"The Case Of A Missing New Hire" - How Workday’s® Time Zone Change Impacts You
Have you ever had a case of a missing new hire? One where you were sure you hired the candidate but on searching, you are getting zero results!
Yes ZERO! ZILCH! NADA!
You find yourself hours into troubleshooting while thinking about all the pending work that is piling on, only to find after a couple of hours that you cannot see the new hire because it is not 12 AM in the tenant default time zone that was setup when you went live!
I have simply lost count of the hair I have lost troubleshooting. Workday finally seems to have a solution!
In WD33, you could choose to opt into the time zone setting so that you get more control over how you assess time zones for users not in the default time zone.
With the 2020R1, you no longer have that option. Workday is going to make this a default for everyone. You will now be able to base effective-dating a transaction on your local time zone instead of doing it based on the default time zone. This will also make role inheritance and assignment time zone sensitive.
If you think you don't have to do anything since this is being defaulted, you are mistaken. There is some setup involved.
Read on to find out what it is…. Or scroll to the bottom for the TL; DR version.
How To Set It Up
You need to modify your tenant setup using the ‘Edit Tenant Setup - System’ task. In the Edit Tenant Setup - System, when you scroll down to the Time Zone Configuration Section, you can select one of these options within the Role Assignment Time Zone Option Prompt
Assignee Location: The assignee location time zone will default for effective date and time
Tenant Default: Workday will use your tenant time zone.
You will also notice that the Business Process Date Calculation Time Zone option has 3 choices you can choose from:
Workday Default Time Zone Settings (PST) - This is the default option
Tenant Default Time Zone Settings - Step delays will happen based on where the tenant is located
Event Related Time Zone - Based on the time zone where the subject of the event is located.
Once you do this, you will also have to enable and assign permissions to the Manage: Role Assignment Time Zone in your tenant. Security roles with access to this domain can specify a time zone when adding, removing, or changing a role assignment for a worker on a task or business process. Workday displays a Time Zone prompt on related actions when anybody with access to this domain assigns or changes a role.
How This Impacts You
It will impact your business process step delays and role assignments.
When doing role assignments now, here is how the time and effective date will be impacted based on your selection.
Assignee Location: The assignee location time zone will default for effective date and time
Workday will use the earliest time zone when the role has several assignees,
Workday will use the location on the job requisition when you assign an unfilled position to the role,
Workday uses the earliest time zone when the job requisition has multiple locations,
Tenant Default: Workday will use your tenant time zone.
Workday will use Pacific Time Zone when you:
Leave the Role Assignment Time Zone Option blank on the Edit Tenant Setup - System task.
Select the Assignee Location option on the Role Assignment Time Zone Option and you use the Assign Role task from the related actions menu on an organization.
Select either the Tenant Default or Assignee Location option on the Role Assignment Time Zone Option and assign a role using a subprocess of some role-related business processes.
For Business Process changes, the event step delay will wok based on what you selected on the Tenant setup. For instance, now when you change job for an employee located in Singapore, the changes will be effective 12:00 AM SGT on the effective date.
When setting up the Maintain Step Delay on the BP,
When you enter the current date in the specified time zone, the changes take effect immediately. Users in other time zones see the changes right away.
When you enter a date in the future in the specified time zone, the changes take effect at midnight on the date entered in the specified time zone. Users in other time zones see the changes at the corresponding date and time in their time zones.
If you enter a past date in the specified time zone, the changes take effect at 11:59:59 PM on the specified date in the specified time zone. Users in other time zones see the changes at the corresponding date and time in their time zones.
Task
Role Assignment Change
Now
Role Assignment changes default to the effective date to the tenant time zone-based date. e.g, if you are located in Sydney and assign a role to an employee effective 5th Feb in Sydney, you won’t see it until it is 12 AM 5th Feb EST assuming your tenant is defaulting to EST time.
2020R1
Any change defaults to the assignee location if that is what you selected in the Edit Tenant Setup - System under Role Assignment Time Zone Option.
Workday defaults to PST if you don't select anything here.
If you selected Assignee Location, then in the same example, when you assign someone sitting in Australia a role on 5th Feb, it will be effective immediately. You won’t have to wait for the 12 AM EST time on 5th Feb.
Business Process Delay Step
Now
The delays will be based on what you select for Business Process Date Calculation Time Zone under the Edit Tenant Setup - System task.
This defaults to Pacific Standard Time until you change it
Selecting Event Related Time Zone bases the step delay on the time zone where the subject of the event is located.
Selecting Tenant Default Time Zone Settings kicks off the delay step based on where the tenant is located.
Since we are on the topic of time zones, a couple of random fun facts for you. France (Yes France!) is the country with the greatest number of time zones. For my readers in the US, Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states that don't follow daylight savings time. While we are sitting here worrying about potential issues when PST and PDT alternate, Hawaiians are busy sipping Pina Coladas on their sandy black or white beaches!
