Last revised October 31, 2017

Workday – Learning Lab Guide

(Employee)

Page 1 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Contents
Learning Lab Purpose............................................................................................................................ 3
Guide Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................... 3
Instructions ............................................................................................................................................ 3
What Is Workday? ................................................................................................................................. 3
Workday Fundamentals ......................................................................................................................... 4
Getting to Know Workday ...................................................................................................................... 5
Activity 1: Navigating Workday ........................................................................................................... 5
Employee Self Service Activities (Faculty, Staff and Student Workers) ................................................ 10
Activity 1: Update Personal Information ............................................................................................ 10
Activity 2: Upload My Experience ..................................................................................................... 11
Activity 3: Enter Time ........................................................................................................................ 12
Activity 4: Request Time Off ............................................................................................................. 15
Appendix 1: Workday – Terminology .................................................................................................. 18
Appendix 2: Common Worklets in Workday ........................................................................................ 21

Page 2 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Learning Lab Purpose

The purpose of the Learning Lab is to provide Faculty, Staff and Student Workers with the ability to
explore the self-service functions and capabilities of the Workday system.
The session is intended to provide insight toward some of the most common Workday transactions
performed by Faculty, Staff and Student Workers but is not intended to be comprehensive of everything
that may be performed in the system.

Guide Disclaimer
Due to continuous improvements to the Workday system, the guide may not reflect recent updates to
the Workday environment.

Instructions
Use this guide to explore the employee self-service functions and capabilities of Workday. Complete
the Workday actions using the guidance provided in each section.

NOTE: Any updates or changes made in the Workday Sandbox environment will not be maintained as
part of the production Workday system configuration. This Sandbox is only provided for additional user
experience.

What Is Workday?
 Workday is a cloud-based system that The Texas A&M University System uses to manage the
Human Resources, Benefits and Payroll functions for all employees
 Workday unifies processes that in the past required multiple systems
 Workday modernizes the way we do business in the A&M system
 Some of the major benefits of Workday include:
o Streamlined processes and technology, including the ability to sign on to one system to
complete processes
o Organized collection of employee data, performance and talent management that provides
you with one single source for obtaining important information
o Shared, real-time data and dashboard reporting replacing static reports and delayed action
for faster business decision making
o Enhanced / improved career growth and engagement for Employees, Managers, and HR
personnel

Page 3 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Workday Fundamentals
Workday is built on three basic fundamentals:
 Organizations: Organizations are used to group people, resources, workers and their institution
or agency. They provide management, visibility and reporting structures for resource allocation
 Business Process: A business process is a set of tasks used to accomplish a specific goal
such as posting a position. Workday will automatically route specific steps in a workflow to those
responsible for them. Certain processes may require multiple approvals within Workday and
may also have additional approvals outside of Workday
 Security Roles: Security roles determine what you can see and do. Initiation of a business
process is determined by the employee’s security role in the Workday system. The same
business process may be initiated by multiple security roles
o Security roles are not job titles. The roles provide Workday users access to appropriate
data within the assigned organization structure. The roles also determine functional
responsibilities, routing of actions in a business process and access to reports
o Workday users will be assigned a security role based on the access they will need in the
system. Some users may be assigned to multiple security roles depending on their
duties and responsibilities

Page 4 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Getting to Know Workday

Activity 1: Navigating Workday

This section provides details around basic navigation in Workday. Follow the instructions to explore
system navigation features.

Accessing Workday
All A&M System employees will access Workday through Single Sign On (SSO).
Click the Workday shortcut on the desktop / browser or type the URL,
[Link] into the browser address bar. If you are not already
logged into SSO, you will be prompted to authenticate into Workday using either your SSO or system
member’s credentials. You can review the list of System members at the SSO login page.

Workday Home Page

The Workday Home page provides an icon-rich user experience much like what exists on your smart
phone or tablet. These icons, called worklets, enable you to quickly access tasks that you will perform
on a daily basis as well as the links to pages that will provide additional resources for you. For example,
you can use the Personal Information worklet to access or modify the details about your emergency
contacts.

Page 5 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

My Account
Click the My Account icon. The My Account icon provides access to the drop-
down menu that gives you options and access to things such as:
 Your Worker Profile
 The Home page
 Your inbox and notifications
 Favorites you have saved
 Account settings
 Access to sign out of Workday

Working with Worklets

 A worklet is an icon found on the Home page that makes it easier to access information needed on
a routine basis
 Some examples of tasks that you can access through worklets include:
o View paystubs or benefits elections
o View reports
o Enter time or request time off
o Access your Inbox
 Please see the Appendix for a list of common worklets in Workday

Page 6 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Workday Inbox
 Workday is a workflow-based application. All approvals, reviews, to-dos and other action items are
accessed through your Workday Inbox
 Action items remain in your Inbox until you (or someone with the same security role) review and
take the appropriate action
 Access your Inbox by clicking the Inbox worklet on your Home page

Using Notifications
 Notifications are messages from Workday letting you know about tasks
that have been completed or may require additional attention
 Examples of notification messages:
o Your request for time off has been approved
o The job requisition you created for an administrative assistant has
been successfully completed
 To view Notifications:
1. Click the My Account icon
2. Then, select Notifications from the menu
NOTE: All Workday Notifications and To Do tasks will trigger an email notification to your email of
record.

Workday Search Bar

 The Search bar is one of the most powerful tools in Workday for finding information
 Search for people, tasks, reports and more by using the Search bar located in the top-left corner

Page 7 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

 The Search bar can predict what you are looking for as you type and will present options in a
drop-down menu
o You can enter partially typed words but no misspelled words
 Similar to common Internet search engines, a keyword or command can be entered and a list of
search results will be displayed. The results can be filtered in order to help you narrow your
search and find what you are requesting. Workday’s intuitive system will also aid you in finding
what you are looking for by displaying common search items as you begin to enter text
 The categories on the left will help you narrow down your search results by filtering out other
search results. For example, when you search for “Time Off”, you see the top 30 items. If you
want to see Time Off information related to Payroll, click Payroll on the left sidebar. In the
second screenshot below, you can see where a list of Time Off items related to Payroll appear

Page 8 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Worker Profile
The Worker Profile provides you with basic information about workers in the A&M System who are in
Workday. Your security role determines how much information you can see. The Worker Profile
displays information such as the organizations employees belong to, who their managers are, and an
overview of their education and work experience. Other potential information includes contact, career,
personal, performance, feedback, and pay information; once again, the type and level of information
displayed depends on your security role.

Page 9 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

Employee Self Service Activities (Faculty, Staff and Student

Workers)
This section provides an overview of various self-service actions available to employees. Follow the
instructions to explore self-service features.
Note: Changes you make in the Sandbox will NOT be carried over into Workday for Go Live. This
activity is only for practice and will not update the actual production version.

Activity 1: Update Personal Information

On the Workday Home page:
1. Click the Personal Information worklet

2. In the Change section, click Personal Information

3. In the Gender section, click the Edit icon to add or edit information about your gender

4. In the Date of Birth section, click the Edit icon to add or edit information about your date of
birth
Note: Changes in the date of birth require confirmation in the form of documentation to your HR staff

5. In the Race/Ethnicity section, click the Edit icon to add or edit information about your race /
ethnicity

6. In the Citizenship Status section, click the Edit icon to add or edit information about your
citizenship status

7. In the Nationality section, click the Edit icon to add or edit information about your nationality

Page 10 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

8. Enter any comments, as needed

9. Click Submit
The request will be routed to other individuals for additional steps.
To view the next steps, open the Details and Process section and then click the Process tab.

Activity 2: Upload My Experience

On the Workday Home page:
1. Click the My Account icon on the top right (cloud icon or profile picture) and click View Profile on
the drop-down menu

The Worker Profile page displays

2. Click Career from various sections of the Worker Profile on the left

Page 11 of 22
Last revised October 31, 2017

3. On the Career page, on the Education tab, click Upload My Experience

Note: Edit or remove the existing education details by clicking Edit or Remove, respectively
4. On the Upload My Experience, you can upload your resume by selecting or dragging the file

5. Click Submit
This completes the Upload My Experience process

Activity 3: Enter Time

This section outlines the process for employees to enter time.
Important Information:
 Time can be entered by hourly employees and salaried employees tracking time on
projects. Hours entered by salaried employees are for record keeping only and do not feed to
payroll
 Time entry policies vary by member. Please note that some members will enter time with the
number of hours worked and others will enter time with the exact times worked

On the Workday Home page:

1. Click the Time worklet
Page 12 of 22
Last revised October 26, 2017

2. Click This Week

The Time Calendar will display
Note:
 The number of hours already entered for the week will also display
 Alternatively, you can click Last Week or Select Week

3. Click under the date where you want to add hours

A blue Enter Time box should appear, and then a pop-up will display

Page 13 of 22
Last revised October 26, 2017

4. Complete the following fields:

 Time Type (either Project, Time Entry Code or Absence Code)
 Hours
 Comment
Note: Some members will enter exact times rather than the number of hours for each day
5. Click OK
The time entered displays on the Time Calendar

Note: Alternatively, click Enter Time at the bottom of the page to view a drop-down list of other
options. From here, you can select from the following options pertaining to time entry:
 Auto-fill from Prior Week
 Auto-fill from Schedule
 Clear
 Enter Time
 Review Time
 Review Time by Week

Note: Auto-fill from Prior Week and Auto-fill from Schedule will also add time to the calendar
6. Once all time has been correctly entered on the calendar, click Submit to continue
7. On the Submit Time summary page, review the time entered on the previous page

Page 14 of 22
Last revised October 26, 2017

8. Click Submit
9. Enter any comments, as needed
10. Click Submit
The request will be routed to other individuals for additional steps. To view the next steps, open the
Details and Process section and then click the Process tab.
This completes the Enter Time process.

Activity 4: Request Time Off

This section outlines the process for an employee to Request Time Off.
On the Workday Home page:
1. Click the Time Off worklet

2. In the Request section, Click Time Off

The Time Off Calendar page will display

3. Select a date in the left column to see your Time Off Balance as of that date
4. Click and drag over the dates on the calendar for the date range you will be taking time off.
Alternatively, click on each individual date you will be off if they are not sequential

5. At the bottom of the screen, a green button will say how many days were selected. Click the
Request Time Off button

Page 15 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

6. In the pop-up window that displays, complete the following fields:

a. Time Off Type
b. Daily Quantity
c. Reason (Required for certain Time Off Types)
7. Enter any comments, as needed

Note: Only Types that you are eligible for will appear. Daily Quantity enables you to enter
in a partial day off if necessary. Reason options will appear based on the Type selected.
8. Click Submit
9. Your Manager will receive an inbox task to approve your Time Off Request. The manager
can view the details of the request and View Balance. The manager then clicks Approve
on the inbox task

Page 16 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

Request Time Off is now complete. The time off will appear on your Time Off Calendar and
be visible to you, your Manager and the Absence Partner
This completes the Request Time Off process.

Page 17 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

Appendix 1: Workday – Terminology

Term Description
Benefit event An event that gives you the opportunity to change your benefit elections.
These include staffing events (such as getting hired) and life events (such
as getting married or having a child)
A set of related fields. Instances of a business object include rows in a
table or a spreadsheet, with each instance representing a unique
occurrence of that type of object, such as an organization or a worker. A
business object can have no instances, one instance or many instances.
Business object Workday automatically links related business objects together. For
example, supervisory organization details are linked to a supervisory
organization; the supervisory organization is linked to positions; positions
are linked to employees; and so on
A task that you can initiate, act upon and complete to accomplish a
desired business objective. Business processes are created using a
combination of actions, approvals, approval chains, To Dos and/or
checklists. An action can be a single task or sub-process, which is also a
combination of actions, To Dos and/or checklists. Within the process,
Business process conditions can be defined that will identify whether a step will be initiated.
Notifications can also be created to let a Workday user know that a step
has begun or been completed or that a particular review response was
selected. Examples of business processes include Hire, Change Job,
Request Compensation Change, Terminate Employee etc.
A feature to view more data in a matrix report. When you click a drillable
element (such as a drillable field in the table view or a column, line or pie
segment in the chart view), a context menu appears that enables you to
Drill-down select a new View By field. If the Enable Drilldown to Detail Data check
box is selected on the Advanced tab of the report definition, you can also
select details associated with the selected report element
A transaction that occurs within your organization, such as hiring or
Event terminating a worker
An area that contains data related to a particular primary or related
Field
business object
A clickable icon used to narrow down data. Clicking this icon will create a
Filter row on your report where you filter data to display from one or more
columns

Page 18 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

The ratio of a worker's scheduled weekly hours to the weekly hours for the
Full Time Equivalent
business site. If a worker works 20 hours a week and the business site
(FTE) % weekly hours are 40, then the worker's FTE% is 50%
A group of tasks, reports and objects. For example, the HCM solution
includes functional areas such as Benefits, Talent & Performance,
Functional Area Absence and Manager/Employee self-service. Each of Workday's
solutions is grouped into distinct functional areas
Headcount The number of workers in an organization
An employment eligibility verification. A document all workers must
I-9 complete to verify their identity and employment authorization
A benefit event that occurs in your personal life, such as getting married or
Life Event having a child
A type of enrollment event that typically occurs once per year system wide.
Open Enrollment Unlike benefit event enrollment, which is triggered by a life event or job
Event change, an open enrollment event applies to an entire employee and
retiree population
A visual depiction of how an organization is structured. It outlines the roles
Org Chart and responsibilities of and relationships among individuals within an
organization
The formal process to establish annual worker goals and conduct the
Performance Review
performance evaluation process, which includes review and rating of
Process goals, competencies and position responsibilities
A term used in Staffing to identify individuals (candidates) before
Pre-Hire employment and used in Recruiting to identify candidates who are in the
Offer or Background Check stage
A group of people with specific responsibilities and permissions. When a
Roles business process runs, the role for each step includes all of the workers in
that role in the business process target organization
Any event that changes your position or job, such as a hire, a transfer or a
Staffing Event promotion
Workers grouped into a management hierarchy. Supervisory organizations
Supervisory are the primary organization type in Workday. All approvals and checklists
Organization are established for the supervisory organization hierarchy, with possible
variations for particular organizations within that hierarchy
An action you must take in a business process, unless you reassign or
Task delegate the task. For example, notifications or inbox alerts are triggered
by steps in a business process
Reminders to do something. They can be part of business processes and
To-Dos must be marked complete before the workflow will go to the next step
A withholding allowance certificate. This will inform an employer of how
W-4 much income tax to withhold from your paycheck

Page 19 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

A person who is either an employee hired by a company or a contingent

Worker worker contracted by a company
A continuously updated page that provides a quick view of an employee’s
Worker Profile experience, skills, education and projects
A compact report displayed as an app on your Home page, providing easy
Worklet access to tasks and information you use on a regular basis. Examples of
worklets include Pay, Time Off, Personal Information and Benefits
Keywords that you can assign to transactions and supporting data to make
their business purposes clear and establish common relationships through
Worktag classification. You can find information more easily, filter searches down to
focused results and analyze information in aggregated and summarized
reporting by business dimension

Page 20 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

Appendix 2: Common Worklets in Workday

Name Worklet Description
A worklet linking you to common actions and views
related to benefits, including change benefits,
Benefits beneficiaries and dependents. You can use the
worklet to view your benefit elections and current
benefits cost

A worklet containing favorite reports and tasks for

Favorites
easy access

A worklet showing your action items, To Dos, and

Inbox approvals; required for all users and cannot be
removed from the Home page

A worklet linking you to common actions and views

related to your team, including viewing your direct
My Team reports and their employment information (transfer,
promotion or change of job). This worklet is being
retired in 2018

A worklet linking you to common actions and views

related to your team, including viewing your direct
reports and their recent activity. For example you
can Transfer, Promote, or Change Job, Change
My Team Management Location, Add Job, Terminate and Place Worker on
Leave here. Finally, you can view important
information such as a team comparison, the
Organization Directory, Headcount, Management
Chain and Timeline

A worklet linking you to common actions and views

related to your pay, including accessing withholding
elections and payment elections and viewing
Pay
payslips, total compensation, bonus and one-time
payment history, tax documents and allowance
plans

Page 21 of 22
Last revised October 30, 2017

A worklet linking you to common actions and views

related to your personal information, including
changing your contact and personal information
Personal Information (such as your addresses, e-mail and phone
number), emergency contacts, photo, legal name,
preferred name and government IDs; required for all
users and cannot be removed from the Home page

A worklet enabling employees, managers and safety

Safety
partners to report safety incidents

A worklet linking you to common actions and views

Time related to your time, including entering your time
and viewing your time-off balance

A worklet linking you to common actions and views

related to time off, including viewing your time-off
Time Off
correction, leave of absence, time off and time-off
balance

Page 22 of 22