Summer Workday Enhancements: How Universities Are Upgrading Before Fall Rush

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As the final graduation caps hit the ground and summer break begins, many universities are anything but on vacation. Behind the scenes, institutions across the country are leveraging the quieter summer months to roll out critical Workday enhancements—strategic upgrades designed to improve system performance, support incoming students, and streamline back-office operations before the fall semester begins.

Why Summer is the Prime Time for Workday Upgrades

Summer offers a narrow but crucial window for IT and administrative teams to make system changes with minimal disruption. Workday’s flexibility, cloud-native infrastructure, and biannual release schedule make it well-suited for agile upgrades during this off-peak period.

Here are the key reasons universities are taking action now:

• Lower System Load: With fewer users logged into student portals and finance systems, summer is ideal for testing and deploying new features. 

• Fall Preparedness: Enhancements now can alleviate registration bottlenecks, onboarding issues, and scheduling glitches during the high-pressure fall term. 

• Change Management: Summer provides more bandwidth for training, communication, and user adoption before students and faculty return en masse. 

Top Enhancements Universities Are Prioritizing

As the pace of digital transformation in higher education accelerates, universities are prioritizing Workday upgrades that improve student experiences, streamline back-office operations, and ensure regulatory compliance. Here’s a closer look at the key areas institutions are enhancing over the summer:

1. Student Module Enhancements

Workday Student is becoming a central hub for the full student lifecycle—from admissions to alumni engagement. Universities are:

• Streamlining Course Registration: Enhancing the registration experience with real-time seat availability, waitlist automation, and user-friendly interfaces that reduce advisor workload. 

• Automating Degree Audits: Deploying rule-based logic to track academic progress automatically, giving students and advisors clearer visibility into graduation requirements and credit completion. 

• Improving Financial Transparency: Rolling out self-service tools for viewing tuition balances, payment options, and financial aid disbursements, to reduce help desk traffic and boost student satisfaction. 

These upgrades ensure a smoother onboarding and academic planning experience for new and returning students.

2. Human Capital Management (HCM) Upgrades

The beginning of the academic year often brings surges in hiring, especially for adjunct faculty, student workers, and seasonal staff. Universities are optimizing:

• Mobile-First Onboarding: Implementing mobile-friendly onboarding portals with checklist automation for documents, tax forms, and training modules—accelerating time-to-productivity. 

• Dynamic Job Requisition Workflows: Simplifying hiring manager tasks with more intuitive routing, alerts, and approval chains for quicker turnaround on seasonal hiring needs. 

• Faculty Credential Management: Aligning credential tracking with compliance requirements and integrating professional development tracking into faculty profiles for accreditation audits. 

These enhancements improve recruiting speed, compliance, and employee engagement from day one.

3. Finance and Grants Management Improvements

With fall budgeting and new research funding cycles approaching, finance teams are updating Workday to drive smarter decision-making:

• Real-Time Grant Tracking: Automating expense tracking across the grant lifecycle with dashboards that give PIs and finance teams up-to-date insights on remaining balances and upcoming deadlines. 

• Enhanced Budget Controls: Enabling budget-to-actual variance tracking and proactive alerts to help departments manage spending responsibly before the fiscal year-end. 

• Streamlined Procurement Workflows: Integrating supplier management tools with Workday Procurement to simplify vendor onboarding, invoice approval, and payment timelines. 

These improvements provide clearer financial oversight and reduce administrative overhead.

4. Security & Compliance Updates

Data privacy and regulatory demands are rising, especially in higher ed, where student and health data intersect. This summer, institutions are:

• Tightening Role-Based Access: Refining security groups and access protocols to ensure users only see the data necessary for their roles, minimizing risk across distributed campuses. 

• Conducting System-Wide Audits: Using Workday’s audit capabilities to track configuration changes, detect outdated permissions, and document workflows for compliance reporting. 

• Aligning with FERPA, HIPAA, and GDPR: Updating policies and technical configurations to reflect evolving data governance requirements and reduce institutional exposure. 

Security enhancements now mean fewer headaches—and fewer compliance violations—later.

How BGSF Helps Universities Maximize Summer Enhancements

At BGSF, we understand the pressure higher education institutions face to get it right before students return. Our Workday-certified consultants provide:

• Project-based support to execute enhancements on time and on budget 

• Backfill staffing so core teams can stay focused on daily operations 

• Strategic advisory to align enhancements with long-term institutional goals 

Whether you’re implementing new features, optimizing existing modules, or preparing for Workday’s upcoming release in September, we’re here to help.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

The countdown to the fall semester is already ticking. Institutions that invest in summer upgrades not only enter the academic year stronger, but they also reduce stress on students, faculty, and staff when it matters most.

Ready to maximize your Workday environment before the fall rush? As a trusted Workday Deployment Partner, let BGSF help you take full advantage of summer. Contact us to start the conversation.