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Workday wants to make inflexible human resource portals a thing of the past by applying analytics to the wealth of employee data that companies already collect and using it to drive new ways of managing workforces.
The Pleasanton, Calif. financial management and human resources (HR) technology firm is baking new intelligent capabilities into the Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) application’s home page for employees. The company aims to help workers reclaim time that is typically lost to navigating inflexible HR portals when they are brushing up on workplace policies, want to request time off or have questions about their benefits.
The revamped home page, or the “new people experience,” draws insights from the employee information within Workday HCM to deliver personalized HR content and contextual suggestions. Resembling a social media feed, the home page will automatically president learning content that helps managers work more effectively with their teams or help employees create a game plan and square away paperwork when they transfer into a new department or office location.
In terms of collaboration, it will feature a built-in search function that burrows into the full text of posted policies and shared documents, allowing workers to tap into an organization’s institutional knowledge when they take on a new project or role. Workday also promised a rich set of APIs that will allow organizations to integrate the product into the workflows of their productivity and collaboration apps or enable employees to interact with third-party financial services companies or benefits programs.
Finally, business customers will be able to make the Workday HCM home page their own. Employers can use Workday Designer to add their logos and customize the home page in a way that consistent with their corporate brand.
“With these new capabilities, employees will be able to perform workplace tasks quickly and easily during critical moments in their career, such as major life events and job changes. Currently, this is a tedious process that may require multiple calls into HR, separate interactions with a third-party benefits provider, and searching various applications to find an answer,” explained Cristina Goldt, vice president of Human Capital Management Products at Workday, in response to an email inquiry from eWEEK.
“With intelligent functionality woven into a new Workday home page, employees can view recommended steps, courses of action, and activities that will provide them with better education, coaching, and guidance at every stage of their workplace journey,” Goldt said.
Although the new features are predominantly employee-facing, they will also have a beneficial, if indirect impact on HR departments, added Goldt. “For HR professionals, the new people experience will enable them to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks and focus on more strategic projects that drive business value.”
Workday HCM’s new intelligent personalization capabilities and related tools are set to officially launch in the second half of 2018.