But first… are you ready for the next Workday release?!
In case you don’t want to dig through Community, I got you.
Do releases also give you anxiety or are you normal?
A few years ago, I almost walked away from HRIS completely.
Not because Workday was hard.
(It was.)
But that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was pressure.
I couldn’t be creative anymore.
Everything felt reactive.
Every day felt like walking into a mess I didn’t create, but somehow owned as a leader.
I cracked.
Instead of quitting, I called the CHRO.
I told her new processes were going into place.
All I needed was her backing.
(It took a couple sales techniques. We got there.)
What I showed her was simple:
We can throw being creative out of the window if all we do is respond to slack messages all day.
I figured out a way to prove I could increase output.
And she was sold.
To this day, I still ban meetings if I see teams burning out.
After all, our jobs as HRIS leaders is 80% politics.
So I laid down the law.
I shoved everything into buckets
Tasks
Think: creating sup orgs, troubleshooting transactions, fixing small issues.
Low effort. Low impact
Deadly territory because they quietly eat your entire day.
Projects
Defined scope
Change management
2+ hours of configuration
Projects had different rules.
Most paused during performance and merit cycles.
They were not quick asks.
This alone stopped my team from being pulled into work that wasn’t vetted and that leadership didn’t even realize we were doing.
Steady State
Recurring
Labor intensive
Enterprise impact
Think merit, bonus, open enrollment.
Cyclical work you know is coming… which means you can plan for it instead of treating it like a fire drill.
My very made-up priority buckets
Once work was classified, priority became obvious.
We worked critical first.
When those were done, we moved to important.
Everything else waited.
I also froze the backlog.
Yes. Froze it.
Leaders could only add work if they removed something else.
Brutal? Maybe.
Effective? Absolutely.
My team went from a 3+ year backlog to sixteen months.
I hope you get to channel your inner bull too and help your team remember why they love HRIS in the first place.
If you’re sick of manual reports taking up your whole week,
Call my friends over at HRBench instead. They might give you some time back to work on that backlog of yours 😉
Thank you for voting, commenting, and sharing your experiences on LinkedIn. This community makes HR tech feel less isolating and more connected.
If this resonated, reply or comment below and tell me:
What bucket is stealing most of your time right now?
Stay tuned, gang 🔥
More governance coming.
your HRIS BFF 👠
If you haven’t explored HRBench yet, you’re missing out. They’re building tools for the same HR leaders this community was created for. 😉
Want a closer look? You can reach them at [email protected] or visit hrbench.com to book a demo.