In January 2025, Dickinson began the transition to the platform Workday, meant to consolidate “Human Capital Management (HCM), Finance, Payroll, and Student information into a single, inclusive platform”, according to Dickinson’s website. The website also detailed that Workday is “designed to be easy to use, offering tools that make everyday tasks simpler and more efficient.”
However, according to Dickinson students, faculty and staff, the role out of this new platform has been anything but “easy to use,” and has made most tasks more difficult and time-consuming.
Professor Dana Somers, Director of the Quantitative Reasoning center said that she “did not feel like the transition to Workday went as smoothly as it should have.” She added, “I think the biggest challenge has been the increased amount of work that [the transition] has caused, particularly around correcting student time sheets and filling out expense reports,” and that, “The transition has created more administrative burden for many faculty and staff. The transition to Workday was a huge undertaking, and with any such change, there were bound to be challenges.”
However, Somers had some positive feedback on Workday:“Creating and running budget queries is easier in Workday than in the previous system.”
Another complaint about the new system is that it is not practical when it comes to students who are performing tasks that take small amounts of time. Somers said, “My students who work as Quantitative Reasoning Associates (QRAs) and Q-Fellows do not always work regular shifts and may be completing small tasks here and there. I think the students find it burdensome to have to clock in and out for each activity.”
When asked about the purpose of Workday, Dennette Moul, Director of Human Resource Services said, “The commonly used rounding rule allows for small differences in clock-in and clock-out times to be rounded in a standard way, such as when there is a line of employees waiting to clock in at the beginning or clock out at the end of a work shift. Rounding provides a consistent, accurate and fair way to handle these slight differences.”
However, student workers have found that if they do not clock in or out early, even if they have worked the same amount of time, the rounding feature of Workday will misrepresent their hours in their pay stub. Annalee Brant ’28 shared that when she clocked in and out early her time was misrepresented, and the rounding feature deducted 15 minutes from her time sheet. Brant said, “While once in a while this is not a big deal, but for students like me who work as Writing Associates and Writing Tutors, these discrepancies add up quickly.”
Moul confirmed the sentiment. “The rounding rule does not change the actual time an employee clocks in or out. The system always records the exact time you punch in and punch out, and that exact time is saved for accuracy and compliance. Rounding is used only to calculate pay, not to change the recorded time.”
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Olivia Wilkins, who advises a team of student researchers, also had feedback to share on the recent Workday transition.
Wilkins said, “there has been a lot of confusion about what is available in Workday and what isn’t. I’ve also found it difficult to know what to search for when I’m looking for specific tools.” However, she added that the Dickinson support website for Workday has been generally helpful.
Wilkens said that the main challenge facing the transition has been “getting everyone up to speed on what different functions are called and getting used to a new way of organizing information.” When asked how this transition compared to previous Workday transitions she had experienced, Wilkins expressed that it was smoother than she expected, she said, “There have still been a lot of bumps, sure, but the people who I have connected with about Workday at Dickinson have tried to anticipate those bumps and put others on alert, so they don’t come as a surprise.”
Wilkins cited time sheets as the largest ongoing challenge facing her and her team regarding the implementation of Workday. “One thing that has not been smooth is the change in how student workers log their hours.” She added, “Not only are students getting used to a system where they need to log in and out of Workday, but when they mess up, they can’t correct those mistakes themselves.” To correct the issue, Wilkins said, “I think giving employees, including student workers, the ability to edit their time sheet, if possible, would save people a lot of emails and a lot of time.”
Overall, Wilkins expressed that while there are continuing challenges with the transition, she believed that in the long term it will help her team, especially when it comes to handling research grants and expense reports.
Sarah Burkett, Director of Enterprise Applications and Workday Project Lead also shared her perspective on the transition. Burkett acknowledged that, “there has been a normal learning curve, and some users have found the change in processes and terminology challenging compared to the previous system.” However, she emphasized the importance of this transition, not just from a software standpoint but for the future of Dickinson. Burkett concluded by saying, “we are committed to making that transition as smooth as possible, and we welcome feedback along the way.”
Despite the challenges of the transition, Dickinson is moving ahead with Workday, and the college hopes to have the program fully implemented by 2028.
