How Curiosity Powered Miami University’s Workday Journey

In this article we discuss:

• A Life Shaped by Adaptability
• The Intersection of Technology and Experience
• Looking Ahead: Staying People-Centered in the AI Era

When Miami University launched its Workday implementation, the project team shared a unique challenge: not one of them had prior experience with the platform.

As part of the comprehensive Miami University Workday implementation project for Workday Financial Management, HCM, Payroll, and Student, Sarah Persinger was named as the organizational change management lead, working closely with the project leadership and implementation teams on the first phase of the implementation.  She was assigned as a training coordinator and dove headfirst into Workday Community, seeing how others used it and aiming to be a top collaborator.

Miami University successfully went live on Workday in July 2024, due to the superb project team members and the close working relationships formed during the 18-month implementation project phase. Sarah was fully embedded in the process, leading support teams and helping to launch over 120 basic navigation and system training sessions during implementation and assisting with advanced training sessions for topics beyond employee self-service. When all was said and done, with the first phase of the project, the university pared down approximately 17 systems into Workday.

Today, as director of transformation & adoption, Sarah leads continued learning initiatives that encourage employees to use the Workday platform to its full potential.

“I tell people: ‘Just click, and be curious’,” Sarah shared. “I like to be aggressively helpful when it’s needed, but I can also lead from behind. It’s all about empowering people and giving them confidence.”

A Life Shaped by Adaptability

As an Air Force daughter, Sarah is no stranger to navigating the unknown and figuring it out as she goes. Growing up, she lived in Texas, Arizona, Germany, Florida, Italy, and Mississippi, continually learning new cultures during her formative years.

“I had so much exposure to the world,” Sarah recalls. “Adaptability is embedded into my psyche. You can drop me anywhere and I’ll find my way. I’ll talk to someone, make a connection, have a conversation—whatever it takes.”

Sarah’s early career included a similar breadth of experience. She started college in computer programming, switched to foreign languages (Spanish and Italian at the same time), and landed in accounting, where she cultivated a career starting with the IRS, including a stint as a self-employed accountant, and ending with Oracle Financials in the public sector before landing a job at Miami University in 2005.

The Intersection of Technology and Experience

Sarah was successful in her accounting career but felt ready for something more.

“I liked accounting,” she notes, “But I loved technology and learning new things. Every day for me is a ‘today I learned’ day. I moved progressively higher throughout my career at Miami into a role heading up a support desk for our divisional technology and software, and then came Workday.”

Sarah’s passion for learning—and helping others to do the same—is a huge part of her success and impact in her roles at Miami University. She leads at the intersection of technology and experience, helping teams to not only use the Workday platform effectively but develop the kind of community that makes it meaningful.

She’s launched programs like Workday Wednesdays, a weekly drop-in session that’s recorded and shared as a user resource. The Google Group “Workday at Miami” she created in July 2024 currently has 371 employees in it and over 21,000 logged conversations. Next, she plans to institute a “Workday Walkabout”, where she’ll use a huge campus map as a fun display to hit up all areas on campus for in-person meetings and training sessions explaining how to use the system in different ways.

Beyond platform learning, Sarah has been committed to making the transformation experience fun for her teams.

“For Workday’s one-year birthday, I bought a 72-inch coloring sheet and customized it with the name ‘Workday.’ We had cake, a photo booth, and a stuffed cupcake with a candle for picture props. One of the other events pre-go-live was held on January 24, 2024 to allow me to use a little numerical alliteration in the event.  It was ‘24 on the 24th’ for the team with 24 stations, including massage chairs, chair yoga, stretching, coloring, scavenger hunt for 24 items all beginning with the letter ‘W’, and a variety of other crafts.”

The point? To drive home to teams across campus that deploying Workday—and using it to do their work better and make the University better—is something they’re all in on together.

Looking Ahead: Staying People-Centered in the AI Era

When it comes to AI, Sarah is enthusiastic about what it can do and how Workday helps bring it into everyday work. Still, she’s clear that people and community are the real drivers.

“It’s important for our teams to know about AI and its capabilities. We recently had an ‘AI and Workday’ session. We told employees about all the ways they can use AI, but also drove home how important it is to put our human brains and critical thinking in front of it.”

As Workday’s AI capabilities grow, Sarah wants the experience at Miami University to stay grounded in that balance. The goal? A future where smarter technology gives employees more confidence, and where curiosity and collaboration anchor how they use Workday every day.

Curiosity is key to successful digital transformation and preparing for the AI era. See how Workday is helping organizations empower their people for the future of work.