The Workday Power User: How to Build a High-Impact Internal Champions Team That Drives Adoption & Innovation

Why Internal Champions Matter

Rolling out enterprise systems like Workday isn’t just a technical implementation it’s a cultural shift. Failure rates for technology change initiatives remain high when the human side is neglected: for example, many change-management studies report that 70–75% of transformation initiatives fail due to lack of stakeholder engagement or poor adoption.

However, organisations that build a network of “change agents” or “internal champions” see significantly better outcomes including smoother adoption, faster issue resolution, and higher long-term engagement.

For Workday users, a champion-led adoption strategy can mean the difference between “just another tool” and a business-critical system that drives HR, Finance, and compliance excellence.

What a Workday Power-User / Champion Team Looks Like

A “Workday Power User” team typically includes individuals from different departments HR, Payroll, IT/HRIS, Business/Operations who:

• Understand daily workflows and pain points

• Are respected by peers and often naturally act as problem-solvers

• Receive training early and deeply on Workday features

• Act as first point-of-contact for colleagues’ Workday queries

• Provide feedback to HRIS admins & leadership about what works / what doesn’t

  
  

When empowered, these champions become internal advocates helping drive adoption, catch issues early, and push for process improvements.

Proven Benefits of Champion-Led Adoption

• According to a recent report, companies that leverage networks of change-agents have up to 50% higher chances of achieving project objectives compared to those that don’t.

• Organisations that provide structured training and onboard champions see up to 60% increase in user competence within the first three months.

• Projects with champion-driven feedback loops continuous communication, peer support report significantly higher user satisfaction and reduced support tickets.

How to Build Your Own Workday Champions Team

Step 1: Identify the Right People

• Look for employees respected by peers, tech-savvy, with good communication skills.

• Choose representatives across departments (HR, Payroll, Ops, Finance) so coverage is broad.

  
  

Step 2: Train & Empower Them Early

• Provide early and in-depth Workday training (functional + process + troubleshooting).

• Give them access to sandbox or non-production environments to explore features.

  
  

Step 3: Define Their Role & Responsibilities

• First line of support for colleagues’ Workday questions & issues.

• Provide feedback to admin team / IT about gaps or improvements.

• Run internal “office hours” or Q&A sessions post-rollout.

  
  

Step 4: Encourage Peer Collaboration & Feedback

• Set up internal forums, group chats or regular meetups for champions to share learnings.

• Encourage them to document common issues and best practices (knowledge base).

  
  

Step 5: Recognize & Incentivize

• Acknowledge their role publicly e.g., “Champion of the Month.”

• Offer incentives: professional development credits, small bonuses, recognition.

  
  

Step 6: Monitor & Measure Impact

Use metrics such as:

• Reduction in support tickets over time

• Rate of user adoption / login frequency

• Time to resolve common issues

• User satisfaction scores

  
  

Better adoption = more value from Workday + lower long-term support cost.

Table: Impact of Champion-Led Adoption vs. No Champions

How Alacrity Solutions Can Help You Build & Empower Champions

At Alacrity Solutions, we don’t just implement Workday we help you build a sustainable adoption ecosystem:

• We help identify and onboard your internal champions.

• We deliver in-depth, role-based training sessions.

• We set up feedback loops, reporting dashboards, and knowledge-sharing platforms.

• We monitor adoption metrics and support continuous improvement.

Together, we make Workday adoption a long-term win not just a one-time rollout.