Sent out on April 6, 2026

Dear Friends,

As we shared with our community last July, after a collaborative process that included listening sessions, vendor demonstrations, and survey feedback, Workday was selected as the software we will use to centrally manage the College’s data, replacing Banner. Workday is a trusted leader across higher education and offers an intuitive and streamlined user experience that will lead to easier access to information and better support for day-to-day work across the College.

Workday Phase 1 Launch in October 2026

This will be a significant transition for our community, and over the past 8 months our Workday project team has been hard at work preparing for Phase 1 of the project to go live this October. This phase includes Human Resources, Finance, and Payroll functions, and will also touch on student jobs on campus. This means that by early fall, most Banner-related operations in these areas — from entering leave reports to processing expense reports — will be handled through Workday. Phase 2, transitioning student information systems into Workday, also began this month, with an anticipated launch in February 2028.

Work is ongoing to transition data into Workday, update our internal workflows, and train our community members to use the platform. We are currently in the first major testing phase of Phase 1, checking that individual processes within Workday are operating as designed. After that, we will begin to bring together these individual processes to build and confirm that the system’s pieces are working together in preparation for Phase 1 launch in October.

Next Steps

Testing and refining of operations within Workday will continue this spring and summer, and we are grateful to the Human Resources, Finance, and Payroll team members who have been lending their time and energy to learning this new platform.

Please keep in mind that there will be a need to stop using some Banner-related systems in the early Fall leading up to the October Workday launch. These periods will be kept to a minimum and will be announced with advance notice. In the coming months, our Workday Project Team, led by Project Manager Mark Dumic, Change Management Lead Jess Stockett, and Training Lead Claire Grundstein, will reach out with specific dates as well as training information and materials, and go-live check lists for things to do once you are in Workday.

Change Champions Group

To support this process, we have established a group of faculty and staff members called “Change Champions.” Change Champions play an important role in this work by engaging with regular updates from our project team — including demos of new workflows in Workday — and offering valuable perspectives from across campus. They also serve as ambassadors to their various offices and departments, sharing progress on the project, and shepherding questions that arise. If you are interested in joining this group, please confirm your availability with your supervisor and then reach out to our Workday project team at workday@swarthmore.edu.

This transition will impact most of our community, from our staff and faculty members to student workers, since the Banner system is at the heart of so many of our College operations. I encourage you to visit our Workday Project website (login required) for more information on the project, as well as frequently asked questions. We will also continue to update you on key dates and milestones. Please direct all questions and concerns to our Workday project team at workday@swarthmore.edu.

Thank you for your support and flexibility as we make this exciting transition!

Sincerely,

Jason Parkill

Jason Parkhill