Workday Organizational Change Management Plan
A working playbook for moving Worcester Public Schools from HERA to Workday — and bringing every employee along with confidence.
Executive summary
Worcester Public Schools is implementing Workday to replace HERA for Human Resources, Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence Management. This plan describes how WPS will prepare employees, leaders, and schools for the transition while minimizing disruption and ensuring successful adoption.
- 1Sponsorship and Governance
- 2Stakeholder Engagement
- 3Communications
- 4Training and Enablement
- 5Adoption and Sustainment
Success will be measured not only by system go-live, but by employee confidence, adoption, and accurate payroll.
This plan translates Workday’s standard Organizational Change Management (OCM) methodology into a working playbook for WPS. Workday treats change management as a formal workstream running from kickoff through post-go-live sustainment. The goal is not just to launch Workday, but to support every impacted employee through the transition from HERA to Workday so that adoption sticks and payroll remains accurate.
Our case for change
WPS is replacing HERA with Workday to give every employee a single, trusted system for pay, time, and personal information. The promise to staff is simple: accurate, on-time pay; self-service access to pay stubs, absence, and personal info from any device; and less paper and fewer hand-offs for schools and central office.
A go-live is a people change, not just a systems change. Workday’s methodology holds that adoption is the true measure of success: a perfectly configured tenant that people work around still fails.
| Principle | What it means for WPS |
|---|---|
| Sponsorship is active, not nominal | Visible, vocal executive sponsors (Superintendent’s office, HR, Finance/Payroll) reinforce the change repeatedly — not a one-time email. |
| Change is led locally | A network of school-based and department change champions carries the message the “last mile” to teachers, paras, and clerks. |
| Communicate early, often, and honestly | People adopt what they understand. WPS names the “why” before the “how.” |
| Enable by role, not by manual | Training is task-based and role-specific, supported by short job aids. |
| Measure and reinforce adoption | Readiness and adoption are tracked with real metrics and reinforced after go-live. |
“People adopt what they understand.”
Workday organizes change management into five parallel workstreams. Everything else in this plan rolls up to one of these.
| Workstream | Purpose | Key WPS deliverables |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sponsorship & Governance | Secure and sustain leadership commitment; make decisions. | Sponsor roadmap, change-network roster, decision log. |
| 2. Stakeholder Engagement | Identify who is impacted and how; keep them involved. | Stakeholder map, change-impact assessment. |
| 3. Communications | Right message, right audience, right time. | Communications plan and calendar, message library. |
| 4. Training & Enablement | Give people the skills to do their jobs in Workday. | Role-based curriculum, job aids, Learning Library. |
| 5. Adoption & Sustainment | Measure readiness, drive usage, reinforce after go-live. | Readiness surveys, adoption metrics, hypercare plan. |
The heart of OCM is understanding who changes and how much. Filter by impact:
| Audience | What changes | Impact | Primary need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central-office HR | New system of record; new processes for hires, job changes, terminations. | High | Deep role training and process redesign. |
| Payroll & Finance | Pay calculated in Workday; parallel reconciliation vs. HERA. | High | Accuracy assurance, parallel results, hypercare. |
| Principals & managers | Approvals, time-off review, org visibility move to the Workday inbox. | Med | Approval workflow training, mobile access. |
| Timekeepers / clerks | Time entry, absence entry, corrections done in Workday. | High | Hands-on time-entry training and job aids. |
| Teachers (HTA/EAW) | Self-service pay stubs, absence requests, personal info. | Med | Simple self-service how-to, reassurance on pay. |
| Paraeducators & hourly staff | Reported time, absence; often mobile-only users. | Med | Mobile-first quick guides, in-person support. |
| Substitutes | Time entry for coverage; intermittent, low-familiarity users. | Med | One-page “enter my time” guide. |
| Superintendent’s cabinet | Dashboards, headcount, approvals visibility. | Low | Awareness and sponsor talking points. |
Principals and managers are rated Medium. If, in the final Workday scope, they own time and absence approvals, inbox monitoring, delegations, and supervisory-organization accuracy, revisit this as High before finalizing.
Active, visible sponsorship is the single biggest predictor of adoption. WPS should stand up two layers — executive sponsors and a change champion network.
| Change champion — how it works | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who nominates them | Principals and department heads nominate; the OCM Lead confirms coverage for every building and department. |
| Time commitment | Approximately 1–2 hours per week during build; 2–4 hours per week around go-live and hypercare. |
| Meeting cadence | Biweekly before go-live, then weekly at go-live and through hypercare. |
| Before go-live | Relay questions upward, promote training, surface concerns, identify local nuances. |
| After go-live | Provide day-of floor support, triage first-line questions, escalate blockers, share wins. |
| Governance role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Executive Sponsor | Owns the vision and value case; visible reinforcement; escalation point. |
| OCM Lead | Runs this plan — communications, training, readiness, metrics. |
| Change Champions | Building and department advocates; two-way conduit; go-live floor support. |
| Functional / Process Owners | HR, Payroll, and Time and Absence leads who validate process and content. |
Assess each group’s influence and impact, then set an engagement approach.
| Group | Influence | Impact | Engagement approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR / Payroll | High | High | Manage closely — co-design, early access, hypercare. |
| Principals | High | Medium | Keep satisfied — briefings, approval training, talking points. |
| Union leadership (HTA/EAW) | High | Low | Keep informed — proactive updates, no pay surprises. |
| Timekeepers / clerks | Medium | High | Involve and train — practice tenant, job aids, drop-in help. |
| Teachers / paras / subs | Low | Medium | Keep informed — simple self-service guides, reassurance. |
The workstream you will touch most. A repeating rhythm keyed to the deployment stage: Awareness → Understanding → Readiness → Reinforcement.
| Phase | Audience | Key message | Channel | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | All staff | “WPS is moving to Workday — here’s why and when.” | Email, briefings, intranet | Kickoff, then monthly |
| Understanding | By role | “Here’s what changes for you.” | Role emails, meetings, champions | Approx. 8 weeks out |
| Readiness | By role | “Training is open; here’s your date.” | Training invites, job aids, FAQ | 2–4 weeks out, weekly |
| Go-live | All staff | “Workday is live — how to log in and get help.” | Email, quick-start card, help desk | Go-live day, then daily wk 1 |
| Reinforcement | All staff | “You’re doing it — tips, wins, what’s next.” | Newsletter, dashboards, champions | Weekly, then monthly |
Keep a one-row-per-message calendar (date, audience, owner, status) alongside this plan — see Appendix A.
Role-based and task-focused: people learn the handful of tasks their job requires, reinforced by short reference material they keep.
| Audience | Format | Core tasks covered |
|---|---|---|
| HR / Payroll | Instructor-led + practice tenant | Hire, job change, termination, compensation, run and verify pay. |
| Timekeepers / clerks | Hands-on lab + job aid | Enter time, enter absence, corrections, approvals. |
| Principals / managers | Short live demo + quick guide | Approve time and absence, view team, delegate. |
| Teachers / paras / subs | Self-service video + one-page card | View pay, request absence, enter time (mobile). |
Supporting assets: a WPS Workday Learning Library, one-page job aids per task, a living FAQ, and a practice/sandbox tenant for high-impact roles.
OCM success is measured through objective adoption metrics — readiness before go-live, adoption after.
| Type | Metric | Target signal |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness | Training completion by role | ≥ 90% before go-live |
| Readiness | Change-readiness pulse survey | Confidence trending up |
| Adoption | Active logins / self-service usage | Rising toward steady state |
| Adoption | Time and absence entered on time | ≥ 95% by payroll cutoff |
| Adoption | Payroll accuracy vs. parallel | Unexplained variances resolved to zero |
| Adoption | Help desk ticket volume and theme | Declining after Week 2 |
Resistance is expected — a signal, not a failure. Surface it early, understand the root cause, respond specifically.
| Likely objection | Root cause | Response |
|---|---|---|
| “Will my pay be right?” | Trust / fear | Share parallel-testing results; provide visible support and a clear escalation path during hypercare. |
| “HERA worked fine.” | Comfort with status quo | Name concrete gains: self-service, mobile, less paper. |
| “I don’t have time to learn this.” | Capacity | Short role-based training; job aids; champion help. |
| “The system is confusing.” | Skill gap | Practice tenant, drop-in labs, quick-start cards. |
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Employee concern about payroll accuracy | Share parallel payroll results and provide a clearly defined support and escalation path during hypercare. |
| Limited training participation | Offer multiple formats and on-demand materials; manager reinforcement via champions. |
| Manager engagement varies by building | Use the change champion network and active executive sponsors. |
| Go-live support volume exceeds expectations | Staff the help desk, add building champions, run a defined triage and escalation process. |
| Configuration changes arrive late in the cycle | Hold a readiness gate before training; version job aids so materials stay current. |
| Change fatigue or competing initiatives | Sequence communications; keep messages short and role-specific. |
Conditions the plan relies upon. Confirm each and assign an owner before finalizing.
| Assumption or dependency | Owner / status |
|---|---|
| Payroll configuration is parallel-validated before end-user training. | TBD |
| Communications align with project milestones. | TBD |
| Executive sponsors actively participate throughout. | TBD |
| Training materials are finalized before deployment. | TBD |
| Hypercare resources are available through the first payroll cycles. | TBD |
| Change champions are identified for every building and department. | TBD |
OCM runs across every stage — it is not a go-live afterthought.
| Stage | OCM focus |
|---|---|
| Plan | Name sponsors and OCM lead; draft this plan; stakeholder map. |
| Architect / Configure & Prototype | Change-impact assessment; recruit change champions; awareness communications. |
| Test (incl. parallel) | Build training and job aids; “what changes for you” communications; readiness surveys. Use parallel results as proof points. |
| Deploy / Go-live | Deliver training; go-live communications; champion floor support; help desk. |
| Post-Production | Enter hypercare (Section 13): adoption metrics, reinforcement communications, resolve tickets, celebrate wins. |
The stabilization period immediately after go-live, running through at least the first one to two full payroll cycles. This is where OCM succeeds or fails.
| Hypercare activity | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Daily issue triage | Single intake for questions and defects; categorized, prioritized, assigned each morning. |
| Payroll monitoring | Close review of each payroll run against parallel expectations; unexplained variances chased to zero. |
| Office hours & drop-in support | Daily virtual office hours plus on-site clinics for high-impact roles. |
| Building champion support | Change champions provide first-line, peer-to-peer help in each building. |
| Daily communications | Short daily “how to get help / known issues / tips” note during Week 1, tapering to weekly. |
| Escalation process | Clear path: champion → help desk → functional owner → sponsor, with response targets. |
| Metrics dashboard | Adoption and ticket trends reviewed with sponsors; exit hypercare when metrics stabilize. |
OCM is fundamentally about the employee experience. Select a step to see what happens there.
| Activity | Sponsor | OCM Lead | Champions | Functional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vision and value case | A | R | I | C |
| Communications | C | A/R | R | C |
| Training content | I | A | C | R |
| Readiness and metrics | I | A/R | C | C |
| Go-live and hypercare support | I | A | R | R |
R = Responsible · A = Accountable · C = Consulted · I = Informed · A/R = the OCM Lead both owns and performs the activity.
Track kickoff readiness — check items as they are complete. Progress shows in the contents rail.
Planned appendices — to attach as finalized
- ACommunications calendar
- BStakeholder matrix
- CTraining curriculum
- DHypercare contacts and escalation list