With the coming of the New Year, new changes also come around. One such change is the new way students and employees on BYU-Hawaii campus now clock into work. There are empty walls where the time clocks used to be, employees now go online and can access an app to use Workday.
Students now can clock in and clock in from computers and their mobile device on Workday’s app. They can also put in when they go on a break or go to lunch during their shifts. Other things are available for students to easily access and see, such as payslips, requesting time off, updating their profile, and much more.
Students and employers have been enjoying some new features of Workday. For Jeff Strain, the director of enterprise information systems, one thing he finds easier for him is immediately receiving a message on his phone when employees want time off.
Nesha Havili, a senior from Texas studying elementary education, said she likes that students can fix their own missed punches. “We don’t have to email our supervisor every time we make a mistake,” she said. ]
The appearance is also appealing to students. “It’s easy, simple, colorful and appealing to the eye,” said Hannah Cabeza, a graduate in elementary education from California. For Bryan Le, a graduate working in Information systems from Vietnam, he enjoys the flexibility of the website. “The interface is friendly and easy to use.”
Strain said, “[Workday is] a different way of thinking. It does allow for more flexibility and also the user to know what they’re looking for.”
The negative aspect of Workday is that clocking in takes longer, students say. “With the [timeclocks], you just had to go and sign in, but with Workday you have to sign in and it takes more time,” said sophomore Kili Lang from Washington studying international cultural studies.
This change to Workday from PeopleSoft started over two years ago, when the school was looking into using a different program than PeopleSoft. BYU Idaho also uses PeopleSoft. It employs 25 full time IT employees to update and customize it. BYUH had three employees to update PeopleSoft.
“It works well for BYU because they have a lot of people,” said Vice President of Administration, Norm Black. Black also explained how while BYU-Idaho could customize its page, BYUH had to work more with the software that was provided.
Workday has an easier interface, only three major updates a year and smaller updates weekly, making it easier than PeopleSoft to manage, according to Black. Also, unlike PeopleSoft, Workday keeps everyone in the same system.
In order to save money, the school collaborated with BYU-Idaho, who was also having problems with their current software. This also saves the school a considerable amount of money, according to Black.
The timeclocks used to clock in were an expensive investment for the school. “[The timeclocks are] $1500 dollars a piece and $400 to fix,” said Black. Using the Internet saves the money used to repair those clocks and keeps up with modern technology.
“It’s really kind of moved us into the 21st century,” said Black.
With the implementation of Workday and phasing out of PeopleSoft, other things will change in the future as well, according to Black. Students will be able to apply for jobs with Workday, register for classes, manage finances, etc.
“This is one of the biggest projects we’ve done in a long time,” said Strain. “We’ve put in a lot of effort from EIS and HR.”
“We ask people to be patient, and if they see something not working to let us know,” said Black.