UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The implementation phase is underway for Project WorkLion, the multi-year initiative to replace Penn State’s existing human resources (HR) and payroll systems with Workday, a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solution.

WorkLion’s implementation phase will bridge the gap between the planning phase and the project’s anticipated system launch in July 2017.

“Based on the lessons the Project WorkLion team learned in the recently completed planning phase, which concluded successfully in October 2015, the focus of the implementation phase will be to ensure the completion of the core Workday HCM functions, including compensation, benefits, absence and performance management as well as payroll and time tracking,” said Rina Kumar, assistant project director.

The project will again benefit from the experience of Accenture, the global management consulting and technology services provider, which was retained as the project’s implementation partner after assisting the functional and technical teams with the initial planning phase since April.

The implementation of Workday is one of three new technology upgrades called for in the HR Business Processes Transformation, a multi-year initiative that will allow HR to operate more efficiently and effectively while maintaining flexibility in delivering services.

The University’s current HCM/payroll system was developed more than 25 years ago, and its operational limitations have impaired the ability of the Office of Human Resources, the Payroll Office and other key stakeholders to provide 24/7 web-based services to faculty, staff, colleges, departments and central administrative units.

The Board of Trustees approved a request of $18 million for the project last year based on the best implementation information that was available at the time. In November, the Human Resources and Payroll offices requested an additional $18 million as a result of a robust planning phase that revealed additional University needs for implementation of the project. These needs include the creation of a University-wide supervisory organizational structure; data validation and clean up within current systems; integration of approximately 92 other internal and external service systems, and significant compliance requirements and due diligence the University is federally required to undertake to ensure the security of information, specifically concerning the classified work that occurs in the Applied Research Lab. The request for additional funds will bring the total capital expense request for the project to $36.5 million.

The HR Business Processes Transformation is anticipated to result in an HR cost savings of $259 million by July 2024 through cost avoidance, redeployment of resources, productivity gains and cost savings.

For more information on Project WorkLion, visit the project’s website at www.worklion.psu.edu, or the project’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/worklion.