Focusing on Business Processes: The Workday Work Horses
Last week, we introduced some foundational Workday terms. This week, we’re building on that knowledge by introducing one of the most important concepts in Workday: Business Processes. These are the behind-the-scenes steps that help Workday carry out tasks, like changing your address, approving time off, or making a purchase.
Before we dive into Business Processes, it is helpful to understand another term:
Functional Area – Think of a functional area as a category of related work.
Examples: Benefits, Compensation, Recruitment, Budget, Procurement, Expenses, etc. Each functional area includes certain processes, and the data needed to complete them.
Each functional area will have certain Business Processes (BPs). These are series of steps—such as reviews or approvals—that need to happen for a task to be completed in Workday.
Example: If you request time off, Workday automatically sends that request to the right person to approve it.
Most of the time, you’ll see business processes appear as tasks in your Workday Inbox, asking you to do something—approve, review, or complete a step.
When we talk about business processes, you may hear some of these key terms:
- Event – Another word for a business process in Workday.
Examples: hiring event, name change event, benefits enrollment event. - Initiation Step – The very first step in a process. This is when someone starts the process (“initiator”), and it moves forward to the next step—often an approval.
- Submit – Once you’ve entered the necessary details, you “submit” the process for approval, or directly to completion if no approval is needed.
- Approve – Many processes require approval. The approver reviews the request and clicks “approve” to move it forward.
- Send Back – If something isn’t right, the approver can send the process back to the initiator with comments on what to fix.
- Deny – An approver can deny the request entirely, which stops the process. To submit the process again, it must be restarted from scratch.
- Completion Step – The final step in the process, which makes the change official (like updating your address or budget).
- Error – If something is entered incorrectly or required data is missing, Workday will display an error message in red. Errors must be fixed before you can move forward.
- Alert – An alert, displayed in gold, warns you of something you might want to fix, but it won’t stop you from submitting the process.
- Rescind – In some cases, the person who started the process can take back the request, depending on where it is in the approval process.
- Business Process History – If you initiate or interact with a step in a business process, you can view the history and next steps in the process. You can see who has completed what steps in a process and who is on deck for the steps that follow.
Why Business Processes Matter
Business processes are how Workday “gets the work done.” They replace paper forms, email chains and phone calls with an automated, trackable workflow. You’ll still have conversations about changes like hiring someone, adjusting pay, or approving expenses, but once the decision is made, Workday’s business processes make it happen quickly and efficiently.
