HR Partners, managers, and supervisors provide essential support to their department’s employees throughout every stage of their WSU journey. The 2025 Elevating Cougs conference offers those who hold supervisory roles the opportunity to learn more about using Workday tools and resources to support their employees through times of change and challenge, at both an individual and university level.
This year’s Workday Success track includes the following key sessions that may benefit HR partners, managers, and supervisors. Attendees will be able to both review core Workday concepts and dive more deeply into specific processes and events to learn more about supporting employees by optimizing their use of Workday.
- What’s New in Workday – HCM: Join Modernization’s HCM team for an interactive and engaging run down of the latest HR related updates and optimizations in Workday. This 90-minute session includes plenty of time for Q&A. Modernization holds What’s New sessions every quarter, and October’s session is the third in this year’s series. For previous recordings and presentation materials, visit the What’s New guide in the Workday Knowledge Base.
- Basic 101- Finance & HCM: Understanding Basic Finance and HR Terms: How often do you hear a finance or HR related term in a meeting, or read it in an email, and wonder what it means? This session explains the common, and not so common, finance and HR terms used in Workday and by the central units.
- Basic 101 – HCM: Staffing Basics and Tips & Tricks: This session covers the basics of staffing and compensation in Workday.
- Templates and Consolidated Processes: This session demonstrates the templates and consolidated processes now available in Hire, Change Job, and Request Compensation Change. The Modernization team will also share what is planned for phase two in the Hiring and Staffing optimizations.
- Medical Leave and Accommodation for Employees and HR Partners: This session explains the Medical Leave and Accommodations processes and showcases the actions from both the employee and the HR Partner perspectives.
- Start and End Your WSU Career the Right Way: This session shares resources and training tips for employees to help set them up for success at the beginning of their careers, and covers best practices for employees, HR Partners, and Managers for when employees leave to ensure business continuity and a successful and amicable separation.
In addition to the Workday Success track, managers and supervisors are encouraged to explore these sessions focused on soft skills development related to leadership, management, and team building though times of change.
Interested in learning more about what the 2025 conference has to offer? View a complete list of sessions and descriptions on the Elevating Cougs website.
Elevating Cougs will be held virtually on October 22-23, 2025. Early registration is now open. Register now to secure your spot and begin building your personal conference schedule.
Questions? Reach out to the conference organizers at hrs.training@wsu.edu.