As a Workday implementation partner, Avaap consultants spend their time helping organizations modernize systems and guide people through transformation. Just as importantly, our Transformation Solutions Practice, including Organizational Change Management (OCM), is central to how we help clients realize value from those investments.
Recently, Avaap had the opportunity to turn that expertise inward completing an internal Workday implementation. Led by our own consultants, this initiative allowed us to:
- Apply our expertise within Avaap, reflecting on what it truly means to lead change while simultaneously experiencing it ourselves.
- Intentionally design the change experience around the needs, perspectives, and day-to-day realities of our employees.
- Enable consultants to experience the new system through an end-user lens, deepening their understanding of the transformations we deliver for our clients.
In this blog, we reflect on our implementation through two distinct lenses:
- The end-user’s perspective: Experiencing the transformation solely as a user
- The lead’s perspective: Driving change on behalf of the organization
Together, these perspectives reveal lessons learned and insights gained from living the same change we so often help our clients navigate.
People at the Center of Our Internal Workday Implementation
One of the greatest strengths of Avaap’s internal Workday implementation was the intentional focus on the employee experience, recognizing our people as the end users of the new system. Throughout the implementation, we prioritized transparency, engagement, and feedback to ensure employees felt informed, supported, and heard.
This approach came to life in several ways:
- A strong change champion network established rhythm and structure through monthly meetings, clear and consistent Change Guides, and trusted peer-to-peer communication.
- Employees valued receiving updates from colleagues they trusted, reinforcing engagement and creating a powerful two-way feedback loop.
- Visible and active executive sponsorship reinforced alignment, accountability, and commitment to the change.
- Departmental meetings were intentionally leveraged to share updates, communicate key actions, and reinforce critical milestones and deadlines.
During go-live, hyper care made a meaningful and visible difference. Office hours, a dedicated Teams support channel, rapid issue resolution, and transparent public Q&A created real-time trust and confidence. Employees did not just receive answers — they learned from one another’s questions, strengthening system adoption and reinforcing confidence in the organization’s ability to support its people through change.
Lessons from a Compressed Workday Delivery Timeline
As change leads for this initiative, we experienced firsthand the realities of delivering against an ambitious timeline—challenges we often partner with our clients to navigate during a Workday transformation.
Here are a few of the lessons we look forward to applying in future client engagements:
- With a limited buffer for OCM activities, training development occurred in parallel with ongoing system configuration, extending preparation efforts, and requiring significant agility from the team.
- Delivery coincided with a demanding December client cycle and the holiday season, leaving little flexibility in employee schedules.
- To support adoption while honoring client commitments, sessions were recorded, materials were made readily accessible, and knowledge checks were implemented so employees could complete requirements between client engagements.
- This flexible, multi-modal approach enabled broad participation while preserving our commitment to client delivery and operational excellence.
As timelines compressed, change management often absorbed the shock. More importantly, the experience reinforced a critical insight we see repeatedly: while technology change is challenging, role clarity is often the harder—and more impactful—transformation.
Why the Internal Workday Experience Worked for Our Employees
From an end‑user perspective, the experience demonstrated how seamless change can feel when an organization intentionally supports its people, even amid the complexities and challenges faced by the project team.
“As a change management consultant, I understand the strategies that enable adoption, but experiencing a Workday implementation as an employee made the effort required feel far more tangible.” – Avaap Change Management Consultant
Several factors contributed to this success:
- Access to a centralized Learning Library.
- An active Teams channel.
- Clear FAQs made employees feel their needs were being anticipated rather than reacted to.
- A well‑designed matrix of communication channels, including a robust change champion network, ensured information surfaced when and where it was needed.
- On-demand resources and flexible training sessions also allowed employees to engage in learning in meaningful ways, despite the demands of a busy time of year.
Leading Workday Change from the Inside
Leading change internally introduced a unique challenge: wearing two hats as both advisor and impacted stakeholder, while also supporting executive leaders as sponsors. Living this transition firsthand reinforced the responsibility that comes with advising on change
The experience underscored a lesson we share with clients every day: systems go live on a date, but clarity, adoption, and behavior change require sustained focus and intentional investment.
If you are preparing to kick off a Workday transformation, consider how Avaap can partner with you — bringing both extensive client experience and firsthand internal implementation lessons to help ensure a successful outcome.