Workday@Langara Viewpoint: Ryan Cawsey
My role on Workday@Langara is to represent the needs and perspectives of the academic side of the College in collaboration with Finance, People and Culture, and Technical team members. Using my experience as a Department Chair, Division Chair and now Dean, I advise on the development of processes and workflows, first as the representative of the Division Chairs’ Office and now of the Deans’ Office, along with other members of the academic core team.
One of the benefits that we’ll see through our transition to Workday is that Department and Division Chairs will continue to be empowered to make effective and strategic decisions through increased and more timely access to information.
Currently, one of the challenges facing Department Chairs, Division Chairs, and Deans is that much of the data that we need is stored in different places, including a lot of paper files. Workday will provide access to more powerful and accessible reporting, allowing decisions to be made more quickly and confidently.
Our faculty will benefit from having a system that is more intuitively designed. Workday also offers a robust onboarding process, which will help new employees orient themselves to the College and reduce the workload of current faculty and staff who help welcome newcomers to Langara.
Beyond upgrading our software, I believe one of the most valuable aspects of this project has been working with the team from Deloitte, our implementation partner. These individuals have thought extensively about the best practices for post-secondary education, and we’re now able to incorporate that knowledge into our own operations.
Their insights have taught us to keep the number of people involved in any process to a minimum, to avoid redundancy and duplicate work. Their systematic approach to the project has given us a structured way to consider and reflect on our current operations, from purchasing to hiring.
I believe the time is right for this project, given how much the College has grown and evolved in recent years. As my colleagues learn more about Workday and what the change means for Langara, I think they will be impressed and excited by the possibilities we are creating for our future.
Ryan Cawsey
Interim Dean, Faculty of Management
Representative of the Deans’ Office for Workday@Langara
Learn more.
The first wave of Workday@Langara goes live in January 2020. Learn more about this project on our website or register for one of our September 17 events.
