Faculty and Staff FAQs

While everyone’s experience will vary depending on your role and the work that you do at Macalester. There are some general impacts that will be felt by everyone including:

• Direct control of your personal data: Update your own emergency contacts, home address, or tax withholdings without manual paperwork or time processing.
• “Model My Pay” Simulator: Visualize how potential changes to your withholdings or deductions might affect your take-home pay before you finalize them.
• Real-Time Financial Visibility: Access up-to-date statuses on Pcard transactions and budgets to support immediate financial decisions for your department or project. Follow your expense reports or invoices through the approval process in real-time to see exactly where they sit in the queue.
• Improved Campus Connectivity: Access live organizational charts to see who is in which role across the college, making it easier to find the right colleagues for collaboration and support.

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In Phase One, you will use Workday for many HR‑ and finance‑related tasks instead of Banner / Argos. Some systems and tools may remain in use for specific needs.

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In Phase One, Faculty and Staff will use Workday for tasks including, but not limited to:

• Working with your department’s Grants Administrator to manage grant expenditures and timelines.
• Hourly/overtime-eligible employees will enter my hours worked, and Staff will enter my time off requests.
  • Note for Faculty: You will continue to work directly with the Provost’s Office for absences.
• Viewing your payslips, tax documents, benefits, and time off balances.
• Submitting expense reports for travel and personal reimbursements and Pcard receipts for review and approval.
• Enroll and change my benefit elections and manage dependents.
• Updating personal contact information, direct deposit, tax withholdings, benefit elections, and dependents
• Create requisitions and purchase orders.
• Apply for new positions.
• Complete annual talent management tasks (e.g. submit annual performance goals and reviews, complete annual training requirements).

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• Request new positions and recruit job candidates, including student employees.
• Hire and manage an employee’s employment lifecycle including timesheet and time off approvals and performance reviews.
• Manage compensation elements for employees.
• Initiate transactions on behalf of employees such as updating employee information, submitting expense reports, and entering time.
• Approve position requests and monitor transaction workflows.

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Yes, FOAPALs are a unique Banner term used to categorize Macalester’s various financial transactions to track spending and revenue. Workday has its own way called worktags to identify monies’ sources and uses.

Most codes will be different in Workday, but to support the transition:

• Rather than needing to know the exact new code, Workday entry fields feature a Google-like search where you can find and select entries based on a partial keyword searches, like “Biology” or “MCSG;” 
• And a lookup tool will be available where you will be able to enter a FOAPAL code to get the crosswalked Workday worktag.

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Instead of emailing for approvals, some tasks will move through defined steps in Workday, and you’ll be able to see who has it and where it is in the process.

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The Macalester community will be supported by communications and training modalities that best suits individual learning preferences. Read more about training options on our Training page.

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Yes. Initially, only student employees will use Workday for tasks such as submitting timesheets and entering sick time. However, as part of the Phase Two of this project, Workday will be rolled out to all students, expanding its usage beyond employee-related functions to encompass broader student needs. This phased approach ensures a gradual and thorough implementation tailored to the specific requirements of our student community.

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You will use Workday more often for things like expenses, coding transactions, and supporting approvals. You will also have better tools to see the status of items in your area.

If you support a Department Chair or a manager, you may also be delegated their Workday tasks.

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In most cases, you’ll move to creating and tracking these items in Workday instead of managing separate spreadsheets and email chains.

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Macalester’s Campus Coordinators and Executive Assistants are essential to campus operations. As such, the colleagues will receive training created specifically for them to help transition to new operational processes and Workday functionality. 

Because Coordinators are the first points of contact for many managers and chairs, comprehensive Coordinator training will be offered.

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You will use Workday to review and approve time and time off, support HR-related changes, and see basic information about the people and positions you are responsible for approving.

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Workday uses “Manager” as a technical term for whoever approves certain tasks (such as a supervisor, chair, or dean), even if your actual title is different.

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Yes. Job requisitions, candidate review, and many offer steps will move into Workday, with clearer approval paths and status visibility.

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Workday will provide a “My Team” view and key reports so you can see information such as positions, time approvals, and certain HR actions in one place.

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You will be able to view your finance reporting in Workday.  Banner/ Argos will no longer be the reporting tool for finance reporting. The reports will be slightly different, but you will continue to receive detailed information. 

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You will use Workday to see expenses, Pcard activity, and other financial transactions tied to your departments  or grants.

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Finance reporting from Banner / Argos will be retired when we go live with Workday Finance in June of 2026.  Over time, Business Services will move more information to be  available directly in Workday, reducing the need for separate, ad hoc reports.

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