This newsletter highlights the upcoming September Workday feature release, strong growth and usability improvements for the Workday Virtual Agent, and streamlined access to updated training and support resources, especially around the new Workday homepage and reporting tools.
Workday Transformation Report
Next Workday Release Coming in September
Workday Release 2026R2, the second major bi-annual feature release of 2026, is coming on September 19. Our team will begin looking over and prepping for the new features and enhancements when they become available for review in early August. One update to expect is new templates and design updates will streamline the Change Job business process. More information to come in August!
Workday Virtual Agent
Spreading the Word
The biggest indicator of success for our Workday Virtual Agent is that people are using it. We are thrilled to report that we received 2,335 questions to the Workday Virtual Agent in June, which is 16% more questions than we received in May.
Thumbs Up!
The recent feedback received on the Workday Virtual Agent’s answers has been predominantly positive. In fact, 73% of feedback received in June were Thumbs Up responses. We still appreciate and rely on our Thumbs Down responses, so that we can ensure we are providing the best answers possible, but it is encouraging to see that overall the Workday Virtual Agent is providing helpful answers.
Coming Soon
New developments are always on the horizon with the Workday Virtual Agent, as with AI in general. In August, the Workday Virtual Agent will become even easier to use as an overlaid, expandable chat box on support.umd.edu. Additionally, our team is testing and exploring a functionality that would enable the bot to remember your chat history.
Moving the Workday Resource Hub
At Go Live, one of the main ways to find resources was through our Workday Resource Hub. In mid-August, we are migrating the Workday Resource Hub experience to the Workday tab at support.umd.edu. This will streamline our pathways to resources and enable users to better utilize search, filtering and more to find what they need.
What’s Changing:
- Users will be able to explore resources by category via support.umd.edu, much like they are currently able to do on the HR tab.
- The existing Workday Resource Hub will redirect users to the new experience.
What’s Staying the Same:
- The Learning Hubs will still be operational on the erp.umd.edu website.
- Resources are also still accessible via the Workday Virtual Agent.
Resource Roundup
Updated Resources for the New Workday Homepage and UI Changes
New Workday design means resource updates! Many of our job aids have been updated to reflect the changes, but some of the main ones include:
Did you know? Workday Reports
When viewing reports, there are a few tricks and tricks to help you manipulate and filter the report to help you get the information you need. For example:
- You can apply more than one filter at the same time to any report.
- You can freeze, reorder, and/or hide columns from the report grid using the Grid Preferences functionality.
Instructions on how to do this and more with reports are included in the Find and View Reports job aid.