Beyond Go Live: Top Features of Workday 2021R2
By: Alex Maidy
Every new Workday release comes with a slew of new features. Many of these are improvements to existing functionality that streamlines existing modules, tasks, or reports while others are brand new augmentations that require customers to take steps to uptake. Whether these features are automatically opted in or require you to opt-out to continue using legacy configuration in your tenant, the sheer volume of updates can be daunting.
Workday release updates center around key values of agility, compliance, efficiency, experience, insight, and trust. We have highlighted some of the biggest updates coming this September in 2021R2. This is by no means a comprehensive list but just a selection of updates we found important to call out. If you would like guidance through the full list of updates, read the final section of this article for our recommendations.
Asset Deprecation Reporting and Usability (Financial Management)
Workday now enables you to create depreciation schedules for assets that provide a more accurate and granular view of the asset’s depreciation. This feature is automatically available and requires no additional setup.
Workforce Planning Actions for Job Requisitions (Adaptive Planning)
We continue to streamline your ability to make changes to your workforce in HCM from an approved workforce plan in Adaptive Planning. You can now create job requisitions in HCM when you publish your workforce plan. This feature requires additional setup.
Learning Certifications (Learning)
With this release, we enable you to issue and renew certifications to learners based on their completion of associated learning content. Workday 2021R2 provides more control over how you manage, monitor, and track certification statuses for learners in your organization. This feature is automatically available and requires no additional setup.
Race and Ethnicity for EEO Reporting (HCM)
Workday now maps multiple race values to the equivalent EEO categories in EEO reports, improving the accuracy of EEO reporting data. This feature requires additional setup.
Time and Scheduling Hub (Time Tracking)
With this release, Workday delivers the Time and Scheduling Hub, which frontline managers can use to access critical tasks and reports for time management. This feature requires additional setup.
Pay On-Demand (Payroll)
With 2021R2, Workday continues to enhance pay on-demand functionality. We improve reporting to simplify how you maintain pay on-demand and improve the information workers can view so they better understand the process. Payroll administrators also gain more control over the process with actions such as limiting the amount of payment requests. This feature requires additional setup.
Delivered Discovery Boards (Cross-Functional)
With this release, Workday delivers a new Delivered Discovery Board experience, enabling you to view all Workday-delivered discovery boards that you can add to your tenant. You can now select, configure, and customize discovery boards to suit your organizational needs. The experience improves searchability, reduces manual effort, and increases analytics and reporting efficiency. This feature requires additional setup.
REST API for Core Accounting (Integrations)
We simplify how you retrieve financial information by delivering a new REST API and corresponding operations. This helps you extend Workday Financials to more applications and enables you to access and derive financial components. This feature requires additional setup.
Alex Maidy leads the Time Tracking, Absence and Payroll team in Workday’s ERPA practice. Learn more about our Workday leadership team here.
ERPA is Here to Help
Here at ERPA, we have developed a proprietary dashboard that is housed natively in your Workday tenant. This dashboard allows you to implement each new Workday release in the easiest way possible. We will be highlighting this dashboard in upcoming releases, but it is already available to all current ERPA customers. Contact us today if you would like a demo of the dashboard.
