Workday Senior Functional Partner - Performance & Talent in London

Arriva is a leading European passenger transport partner, operating in 11 countries across the UK and Europe. The company employs around 35,000 people, delivering more than 1.5 billion passenger journeys connecting people and communities safely, reliably and sustainably. We have strong roots dating back to 1938, an ambitious growth and sustainability agenda, and a continuously developing relationship with I Squared Capital – a global infrastructure investment fund manager - who acquired Arriva in 2024.

This role is responsible for the delivery and continuous improvement of Talent and Performance processes and implementation of updates and changes to configuration, security and business processes in Workday. This role will serve as architects or strategists overseeing tasks completed by more junior analysts, whilst focusing on research, architecting solutions, and advising functional business leaders. This role adds value to Performance and Talent business end users through ensuring efficient processes whilst we adopt, and not adapt, out of the box functionality where possible, partnering with the Business to ensure maximum value from the product is achieved.

• SME in Workday Performance and Talent, responsible for the maintenance, change requests and upgrades across these areas.
• Support other Functional Specialists to deliver the People Solution's solution for Performance and Talent, building relationships with key stakeholders to agree a continuous improvement for the way in which core HR transactions and processes are delivered.
• Develop the roadmap for the adoption of Talent and Performance and any future enhancements, in consultation with business stakeholders.
• Support the BUs as a critical enabler to maximise automation opportunities and reduce off system processes.
• Own the communications for the Talent and Performance, Absence and Integrations Workstreams, seeking feedback from end users across the business and using the relevant communication channels as appropriate.
• Host and facilitate workshops and demonstrations virtually and in-person to help stakeholders understand what good looks like.
• Utilise Workday Community and Workday Success Plans to understand best practice, market trends alongside remaining connected with Workday to ensure we bring the outside in at relevant opportunities.
• Responsible for assessing all change impacts in relation to these areas and following the governance model in place to reduce risk and identify improvement.
• Working alongside other Functional Partners to configure and maintain reports that fall under the category of Performance and Talent.
• Responsible for configuring and maintaining any updates to the business processes and security policies.
• Responsible for testing of any new functionality or upgrades/releases.
• Actively works and supports resolution of issues escalated; managing incidents, tracking ticket status and partnering with other support teams as necessary to resolve working to SLA's.
• Identifies and recommends processes areas that could be simplified, improved, or changed; to enhance user experience and drive simplification.
• Support in maintaining training activities and materials, including user guides, FAQ, recorded demos, SharePoint content, etc.

• Experience with core HR processes and interaction between HR and payroll/other external systems such as time recording and recruiting.
• Experience operating as a business partner, comfortable with pro-actively seeking ideas in support of driving an improvement agenda, gleaning feedback on the effectiveness of any changes.
• Experience of dealing with multi‐national organisations.
• Experience of multi‐business implementations.
• Experience of sales & divestitures and the impact on Workday.
• Experience aligning with areas of the product that involve the most innovation, configuration and consulting opportunities.
• Attained or working towards Workday Pro for Performance and Talent.

This job description sets out the main duties and responsibilities of the jobholder. It does not constitute an exhaustive or comprehensive description of duties and the job holder will be required to carry out any additional tasks as and when requested to do so by their manager. Responsibilities and duties may also change considering future business needs and personal development.

The closing date for applications is Monday 9th February 2025. Arriva Group reserves the right to close this vacancy early.