Highlights
City of Arlington Successfully Launches the Workday Platform for Human Resources and Payroll
# Leveraging Technology
With support from our Mayor and Council , and the City Manager ’ s Office , the City ’ s Finance , Human Resources , and Information Technology departments initiated a market analysis for a new HR and Payroll System to replace the legacy software introduced in 2006 . Over the 17 years of service , the legacy system delivered approximately 442 bi-weekly payrolls and served as the HR system of record for the 3,800 City employees .
The market analysis led by the City ’ s Purchasing team encompassed the evaluation and demonstrations of multiple software platforms . The team was charged and acutely focused on modernizing the paper-driven processes , consolidating disparate systems , and introducing a modern experience for our workforce . The cross-functional team equipped with a broad range of skills and expertise identified the Workday Platform , as the solution for the next generation of Finance and Human Resources operations .
The 22-month project journey commenced in January 2022 with high-level Business Process Alignment ( BPA ) workshops that spanned over a couple of months . The BPA workshops included representatives from various City departments . The workshops provided an in-depth analysis of the current state business processes and identified opportunities for optimization delivered through the Workday platform . During the spring of 2022 , the project team developed the project communications plan , hosted leadership , cross-functional support team , and executive sponsors workshops . The data migration and validation strategy provided the foundational requirements for the Workday configuration , business processes , workforce roles , and knowledge sharing plan documents . The project team remained fully engaged with system configuration , payroll , and workforce data migrations in preparation for the initial phases of Workday testing .
The testing phase was a significant part of the project , which encompassed 152 unit test cases , 706 end- to- end test cases , and 337 parallel test cases . In preparation for payroll processing , the team performed five dress rehearsals that simulated payroll planning and processing activities . The team gained valuable experience , increased confidence , recalibrated checklists , and validated the business process through the dress rehearsals . ( continued on page 3 )