Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce that Erica Tate has been appointed as Senior Director, Financial Planning and Workday Operations with a focus on promoting a successful experience for all Workday platform users. Over the past year, Erica has been a key contributor to the development and implementation of Workday.

As you know, Guilford College made an important and long-term commitment to modernize our operating and reporting systems, make them more efficient, and provide real-time data on demand. On July 1, we transitioned our Finance, HR, and payroll functions from Banner to Workday.

In the period since Workday went live, there has been much progress accompanied by some challenges. Under Erica’s leadership, a Change Ambassador team will work closely with faculty, staff, and students to help ease the adoption of Workday throughout the campus.

It is not easy to move to Workday from Banner, spreadsheets, and paper forms. Implementing Workday is a learning process for everyone, starting with our Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology Services, and Provost Office teams, all working to improve systems every day.

We all are developing new skills in Workday, and our Finance and HR teams are working hard to address questions, resolve issues, and support the processing of staffing and financial transactions as promptly and smoothly as possible.

Users can expect the following support in the next few months:

Change management

• A regular Workday communication will be published to share Workday wins, challenges, and metrics
• Special outreach will be set up for those stakeholder groups that have experienced the most change during the transition to Workday, to help clarify job responsibilities and processes

Training

• Additional training will be provided in target areas to improve user experience, help users gain proficiency, and advance skills for everyone
• Lunch and Learn sessions are being planned
• Workday co-working sessions will be scheduled

User Support

• The campus ticketing system is being enhanced to manage and track Workday support requests with access to functional HR and Finance teams
• The Finance team will have Synergy Fridays during which it will examine issues brought forward by the campus community
• The HR Team will hold daily meetings to address support issues, cross-functional solutions, and improvement opportunities

Guilford College has embarked on a journey towards improvement in its business practices in the short and long term. I want to thank Erica for taking on this critical role as we move towards further modernizing our processes.

Sincerely,

Kyle Farmbry

President