Your Workday

In Workday, you can enroll in benefits, declare a benefit event type, view and change beneficiaries, and view current benefit elections and associated costs. See the Self Service-Manage, View, and Change Your Benefits (pdf) tip sheet to find out how.

A new benefits-eligible worker can make self-service benefits elections 30 days before their start date if onboarding is completed. See the complete set of tip sheets for new hires on this Workday@Penn webpage.

Open enrollment takes place in the spring. Follow these step-by-step instructions in the tip sheet, Self Service-Manage, View, and Change Your Benefits (pdf).  Benefits-eligible workers can easily access their current benefits information in Workday. Current workers may also change benefits in Workday with a qualifying event such as marriage or loss of coverage.

Yes, you can view and manage beneficiaries, edit an existing beneficiary, or add new beneficiaries in Workday. This includes all information about beneficiaries including their relationship to you, their age, and the benefit elections in which they are included.

Yes, you can view prices of different plans and compare the plans side-by-side during enrollment or as a new hire. 

The benefits call center is available at 1-866-799-2329. 

From the Workday homepage, click the pay application. From this page, under the pay column, you can click on withholding elections, tax documents, or BSI Tax Withholding Form.

Learn how to view your tax elections in this Self Service-Manage Your Payroll and Compensation Information (pdf) tip sheet or access the BSI Tax Withholding Form in Workday and complete various tax forms including the W-4 in the Self Service-Access to W-2, W-4, and State Reciprocal Forms (pdf) tip sheet.

Yes, you can do this in the pay application under withholding elections. See this  Self Service-Access to W-2, W-4, and State Reciprocal Forms (pdf) tip sheet.

No. Workday will only have payslips from July 1, 2019 onward. Please contact the Penn Employee Solution Center for pay advices for pay dates prior to July 12, 2019.

If you are a new worker, you can select your pay elections (direct deposit) during onboarding. See this set of Workday tip sheets for new hires on this website.

Workday gives you the flexibility to easily add up to three financial institutions for direct deposit accounts. See the tip sheet, Self Service-Manage Your Payroll and Compensation Information (pdf) for step-by-step information. Once you have added two (or three) accounts, you can update your payment election information. Workday enables you to choose a primary, balance account and up to two secondary accounts. You can select the amount of money from each paycheck, or the percentage of each paycheck, that you would like sent to the second and/or third account.

You can view your current pay slip, and historical payslips in Workday from July 1, 2019 onward. The payslip is formatted to easily see gross and net pay, pre-tax deductions, taxable wages, and employer-paid benefits. You can download your payslip into a PDF format. See the tip sheet (pdf) Self Service-Understand Your Payslip.

Detailed compensation information for staff and academic workers includes a breakdown of total rewards, including benefits and allowance. See this Self Service-Manage Your Payroll and Compensation Information (pdf) tip sheet.

The University of Pennsylvania launched Workday Learning in March 2023. Workday Learning is an administrative learning management system (LMS), replacing the University's prior LMS, called Knowledge Link. Workday Learning connects University faculty, postdocs, staff, students and other workers with their required job-related training and other learning opportunities directly from Workday, the University’s human capital management platform.

More information is available on the Workday Learning Guide (PennKey required).

Direct access to Workday Learning is possible or, when Workday users log in to Workday, they can click on the Learning application. In addition, when you are assigned training in Workday, you receive Workday notifications and reminders that link directly to your required courses.

Some Penn community learners may need to activate their Workday Learning account as a first step.

Only University users with UPHS affiliations continue to have access to UPHS courses in Knowledge Link. Ten years of Knowledge Link learning history and assignments were migrated to individual Workday records.

Learners who did not complete a University course in Knowledge Link by March 3, 2023 will need to start the course again through Workday Learning.   

Ten years of University learners’ Knowledge Link training history and assignments, along with University training courses, migrated to Workday Learning. Integrated access to LinkedIn Learning continues.

Workday Learning went live Monday morning, March 6, 2023.

Workday Learning is easy to use. A variety of self-service, online, and live support can assist you. These resources are available in Workday Learning and on the Workday Learning Guide (PennKey required).

Those with robust security roles in Workday Learning, such as learning leads (former University Knowledge Link administrators) and instructors have or will undergo instructor-led training. Security role training is augmented by ongoing live support by the IT Learning Solutions team and the Penn Employee Solution Center, office hours, and Workday tip sheets and supplementary guidance.

Students and other workers who must complete Workday Learning training because of a University position are provided access to Workday Learning.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) continues to use Knowledge Link. The University and UPHS work together to enable a seamless user experience, and efficient training content and data sharing, including compliance reporting. A learning portal provides secure, one-stop access to both Workday Learning and Knowledge Link for those who have training required by both institutions. 

Read more about the changes on the UPHS website.

A new learning assignment model replaced Penn Profiler, the University's former annual web-based survey in which participants' responses helped identify training required by federal and state laws and regulations, granting agencies, and University policy. Penn Profiler was inactivated on February 24, 2023.

University departments and training content owners, which are responsible for assigning, managing, maintaining, and reporting on training, have collaborated to help develop processes available in Workday, the University's human capital management (HCM) platform. The current, six-point model includes:

1. Learner Groups: Workday can trigger assignments based on the selection of learner groups within Workday by learners themselves (self-selection) or by their managers. This method provides flexibility and can be used when community members’ training needs are ad-hoc. Training providers who opted into using learning groups have arranged for options in animal care and use, finance, human subjects research, radiation, research administration, and shipping (list as of this date).
2. Automatic from Job Profiles: Workday can automatically trigger assignments on job roles and responsibilities based on the worker’s record in Workday HCM. Those in Core Human Resources or training providers must partner with IT Learning Solutions by submitting learning assignment criteria to the Penn Employee Solution Center.
3. Automatic from Enterprise: Workday can automatically trigger assignments for those individuals who are not workers (i.e., paid by the University through a Workday record) but need access to training. These individuals are referred to as Extended Enterprise Learners (EELs). EELs include students who are not employed by the University as student workers, academic affiliates who are not paid by the University, service providers, and other non-Penn individuals.
4. Mass Assignments: Workday learning leads, typically training provider managers and leaders, hold a Workday security role. Learning leads have extensive LMS administrative capabilities in Workday on behalf of the training content owners they represent. They partner with the Workday Operations team to make mass learning assignments in Workday. 
5. Manager or Learning Security Roles: Some defined roles can assign required training to a single worker or group of workers within their areas. These include managers of people (as defined in a Workday supervisory organization) who can assign and manage training for their direct reports, and the Workday Learning roles of affiliation managers and learning partners.
6. Training Provider Custom Solutions: Some Workday learning leads and training content owners have developed alternate ways to assign, manage, maintain, and report on training requirements.

The staff performance review cycle includes a mid-year review in the fall and annual review in the spring. When the review period begins, staff receive Workday notifications, and follow-up reminders, to enter information for a self-evaluation, followed by their manager’s evaluation. After a conversation outside of Workday, the staff member and manager each acknowledge they have discussed the review content. More information and resources are available on the Performance Management Guide.

Goals for individuals and organizations are managed both inside and outside the performance review cycle. Staff or manager may enter a new goal or edit existing goals at any point in the cycle. Goals will not be migrated from legacy systems. For more information, use the Goals and Check-Ins tip sheet or access a short video on how to enter goals in Workday.

Yes, some content from legacy performance appraisal review systems was migrated to Workday profiles in the the fall of 2022. Some data in the fields may be blank if they were not required or were not available in digital format.

All staff workers are eligible for performance management in Workday with the exception of those staff under collective bargaining agreements, Penn Medicine clinicians, residents, interns, new staff hires and internal hires who are in the middle of or recently completed their introductory periods, and anyone who is on long-term disability as of the start of the review period.

Competencies are observable and measurable skills and behaviors that contribute to workplace effectiveness and career success. The complete set of competencies applicable to a staff member is available on the Workday profile beginning November 1, 2022. More information on the new competencies framework is available on the HR website. 

Workday offers a check-in feature to support performance objectives. Check-ins enable staff to document one-on-one continuous conversations. Managers can use check-ins and check-in topics for informal coaching and career conversations with their direct reports. Check-ins are optional but highly recommended to use between the mid-year and annual performance review periods. Step-by-step information is available on the Goals and Check-ins tip sheet.

For access to demonstration information and videos, visit the Performance Management Guide.

In Workday, you will find the following information: home address, email address, mobile phone number, and emergency contact information. Workday enables you to change your home contact information, emergency contact information, and preferred/legal name at any time. See Self Service-Modify Your Personal Information (pdf) tip sheet for step-by-step instructions.

Yes, Workday has detailed job information include your location, manager, employee ID, organization, position, and business title. If your job details require a change, please contact your manager or Workday HR analyst. Only those with the appropriate security roles in Workday@Penn are able to change job details.

Workers can request certain types of leave of absence in the Time and Absence application in Workday. From this page, workers enter details of their leave, including last day of work, the first day of leave, the estimated last day of leave, and any other relevant comments. The request is then automatically routed to the appropriate approver(s). You may also use the Self Service-Request Leave of Absence (pdf) tip sheet for step-by-step instructions. Academic workers may use the Self Service-Request Academic Leave of Absence (pdf) tip sheet.

Employees can request a return from leave of absence from all types of leave except for disability leaves. 

All eligible workers submit time off requests in Workday. See tip sheets to show you step-by-step instructions: Self Service-Request Time Off (pdf) and Self Service-Request Leave of Absence (pdf). 

Managers and others with the appropriate security roles may use a variety of tip sheets to manage leave and absence. The catalog of manager tip sheets are located on the Workday@Penn website.

Yes, you can view your current time off balance. Workday also has a feature which enables workers to view future time off balances. This allows workers to plan PTO and manage their time proactively. Please see the Self Service-Request Time Off (pdf) tip sheet.

Sick leave is accrued based on a staff member's regularly scheduled hours of work. A full-time staff member accrues sick leave at the rate of one (1) day (8 hours based on 40 hours per week) per completed month of service. A regular, part-time staff member accrues sick leave on a pro-rata basis. The maximum sick leave accumulation is twenty-four (24) workdays (192 hours based on 40 hours per week), or the balance accrued as of 6/30/2016 (not to exceed 90 days). Those with a balance higher than 24 days will not collect any additional time in Workday until the balance drops below 24 days. Workday will not take any current sick leave balance away. Note that special rules apply to staff covered by Sick Policy 613.

To request time off (e.g., paid time off, sick leave) workers request time using the Time Off and Leave application on the Workday homepage. Time off requests are automatically routed to managers for approval. For step-by-step instructions, please use the Self Service-Request Time Off (pdf) tip sheet. 

Yes, you will receive a notification in your Workday inbox once your time request is approved. The time off will also appear as approved, blocked time in your calendar.

All non-exempt, weekly paid workers are required to enter time in Workday. View the catalog of self-service tips sheets on the Workday@Penn website for your particular situation.

Timesheets are submitted weekly by non-exempt workers. This leaves you the flexibility to enter time daily, every two days, or once a week – as long as your timesheet is submitted weekly. However, it is strongly encouraged to enter your time daily. 

No. Some workers use timeclocks to capture in and out punches for hours that are automatically sent to Workday. Workday will automatically submit hours on behalf of the worker, and managers will approve the workers’ timesheets.  For step-by-step instructions, use this Self Service-Time Entry Timeclocks (pdf) tip sheet. 

Your timesheet is due every Sunday at 9:00 pm ET.

If you forget to submit your timesheet, contact your manager as soon as possible. Your manager will work with you to enter your time. 

If you are a human resources, payroll, faculty affairs or business administrator your position may have a security role that requires training to accomplish your responsibilities. Learn more about security roles.

Penn workers who only use Workday as a self-service platform, do not supervise others, and do not have a more robust HR/payroll role do not have required training.

Workers have access to self-service resources to learn how to enroll in learning, monitor their own information, declare life events, manage beneficiaries, enter direct deposit information, access tax documents, enter and correct time, view time off balances, request time off and leaves of absence, and view academic appointment information. View the catalog of computer-based learning which will link you to the Workday Learning courses.  

Tip sheets describe in step-by-step fashion how to initiate and step through many different business processes in Workday. Tip Sheets are housed in a library on a PennKey-protected training webpage.

Student workers do not have required training to use Workday. They have access to two online videos: One shows the self-service features of Workday, and one walks through time entry.  Students may also use Tip Sheets in the self-service category.

If a student worker supervises other student workers, we can provide them access to Workday time tracking training. If you have any student workers in that category, please contact the Penn Employee Solution Center.  

Managers have access to Workday training that is strongly recommended. Any school or center can require that training.

You have been assigned required Workday courses based on your security role(s) or other factors. Follow the procedures in Workday Learning to request removal of the course.

Office Hours provide those with security roles the opportunity to work through live scenarios in Workday with a member of the Workday@Penn team. You will work directly with real data and automatic approval flows.