Workday Case Study: Building Workday Capability in a Healthcare System While Navigating an Acquisition

The Situation

A US-based Workday healthcare system with more than 8,000 employees had been live on Workday for several years, but structural gaps were creating risk and inefficiency.

The HR team had strong institutional knowledge but lacked deep expertise in specific modules like Recruiting and Benefits. Most of their Workday HR knowledge was concentrated with a single individual, creating a significant single point of failure. Junior team members were eager to grow but had no systematic path for developing Workday skills. And critical processes, including specialized time-off plans and benefits administration, were still being managed outside of Workday, consuming hours of manual effort and introducing error risk.

The organization needed more than a consultant to fix configurations. They needed an embedded partner who could work alongside their team, resolve immediate operational issues, and build the internal capability to sustain improvements long-term.

The Underlying Cause

The gaps weren't the result of negligence. They reflected a common post-go-live reality: organizations invest heavily in their Workday implementation, go live successfully, and then discover that maintaining and optimizing the system requires expertise they don't have in-house.

The HR team was capable but stretched thin. The single point of failure had developed organically as one person accumulated knowledge over time. Junior team members learned through observation rather than structured development. Processes that should have been configured in Workday remained manual because no one had the bandwidth or expertise to build them properly.

This pattern creates compounding risk. Knowledge stays concentrated. Workarounds become permanent. And when something unexpected happens, the organization lacks the depth to respond.

The Engagement

We embedded with the organization for approximately one year, working directly alongside their HR team at headquarters. The engagement began with a two-day discovery session across HR functional areas to document needs, pain points, and priorities. From there, we established a structured rhythm: weekly meetings with each HR department head and their teams to ensure alignment, address emerging issues, and maintain momentum.

The work had two parallel tracks: resolving immediate operational issues while systematically building internal capability through documentation and knowledge transfer.

Operational improvements:

• Time-off plan automation: Hospital teams were entitled to a specialized leave plan that had been managed entirely outside of Workday. Every two weeks, administrators manually calculated and entered hours into the system, a process that consumed approximately eight hours each cycle. We built the plan in Workday so hours were calculated and awarded automatically, eliminating the manual effort entirely.

• Benefits configuration overhaul: We reconfigured Workday benefits eligibility rules, event types, ACA measurement periods, and deduction reporting. This reduced the time spent troubleshooting benefits issues by 25% and improved benefits administrator satisfaction by more than 40% within 12 months.

• Daily operational support: We worked alongside the team daily, answering questions on transactions, explaining errors, and demonstrating how to prevent them. This hands-on support resolved immediate issues while building understanding that would persist after the engagement ended.

Capability building:

• Structured documentation: Every solution we delivered was documented with screenshots and step-by-step instructions, creating a knowledge base the team could reference independently.

• Junior administrator development: We provided direct knowledge transfer to junior team members, building their skills systematically rather than through ad hoc observation.

• Single point of failure mitigation: By distributing knowledge across the team and creating documentation that captured institutional expertise, we reduced the organization's dependence on a single individual.

The Stress Test: An Acquisition During a Pandemic

Midway through the engagement, the healthcare system acquired a hospital that needed to be integrated into both the parent organization and the Workday tenant. This would have been complex under normal circumstances. The workforce reality made it significantly harder. The acquired hospital had approximately 500 to 1,000 employees. They were moving from no system to Workday, a transition from 0% self-service to 85% self-service. The workforce skewed older than the parent company, with limited computer literacy, and many employees didn't use direct deposit. The head of HR at the acquired hospital described the starting point as "ground zero."

The parent organization's initial plan was minimal. Their assumption was that Workday's user-friendly interface would carry adoption. A few emails would suffice for communication. No structured change management was planned. That assumption didn't account for the workforce reality. We had experience with this population and recognized what the parent company, headquartered elsewhere, could not see from a distance. A user-friendly interface means little to employees who aren't comfortable with computers.

We built a change management approach designed for the actual population:

• Board engagement: We briefed the hospital board on the upcoming changes, their roles in the transition, and how to support their teams. This created visible leadership commitment.

• Computer literacy foundation: We coordinated with IT to establish a computer lab for training and developed a schedule that accommodated employee availability. Workday training was layered on top of basic computer skills, not delivered in isolation.

• HR team preparation: We trained the Senior Director of HR and their team so they could support employees through the transition rather than being overwhelmed by it.

• Structured communication: We drafted periodic updates for the head of communications to edit and disseminate, ensuring consistent messaging through channels employees actually used.

• Weekly alignment: We established a standing meeting with the head of HR at the acquired hospital to surface concerns and adapt the plan based on what employees actually needed.

The Results

The capability-building work was validated under the most demanding conditions imaginable.

Quantifiable outcomes:

• Benefits troubleshooting time reduced by 25%, freeing administrator capacity for higher-value work

• Benefits administrator satisfaction improved by more than 40% within 12 months

• Approximately $20,000 in annual labor savings through time-off plan automation

• Two junior administrators supported, who have since been promoted into Workday team leadership roles

Observable outcomes:

• Single point of failure mitigated through distributed knowledge and comprehensive documentation

• Employees at the acquired hospital showed strong engagement with the transition: computer lab training saw substantial turnout, and in the first two weeks post-go-live, nearly 10% of employees visited HR for assistance—requests the HR team was equipped to handle because of the preparation

• The HRIS team executed the acquisition go-live independently, applying the documentation and knowledge transfer from the prior months

• Internal capability sustained: the team continued to operate effectively after the engagement ended

From the Senior Director of HR:

"I don't know where we would have been without your preparation and spearheading this change. We would've been forced to sink or swim, and we were more prepared than we would have been."

The HR team was overwhelmed with requests during the acquisition go-live, as any team would be during a major transition. But they were equipped with the knowledge and documentation to handle them.

What This Engagement Reflects

This Workday case study illustrates what embedded partnership can accomplish over time. Short engagements fix immediate problems. Longer engagements build capability that compounds. Acquisitions bring significant additional work, but the organization had the foundation to absorb it: a more knowledgeable team, documented processes, and distributed expertise. When external support was suddenly unavailable, the internal team was prepared to carry the work forward.

Our role was to work alongside the team, not above them. To resolve issues while teaching. To document everything so knowledge stayed with the organization. And to recognize when a challenge required more than technical expertise, bringing change management, community context, and stakeholder alignment to a workforce transition that could have failed without them.

The result was an organization that was more resilient than when we started, validated under some of the most trying conditions that can make or break an organization.

Abnormal Logic provides Workday consulting services that help organizations bring clarity and stability to complex Workday environments. If you're struggling to get value from your Workday investment and suspect the barriers aren't purely technical, we can help you understand what's really in the way.

Reach out to us at info@abnormallogic.com to start the conversation