The Future of Change Job in Workday 2026 R1
With Workday 2026 R1, the legacy Change Job experience is being retired and tenants will move to Enhanced Change Job Templates and the updated UI. Here’s what’s changing, what it means for your teams, and how to prepare.
Take a look at what’s changing with 2026 R1, what it means for your teams, and how to prepare:
What’s changing in 2026 R1
- Legacy Change Job retirement: Move to Enhanced Change Job Templates.
- New UI patterns: Streamlined steps, clearer guidance, and template-driven flows.
- Governance by design: Tighter guardrails to reduce one-off variations.
What this means for your teams
- HR & Managers: Updated steps and options; training and comms required.
- Security & Compliance: Review roles, approvals, and audit impacts.
- Reporting: Validate downstream reports/dashboards for field/step changes.
How to prepare (recommended checklist)
- Inventory current flows (transfer, promotion, location, comp change, etc.).
- Map to new templates and define where variation is genuinely needed.
- Rationalize options to reduce friction and maintenance.
- Update security & approvals aligned to the new steps.
- Pilot and UAT with real scenarios; confirm reporting outputs.
- Enablement: quick-hit guides, role-based training, comms plan.
Tip: Treat templates as a governance tool to standardize the majority of moves, then support exceptions with clear criteria.
Suggested timeline
- Now–Q4 2025: Discovery & mapping; define template strategy.
- Q1 2026: Build, security, approvals; start comms & training assets.
- Pre-R1 go-live: UAT, reporting validation, cutover checklist.
- Post-go-live: Hypercare, feedback loop, incremental refinements.
Need help preparing for Workday 2026 R1?
Helios can accelerate your template strategy, security/approvals redesign, and enablement plan.
