UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Project WorkLion, the multi-year initiative to replace Penn State’s existing human resources (HR) and payroll systems with Workday – a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solution – celebrated its official kickoff May 26.
The celebration began with remarks from the project’s executive co-sponsor, Senior Vice President for Finance and Business David Gray, speaking on behalf of himself, President Eric Barron and executive co-sponsor Executive Vice President and Provost Nick Jones. Gray’s comments were followed by words from Workday’s General Manager for Education and Government, Mike Duffield. The newly formed project team was introduced and congratulated for taking on their roles in this transformative project.
“We have been given an amazing opportunity to become more efficient, streamline our processes and revolutionize how we deliver service to our constituents,” remarked project sponsor Susan Basso, vice president for Human Resources.
Gray added, “The promise of true HR transformation across the University can only be realized in the presence of a contemporary HCM-payroll system; Penn State has waited a long time to make this leap and our moment is now.”
The project team will be in the planning phase until September, then continue design and development activities during the implementation phase. Penn State has hired Accenture as the implementation planning partner for this initiative. Accenture leadership and consultants were also in attendance at the kickoff celebration.
The new HCM-payroll system, set to go live in early 2017, will be integral to the work of tens of thousands of Penn State faculty, staff and student employees daily. This initiative, along with the overall HR transformation, will enable the University to more readily adapt to emerging technologies and better serve the Penn State community.
For ongoing updates on the project, visit the project website at www.worklion.psu.edu. WorkLion has also established an email address for inquiries throughout the lifespan of the project (WorkLion@psu.edu).