A Customer’s Tips for Workday Rising Europe

Last year, our customer Soo Heanue, HR technologies release and change director at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), shared  her tips and takeaways for other Workday Rising Europe attendees. We’ve re-posted our interview with her for those planning to join us for this year’s Workday Rising Europe, taking place Nov. 12-14 in Milan. See you then!

You’re a seasoned alumni of Workday Rising Europe. What are you most looking forward to?

I always look forward to seeing familiar faces from the Workday customer community, and I’ve built important relationships and made good friends at Workday Rising Europe. I’ve found so many good opportunities to learn about how other organisations are using Workday. It’s those pieces of insight that are so valuable.

What are you looking to learn from this year's conference?

As a business, we’re looking to implement a process whereby we have the ability for employees to sign their offer letters and to get their contract change letters much quicker than they do now. There’s an Adobe Sign integration which enables that, so I’m looking forward to learning more about it. I also try to take in some of the customer sessions, as it’s always interesting to hear how other organisations are facing similar challenges. And I always take advantage of the Office Hours, where we get the chance to talk about some of our configuration questions with a Workday expert. That is hugely valuable.

At both events we talk a lot about the Power of One. What does that mean to you as a customer?

The most important part to me is the fact that all GSK employees are on the same system. Knowing we have one source of truth for our data inspires huge confidence internally. We also know that the two Workday updates per year will deliver continuous innovation and that these will be seamlessly rolled out across our entire organisation. In the old world, we would have to wait four or five years for real innovation to be rolled out—at huge cost and complexity. This is completely different with Workday. That, for me, typifies the Power of One.

If you could sum up Workday Rising Europe in one word, what would it be?

Collaboration. There are very few events where you get access to other customers in such a community-oriented setting, and where you have the ability to have transparent, open conversations about your journeys. The spirit of collaboration is what Workday Rising is all about.

What are the biggest takeaways from Workday Rising Europe?

Take the lessons back to the business. The time spent there is only valuable if you can come back and share it with others and help them benefit from it. The learnings from other customers are powerful. I make it a point to hold debriefs at my company about what I’ve learned from other organisations so that we can start thinking about how we might want to implement those at GSK.