Workday Wednesday (May 31, 2023)

Workday Experts: Panel Discussion

We want to make every effort to keep you as informed as possible about Workday. Today, we have a unique opportunity to hear from our experts. Please take 20 minutes of your time to watch this informative video hosted by Wini King, SVP, Chief of Communications, Inclusion, Equity & Diversity at Cook Children's. Joining Wini are:

• LaKami Bryant, Vice President, Revenue Cycle & Enterprise Applications 
• Myranda Miller, Vice President, Corporate Controller 
• Sheila Guinn, Director, Supply Chain Management
• Merridth Simpson, AVP, Human Resources Operations

Please click here to watch. 

Workday to Automate More Functions for Finance

Every employee at Cook Children’s will see some changes in July when Workday replaces Lawson. The biggest changes impact the roles of Finance, Human Resources and Supply Chain. 

Workday will be a big change for all of the financial teams including Payroll, Accounts Payable, Grants, and the various Finance teams.  While change is always hard, we believe Workday will improve processes and efficiency, and put better and more timely data in the hands of the business.

The switch to Workday at Cook Children’s this summer brings an end to the paper trail of interoffice mail and original receipts for submitting expense reports.  You’ll be able to use your phone to take a picture of receipts and upload those directly into Workday. Workday reads the receipts and fills in as many fields as possible.

“Completing the expense report will be easy,” said Myranda Miller, Corporate Controller, Finance VP. “Once you submit, it will automatically route for the required approvals, and you will be able to see the status all the way through the process.” 

Please read the entire article here.

What Is a Freeze Date?

As we phase out Lawson and prepare to launch Workday in July, we must halt certain activities temporarily so that we can get the data transitioned from one system to the other. The dates for which each activity is halted is called a Freeze Date.  It is important that you familiarize yourself with these dates so that you can plan accordingly for your upcoming activities.

We have done our best to keep these freeze periods as short as possible, and we appreciate your support and patience with this effort.  Should you have an urgent business need during a freeze period, please have your Vice President reach out to the Workday leadership team: Beth Schmidt, LaKami Bryant, John Kott, and Myranda Miller. 

For most items, you can still submit requests during this timeframe, but we cannot record the changes until we are live in Workday.

First, starting June 5, employees will no longer be able to make self-service changes to their information in Lawson. You can still view your information in Lawson, even after Workday goes live. But if the need arises for urgent changes involving W4s or direct deposits between June 5-30, the link to the forms can be located on the CookNet Payroll Department home page.  Please complete the form and either scan to the CPayroll mailbox or fax to 682-885-1313.   For any questions, you should contact Cook Children’s Payroll.

Second, a freeze in changes to benefits will be in place June 10-30. For current employees, there will be no impact unless you have a Qualifying Life Event (for example: changes to household such as marriage, birth of a child or death in the family) that makes you eligible for a special enrollment period outside of annual open enrollment.

Per federal regulation, benefit elections may not be changed until the next plan year’s open enrollment, except for instances of a Qualifying Life Event. A full list of exceptions can be found in the Benefits Guide, but the more common changes are mentioned above.

If you have a qualifying event during the blackout period, contact Cook Children’s Benefits for assistance. For new hires, the last day for enrollment in Empyrean is June 9.

All employees should pay close attention to items in blue, other items primarily pertain to managers. 

To see the full list of upcoming freeze dates, click here.

What to Know About Workday

We've sent out quite a lot about Workday in recent months. In case you missed an article or you want to read something again, please click any of the following resource links:

• Are You Registered for Workday Training? Sign Up Now
• Managers: Make Workday an Ongoing Topic in Department Meetings
• Make Plans to Attend Workday Training
• Workday Simplifies Expense Reports
• The End of PACE: Major Changes in Performance Evaluation Process for all Employees
• Workday Model Gives Tools for Supervisory Tasks
• Workday Registration Opens for Online Training Courses
• Manage Your Data with Workday’s Employee Self-Service
• Get Convenient Access with Workday Mobile App
• Make Plans to Attend Workday Training - Training for most Workday users will be offered on Zoom in May and June