Practical guide on how to prepare your data for the Workday implementation project

Take your data seriously

Inaccurate data may cause unnecessary problems after the system go-live. In case of HCM implementation, an example issue can be that the customer´s legacy system does not support the real company structure or matrix organizations, so certain inconsistent dummy organisations are created, and this inaccurate structure is loaded to Workday. This causes access issues to employee data for responsible HR and managers. Other common example is a simple human error in employee data gathering. Cleaning your data may seem like an overwhelming task but there are guiding steps which will help you:

1. Start by identifying your data sources and prepare to start collecting and transforming your data
2. Set priorities: identify what data is the most crucial to be accurate and then follow the next steps. Is there any data that has little business impact if inaccurate? Then plan to correct that data after the top priority data is sorted
3. Analyse: going through the data you have and identify any anomalies
4. Act: find missing data, remove duplicate records, inconsistencies, irrelevant information and make sure that the data is accurate, reliable, up to date and consistent across countries. This may be easier said than done. Remember that solving data issues comes with a lot of internal collaboration which may take a significant amount of time. Do you know where the correct information is stored? Who has the knowledge of what is correct? Are any statistical techniques needed to analyse the data? Do you have enough skilled resources to review the data?
5. Final touches: did you make all the corrections and filled in missing values? Great! Now look at your data sets holistically before handing them over to your partner. Cross-check the data and ensure the consistency, accuracy and verify that the data you will provide is meeting the expected requirements. Data corrections that occur in later stages of the project will cost you valuable time, money and resources.

In a Workday implementation project, Excel or XML templates are used as a tool to collect and compile your data. To avoid unnecessary errors in data loads to Workday, your team should be able to deliver the data in standardized format. When creating a team to handle the data preparation the knowledge of legacy and Workday data, reporting and data processing skills are an advantage. If you identified that your team may not have enough knowledge or capacity to handle the data gathering process, Tietoevry Tech Services can help you by staffing your team.

What are the consequences for providing poor quality of data?

If the data is based on unreliable or flawed information during the project, it can lead to inaccurate analysis and misleading insights by both the partner consultants and your team. As a result some data might be missing or incorrect in production environment.

Customer project tasks such as additional data cleansing, resolving inconsistencies, and inputting missing values can be time-consuming and will lead to extra costs. Reliable and high-quality data is essential for identifying trends, patterns, and opportunities for growth or improvement.

In Tietoevry, we have mechanisms in place to guide you further in preparing, validating data (technically and functionally), and to communicate the importance of providing accurate and reliable data. Since it is crucial for you to ensure the quality of the data provided you can also ask your partner for additional help.

How do we as Tietoevry ensure the data integrity?

Working with data requires security and safety measures because of the personal nature of the information. As a partner to Workday, there are certain obligations that we must follow. Partners must comply with the high standards specified in the partner agreements and adhere to Workday's security and privacy policies. For instance, Tietoevry must adhere to secure data transfer and storage, and only access the data that is authorised to view beforehand. Furthermore, access to Workday implementation tenants and sFTP folders is only granted to certified consultants who have been added to the deployment scorecard in the partner portal. Stringent protocols are in place for onboarding new project team members and authorizing their access to a customer's data and tenant.

During the implementation process, it is essential to perform data validation in collaboration with the customer. Deployment workbooks incorporate automation to assist with validation, but manual checks are also necessary to account for potential errors. Our consultants maintain open communication with the customer to address any necessary changes.

Are you planning to implement Workday? Do you need a helping hand with your data management? Contact our team via the form above and check more about our Workday services. Let´s discuss how me and my team could help you from data consultantancy within the implementation project, through customer roles, to advisory and more.