Chapter 1: Core Concepts and Navigation Basics

CHAPTER 1: CORE CONCEPTS AND NAVIGATION

BASICS
OVERVIEW

Navigating through Workday is made simple through the use of powerful search capabilities and
multiple navigation tools. In this chapter, we will review these tools and discuss the multiple
methods you can use to find tasks, reports, and business objects. In many cases, there is more
than one way to perform an action on an object.

Additionally, we will learn about the core concepts of Workday HCM. This overview will provide
you with an understanding of what is needed to perform transactions in Workday.

Keep in mind that all tasks and reports are secured and require you to be in the appropriate
security group to access them. If you cannot see a task, report, or the data described in this
guide, it is because you do not have permission to view it. Security is configurable, so during
class we use configuration that is specific to this Workday training tenant.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Describe Workday HCM core concepts.
• Log into a Workday tenant.
• Demonstrate navigation techniques including searching for objects, accessing and
removing worklets, and locating and running standard reports.

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CORE CONCEPTS

• Supervisory Organizations: The foundation of Workday HCM. This type of

organization groups workers into a management hierarchy.
• Staffing Models: Defines how jobs and positions are created and filled in a supervisory
organization.
• Job Profiles: Defines generic features and characteristics of a job and of a position that
is built off that profile.
• Compensation: The umbrella term for compensation packages, grades, grade profiles
and plans.
• Security: A security group is a collection of users or a collection of objects that are
related to users. Allowing a security group access to a securable item in a security policy
grants access to the users associated with the security group.
• Business Processes: A sequence of one or more tasks that accomplishes a desired
business objective.

Supervisory
Organizations

Business
Staffing Model
Processes

Security Job Profile

Compensation

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ACTIVITY 1.1 – CORE CONCEPTS

Business Case: In this activity, you will demonstrate comprehension of HCM core concepts
by matching the terms below with the definitions listed in the first column.

TASK #1: MATCH THE DEFINITIONS WITH THE CORRECT TERMS

Definition Core Concept

1. Allows a group of users to access an item in A. Business Processes

Workday.
B. Job Profiles
2. Defines how jobs and positions are created and
filled in supervisory organizations. C. Compensation

3. One or more tasks that accomplishes a business D. Staffing Models

objective.
E. Security
4. Groups workers into a management hierarchy.
F. Supervisory Organizations
5. Defines the characteristics of a job.

6. Includes objects such as packages, grades, and

plans.

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BUSINESS OBJECTS

Workday uses a very powerful object-action model that drives navigation and reporting. The
power of objects is that when you see something in Workday, you can perform an action on it.
When you view a page in Workday, most of the items on the screen are links, and many of
those items have a Related Actions icon next to them. These features make Workday reports
and viewable pages actionable.

Workday stores data as business objects (e.g., organizations, workers, positions) that are
similar to database tables or worksheets in Excel. Just as a database table or worksheet has
columns and rows; a Workday business object has fields and instances. Workday automatically
links related business objects together. For example, a worker is associated with a position, the
position is associated with a job profile, and the job profile is associated with a management
level, job classification, exempt status, etc.

In the diagram below, the “Worker” is the object and the attached rectangles are examples of
related objects or groupings of objects related to the primary object.

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BASIC NAVIGATION

Workday is designed to give you multiple ways of doing the same task. To navigate the system,
you need to be familiar with:

• Standard screen elements

• Navigation tools
• Single and multi-select fields

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APPLICATION HEADER
The following chart describes elements of the Application Header and Workday Worker Profile
menu:

Elements Description
This icon on the upper-left corner takes you back to the Home landing
Home
page.
You can search for tasks, objects (such as workers, pre-hires and
organizations), and reports in the search bar. Predictive suggestions
return common matching results to which you have access based on your
security configuration.
Indicating a Category to the left of your search results page allows you to
target your search to an area of interest, thereby producing faster and
more accurate results. You can set a preferred search category in your
Preferences. That default category is used when you sign into Workday. If
you manually select a different category, it applies for that search and
returns to your default category for the remainder of your session.
Search
Search prefixes also allow you to narrow down your results to a specific
type of search result. When using a search prefix, Workday searches all
items of that type and returns all the results available to you. Examples of
common search prefixes include “org:” for organizations and “bp:” for
business processes. To find all search prefixes you have access to, type
“?” in your search box. You may also choose to use categories to further
refine your results when using a search prefix.
If enabled and configured, you can search on synonyms for Workday
terms that you want to find when searching, as well as hide certain results
that you do not want to see in search results.
Workday Icon Click on the Workday icon to return to your Home page.
Click on your name or picture to view your worker profile, access all
Worker
menus including your Inbox and notifications, manage your user
Profile
preferences, or sign out of your Workday session.

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WORKER PROFILE MENU

Elements Description
The Home landing page uses one consolidated view to display
worklets giving employees, contingent workers, and managers access
Home
to information and commonly used tasks for self-service and manager
self-service.
The Inbox will contain all activity that is required of you. When Inbox is
Inbox
selected, your Inbox opens in full-screen mode.
The Notifications link displays notifications regarding business
Notifications
processes and rules-based alerts such as birthdays and time off.
This landing page provides technical administrators and implementers
easy access to all the tools needed to create and manage custom
Workbench
reports, calculated fields, analytic indicators, and other administrative
tasks and reports.
A list of the standard reports and tasks available to you, sorted by
Sitemap
functional category.
This page provides access to a configurable list of favorite business
Favorites objects, reports, and tasks. Favorites can also be used when
searching in prompts.
A list of all the audit reports and tasks available to you, sorted by
Audit
functional area.
The Workday drive is a virtual drive in which you can store generated
reports. Users can find the same information through a Reports
W: Drive (My worklet on the Home page. When a new report is available in your W:
Reports) Drive, a notification will display in the application header and in your
Inbox. You can also tag reports sent to your W: Drive to make them
easier to locate.
Workday documentation can be used to obtain information on
attributes of objects, system configuration, or procedures. The
Documentation
Documentation link will take users to the Administration Guide section
of the Workday Community.
To direct your end users to your training and help documents, use the
Edit Tenant Setup - System task and enter your training and help
Help website's URL in the 'Help' Link field. To add other links, such as one
to your support center, create Quicklinks worklets and include them as
required worklets on the Home page.
This allows you to change your password and user account
My Account
preferences.

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STANDARD SCREEN ICONS

Icon Description
Brings you back to your Home page.

Clicking on the Worker Profile opens all sections available from the home
page. This includes Inbox, Notifications, Workbench, Favorites, W:Drive,
Documentation, Help and My Account.
Displays the Related Actions menu for an object (available only if the
user has permission to perform additional actions on that object).
This Actions button is displayed on the header of many pages in
Workday. Just like the Related Actions menu described above, this
button provides a menu for an object.
Used to narrow down data. Clicking this icon allows you to add a filter to
your data.
Click to view this page as a PDF file that you can print. This can be
restricted using the domain Export to PDF and Excel.
Click to view this page as an Excel file. This can be restricted using the
domain Export to PDF and Excel.
Used to indicate that the report can be viewed as a chart.

Click the Pool Tag icon to put worker(s) into a selected talent or
succession pool.
Returns to the previous page and allows rerunning either a report or a
task with new values.
An up or down arrow will appear in the column heading of a report if you
have clicked on it to change the sort direction.
Appears in the upper-right side of worklets and landing pages and acts
as a menu or settings option.
Opens the associated instance, replacing the current view page (only
available on select view pages).
The Alert is a warning message that alerts you about system limitations
based on configuration. You may continue your process or configuration
when an alert message displays.
The Error is a warning message that alerts you there is a critical error. An
error must be corrected to move forward in a process or to enable your
configuration.

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TASK PAGE ICONS

Icon Description
The Required Field indicator contains an asterisk that indicates that you
must enter a value for this field before saving or submitting the page.
Clicking the Prompt icon displays see a list of available values sorted in
folders (if applicable).
The Calendar icon opens a calendar to select your date.

Click the Delete Row icon to remove the current row from the grid.

Click the Add Row icon to add a row to the current grid.

When you click the OK button, the system accepts your changes.

The Submit button accepts your changes and moves you to the next
step in the business process.
The Done button closes a confirmation screen and returns user to the
page which the task or process was initiated from
The Cancel button disregards all changes.

The Save for Later button saves the item in your Inbox until action is
taken.

The More option gives you several additional choices depending on the
business process.

ADDITIONAL NAVIGATION TOPICS

INBOX
The Inbox can be found on the Worker Profile Menu, and contains an Actions tab and an
Archive tab. The Actions tab is an activity stream that displays business process tasks,
approvals, and to dos which require an action. The Archive tab displays historical actions and
business processes within the last 30 days. You can also choose to add the Inbox as a worklet
on landing pages.

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The Inbox displays filter options and sorting capabilities. You can choose to edit your own filters
using condition rules you configure. Under Archive, you can refresh or view more processes.
The standard filters for the Actions tab are:

Filter Description
All current business process tasks, approvals and to-dos awaiting your
All
attention.
Favorites Inbox items you starred as favorites.
Overdue Business process items past their due date.

Bulk Approvals
Under the Actions tab of your Inbox, there is a pull-down icon on the top right which gives you
the option to Bulk Approve items in your Inbox, refresh your Inbox, or begin delegations.

When you select this option, a Bulk Approve screen opens up with approval items from your
Inbox. You can choose the “Select All” checkbox, or you can select individual items to approve
in bulk.

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NOTIFICATIONS
The Notifications section on the Worker Profile Menu displays notifications regarding business
processes and rule-driven alerts such as birthdays and time off. When working with
notifications, you can “Mark all as read” or refresh.

WORKLETS
Worklets are reports that can be displayed as tiles on a Workday landing page. They provide
users quick access to frequently referenced data and tasks common to a specific functional
area. Worklets can be identified as required or optional on landing pages based on the user’s
security group(s). Required worklets cannot be removed or rearranged from the page, while
optional worklets can be added or removed by the user.

Security determines which worklets are available. For example, the Personal Information
worklet is available to Employee-as-Self, in which every employee is a member, while the My
Team Management worklet is only available to managers.

LANDING PAGE CONFIGURATION

At the top right of each landing page you will see a gear icon. By clicking this icon, you can
personalize your landing page. You can add or remove any recommended or optional worklets
to or from this page. You can also specify the order in which you would like these worklets to
appear.

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PROMPTS
Workday utilizes prompts to help users navigate in search fields. Prompts display all content
available to that field, allowing you to navigate through levels to find information more easily. As
you navigate through prompts, the top of the pane displays which level you are currently in,
allowing you to return to a previous level. If the prompt only contains one folder or available
level to choose, it will default to open.

SINGLE-SELECT FIELDS
If a field displays a prompt list icon, you are required to use one of the prompt values. In single
select fields, only one value is allowed and the prompt list will disappear once a value is chosen.

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MULTI-SELECT FIELDS
If a field permits more than one value, the prompt list will stay open to allow you to choose as
many values as necessary. The field expands as you enter additional values and you can click
the X to remove entries.

FAVORITES
Your favorite business objects, tasks, and reports are found on the Favorites link in the worker
profile menu. You have the ability to mark any item in Workday as a favorite by using the
Favorite > Add related action off an item in the system. This allows for easy access to those
items which you use most often and your prompt boxes will display a folder for easy access to
your favorites.

GUIDED TOURS

Guided Tours help users complete tasks by displaying customized instructional text for selected
fields as part of business processes. Unlike Step Help-Text which appears at the top of the
page, Guided Tours appear next to each respective field.

When Guided Tours are configured, a question mark icon displays on the task header to
indicate that help text is available for fields on the current screen. If the user would like to
expand and view the help text, they can click on the question mark in the upper-right corner of
the screen, and descriptions will display on each configured field to help the user complete the
information.

Use the Configure Guided Tours task to add tenanted titles and text that you want to appear on
specific fields within a selected business process. The Translate Guided Tours task will allow
you to manually translate the Guided Tour title and text into any of the language translations
that Workday supports.

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HIDE AND REQUIRE FIELDS

To have more control over what users see in tasks, you can determine which users see certain
fields within business processes. Fields can be configured to be either hidden or required for all
users or for specified security groups.

Use the Configure Optional Fields task to specify a field based on business process or
functional area, as well as the criteria used to determine for whom the field is hidden or
required.

TENANT SETUP

A tenant is a unique instance of the Workday system with data separated in a database that is
securely segregated through password-controlled access. You can configure the tenant to meet
your unique business needs. Workday performs most of the tasks that support your tenancy
during your initial deployment; however, you may need to:

• Customize the Workday sign in page.

• Establish the default settings for a variety of data and information formats.
Workday provides several tasks for configuring specific areas of your tenant, as needed. These
tasks are accessed by navigating to the Tenant Setup report and selecting a tenant setup task
specific to the changes needed. Throughout this guide, there will be reference made to different
Edit Tenant Setup tasks to assist with various system configurations.

Resource: More information about Tenant Setup and Tenant Management is

available on Workday Community.

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LANGUAGE AND TERMINOLOGY CONSIDERATIONS

The basic tenant language for Workday is English, but there are a series of terminology and
translation configuration options available to you.

TRANSLATIONS
Workday can deliver Employee Self Service and Manager Self Service into over 20 languages.

Resource: A full list of languages is available on the Workday Community.

These languages are primarily allocated based on the location the worker is hired into.
However, the individual user can change the language they view the system in (e.g., if they live
in a country with dual languages such as Belgium or Canada) by going to My Account settings
and selecting Change Preferences. A Preferred communication language can also be
designated for business communications.

The choice of languages can be restricted using Edit Tenant Setup – Global.

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CUSTOM LABELS
If certain terms used by Workday do not match up with the language used in your enterprise,
you do have the ability to override some of these objects’ labels. The Maintain Custom Labels
task enables you to create, edit, and delete custom labels, which will override the original
Workday terms in certain tasks and reports. You can define override values for different
variations of the term when relevant, such as the singular, plural, and possessive forms of the
terms. We also provide a Preserve Case option that always displays the custom label in the
case you define.

SYNONYMS
Customers can create synonyms within the system. These are used as search criteria to find
information in the system. The advantage of this is that it allows customers to map their
terminology with Workday terminology. Then users can be accurately directed to information
within their tenant. These synonyms can be maintained in Edit Tenant Setup – Search.

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ACTIONABLE REPORTS

Workday uses a very powerful object-action model that drives navigation and interactive reports.
When you view a page in Workday, most of the items on the screen are links and many of those
items have a Related Actions icon next to them. These features are what make our reports and
viewable pages actionable.

One example of an actionable report is the Find Workers report. You can use the Find Workers
page to filter search results by various criteria, such as location, job profile, and supervisory
organization. As you select a value for any filter category, or facet, the Find Workers page
immediately updates the resulting list of workers and facet value counts. The facet value counts
help you understand the worker population that satisfies the current filter criteria and guide your
exploration.

Workday displays search facets on the left side of the Find Workers page. Facets are non-
tenanted; they correspond to generic categories such as location. Each facet contains one or
more facet values. Facet values are tenanted; they correspond to specific values in your tenant.
For example, the facet Location would display facet values for your specific locations.

Each facet value is followed by a number indicating how many workers have that facet value.
For example, if you have a Chicago Sales Office location with eight workers, the location facet
would display a facet value of Chicago Sales Office (8).

By default, no facet values are selected. As you select facet values to narrow your search,
Workday dynamically updates the facet value count numbers for other facet values. For each
facet, Workday displays the facet values with the most workers. If there are more facet values
for that facet, click the More... link to display them. For facets with many possible facet values,
Workday provides a prompt to select an additional facet value.

To create a custom Find Workers report, copy the standard version, and then modify the report
to your needs.

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In the Find Workers report, you have the ability to Compare Workers by selecting the box next
to their name in your results and selecting the Compare button. You can compare up to five
workers at a time.

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Compare Workers opens up a window to view a side-by-side comparison of key worker

attributes from the Talent, Compensation, and general HCM areas:

DASHBOARDS
Dashboards are worklets that can be included on your Home landing page. Workday provides
pre-configured dashboards for distinct functional areas. In addition to using the pre-configured
Workday-delivered dashboards, you also can create an unlimited number of custom
dashboards. Each custom dashboard can display a set of custom reports that have been
enabled as worklets. Workday allows you to have unlimited amount of types under Dashboard,
but still six worklets per type. The Maintain Dashboards task will give you the ability to set up
which dashboards you want to allow users to set up.

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ACTIVITY 1.2 – SEARCH AND NAVIGATION

Business Case: You are a new Workday user. Sign on to your system and follow the
instructions below to get a feel for searching and navigating in Workday.

URL:
Your assigned training tenant # (replace “X”s in the url above):

https://_________- host _____.workdayeducation.com/unified _____/login.htmld

TASK #1: SEARCH

1. Log in as Logan McNeil (lmcneil) using the following password:

2. Enter Termination in the Search box and click the magnifying glass or press your
Enter key. How many search results do you receive?

3. Using a search prefix, type bp: termination and click the magnifying glass.

A. How many search results do you receive?

B. What type are these search results?

4. Enter Benefit Events Status Report in the Search box and view the predictive search
results. Then enter ben even stat in the Search box and note your results. Notice that
searching on partial and abbreviated words will still return the result you seek.

5. Enter betty liu in the Search box and press your Enter key. View all of your search
results using the current default category All of Workday.

6. Change the Category on the left side of your search results to People.

A. How many search results do you receive?

B. What are these search results?

TASK #2: NAVIGATION

1. Remove worklets from the Home page that you do not think you will use in your initial
deployment (perhaps Benefits Dashboard).

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2. Click the Add Row icon at the top of the table to add a new row.

3. Using the prompt, find Inbox and add to Logan’s worklets.

4. Click OK.

5. Run the Address Change Report with no date criteria. Who had the most recent
address change?

Hint: Use the Sorting feature in the Address Change Report rather than scrolling
down the list.

6. Find the supervisory organization that handles Payroll. How many workers are in the
Payroll department?

7. Navigate to worker Deborah Simpson. Viewing her Worker Profile, answer the
following questions:

A. What is Deborah’s position?

B. Who is her manager?

C. What is Deborah’s hire date?

D. Who reports to Deborah?

Hint: Use the Team icon to view Deborah’s organization.

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CHAPTER REVIEW

This chapter provided a brief introduction to the core concepts of HCM, which are Supervisory
Organizations, Staffing Models, Job Profiles, Compensation, Security, and Business Processes.
These six core concepts are essential for Workday HCM transactions. In following chapters, we
will cover each core concept in more detail.

When you see an object in Workday you can click on it to get more information or use the
Related Actions icon to open the menu and initiate an action.

Landing pages are a collection of worklets that allow users to access information, tasks, and
reports.

• The Home landing page is a consolidated view of information and tasks for both self-
service and manager self-service.
• The Workbench landing page provides quick and easy access to existing tasks and
reports for technical administrators and implementers.
All landing pages are configurable. Worklets can be added and removed at any time.

Worklets can be configured to be required or optional for specific security groups. Required
worklets will be pre-loaded when a worker first signs into Workday and cannot be removed.
Optional worklets will be pre-loaded when a worker first signs into Workday and can be
removed by the user at any time.

Most reports and Workday pages can be exported to either a PDF or Excel file.

Search can be used to find information in the Workday system because most data is indexed
and searchable.

The Inbox is where you find tasks that you are responsible for completing. The Inbox is found by
clicking on the Worker Profile on the top right of your screen, and will open to a fullscreen view,
which includes current action items and archive processes. The Inbox worklet can also be
configured on landing pages.

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CHAPTER 1 KNOWLEDGE CHECK

1. What is the name of the icon that allows you to view information or perform tasks on
a landing page?

2. True or False: Search allows you to use partial searches, abbreviations and
misspelled words.

3. What is the name and location of the icon you should select when you want to act on
or make changes to an object?

4. True or False: Security and Business Processes are considered cross applications
and impact all Workday solutions.

SAMPLE DECISION POINTS

1. Which worklets are required for your enterprise? Which worklets are optional?

2. What will be on the Home page?

3. What reports will you display?

4. What types of Dashboards will you set up and allow workers to choose from? Who
should see them?

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