile and collaborative way of working.

An agile action plan

Macquarie University and Accenture developed a common set of design principles, followed by a standard employee experience. When the global pandemic struck, the project seamlessly pivoted to a virtual planning and delivery mode thanks to the established partnership at all governance levels.

Working remotely, Macquarie University and Accenture extracted and validated more than 250,000 lines of data across the employee population and Workday objects with 99.9% accuracy, and 29 integrations connected everything from Macquarie University’s on-premises payroll, middleware and finance enterprise resource planning solution to Workday. Together, they created 32 training videos and delivered 27 courses to enable users.

Iterating for constant innovation

Following a smooth go-live, three legacy applications were retired and replaced with a single, self-service Workday mobile app. HR professionals and people managers have greater oversight of the working population and authorization processes, and can make staffing decisions based on real time, accurate and secure data. It’s also possible to automate reporting for self-service by HR, managers and finance end users.

During phase two Workday Adaptive Planning, PRISM, Talent Optimization and Advance Compensation were deployed, with Adaptive Planning enabling Macquarie University to strategically plan, budget and track its entire workforce in one application. The University is planning even greater transformations, as it seeks to iterate, improve and deliver for its people.