The University of Akron

The University of Akron struggled to support the needs of modern
students and employees with lengthy manual processes and limited
reporting capabilities.

Before implementing Workday, the University of Akron HR department
reported challenges with the entire candidate process, stating the
application process too cumbersome, the hiring process too long, and the
onboarding process too manual. When it came to supporting employee
needs, it took three weeks to process leave requests, while managers
struggled with the lack of mobile capabilities to provide typical personnel
actions. For the finance team, challenges included averaging six weeks to
process reimbursements, a lengthy month-end close process, and paper
payroll processes. monthly close process, and paper payroll processes.
Budgets were not streamlined and there was an overall lack of visibility into
financial processes and reporting. Both HR and finance teams shared the
headache of taking more than two weeks each to prepare for board
meetings.
For students, there was limited access for self-service opportunities and
lack of access for parents other than through student sign-on. There were a
multitude of paper forms and processes; for example, processing a student
name took two days. Teams also had to manage manual processes when
assigning student to advisors. The university had limited visibility into
enrollment and no formal communication plan for students and parents
when it came to student account issues.