More HRS training to come for staff

When the UW System launches the new Human Resource System this spring, a multiyear training effort will have all users — from the administrative “super users” to employees whose duties aren’t related to human resources or payroll — fully prepared to be successful in using it.

So far, training in the system, known as HRS, has been focused on a specific group from across the UW System called “HRS Global Professionals.” The goal has been to create a group of human resource staff at each UW institution who can act as an informal support network for HRS, and who can help guide, advise and train their colleagues in how to work with the new system.

UW-Madison’s global professionals are drawn from the central Human Resources office, and from the deans’ and directors’ offices at some of the university’s schools, colleges and administrative units.

The scale of HRS training has presented a challenge to those working to put the new system in place. Beyond the global professionals, there are hundreds of people across the system who will need end-user training on HRS.

In addition, UW–Madison will be responsible for training departmental and divisional users of the Job and Employee Management System, a UW–Madison-only front-end system.

The HRS Training Team has adopted a blended approach, taking advantage of existing technologies such as Desire To Learn, Adobe Connect web conferencing and the My UW portal to deliver Web-based training, while still offering more traditional face-to-face learning opportunities to address particularly complex and mission-critical topics.

The global professionals have already completed an intensive, yearlong program of training in a non-configured, “vanilla” version of the HRS software. This program gave the global professionals a basic understanding of the look and feel of the system, the navigational features, as well as an awareness of how the pieces of the system are integrated.

UW-Madison global professionals will complete training by the mid–March; other deans’ and directors’ office staff will begin online training this month, with completion expected in March.

Staff in the academic departments will begin their online training in March, with the goal of having all training completed by the expected system launch in April.

Another challenge presented by HRS training is ensuring that the training materials for the new system remain timely and accurate. To address this, the HRS training team and support teams are collaborating with the redesign team for the UW Service Center to ensure that changes made to HRS materials are consistent and comprehensive.

For example, when the system launches, student help employees will begin using an HRS screen to enter their timesheets instead of the current Kronos time-keeping system.

The HRS Training Team is creating a number of online “quick guides” to support the use of this feature; however, additional educational sessions and drop-in lab opportunities will be announced when the April launch date approaches.