How to set up the Announcements in Workday?

Announcements

You can notice Announcements on your home page and they are different for each employee based on the configurations. Understand that this is part of your Home (Landing Page) Dashboard, which is configurable.

Access the Configure Announcements task and identify the Home Dashboard to configure.

Notice the Rule column, this can be setup with the task Create Announcement Rule. Based on the rule you condition, it will show up the group of employees if they satisfy the condition. 

Also up on expiration date, it will not show up to view on the page. 

Also you can use the Edit Dashboard (Home)task to control all your announcements.

Compare Workers / Compare Team

Compare Workers

Use the standard report Compare Workers to compare workers in the tenant. This helps in finding more than one employee's information at the same time side by side and take an informed decision. This allows you to compare a Contingent Worker along with the Worker.

Also there is another standard report by the name - Compare Team which helps in comparing the Workers in a given team.  This won't let you compare your workers along with the Contingent Workers.

Use the Report - Compare Talent by Organization to identify the right talent.

Packaged Connectors - Special Character Translations

Perform Character Translation

There are chances where your end-point would not be expecting any special characters in the output file that you send to them. When you are working on a Packaged Connector / Core Connector look out for the Integration attribute - Perform Character Translation, and check the check box, which will automatically take care of the translations in your file.

Any of the below special characters you may typically see from Name or an Address field.

Special Characters: 'àâäèéêëîïôœùûüÿÀÁÂÄÈÉÊËÎÏÔŒÙÛÜŸçÇáéíóúÁÉÍÓÚäöüÄÖÜßàèéìòóùÀÈÉÌÒÓÙáéíóúüÁÉÍÓÚÜñÑ¿¡
Translated Characters: aaaeeeeiioeuuuYAAAAEEEEIIOEUUUYCCaeiouAEIOUaouAOUBaeeioouAEEIOOUaeiouuAEIOUUnN?1

Navigation: Go to your Integration >> Related Actions >> Integration System >> Configure Integration Attributes

How to Test your Workday Integration Connection / Delivery Method?

Test Transport

Its always a good practice to test your transport (Delivery) before Launching the integration, this way you know whether your credentials say SFTP / FTP related are working fine or not. This can be for any type of integrations. 

If there is any challenges in the details that you had setup in the delivery method of your integrations you can always reconfirm with your end-point and fix it.

Here is an example of one Integration System as how to navigate and test.

Navigation: Go to your Integration System >> Related Actions >> Integration >> Test Transport

Pick up the required action that you want to perform during the test. Here you can see the selection Connect.

Once you click OK in above screen it tests the delivery method and gives you the response, it could be Completed or it may error if it could not connect.

Tip - Re Launch EIB or Core Connector or Studio Integration

Re-Launch Integration Event

While you launch your integration depending on the type say it EIB or a Core Connector, many a times you may need to provide the required / optional Launch Parameters. For one time it will be fine but during the testing you may want to repeatedly run your Integration with same or a different parameters. In that cases, instead of just launching the integration you may use the Relaunch Integration Event. 

This will populate the same integration event related parameters which you used in the last run. According to your need, you may change and quickly launch it.

So make use of Relaunch Integration to launch your integration to auto fill your launch parameters.

Access the task Integration Events and key in your integration name and hit enter to see the below screen. Go to the Integration Event related actions and then Relaunch Integration Event task. This will take you to the next screen.

Below shows the example of a Core Connector.

On this screen below, you can edit your launch Parameters according to your current need and Launch.

How to setup Required Worklets in the Tenant?

Maintain Dashboard - Home

Most of the people know how to set the Worklets / Applications on the Home Page. If not, you will see a Setting / gear icon on the home page which lets you configure what you want to see on the Worklets. You can set the Optional Worklets but the required Worklets on the left does not allow you to edit or change. 

You can edit those Required Worklets as what should be shown and to Whom.

Meanwhile, worklets are the easily accessible icons which we can say shortcuts for your tasks or reports or both of them grouped as a folder. What ever you see in the worklets can be searchable in the search bar.

Naviage to the task - Edit Tenant Setup - Worklets  and click on Maintain Dashboards. 

Or you can directly access the task - Maintain Dashboards.

Out of the listed Custom and Workday Delivered dashboards, search for Home and click on Edit.

Here it will take you to Content, which allows you to add or remove Worklets. Also notice the Required for Groups and Required checkbox which is making it mandate for those security group users. 

How to configure the Summary Page of Worker?

Configure Profile Summary

Different companies would like to show up different summarized sections on the Worker's profile. Navigation: Go to Worker's Profile >> Summary

Workday allows you to configure Summary through the task - Configure Profile Summary.

As shown below are the available profiles that you can configure the summary for. Most of them that you notice here are for Recruiting, and Student related.

Once you select the desired profile, you have the choice of selection as which cards / sections you wanted to show up on your Worker's profile and their order.

How to Enable or Disable certain fields in Workday based on Region?

Maintain Localization Settings

Workday allows you to setup certain fields based on Locale i.e. Country. Access the Task - Maintain Localization Settings. As you notice only in certain Areas at the moment.

As you see down below the only allowed areas as of today are:

Contact Information, Internal Candidate Compensation, Staffing, Personal Information, Period Activity Hours.

Select the area to configure. In this example lets take Personal Information. You can not Add or Remove the fields with in any Area.

Notice the fields below:

Localized Field - The field that you want to control.

Allow for Countries or Regions - If not selected, applies to all Countries. If selected applies to only selected.

Active - If selected then it is Applicable and active in Tenant.

Require for Countries - If you mandate for certain countries, populate those.

Enforce Required in Web Services - With in Web Services the localized field will be a required ones

Task: Maintain Localization Settings

How to set up Termination Categories in Workday Core HCM?

Termination Categories

When you are performing a termination transaction or an End Worker Contract for an Employee / Worker in Workday, you will see the Termination Category and Sub Category. Have you ever wondered where these can be maintained? If so it is with the help of task Maintain Termination Categories.

Example: Termination Category        - Voluntary

                Termination Sub-Category - Career Move

Go to the task Maintain Termination Categories, notice couple of Termination Events, you will see End Contingent Worker Contract / Terminate Employee. Depending on your need, you can go ahead and configure it on the next screen.

Here on this screen by clicking on add button you may add a new reason or you can edit the existing ones. Notice the other fields that you see on the same screen that you can maintain like Eligible for Rehire, Inactive, usage etc.,

Access the report Termination Categories

You have a report to see what are the existing values. 

How do I find appropriate fields for creating Workday condition rules?

Fields for creating Condition Rules

While creating condition rules say for example in Business Processes, if a field that you are looking for is not available or it in one of the other related Business Objects,  then you can create your own calculate fields and bring it up to the Action Event Level. 

Remember that you Business Process is related to the action event. Also you can notice all the available fields and conditions that you can use in a particular BP.

Lets take an example of Termination BP - You can see a tab "Available Rules & Fields". Search here for the fields that you are looking for while creating the conditions. 

Also check  Workday Data Dictionary report to determine what fields are available for each business object.

How to handle unassigned Tasks in Business Processes?

Unassigned Tasks 

I know a lot of new Workday Enthusiasts struggle in fixing the Unassigned Tasks in the Business process that you typically see in the inbox.

An unassigned task is one for which the specified security group does not contain a user, or contains only users with disabled Workday accounts.

Here is an example of identifying one such Business Processes and fixing the same. Lets say we want to identify the hire processes that were hanging around in the Unassigned state.

Access the report Unassigned Tasks.   

Business Process Administrators can reassign unassigned tasks to workers in the required security group. Workday sends a notification email to members of all security groups with View and Modify permissions to the Business Process Administration domain when a task becomes unassigned. 

Provide the specific BP or select For all Business processes radio button to view all BP's per your need and most necessarily provide the date range to fetch you the results in a specific time line.

In our case we can see two Hire BP's that do not have any workers to assign.

Navigate to the related actions of the BP Event, then Reassign Unassigned Task.

Then on the next screen, give the user that you want this task to be reassigned to.

That marks the completion of reassignment of an unassigned Task.

Root cause for the Unassigned Tasks in BP mostly be the Unassigned roles in the Supervisory Organization or User account disabled, or expired or locked.

Full Process Record on Business Process Event

Full Process Record on BPs

The Full Process Record on the Business Process Event gives you a great amount of detailing regarding what happened from the BP's initiation to the processing to any sub events triggered to the actions performed to the notifications generated.

Access any Business Process  and go to the related actions fo that BP event, In the below example we took an integration event. You could view on any Hire or Termination or any other BP that you need to analyze.

You can notice the below sections showing up all the tabs which indeed contains the detailed information about this event. Also notice Comments tab if there were any comments as part of the process. Below sample doesn't show up though.

Copy Custom Notifications

Copy Custom Notifications on Business Processes

Often there are times, where we should be creating multiple custom notifications may be on the same lines. Making the use of Copy Notification feature eases the creation of multiple custom Notifications.

So, make the use of Copy Notifications to lessen the burden of creating multiple notifications from scratch.

Access your Business Process and go to the Notification tab and see your existing custom notifications and click on the related actions on your custom notification and then

Business Process >> Copy Notification

Provide the Effective Date and notice the Workflow Notification that is being copied. On the next screen you will notice your custom notification being copied and you can now edit according to your need. 

Secured Items in Multiple Domains

Secured Items in Multiple Domains

Use this report, if you have a need to identify if any item like report, task, report field etc., are associated with multiple domains.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have any parameters that you can set before running the report. So it will take a while to run and fetch the results.

You can also make use of another delivered report,  View Security for Securable Item Not many will have access to this.

Report: Business Process and Integration Notifications

Business Process and Integration Notifications

This is a report that you can use when you wanted to check for the notification routing. For example, for one of the task in the Business Process triggered a notification and you wanted to see, if it really triggered those recipients. This can be used for both Business Processes and Integrations.

There are couple of reports that you will notice in the tenant. 

 

Business Process and Integration Notifications (Do Not Use) - This is not an indexed report and Workday is not supporting this so refrain from using this report. Do Not Use (DNU)

Business Process and Integration Notifications Indexed - Use this Report. When you give your input parameters, be mindful in providing the values, do not go for lengthier durations.

The example below shows for one day.

Notice there are 317 instances for one day. Here you can see all the notifications that got generated with date and time. 

Recipients are the individual workers or the workers from the security groups. Lastly you can see the Static Email Recipients like test@gmail.com

All Custom Reports Errors - Identify and Fix

 Fix Custom Report errors across Tenant

Make use of the delivered report Custom Report Exception Audit to identify all the errors pertaining to the custom reports with in the tenant. This is one of the Audit report that helps in keeping your system error free.

Notice any one of the below 3 types of severity once you run the report in your tenant. Workday provides you the problem existing with the report and the possible solution to fix the issue.

Critical - Action is required and the issue to be fixed.

Warning - An alert, nothing big happens if you don't take any action.

Information - Helping you understand about some detailing on the respective report.

Notice the highlighted fields and fix the issues.

Integration Common Issues in PROD

 Integration Common Issues in Production

Here are some of the common Issues related to files that you would encounter while supporting any type of integrations in Production. 

For example, an ongoing EIB Outbound integration, you would typically see issues like below:

File Empty:

The file that was sent to the end point is empty where as they were expecting some data in the file. You need to check your Data Source and specially parameters / filters on your integration event. Which parameters were passed during the launch of integration. Check for the data parameters, and try to run your report by passing the same parameters and see if you fetch any rows.

File Not Received:

In the above case, the file was sent but if was empty. Here, the file was not received at the end point. This is most probably something to do with your Delivery method. Check if the SFTP / FTP passwords got changed or any address / directory got changed so that you can update it and relaunch the integration.

File Has Incorrect Data:

In this scenario, the file was sent and the data in the file was not as expected. It could be of two scenarios 

1. More rows than expected 

2. Less rows than expected.

Its not always the fault on our side, there are times when your end point had a different understanding. So it is important to analyze the data as what was sent vs what is expected. You need to know your data source or web service and filters, sub filters properly. 

Example: If your file is missing some employees, you can ask for the sample Employees who are being missed and try to analyze what is causing that employees to miss in the output file. Same goes with the additional employees in the file.

Custom Domains

 How to Enable Custom Domains and Use them for Custom Objects

You cannot create new domains nor move delivered items between delivered domains.

Workday offers you 200 custom domains (as of 2020R2) that allows you to configure security permissions for custom items such as custom dashboards and custom objects. You can find these in the System functional area.

All the custom domains from 1 to 200 are available in the Parent Domain Custom Domains, as shown below.

1. Choose the Custom Domain that you want from the list of Subdomains

2. Enable the domain that you identified.

3. Add the Security Groups and Permissions by going to the navigation

        Domain Security Policy >> Edit Permissions

4. Activate Pending Security Policy Changes.

        With this you domain is available to use.

5. Custom Object: Go to your Custom Object and in the Permissions tab add the newly enabled Custom Domain.

Custom Dashboard: In the Edit custom dashboard settings, add the newly enabled Custom Domain. Here you will notice all the domains that weren't enabled. If you are making use of one which you haven't enabled, make sure to enable at later stage.

Security Related Tasks and Reports

Security Tasks and Reports

View Security Groups for User 

Lists all the security groups on a given Workday account. The user’s access is a union across all the security group permissions.

Security Analysis for Workday Account

Provides a comprehensive view of a user’s access given all their security group permissions. 

View Security Group 

Shows details of a security group, including the description, type, and the domain and/or business process security policies that the security group has permissions to.

Action Summary for Security Group

Lists the domain and business process security policies the security group has permission to and details about each security policy. 

View Security for Securable Item 

Shows which domain or business process security policy provides access to a given securable item.

My Leadership Roles 

Displays any leadership roles to which your position is assigned. (You are also displayed on the organization chart as the leader of any organization(s) to which your position has a leadership role.)

My Supporting Roles

Displays any supporting roles to which your position is assigned. 

Role Assignments for Worker Position 

Displays an overview of assignable roles, security group membership, and access rights for the specified worker. The role information includes whether the role is inherited or directly assigned, and whether the role is active or inactive. You can limit results to specific roles as well as filter out inactive organizations and inherited role assignments.

Role Assignment Permissions

Displays the security group whose members can administer each role. Enables you to view or edit what security groups are allowed to assign workers to each assignable role. 

Roles for Organization and Subordinates 

Displays the organization hierarchy of subordinate organizations. Enables you to click on an organization in the hierarchy to see all the assignable roles, the worker in each, and whether they fill that role by assignment.

Unassigned Roles Audit

Displays roles for which no positions are assigned. Details include the organization type, unassigned roles, and the minimum roles to assign to each role. 

Unfilled Assigned Roles Audit 

Displays roles assigned to unfilled position(s). Enables you to include or exclude inactive roles in the results.

View Assignable Roles

Displays an overview of all assignable roles, including: the types of organizations for which each role is enabled; the default role, if any; and whether it is restricted to single assignment, hidden if not assigned, or a leadership role. You can also see which security groups are allowed to assign specific roles. This report also includes security group and access right information associated with each role. 

Worker Roles Audits 

Displays the workers in a specified organization and any assignable roles, user-or job-based security groups, or process-maintained roles to which they belong.

Security Related Question and Answers

Security Related Question and Answers

Below Q & A gives you a better deal to understand which task or report to use based on the scenario.

What can a security group do? What does it have access to? 

View Security Group 

Security Analysis for Security Group 

Action Summary for Security Group

How can I tell what security policy to update for a given item?

View Security for Securable Item 

How can I tell what security groups a user has? 

View Security Groups for User

How can I compare access between users?

Compare Security of Workday Accounts 

How can I compare security groups? 

Security Analysis for Security Groups

Who are the members of a security group?

If user-based, use View Security Group.

If not, write a custom report (PBO: Security Group, Report Field: Members).

How can I find out if a user is a member of a given security group? 

Test Security Group Membership

How can I tell if a user has access to a given target using a given security group?

Test Security Group Membership 

How did this user get to this task or item? What security group allowed it? 

Security Analysis for Action

Given a user’s security groups, what is their cumulative access in tenant?

Security Analysis for Workday Account 

How do I add or remove a security group from multiple domain security policies at once?

Maintain Permissions for Security Group

How can I tell who has access to a given task or item?

View Security for Securable Item

How can I see all the roles that are defined in tenant? 

View Assignable Roles

What if I need to add new roles?

Maintain Assignable Roles

How can I tell what roles are unassigned? 

Unassigned Organization Roles Audit 

Unassigned Roles Audit 

Unfilled Assigned Roles Audit

How can I tell what role assignments exist for a given worker?

Role Assignments for Worker Position 

How can I tell what role assignments exist for a given organization? 

Roles for Organization and Subordinates 

Worker Roles Audit

How can I tell which security groups are allowed to assign workers to each role?

Role Assignment Permissions

How can I see all the domains and business processes available for a given functional area? 

Functional Areas

How can I see the current security configuration for a given functional area?

Domain Security Policies for Functional Area

Business Process Security Policies for Functional Area 

How can I see all the security groups in the tenant? 

View Security Group

How can I see a full list of reports around security?

Run Workday Standard Reports for security-related categories. You can also write custom reports using security-related data sources.

How can I see an audit trail of changes to security policies? Who did what, and when? 

Domain Security Policy History 

Business Process Security Policy History 

Domain Security Policies Changed within Time Range 

Business Process Security Policies Changed within Time Range 

Audit Trial - Security

How can I audit a given Workday Account?

View User or Task or Object Audit Trail

How can I audit what a user viewed or changed? 

View User Activity

How can I see a history of security changes for either an organization (e.g., role assignments) or for a worker?

Security History

Security History for User

How can I activate changes to security policies? 

Activate Pending Security Policy Changes

Can I select which pending security policies to activate?

No – The Activate Security Policy Changes task will activate all pending security policy changes in the tenant since the last activation. 

If there is more than one person making security policy changes in the tenant, when one person activates pending security policy changes will it only activate that person’s changes? 

No – the Activate Security Policy Changes task will activate all pending security policy changes in the tenant since the last activation, regardless of who made the change.

How can I see what security policy edits are pending activation?

Domain Security Policies with Pending Changes

Business Process Security Policies with Pending Changes 

How can I revert back to a previous security configuration in the tenant? 

Activate Previous Security Timestamp

When I activate a previous timestamp, do my changes since that timestamp get removed or deleted?

No – your changes will still be there but instead in a pending state. You must edit the security policy manually to correct or remove the changes. 

How can I see how many times security has been activated in tenant? 

View All Security Timestamps

How can I see if there are issues with the security configuration?

Security Exception Audit