Student workers in the Dining Hall and Library Services will move to the operating system Workday for time entry on December 14. All other student workers will be switching in January after the break. Sarah Burkett, Director of Enterprise Applications and the Workday Project Lead, said, “the first payroll of the new year will run in Workday.”
The change is part of Dickinson’s “Core Systems Modernization” plan, which will consolidate many previously scattered services into one application.
Workday will place finance, payroll and student information into one service and will replace Self Service Banner, Totara, DegreeWorks, Cognos, and SoftDocs
The transition comes shortly after Dickinson’s ongoing switch to Brightspace from Moodle. President Jones told “The Dickinsonian” that the college is “already behind” with regard to Dickinson’s technical situation, and emphasized the need to update and better address Dickinson’s needs.
The project will begin to work on its full student phase in September 2026. Burkett states that this phase will “cover academic records, courses, registration, and student billing, with rollout planned for 2028.”
The largest adjustment for student employees will be needing to clock in and out of shifts on Workday. Students will need to contact their manager to correct any mistakes in their timesheets.
Burkett believes students will find Workday to be an easy adjustment, noting the largest adjustment for student employees will be needing to clock in and out of shifts on Workday. Students will need to contact their manager to correct any mistakes in their timesheets.
Keeping the campus updated and adjusting seems to be a key concern of the project. Burkett said, “The biggest challenge overall is helping the entire campus adjust to new workflows. Faculty and staff, in particular, have used the systems for many years, so learning new steps and adapting to Workday’s more consistent, campus-wide processes will take time. There’s also some natural ‘change fatigue’ when people are already busy, and things may move more slowly at first.”
As Dickinson changes, Workday is intended to change too: “Workday releases new features several times a year, and that continual improvement is one of the reasons Dickinson chose it. As the system evolves, we plan to evolve with it.” According to Burkett, “Workday is more than replacing an old system. It’s a major step in Dickinson’s effort to modernize systems and strengthen the college’s digital foundation.”
