The Challenge
Growing charter school system with need for better reporting
DSST has grown rapidly over the last decade, opening 16 new schools, all of which have been consistently ranked as the best schools in Denver and Aurora. DSST leaders recognized the need to modernize from legacy systems to sustain its growth, increase efficiencies to free up employee time for higher value activities, and continue to provide an excellent experience for the employees, students, and families it serves.
One challenge DSST was seeking to address was the need for better reporting that was not possible with its legacy system. Reporting was complicated and manual with siloed systems that prevented leaders from drilling down into the details needed for more efficient operations.
DSST’s growth resulted in payroll and benefits systems that were disconnected and managed manually. With benefits and payroll housed in separate systems, making any changes required manual processes for the human resources team. Reducing manual processes and gaining access to better reporting to enhance visibility was critical in DSST’s decision to undergo digital transformation.
“We wanted a system that would streamline our HR and payroll processes so staff could focus their time and energy on student learning,” said DSST Vice President of Talent Operations Ashley Wiegner. “The goal was to be less manual, more efficient, and without the limitations of our legacy system.”
16 Schools
in it's charter school network
7,000 students
served each year
Key Highlights
WORKDAY HCM AND PAYROLL DEPLOYED BY AVAAP
DSST selected Workday as its Enterprise Management Cloud (EMC) solution and engaged Avaap to lead the deployment. Avaap was selected because of its experience deploying Workday with other charter schools and understanding of how to support the unique needs of charter schools. Avaap was also selected for its ability to meet an accelerated deployment timeline for rapid implementation and faster realization to value.
“Avaap brought a best-practice, customer-centric approach that would allow us to get to go-live successfully in an accelerated manner,” said Wiegner. “Getting live on Workday prior to the start
of the new school year allowed us to automate day-to-day tasks, become more agile, and focus on our strategic mission.”
Workday’s unified system reduces manual processes by streamlining and automating repeatable tasks. With Workday’s integrated system, DSST can get insight into the status of processes from hire to retire, manage payroll across its schools, and have the transparency needed to support its workforce.
BETTER INSIGHT AND IMPROVED PAYROLL EXPERIENCE
DSST has experienced stronger reporting as a result of its Workday deployment, allowing team members to spend less time managing payroll and more time acting as a strategic advisor to the business. DSST now has a deeper understanding of its data, which was not possible with its legacy system. Leaders are now able to drill down into data to understand HR and payroll information at each school as well as within its charter school system, and able to make stronger, data-informed decisions as a result.
Workday was also able to streamline academic pay for DSST, which eased payroll calculations and ensured appropriate pay schedules were supported. Information such as rank, promotion dates, contract type, appointing unit, and other details are now visible through a single screen.
Employees have also benefitted from DSST’s Workday deployment. Benefits enrollment transformed from a time-consuming, paper-based process into an automated approach with Workday where employees can enroll easily and review their benefits selections from any device at any time.
“The strong partnership between Avaap and Workday allowed us to meet our accelerated deployment timeline to be live on the software for the school year,” said Wiegner. “For the first time we have visibility into our processes and access to real-time information, neither of which would be possible without Workday’s streamlined HCM and Payroll solution.”
“Our experience with Avaap was extremely positive because of great leadership. Avaap, together with Workday, demonstrated care for our organization’s larger mission and how our implementation project aligned to serving that mission.”
-Ashley Wiegner, Director of Talent Operations
DSST Public Schools
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