What to Look For When Hiring Your Permanent Workday® Staff

As a Hiring Manager or Internal Recruiter, you know how hard it can be to find the right professionals to fill your permanent Workday® vacancies. With the specialist skills and experience needed, and the lucrative benefits of contracting enticing candidates into temporary positions, it can seem like an uphill battle. 

It will cost you, on average, 33% of your new permanent worker’s salary to replace them if they leave; it’s something you want to get right first time. 

So, what happens when you know you want to make that long-term investment, but you’re not sure if you’re placing your bet on the right person? 

Let’s take a look at what you should be prioritising in your search for permanent Workday® professionals, so you can minimise the risk of an unsuccessful permanent hire… 

Technical Prowess

You’ve got to make sure the candidate has the technical skills you need to leverage the best of your Workday® platform, and can actually bring the competencies you need to fill the gaps in your team.  

Whether it’s specific modules, or more generalised HCM or Financials experience, focus on the projects they’ve worked on before. If you know you need someone who is strong in configuration, administration, reporting or customisation, make sure they can evidence these skills. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean they need to have 5+ years of experience in a specific area etc., as you could greatly decrease the size of your talent pool by making things like this an essential requirement. If they can show they have the skills you need, with a technical assessment during the interview process, for example, you’re less likely to run into problems when they start. 

Problem-Solving

A candidate’s ability to solve problems should definitely be near the top of your list of essential skills. If you’re going to get the best out of Workday®, and tailor the platform to the specific needs of your organisation, you’re bound to meet some hurdles along the way. 

As new features are released, and your system needs updating, your permanent staff are going to be the ones that are there post-implementation to make this happen. 

Ask them to give you examples of where a problem has arisen in the past, and get them to take you through their process for solving the issue, and the outcome. If they can evidence the success they’ve had with problem-solving so far, this is a competency that should not be ignored.  

Remember, technical skills can be taught, so if they don’t tick every single box in that category, it doesn’t have to be the end of the road for them. However, skills such as problem-solving are harder to teach, and take longer, so this could be a far more valuable skill in the long-run (depending on the urgency of your permanent vacancies, and whether you need someone to hit the ground running). 

Communication & Teamwork

Workday® pros need to be able to communicate effectively with the whole spectrum of stake holders at your organisation, and collaborate well within a multi-disciplinary team. 

The way your organisation is structured will also influence how they’re expected to communicate and collaborate – does your team sit under HR or Tech? Or does your company combine the two? How versed with technical and Workday® terminology is the team they’re working with? How much cross-communication between the HR and Tech functions will their job involve? Who will they be expected to gel with from a functional point of view? 

It’s good to be clear about this from the start, so you know exactly what your expectations for the candidate are. It’s much easier to find the right person to be on your team long-term if you know what you are looking for in the early stages of the hiring process, and can communicate this to them effectively from the start. 

Other Considerations

Depending on your job role, and the needs of your organisation, there may be a few other considerations for you when looking to hire a permanent Workday® employee: 

Industry experience – Is your organisation within a niche industry? Does experience within that industry matter? Remember, this could be a play-off with other desirable skills. For example, you may have a candidate that is lacking in certain (not all) technical skills, but you will be able to fix this within their first 6 months within the role. The good news is, they have relevant industry experience, so they have eased into the organisation more effectively, and were able to grasp the importance of Workday® in the context of your business goals more quickly. 

Certifications and training – Are certifications an essential requirement? They’re a great way to evidence the Workday® skills of your future employees, and can give you a certain peace of mind. However, is this non-negotiable? If you’re in the Partner ecosystem, you could invest in someone without certifications, but offer them the opportunity to gain these during their tenure. This could mean you can offer towards the lower end of your salary range, foster loyalty and commitment within that team member, and give them the career progression that benefits both the candidate and your organisation. Additionally, although getting your Workday® staff certified is not an option if you’re a Workday® End-User, Workday Pro is a great alternative that’s available to you for training and development. 

Commitment to Workday® – Do they really believe in Workday®? Is there passion there? It’s obviously not going to be present in everyone (that’s human nature), but if you find someone who has a passion for what they do, and a love for the platform, they’re more likely to give more to the job, and more likely to want to stick around and keep working with the platform they feel dedicated to.  

It’s not always plain sailing when hiring for permanent roles. This is a big commitment for the candidate, and for you as a company. It costs time and money to hire, and even more if the person you hire doesn’t quite work out. However, the benefits of hiring permanent staff to your team, and your organisation, are endless.  

If you need help finding the right permanent candidates, you’ve come to the right place. Focus on WD have an extensive network of elite Workday® professionals, and we are 100% dedicated to the Workday® ecosystem. We know the platform, we know the market, and we know our candidates inside out. Get in touch today to see how we can help you make the right permanent hire, at the right time, and in the right way.