Video: Jo-Anne Ruhl Interview | Duration: 74s | Summary: Jo-Anne Ruhl, Managing Director and Vice President, Australia and New Zealand, discusses the most impactful insights from Workday Elevate Auckland 2026. Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: AI and Trust (0s), Go Kiwi (37s) Video: Jonathan Brabant Interview | Duration: 142s | Summary: Jonathan Brabant, Senior Regional Sales Director - New Zealand, discusses the most impactful insights and his favourite takeaways from Workday Elevate Auckland 2026. Resources:Workday for New Zealand Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Introduction & Welcome (0s), Event Atmosphere (12s), Trust and Reliability (47s), AI Agent Builder (93s), Closing Remarks (133s) Video: Matt Lovell Interview - Workday GO Launch | Duration: 37s | Summary: Matt Lovell, Senior Regional Sales Director, discusses the launch of Workday GO at Elevate Sydney 2026. Resources:Workday GO Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Workday Go Launch (0s) Video: Voices of Elevate Sydney: Top Takeaways | Duration: 591s | Summary: Live from the ICC Sydney floor, Geena from Workday catches up with attendees at Workday Elevate Sydney to get their unfiltered first impressions. | Chapters: Welcome and Introductions (0s), Workday AI Implementation (111s), AI Journey Experiences (159s), Keynote Insights (253s), Event Reflections & Advice (302s), Event Reflections (460s) Video: Real Reactions: Inside Workday Elevate Sydney | Duration: 198s | Summary: What did attendees actually think of Workday Elevate Sydney? Karen from Workday listens to top takeaways and favorite moments directly from the crowd. | Chapters: Conference Introduction (0s), Nicks Introduction (48s), AI Recruitment Solutions (87s), Event Outlook (137s) Video: Voices of Elevate Auckland: Top Takeaways | Duration: 660s | Summary: Live from the NZ ICC floor, Geena from Workday catches up with attendees at Workday Elevate Auckland to get their unfiltered first impressions. | Chapters: Welcome to Workday Elevate (0s), Data Foundation Work (76s), Workday Implementation Experience (106s), AI Workforce Transformation (168s), AI Workforce Journey (264s), Trust and Innovation (339s), Planning Agent (461s), Conference Reflections (504s) Video: Opening Performance | Summary: Welcome to Country Performance at Workday Elevate Australia. Video: Workday Executive Keynote | Summary: Executive Keynote with Jo-Anne Ruhl, Managing Director and Vice President, Workday. Resources:Blog: Australia's AI Moment Won't WaitBlog: Leading With Clarity in a World That Won't Slow DownReport: Beyond Productivity: Measuring the Real Value of AI Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome to Elevate (12s), Navigating Complexity (111s), Trust and Values (247s), AI Friction Challenges (336s), Business Readiness Gaps (495s) Video: Workday Innovation Keynote | Duration: 2097s | Summary: Innovation Keynote with David Wachtel, GM - HCM, VNDLY and People Analytics, Workday. Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), The Agentic Shift (35s), AI Guardrails (96s), Workdays AI Advantage (175s), Lawless Agent Risks (225s), Lawful Agent Demo (333s), AI Superintelligence (405s), Meet Sana Interface (477s), Cross-System Integration (570s), Workflow Automation (640s), Workday Agents (829s), AI Learning Agents (943s), Self-Service Agent (1090s), Procurement Intelligence (1287s), Workday Build Platform (1621s), Agent Configuration (1742s), Cross-Platform Integration (1856s), Workday Go Solution (1917s), Closing Vision (2028s) Video: Telstra Customer Story | Summary: Customer Keynote with Niki Rose, Workforce Experience and Capability Executive, Telstra. Resources:Demo: AI-Powered ERP: The Workday Platform Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Working Parent Introduction (11s), AI and Workplace Challenges (102s), Connected by Design (184s), Paradox Implementation Strategy (272s), AI-Powered Learning (442s) Video: Westpac New Zealand Customer Story | Duration: 770s | Summary: Customer Story with Marc Figgins, Chief People Officer, Westpac New Zealand. Resources:Demo: Workday Human Capital Management Suite Software Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), Transformation Journey (71s), People Strategy Pillars (142s), Workday Journey Begins (234s), Implementation Strategy (325s), Workday Impact Results (441s), Future and Trust (623s), Partnership and Success (702s) Video: Assurity Consulting Customer Story | Duration: 988s | Summary: Customer Story with Garth Hamilton, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Assurity Consulting. Resources:Demo: Workday Human Capital Management Suite Software Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Introduction & Welcome (11s), AI-Driven Change (104s), Quality in AI (245s), AI and Human Partnership (331s), Expert-Driven AI (465s), Internal AI Enablement (618s), Why Workday (827s), Future and Closing (933s) Video: HR Strategy & Vision / Demo | Summary: This session unveils a vision for a New Work Day for HR—a fundamental shift from systems that simply track work to those that actively enable it through Agentic HR.Grounded in three core imperatives, this strategy demonstrates how Workday’s Enterprise AI platform reinvents core HR with trusted AI, delivers a new level of business value, and builds for the future through a unified, AI-driven architecture.By leveraging Workday’s unparalleled context—encompassing 75 million users and 20 years of experience—HR leaders can now deploy specialised agents across payroll, recruiting, and performance to eliminate "talent trapped in trivia" and allow their teams to lead with empathy and creativity. Resources: Demo: Workday Human Capital Management Suite Software Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), AIs Transformative Impact (73s), Customer AI Challenges (198s), AI in HR (319s), Agentic HR Foundation (422s), Contextual AI Agents (573s), Workdays AI Strategy (662s), Job Architecture Agent (827s), Job Architecture Agent (998s), Performance and Recruiting AI (1324s), Recruiting Agent Demo (1508s), Candidate Experience Results (1939s), Candidate Experience Agent (2029s), Always-On Candidate Experience (2113s), Automated Interview Scheduling (2189s), Strategic Impact (2285s), Frontline Worker Agents (2351s), Building for Tomorrow (2585s), Agent Ecosystem Investment (2689s), Implementation and Results (2784s) Video: HR Customer Deep Dive | Summary: Join Starlight Children’s Foundation’s Kelly McFadden (Head of People and Performance) and AGL’s Melissa Dorey (Head of People Digital Experience) as they share their Workday journey with Matt Lovell, Workday’s Medium Enterprise Sales Director. Resources:Blog: How Mastercard Builds a Culture of Belonging in an AI-Powered WorkforceDemo: Workday Human Capital Management Suite Software Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introductions (11s), Career Development Challenges (73s), System Consolidation Challenge (169s), Career Hub Adoption (380s), Platform Integration Benefits (593s), Progress Over Perfection (691s), AI Readiness Foundations (773s), Implementation Lessons Learned (905s) Video: Deloitte Partner Lens: What We Can Learn from Healthcare about AI | Duration: 1742s | Summary: Join the CHRO and CFO at HammondCare as they share their Workday journey including how the shape of work is evolving, including the growing complexity of AI in care settings, and what leaders must do to enable workforce capability, trust, and adaptation at scale. Hosted by Deloitte they also explore how the evolving partnership between CFO, CIO, and CHRO is shaping decision-making, value realisation, and workforce outcomes. Resources:Blog: Inside Anglicare's Move to a Skills-Based Hiring Model Demo: Workday Human Capital Management Suite Software Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Healthcare AI Introduction (11s), Financial Constraints Management (157s), Workday Implementation Benefits (282s), Workday Implementation (569s), Executive Role Convergence (788s), Cross-Functional Collaboration (1042s), Future Outlook (1337s) Video: Finance Strategy & Vision: A Practical Look at AI Agents in Finance | Duration: 3319s | Summary: Hear the latest insights on the state of AI in Finance for 2026, exploring how Workday customers are navigating the shift from simple automation to autonomous agents. You’ll get an early look at upcoming Workday features and releases including Workday Finance Agents, as well as a sneak peek at building a Finance AI Agent. Resources:Blog: How CFOs Can Govern the 'Black Box' of AI in FinanceReport: Realising ROI from AI Agents in Finance Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Finance Track Welcome (11s), AI in Finance (87s), Measuring AI ROI (177s), Data Quality Foundation (263s), AI Training Mandates (403s), AI Maturity Levels (524s), Cloud ERP Modernization (644s), Product Vision AI (781s), Finance AI Vision (918s), ERP Deterministic Platform (1003s), Workday Platform Architecture (1123s), Agentic Finance Vision (1284s), Agent Demonstration Transition (1465s), Financial Analysis Agent (1559s), Cost and Profitability Analysis (1748s), Productivity and Automation (1919s), Contract Agent Review (2105s), Audit Confidence (2308s), ROI and Early Adoption (2785s), Agent System of Record (2936s), Governance and Control (3251s) Video: Finance Customer Deep Dive | Summary: Join Workday's Esther Monks as she leads an insightful conversation with Finance Leasers including: Nicole Ebejer (Group Controller and Interim Global Head of GRC, Bravura Solutions), Thomas Schroeder (Managing Director, Global Workday Financials, Accenture), and Laura Garrett (Senior Manager, Finance Transformation and Cloud ERP, Salesforce). This powerhouse panel dives into real-world strategies for managing risk, driving global compliance, and leveraging data to build a more agile, resilient finance function, equipping you with the actionable insights needed to modernise your own financial operations. Resources:Blog: AI in Finance: What's Holding Australian CFOs Back?Report: Realising ROI from AI Agents in Finance Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Panel Introduction (11s), Career Journeys (78s), Team Roles Overview (167s), Evolving Finance Roles (259s), Accounting Center Implementation (444s), Strategic Finance Shift (594s), Implementation Strategy (732s), Business Self-Service (1144s), Change Management Strategy (1395s), Change Management (1549s) Video: Accenture Partner Lens: APA's Journey to Unified Finance on Workday | Duration: 1717s | Summary: Hear directly from APA's Finance and Procurement leaders as they take you behind the scenes of their Workday journey - from implementation to life after go-live. They look to share how operating on a single tenant with a shared data model has fundamentally changed the way their teams collaborate and make decisions, and why intelligent workflows and automation deliver more value than most expect. Whether you're exploring Workday or already on the journey, this session delivers honest insights, practical lessons, and a glimpse of what's possible when Finance, Procurement and HR finally speak the same language. Resources:Blog: AI in Finance: What's Holding Australian CFOs Back?Report: Realising ROI from AI Agents in Finance Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), Unified Platform Benefits (227s), Implementation Insights (688s), Closing Remarks (1546s) Video: Technology Strategy & Vision / Demo: Accelerating Transformation with an AI-First Open Platform | Summary: As AI moves from experiment to core infrastructure, CIOs are the primary architects of the machine-human workforce. This keynote sets the stage for the IT track, exploring how Workday’s open, AI-native platform eliminates technical debt by unifying the enterprise’s two most critical data sets: People and Money. We move beyond the hype to show how an open architecture allows IT leaders to stop simply maintaining systems and start orchestrating intelligence—creating a flexible digital backbone that turns raw data into measurable business agility. Resouces:Blog: A Better Way to Work: A Day in the Life With SanaDemo: AI-Powered ERP: The Workday Platform Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Technology Track Welcome (11s), Future of Work (94s), Legacy to AI-First (334s), Managing AI Agents (619s), Vertical AI Platform (765s), Capacity Planning Agent (1122s), Candidate Engagement Agent (1479s), Sana Platform (1931s), Third-Party Integration Demo (2153s) Video: Technology Customer Deep Dive | Duration: 1799s | Summary: As we enter the era of the "blended workforce," IT leaders are no longer just managing systems—they are architecting the future of work. Join senior IT leaders from Auckland University and Beca for a deep dive into how New Zealand’s leading organisations are moving beyond basic automation toward an AI-driven operating model. Resources:Demo: AI-Powered ERP: The Workday Platform Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales Video: The AI-Ready Enterprise: Customer Discussion | Duration: 1794s | Summary: As we enter the era of the "blended workforce," IT leaders are no longer just managing systems—they are architecting the future of work. Join senior IT leaders from Hungry Jacks and St John of God Health Care for a deep dive into how Australia’s leading organisations are moving beyond basic automation toward an AI-driven operating model. Resources:Demo: AI-Powered ERP: The Workday PlatformBlog: Should CIOs Treat AI Agents as Apps or Digital Employees? Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Technology Track Introduction (17s), Speaker Introductions (70s), Pre-Workday Challenges (124s), Governance and Compliance (608s), AI in Recruitment (786s), AI Use Cases (905s), Lessons and Recommendations (1165s), Final Advice & Takeaways (1539s) Video: KPMG Partner Lens: The Future of AI: What’s Real, What’s Next, and What Leaders Must Do | Duration: 1826s | Summary: AI is everywhere — but beyond the hype, what’s actually real, what’s delivering value today, and what will truly matter for enterprises over the next 3–5 years?Join KPMG for an executive panel featuring CIO’s from Estia Health and Swinburne University of Technology as they cut through the hype to examine the real opportunities, risks and hard truths of AI adoption. Set against Workday’s accelerating AI investments, the discussion will explore governance, operating models and the evolving role of technology leadership, with a responsible AI perspective, joined by Professor Nicholas Davis from the UTS Human Technology Institute. Resources:Demo: AI-Powered ERP: The Workday PlatformBlog: Is Your AI Leaking? How to Audit Your Shadow Agent Risk Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: AI Session Introduction (20s), Panelist Introductions (168s), HTI Research Introduction (263s), AI Misconceptions (478s), AI Governance and Controls (681s), Trust and Governance (900s), AI Adoption & Governance (1189s), AI Governance Structure (1299s), AI Implementation Challenges (1469s), Student Retention Case (1611s), Closing Remarks (1776s) Video: Datacom Partner Lens: What It Really Takes to Run Workday at Scale in the Public Sector | Summary: What does it really take to run Workday at scale in the public sector? Join leaders from the Ministry of Health for a fireside conversation on the real-world lessons learned. Hear how Datacom has implemented Workday alongside Datapay to make payroll powerful, embed HR platforms, and deliver lasting operational impact well beyond go-live. Resources: Demo: Workday Human Capital Management Suite Software Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introductions (14s), Team Introductions (137s), Catalyst for Change (269s), Platform Selection Process (463s), System Impact & Results (757s), Implementation Benefits (1103s), Implementation Challenges (1192s), Implementation Challenges (1399s), Rapid Fire Insights (1526s), Implementation Advice (1635s) Video: Adaptive Planning Strategy & Vision: Shape the Future with Workday Adaptive Planning | Duration: 3487s | Summary: In unpredictable times, unified planning builds resilience. Discover how agentic AI drives smarter, faster decision-making across finance, HR and operations. Resources:Report: Workday Adaptive Planning: 5 Innovations Redefining Modern PlanningReport: The Total Economic Impact™ of Workday Adaptive PlanningFree Trial: Workday Adaptive Planning Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), AIs Workforce Impact (374s), AIs Dependencies (480s), Automated Planning Workflow (622s), Data Foundation (1101s), Data Foundation & AI (1305s), Planning Agent Demo (2059s), Adaptive Decision Intelligence (2522s), Live Product Demo (2847s), Closing Remarks (3374s) Video: Adaptive Planning Customer Deep Dive | Duration: 1735s | Summary: Join Fraser Bearsley, General Manager, IDX and Antiona Scorciapino, General Manager – Finance Business Partners, Mission Australia, in conversation with Vince Randall, as they share their journey and success with Workday Adaptive Planning. Resources:FP&A Customer StoriesBlog: The State of AI in FP&A Right NowFree Trial: Workday Adaptive Planning Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Speaker Introductions (11s), Pre-Adaptive Challenges (166s), Pre-Adaptive Challenges (282s), Business Case Success (354s), Reporting and Integration (475s), Reporting Transformation Results (583s), Adaptive Reporting Benefits (755s), Forecasting Flexibility (884s), Reporting Surprises (1041s), Scenario Analysis Power (1157s), AI and Future Plans (1265s), Cultural Change Management (1443s), ROI and Self-Service (1539s), Cost Savings & Future (1630s), Session Closing (1717s) Video: Tridant Partner Lens: Transformation from the Inside | Duration: 1684s | Summary: Real decisions, live lessons from one of Australia's leading fintech platforms, Hub24 is a platform business built on the promise of smarter, more connected finance for its clients. Now they're applying that same ambition internally, transforming their own FP&A function with Workday Adaptive Planning. Clinton Wells joins us to share what that journey looks like right now, the complexity, the breakthroughs, and what finance leaders at any stage of transformation can take away. Resources:Free Trial: Workday Adaptive Planning Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introductions (11s), Trident Introduction (93s), Introduction to HUB24 (208s), Hubs Finance Vision (267s), Reporting First Approach (404s), Streamlining Reporting Processes (698s), Business Metrics Evolution (1106s), Conclusion and AI Future (1290s) Video: Student Strategy & Vision | Duration: 2458s | Summary: As the higher education landscape evolves, the shift from fragmented legacy systems to a unified platform has become a strategic imperative. This session explores Workday customer outcomes and our latest product innovations designed to meet the unique needs of modern institutions.We will dive deep into Workday Student, showcasing how a cloud-native student information system (SIS) transforms the student and administrative experience. Furthermore, we will discuss why a unified data core is no longer just an operational advantage but the essential foundation for leveraging Artificial Intelligence. Discover how integrated data empowers institutions to move from reactive reporting to predictive insights, ensuring agility in an increasingly complex academic environment.Resources: Webinar: The AI-powered Student JourneyBlog: Rethinking Tertiary Education: Preparing for an AI-Powered FutureWorkday Student Quick Demo Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), Higher Education Growth (236s), Higher Education Adviser (434s), Student Growth Metrics (643s), Product Capabilities Overview (837s), Personalized Student Experience (1009s), Student Administration Agent (1314s), Transfer Credit Skills (1438s), Academic Requirements Skill (1746s), Student Data Insights (1890s), Early Adopter Institutions (2063s), Student Experience Demo (2126s), Closing Remarks (2321s) Video: Student Demo | Duration: 1359s | Summary: Watch Workday Student demo live and uncover common challenges such as recruiting, student journey's, paperless request forms and our AI powered capabiliites. Resources:Webinar: The AI-powered Student JourneyBlog: Rethinking Tertiary Education: Preparing for an AI-Powered FutureWorkday Student Quick Demo Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Introduction and Setup (11s), Student Mobile Experience (93s), Student Journey Navigation (199s), Profile Management (283s), Workday Recruiting Solutions (411s), Credit Transfer Rules (597s), Request Framework Demo (932s), Closing and Next Steps (1139s) Video: Student Customer Deep Dive: Leader Panel | Duration: 1243s | Summary: Join us for a powerhouse discussion on the sector's biggest pain points and lessons. Michael Johnston will be joined by Australian tertiary leaders, including Mark Erickson, Registrar at the University of Sydney, and Connie Merlino, Secretary and Academic Registrar at RMIT University for a quality panel. Resources:Webinar: The AI-powered Student JourneyCustomer Story: Pensacola Leverages Workday Student and ExtendWorkday Student Quick Demo Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Panel Introductions (12s), Panel Introductions (104s), Value of Degrees (139s), Regulatory Challenges (416s), Predictive Model Impact (600s), Student Experience Vision (751s), Lifelong Learning Models (953s), Post-Graduation Outcomes (1082s), Closing Remarks (1192s) Video: Student Customer Deep Dive: Pensacola State College | Duration: 2515s | Summary: Hear from Michael Johnston of Pensacola State College who will share their transformation story, discussing the "why" and "how" behind their Workday Student implementation journey which drove a 43% increase in full-time registration over two years and saved over 40K+ paperless requests. Resources:Webinar: The AI-powered Student JourneyCustomer Story: Pensacola Leverages Workday Student and ExtendWorkday Student Quick Demo Ready to talk? Get in touch.Talk to Sales | Chapters: Welcome and Introduction (11s), Legacy System Evolution (216s), Student Recruiting Module (318s), Student Application Process (679s), Paperless Student Processes (1022s), Request Frameworks (1188s), Johnnys Journey (1302s), Student Risk Assessment (1518s), Advising Cohorts (1751s), Student Journeys (1874s), Faculty Workload Management (1994s), Dashboards and Analytics (2230s), Closing Reflections (2435s)

Transcript for "Datacom Partner Lens: What It Really Takes to Run Workday at Scale in the Public Sector": I must say this is my first Workday event, and so far it really is living up to the hype today. There's been some, yeah, really awesome conversations and lots about AI, but for this session we probably are going to take a little bit of a different turn. My name's Emma Lorenz, your host for this Fireside Chat today. The session is in the technology track, but what we're really looking at is tech through a public sector HR lens, focusing on what it enables for people, confidence and service outcomes rather than really bogging down in the technical detail. So for the techies in the crowd, I apologize in advance. We'll talk about how Workday, together with DataPay, can support real change in the public sector, strengthening capability, governance and day to day operations. I'm joined by leaders from the Ministry of Health, who are live and operating with Workday and Hutt City Council, who are right in the thick of their journey. Now, full transparency, there are some familiar faces for me on stage today. I was the project manager for the Ministry of Health, on their side for their implementation. So having now joined Datacom, I've definitely seen this journey from both perspectives. Sharing learnings and insights is something that I feel really strongly about because you don't know what you don't know, right? One of the things I love about this job is that no two projects or two clients are the same. They all have their own quirks, pain points and experiences and no one benefits if that info is kept a secret. But that's enough about me because I'm joined on stage with three people who are here to share their real and candid experiences from their Workday journey. So let's get into it. Can I ask each of you to briefly introduce yourselves, your role, where your organization is at today on the Workday journey and share what success in a public sector context means to you? Okay. Kia ora everyone. I am Claire McMahon. I'm the Group Manager for the People and Capability team at the Ministry of Health. So my function looks after payroll, HRES, recruitment, operational HR, and organizational development. The ministry, went live with Workday and DataPay in July last year, so we are nine months post implementation. Success in a public sector context, for us was having a reliable, accurate, and compliant payroll system that our people could have high trust and confidence in and high trust and confidence in the data and the reporting that comes out of that system. Hi, everyone. My name is Liz Russell. I am the manager of the HRS and payroll team at the Ministry of Health. Like you said, we're nine months post go live, so it's an interesting journey for me to kind of navigate my team, in the BAU sort of payroll operation space through that journey since we went live. So with payroll, I also look after people analytics and and people systems. I think success for us ultimately is, having a accurate payroll system that pays our people on time and and obviously correctly. And from, like, a public sector perspective as well, making sure that all those statutory requests, for those in public sector, when we're like OIA, WPQ, slick committee, was things we have to report on, that we can do so accurately and in a very timely fashion. Yeah. Yeah. Kia ora. I'm Caitlin from Hudson Council, HR Systems and Services Lead. And we are right in the thick of testing at the moment, with a hopeful go live date of end of August this year. And for us, there's really two aspects to what success looks like for us. So compliance side, obviously, massively important to make sure that we're really confident in our data and that we're paying our people correctly and on time every time. And then there's also the people outcomes as well for us. So we want our people and our leaders to to be able to do what they need to do when they need to do it as easy as they can, anywhere and anytime. And we want them to be on a platform they want to actually engage with it and come and seek more information. So that's really what we're looking for out of this. Brilliant. Thank you. Okay. So let's start right at the beginning, the the why. Clare, what was kind of the catalyst for change for the ministry? We had a nice clear catalyst for change. Our old system was retiring, and we needed to get off it. The payroll system was a standalone system that had been in place for more than thirty years, so it was very much at the end of its life. In terms of our wider HR information systems, we had four to five individual stand alone HR systems and completely manual, like people change processes and operational HR. So we wanted to move towards system that would future proof us and our workforce and allow us to move on to, like, a modern technology platform and start reaping some of the benefits of that. What initially started as a straight payroll replacement project quickly became a payroll and HRIS replacement project, because Workday gave us the opportunity to replace multiple legacy siloed systems into one payroll and HRAS integrated system. So it was it was good because having all of the teams across the people and capability functions working in one integrated system has really helped break down a lot of the silos that, that operate in that in that space sometimes. Yeah. Liz, did you wanna add anything? Yeah. I think, like I said, the the previous system we'd had for over thirty years, so, obviously, had kind of been developed at that time. It was a holiday Zac compliant, and it works like a real well oiled machine. And and for those people who've worked with payroll before know payroll people love their systems, and when it gets to the point where it's perfect, it's working perfectly well to kind of take that away from them, you know, kind of sell them their new product. Kind of taking on that journey has been interesting. I think, if we stayed on that system, obviously, you know, we'd be limiting ourselves. You know, our workforce was evolving. Our people are working more flexibly, different kind of working day patterns and things. So we want to adapt to that and better pay them however that works for them. I think the number one risk if we had stayed on that system, would be obviously on an unsupported system going forward. Right? So from a business continuity perspective, that wouldn't be acceptable for our business. Pro from the data perspective, that side of things as well, you know, things are moving at pace as we're seeing today as well. You know, we're moving towards AI. People have moved on from the old just, you know, using a spreadsheet kind of thing. It's different ways of reporting, and I think, our people leaders are certainly wanting data that was more relevant, more transparent, that kind of thing, and definitely up to date. So Workday's really helped us with that as well, and they, you know, kind of, get buy in and more reporting. Certainly, I think moving from a system that's 30 years old to a new model has We're in a bit of a hybrid phase at my in our reporting, kind of trying to do it from our old system with Workday and DataPay. That's gonna take a little bit of time, but, once we've got probably two or three years worth of data and Workday, it'll be be great. Yeah. That's maybe a good exercise to do, see how many Excel spreadsheets you've dropped since going live with Workday. Caitlin, as a HRS leader in local government, what were the key drivers that made you take the step to move to Workday? Yeah. So similarly, we are very we've got siloed disparate systems at the moment, no really core HR system. Many spreadsheets attempting to do that. And just the data, we need it real time with insights available to our leaders when they need them. Our CE is really clear on making sure that we're operating on platforms that are future proof and future thinking, making sure people can do what they need to when they need to. For our staff, like basic HR functions are hard. Our rostered team are on an outdated end of life time tracking systems. That was one of the main things we absolutely had to replace as part of this piece of work. And they're doing their lead applications on paper, whereas our salaried staff have a really outdated and unfriendly user experience for their leave approval late leave request. So they just don't want to engage with it. Yeah. Yeah. We think it's something that people want to use. Yeah. I remember when we were going through the RFP process and Workday came in and did their demos, I think everyone left there and the hot topic was that you had a mobile app that you could submit leave through. That was hands down the selling point. People were like tick, yep, move on. Okay great. So I suppose we've covered off a bit about the why. Now let's shift focus to the how. So Claire, how did you determine that Workday and DataPay was going to be the right platforms for the Ministry? And I guess how you approach that exploration to get to that decision? So we took a slightly different approach to the traditional government procurement processes. We did pretty significant due diligence in market research before we entered into the formal procurement process. We undertook market analysis across 10 government departments, and then we engaged three vendors to present and respond to Ministry of Health specific requirements. And we included some technical deep dives into that because we wanted to get a very, very good sense of the capability of the system. We ran structured workshops to assess options, and we used a weight risk based assessment framework to score each vendor. And then it was only at that point we entered into the formal procurement process. So we wanted to select a vendor, that already had public sector experience or or current entity experience, and we needed a system that would reduce delivery and compliance risk. And having a payroll and HRIS system, a fully integrated system, was a huge plus. So Workday emerged as the right choice for us because it gave us the opportunity to have a modern, fully integrated system, but it also had the other modules, recruitment, learning, and engagement survey modules all within the one system, which meant we could retire four other, stand alone systems at the same time. It has significant future capability, which was an important consideration for us. We're we're excited to tap into that capability and not just for HR, but for finance, for IT and the connections between those spaces, health and safety. It has the potential to be a one source of truth system for a corporate services function. Great. That's the goal isn't it? One stop shop for everything. Caitlin, what gave you confidence that Workday and Data Pay for Payroll could support a more integrated, reliable HR and payroll experience for the workforce at Hutt City? Yeah, when we first entered into our exploration of what that could look like for us, we definitely wanted to go one stop shop, end to end product. But from previous implementation experience and through our RFP process, you quickly find that in terms of our constraints as a council, what's on offer for an end to end isn't necessarily best of breed. So then for us really became critically thinking around, okay, well that's probably going to then mean integrations. And as a council, we don't necessarily have capacity to look after all those integrations ourselves. So the proven integration between DataPay and Workday then kind of sealed it for us. It had everything we wanted in terms of that end user experience for Workday, being able to just interact with one area, and also know that our payroll back end was going to be well looked after because it was a proven product within the New Zealand market, and guaranteed oversight between Workday and DataPay to make sure that works well for us. Especially with us doing we're implementing labor op scheduling and time tracking as well, moving all of our staff off off of an end of life system. So knowing that that immediately feeds through was really critical for us. So it's just one less touch point for our database to be going through. Yeah. So now we've covered off the why and the how. The next focus point really is where the rubber meets the road. You start to see the impacts of, okay, we've made this decision. What are the impacts of it? In the public sector, impact can look like lots of things, but definitely stronger service, fewer avoidable risks that turn into issues, which is the PM's biggest nightmare, and a big one being making the best use of people's time. Liz, from a HRIS and payroll perspective, what has Workday and DataPay unlocked that wasn't possible on the legacy thirty two year old platform, especially around confidence, bringing some consistency and to the day to day operations of how you run your teams? Yes. I think, Emma, like, I'm definitely fronted by saying, you know, I was pretty pretty nervous about having two systems that we're gonna integrate. Like, you kind of think, oh, look. You know, I've got a great power of system already that's working really well, but if we're gonna replace it with someone that's, like, two talking together, what are the kind of complexities that come with it, and how do we handle it? Definitely alleviated a lot of those concerns as we go along. There's a, a GPC connector that connects the two systems together, and we're able to very clearly document, you know, with data that's moving between the two systems. So it's really, really helpful. Definitely, in terms of improving processes and things, employees now are basically doing everything either themselves or their people either does it as well. So all the processes are kind of initiated more at that level versus having to come to an HR person, have that conversation, send an email of payroll, do the paperwork. So all of that is kind of removed now. The processes are all built in a really robust way. There's security groups. You know, we haven't had any issues with, say, someone receiving an email they should have, that kind of thing. So really a lot of assurance around how the system is built and the different processes behind it. Everything is also auditable, which is great. Mhmm. We can see, you know, you approve this at this time on this day, so we know exactly from start to finish, for each sort of transaction what's happened with it. Definitely from a a payroll perspective, far less overpayments, which which is great. We don't like overpayments at all. And kind of I guess, the business is really good on board with the new model as well, knowing that, look, payroll cutoff now is determined by the fact that you've got to get your Workday transaction approved by this point in time for it to be in the next pay period as opposed to your email needs to be received by this time. So, that mindset shift for not just the team, but for all the business around kinda getting on board with how Workday and DataPay work together. I think through, like, self-service, that's been the big one for us. We've got far less emails coming through our payroll and Ask HR inboxes now. Got some really good user guides in place, so, people are willing to give things a go themselves up front and kind of almost by exception come to us if they've got any questions or not sure how to use the system. So, save a bit of time there too. And, for my reporting team, the most exciting thing has been, the end to end reporting that we can now do. You know? Before, as Claire said, we had a separate payroll system, a separate recruitment system, a separate talent system. So we've had no kind of reported that kinda linked together at all. But now, really excited about how we can report on, you know, talent engagements, recruitment. End to end stuff is, yeah, is really cool. So, yes, it's really good about it. Yes. Getting that business buy in sometimes is half the challenge. Implementing it and delivering it is a challenge, but then getting people to actually take it on board, be open to trying something themselves before coming to someone to help them, it is really tough. So that's yeah, it's awesome to hear that change management that we did obviously worked. That's good. Maybe following on from that, Clare, from a leadership focus or from a leadership perspective, how, or what's kind of changed in how the system supports leaders now? Yeah. Look, I think the most obvious and immediate change was how easy it was for leaders to process advantage the day to day people changes that they need to as leaders. So secondments, allowance of changes of hours, flexible working arrangements, all of those things can be initiated in, like, one minute or two, and then it flows through the automated approval system. So the experience was significantly better for our people leaders and easy. Like, the system's quite intuitive. They picked it up really easily. The recruitment experience, so significantly improved experience for candidates and hiring managers. Having all of the offer documentation signed and sent and received and scanned within the one system has reduced, the manual work that we had to do significantly. And certainly the errors that, sometimes occur has reduced those as well. So, yeah, in terms of day to day conversations with people leaders, I guess, simply, they are much easier conversations to have because they have the information they need right in front of them, which makes decisions quicker, and it makes working through those processes less clunky for them. So leaders now have access to, core HR information about their staff, which they didn't have previously, salary information, tenure contract information, performance development conversations, leave, turnover, pay equity information, all of that stuff is at their fingertips. So the conversations we're having have now shifted to less time talking about how to find stuff and more time speaking about how they can use that information to inform great decision making for their teams, for staff engagement, recruitment, workforce planning, all of that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And Caitlin, so Hart City's in delivery. What benefits are you most looking forward to unlocking once you are live in hopefully when was it go like that? End of August. End of August. End of August. So many things. Just our baseline is the fact that all of our staff are going to be able to do very basic HR functions on their mobile devices whenever they want. Being able to drive workflows through the system is going to be game changing. The fact that we've got a good chunk of our rostered staff who are going to be able to clock in and clock out from mobile devices, apply for leave, that's going to automatically flow through. Moving our roster managers off of manual rostering spreadsheets, having able to have more oversight over how they're managing their workforce and how we best leverage that workforce. There's so many benefits we are looking forward to. The reporting function as much as I love my giant manual spreadsheet, I'm very much looking forward to getting rid of them. Yeah. It's going to be game changing for our people. Awesome. The list is long. Yes. Okay. So far it's been great hearing your responses to these questions and it's evident that there are significant benefits that both organisations have seen and hope to see or will see once once you're live. But with a transformational change like this, it hits everything: people, process, systems, compliance. It definitely doesn't come without its challenges, so I'm keen to dig into that in just a little bit of detail. So, yeah, Claire, does any come to mind when you think of challenges that you've faced? Yes. Indeed. Look, the two biggest challenges from my perspective, firstly, from a system perspective, the one benefit of having an ancient payroll system and manual HR processes is the flexibility that it affords you. If you need to just write a random letter that captures, you know, nonstandard information, you can just do that. We're going into Workday. We have strict guardrails and strict processes. So it chain it had to have forced, a change in the way that we worked. From a people's perspective, it completely turned on its head the previous roles and responsibilities and workflows that, that include, you know, across the p and c team. So people's jobs significantly changed overnight. You know, as you will all know, people have varying levels of enthusiasm and confidence when it comes to change. And so it has taken some months to bring my team and our people on that journey and getting them to change the way they work and embrace, you know, the new system. So, yeah, those were the challenges that spring to mind. Liz? Yeah. Obviously, speaking to what Claire has said as well, I guess that dynamic between, you know, my team being payroll and then the HR advisory function. Right? So payroll before used to be able to have that kind of full control over when into the system, whereas I don't rely now on our HR colleagues to do that for us and going, okay. You guys do all work day and everything that comes through, we'll check that and and we'll pay based on that and see it. So that it's been a bit of a challenge, but we've we've definitely, got there. And I've been great having those conversations with them along the way. I think too still being nine months post go live, we haven't done our full year yet. And I'm always saying, Claire, I've got to wait for the full year because in all know, we've kind of well, hopefully, covered off everything that the system can be thrown at it. Because, you know, you get tax year end, which is Kiwi saver changes. We'll have annual rent review, performance planning conversations, all those things that have to go into that system. Testing all the firsts, documenting all the firsts, making sure that it all goes to plan. Yeah. That's just been a biggie for us. So, after we get in three months, Emma, and hopefully I'll be getting pretty pretty confident. Yeah. And I think the other challenge we had recently through was our our first audit, so knew that would happen. Getting the auditors to understand, you know, from a payroll audit perspective, okay, if they wanted to audit the payroll system, and it's like, no. You just don't audit that. You've got to also audit the h three s, the workday system. So getting them to understand how different it is from the usual kind of checks and balances they do from an audit perspective, and how it changed for us. So that was a lot of a lot of work, and those conversations are still happening. But, yeah, we're getting there. Yeah. Positive? Yeah. Positive. Positive overall. Positive overall. Again, documentation is the key. Right? It's just writing everything down and getting them to understand it. And then when they come knocking on the door again next year, we can Yeah. Yeah. We'll be ready. We'll be ready for them. Brilliant. And Caitlin, what maybe are some challenges you've seen so far in delivery or implementation for the two products? I think for us it's resource. As a council we're pretty lean with how we operate. So in terms of deployment to project, making sure we have the right people in the room for those conversations and on project. So it's been really important for us to make sure that we are deploying our permanent SMEs into that project and back filling their BAU. I mean, that comes with its own constraints. Yeah. You know, there's SMEs in the area for a reason. We are finding that we get kind of dragged back into BAU somewhat. So just getting quite protection, you know, very protective around our Yeah. Yeah. So just making sure that we have the right people, that we are able to be multidisciplinary, you know, work across multiple disciplines. We're often wearing multiple hats at once. Yeah. The people who are involved in those projects need to be able to chip in if needed. That's been something we've, yeah, actively seen throughout this project so far. The change aspect of it, we've had a massive amount of digital transformation in the last couple of years. There are different aspects of, like, change fatigue within the business that we need to manage. And then again for our rostered staff, right, like their pay is critical. It is dependent on the minute they work to and the conditions in which they're working in. So the fact that we are having to lift and shift fundamentally how they schedule, how they track time, and where they do all of that work, making sure that we're engaging those people at the right time with the right level of information is right now really top of mind for us as we're partway through testing all of that. Yeah. Before we started this, Caitlin said my watch keeps dinging because I'm getting all these test notifications because people are testing transactions and I'm the approver. It's my bad for downloading the app and then it's sitting there on my watch, but that's on me. Okay. Thank you so much. We're gonna do a bit of a rapid fire round now. So Claire, one thing you would absolutely, hands down, do again. Build a project team with permanent or fixed term employees, not contractors. Create a culture in that team, a cohesive engaged team made a massive difference to the success of the project. Having your SMEs be your permanent people on that project and backfill BAU duties, having a great project manager certainly helped. I think Building a cohesive team because they are you know, there are times where it is incredibly stressful and there's a lot of pressure on the team. So having that foundational culture, I think, yes, significantly helped. Yep. Liz, one thing you would approach differently? I think one thing we'd do differently because we're still sort of dealing with it a bit is, how the different streams that that are involved to actually build Workday and DataPay together. You know, you've got your payroll part, but then you've got your HCM for HR. You've got your talent. You've got recruitment. Obviously, each stream is is doing its thing, trying to build its process as best as it can. And then come go live, you try and bring them all together, and you go, actually, that doesn't match well with that. It doesn't match well with that. So, if you have the time, test them across, not just up and down, I guess, kind of end to end processes, you know, new starter process, termination process, all those sorts of things. Make sure that they work across all the different streams correctly. Yeah. We're kind of still at a phase of, we're calling it, stabilization phase. Kind of tweaking things still, making sure that we've got the right approvers in place for each of the different processes, etcetera, and have everything working as efficiently as it can. Yeah. That'd be my re recommendation. Nice. And Caitlin, what is one piece of advice you might give for organisations that are on or thinking about jumping on the journey of implementing Workday? I think using the opportunity to really critically look at your current state versus where you want to be. It can be really overwhelming. This product is massive and it can do amazing things and top of the chains are going to be wanting some amazing outputs from it. But kind of just taking that step back and really looking at what are our foundations, what do we have to get right first off, And just, yes, taking because you don't often get opportunities like that to really sit back and be like, actually, what do we want this process to look like? How do we want it to be operating and not just lifting and shifting what's currently comfortable? Because change is going to be uncomfortable and the business will regardless of what you do there's going to be aspects of it. So while we're already uncomfortable, we may as well really critically analyze what and how we operate, make sure we're doing it right for moving forward. Yes. That is a good point from a public sector perspective is these opportunities don't come along often. Having a system for thirty two years is case in point there. So you're right that you just need to lean in, look at what the next thirty years might need to look like. So thank you for listening. I encourage you to stop by the Datacom booth, which is just outside those doors. Myself and these three will be here this afternoon to continue to answer any questions and share some more experiences. I believe there's also a magnum of champagne up for grabs if you scan your lanyard. If no other reason than that, pop over. After hearing your experiences today, what stands out is that Workday and DataPay, the implementation, it's not just a technology upgrade, which is quite often the focus. It really is a platform that can strengthen HR capability, payroll confidence, data integrity, and introduce a bit of a more consistent and cohesive way of working. So, yes, it matters enormously, not just in the public sector, but really across the board. I'd like to thank you all for joining us and a huge thank you to our panel, Claire, Liz and Caitlin.