Your Role as Your Agency Readiness Role
Readiness Roles bring together key agency partners from Payroll, Human Resources, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), Training, and Communications. These partners help employees prepare for upcoming payroll changes, including the shift to a biweekly pay cycle.
Your role supports the change effort by helping build trust, reduce confusion, and coordinate readiness activities within your agency.
Key responsibilities of readiness roles are:
- Identify agency needs and challenges with the payroll transition and communicate these with the Workday Oregon team.
- Support functional areas within the agency impacted by payroll changes.
- Provide readiness resources to the agency.
- Engage in readiness activities and communicate project impact to their agency, as determined by agency leadership and needs.
- With support from the Workday Oregon team, provide training, communication, and change management to the agency.
Readiness roles should coordinate regularly with one another to share information and align readiness activities within your agency.
Why Readiness Roles Matter
A strong transition support network across agencies helps ensure:
- Employees receive clear, accurate, and consistent information.
- Agency-specific needs and risks are identified early.
- Two-way communication flows among employees, agency leadership, and Workday Oregon.
- Agencies have the resources they need to prepare employees for the transition.
Prepare Your Agency for the Payroll Transition
Below are practical, optional activities you can use to prepare your agency. You can adapt these ideas to fit the unique needs and culture of your organization.
Coordinate and Track Readiness Work
Use tools to stay organized as a readiness team. A centralized, well-maintained repository helps you:
- Track activities and status
- Prepare for and sustain payroll transition changes
- Address risks as they arise
- Support smooth knowledge transfer when readiness roles change
Key tools to use may include:
- Action Tracker: tracks required tasks, owners, and due dates.
- Risk and Issues Log: tracks risks and issues that could affect a successful payroll transition.
- Feedback Log: captures stakeholder feedback for discussion, decision, action, or escalation (to agency leadership or Workday Oregon).
- Decision Log: records key decisions related to preparing for the payroll transition.
- Parking Lot: holds beneficial ideas or tasks that are out of scope but worth revisiting later.
Additional project management resources:
Build Current State Process Maps and Fill the Gaps
Map current processes for time entry and manager approval and address gaps. Consider:
- Staff who work in the field without reliable computer or internet access.
- Public safety or emergency response work that pulls staff away from administrative tasks.
- Contingency plans when employees or managers cannot meet time entry and approval cutoffs.
- Review relevant content of the Oregon Accounting Manual (OAM)
Clear roles, responsibilities, and updated procedures help ensure accurate, timely pay.
Communicate Key Messages
The changes to how state of Oregon employees are paid include:
- All employees – represented, unclassified, and management service – will move to a biweekly pay schedule instead of a monthly pay schedule.
- Employees eligible for overtime under federal law, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Non-Exempt employees, who receive a monthly salary will transition to hourly pay.
- The state will pay employees using a lag period rather than forecasting hours. Employees' pay will be based on actual hours worked in the previous biweekly period, not projected hours.
Transparent and informed communication helps build confidence, aligns staff around a shared goal, and supports a smoother transition for your agency. Use Payroll Transition Readiness resources to:
- Set a clear vision for what “being ready" means for your agency.
- Define measurable goals.
- Communicate expectations so employees know how to prepare.
Consistent, clear communication reduces uncertainty and keeps employees informed.
- Use multiple channels across your agency.
- Offer both digital and non-digital options for equitable access.
- Tailor Payroll Transition communications to your agency's culture and operations.
- Keep messages frequent, clear, and factual.
Payroll Transition Communication Resources
Create an Engagement Plan
An engagement plan helps you identify who is affected by the payroll transition and how to involve them.
It can help you:
- Align impacted parties with the goals and vision for the payroll transition
- Build transparency and open communication
- Identify concerns and risks early
- Support better, more informed decision-making
- Strengthen ownership and commitment to the change
Consider:
- Identifying and analyzing impacted parties by listing your agency's individuals and groups impacted by the payroll transition
- Mapping impacted parties by influence and interest to determine who needs what information and when
- Planning communication and engagement by identifying opportunities to involve impacted parties so they stay committed to the change
Resources
Manage Resistance and Overcome Barriers
Resistance is a normal and expected part of change. When managed well, it helps you:
- Understand real employee concerns
- Build trust through empathy and transparency
- Identify barriers early and respond before they grow
- Support employees as they prepare both personally and professionally
- Strengthen commitment to the payroll transition
You can help employees overcome barriers by:
- Acknowledging and understanding resistance
- Listen with compassion and empathy when concerns arise
- Validate what employees are experiencing
- Work with employees to find solutions together
- Create ways for employees to share concerns
- Provide digital and non-digital forums for feedback
- Encourage employees to discuss agency-specific questions about the payroll transition
- Review feedback and escalate when necessary
- Review employee feedback for common themes
- Submit common or recurring feedback to the Payroll Transition Readiness team through the Payroll Transition feedback form
- Escalate barriers that affect readiness activities to agency leadership when needed
- Track and respond to resistance
- Identify instances of resistance in your impacted party groups
- Apply proven strategies from Prosci and other best-practice sources to help employees move forward
Resources:
Additional Resources