The University of Canterbury (UC) replaced a fragmented 20-year-old People & Culture and Finance system ecosystem with UC Workday, aiming for greater efficiency, transparency, and ease of use.
The challenge:
The challenge wasn’t just technology, it was people. Staff, fatigued by digital change and sceptical from past rollouts, needed trust, clarity, and confidence to embrace Workday’s promised benefits, and feel supported rather than overwhelmed.
The solution:
Our employee experience partners, Purple Shirt, supported UC through a human-centred design (HCD) and change management approach that placed staff experience at the centre of the transition. By listening deeply to staff perspectives, they were able to identify barriers and enablers of adoption, then design a framework for change that was clear, tangible, and tailored to different staff groups. Key elements of their approach included:
- Conducted interviews across faculties to surface habits, anxieties, and motivators.
- Designed an adoption framework aligned with UC’s ADKAR model and academic realities.
- Delivered tailored communications, training, and leader-led modelling.
- Co-designed support pathways mixing digital tools with human champions.
- Positioned Workday as cultural change, not just technical replacement.
The results:
Early engagement shifted staff from abstract anxieties to a clearer understanding of how Workday could streamline processes and reduce daily frustrations. Academics, while more sceptical, engaged with role-specific scenarios and training. Staff now feel more informed about upcoming changes, more included through opportunities to ask questions, and more confident thanks to early access to tutorials, test environments, and support from human champions.
While full adoption lies ahead, UC is now better positioned to embed Workday as not just a system change, but a cultural shift towards more consistent, transparent, and adaptive ways of working.
