History

In 2011, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) began modernizing its legacy finance and human resources systems. This transformation aimed to streamline business operations, promote consistent and effective operating policies, and reduce process redundancies across institutions, among other goals. Through a shared governance approach, a team was formed and charged with making recommendations for a new enterprise platform. The team included representatives from every institution. Decision-making was collaborative and transparent.

After evaluating different platforms, Workday emerged as the technology that best suited the needs of the NSHE and its institutions. In 2017, NSHE launched Workday, which comprises human capital management, payroll, and financial management in a single system.

Continuously Improving Workday for NSHE Institutions

The Workday@NSHE Team manages the Workday environment on behalf of all institutions. Their primary responsibilities include but are not limited to:

  • Lead discussions on the benefits and drawbacks of system changes
  • Configure changes in a non-production environment when institutions approve them
  • Test changes to ensure they work as intended
  • Implement changes into the Workday production environment 
  • Develop trainings and communications for all institutions, if appropriate

UNLV collaborates with the Workday@NSHE Team as well as other NSHE institutions to make system improvements. The university employs a shared leadership model to manage the platform, with the central teams serving as the primary leads. Under this model, Workday functions fall under the responsibility of teams that already manage those particular functions on behalf of the university. Below is an example of how the shared leadership model is operationalized: 

  • Financial Services oversees Workday's financial accounting because accounting policies and practices are within their purview. When they see opportunities for improving financial accounting in Workday, they present those ideas to the Workday@NSHE Team and NSHE institutions. 
  • All NSHE institutions weigh in, and then a vote is taken. If campuses approve the change, Financial Services participates in testing to ensure these changes work correctly. 
  • Financial Services develops a communication and/ or training strategy to implement the changes. They also integrate that change into business processes existing outside of Workday and update policies and procedures that support the university's operations.

Guiding Principles

The Workday@NSHE Team and the NSHE institutions use the following guiding principles when evaluating system changes. These principles ensure system improvements align with the goal of modernizing finance and human resources applications.

  • Platform First: Existing and available functionality shall be thoroughly evaluated and prioritized before the adoption of new or additional products will be considered.
  • Streamline Processes: Functionality that streamlines institutional and system-wide processes shall be prioritized over functionality that adds complexity.
  • Support Growth and Future Readiness: Functionality that supports institutional capacity for enrollment growth and future transformation shall be prioritized over functionality that does not support growth and future transformation.