Workday Operations Specialist – HCM & Absence

Introduction and Background

The Workday Operations Specialist HCM & Absence provides centralised transactional support across the employee lifecycle, with a particular focus on maintaining accurate core HCM data and managing absence events and accruals. The role partners closely with HR Business Partners, HRSS and line managers to ensure requests are processed on time, data quality is maintained, and employees receive clear guidance on Workday processes.

Purpose of the Role

This is an operations role, not a system administration role. The focus is on day-to-day processing, data quality, service delivery, and compliance within Workday, ensuring employee and manager experiences are timely, accurate, and consistent.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Processing (HCM)

• Process hire-to-retire transactions (hires, job changes, transfers, secondments, terminations) in line with agreed SLAs and controls.
• Maintain personal, job and compensation attributes in Workday using approved requests and evidence.
• Action and monitor Workday Inbox items, ensuring business processes progress without bottlenecks.
• Execute approved bulk data updates using standard EIB templates (no configuration changes).

Absence & Time

• Administer absence plans (annual leave, sickness, parental leave) including enrolments, adjustments and corrections per policy.
• Validate accruals, carry-over and balances; investigate and resolve discrepancies.
• Support absence-related year-end activities (carry-forward, balance resets) and public holiday schedules.

Data Quality, Governance & Controls

• Perform data checks and reconciliations; remediate defects at source and raise defects where root causes are outside operations.
• Apply data privacy principles and follow makerchecker controls for sensitive updates.
• Maintain auditable records of changes and approvals in accordance with policy.

Service Delivery & Case Management

• Manage cases via the HRSS ticketing tool, meeting response and resolution SLAs.
• Provide guidance to employees and managers on self-service actions and standard operating procedures.
• Escalate exceptions to HRSS Team Lead/Manager with clear context and options.

Reporting & Management Information (MI)

• Run standard Workday reports (e.g., headcount, movements, absence balances) and share with authorised stakeholders.
• Assist with ad hoc data requests using approved report views while upholding security and least-privilege access.
• Support month-end and audit packs with accurate MI extracts.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify process pain points and propose changes to SOPs, forms and guidance to improve first-time-right outcomes.
• Participate in UAT for minor enhancements; provide feedback on usability from an operations perspective.

Person Specification

Experience:

• 25 years experience in HR operations using Workday HCM and Absence.
• Demonstrable experience executing employee lifecycle transactions at scale in a shared services environment.
• Experience with case management tools and SLA-driven service delivery.

Skills:

• Excellent attention to detail and numerical accuracy.
• Strong written and verbal communication; comfortable guiding non-HR users.
• Able to prioritise competing requests and manage deadlines.
• Intermediate Excel skills (lookups, pivots) for validation and reconciliations.
• Familiarity with Workday reporting and security concepts (view vs. edit).

Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in HR, Business, or related discipline (or equivalent experience).
• Workday HCM/Absence fundamentals (Workday Pro/partner training desirable).

Behaviours & Competencies:

• Customer-focused, delivering clear and timely responses.
• Owns outcomes and follows through to resolution.
• Discreet and trustworthy with sensitive information.
• Continuous improvement mindset; suggests pragmatic enhancements.
• Collaborative; works effectively across HRSS, HRBPs and payroll/benefits teams.

Success Measures / KPIs

• SLA adherence for case response and resolution (e.g., >95%).
• First-time-right rate for transactions (e.g., >98%).
• Data defect rate trend (monthly reduction).
• On-time completion of cyclical activities (e.g., year-end, audits).
• Stakeholder satisfaction (CSAT) score and qualitative feedback.

At Forvis Mazars, inclusion is central to our values. We recognise that being an inclusive organisation makes us stronger as a business. We seek to attract and recruit people who reflect the diverse nature of our clients and communities, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, nationality, faith or belief, social background, age and disability. Mazars selects candidates based on skills, qualifications and experience.

We are open to having conversations about flexible working. Our client-facing professionals can often be required to travel regularly or may be based at client sites, but our approach to agile working can help achieve a lifestyle balance without compromising on client service.

We welcome applications from those returning to employment after a break from their careers