Update on HRS project, and major changes ahead


Sheryl Van Gruensven, director of human resources for UW-Green Bay, says we’re reaching the point faculty and staff members might start hearing more about HRS — the UW System’s massive Human Resource System project — many years and dollars in the making.

If you already know about HRS, it’s likely because you are an HR or CIT professional, a top administrator, or just someone fascinated that a single initiative of this type can require an estimated 530,000 hours of work and tens of millions of dollars. In any event, HRS encompasses the replacement of the core human-resource, benefit, and payroll business processes of more than two dozen campuses statewide. A patchwork of legacy systems dating to 1975 and running millions of lines of outdated COBOL code is, we are told, on track to be replaced with a state-of-the-art system based on Oracle’s PeopleSoft suite.

What will the switchover mean to hands-on employees? Will it require much training? How about enhanced functionality for all employees, retirees, and others? Look for more communication soon from Van Gruensven and the UW-Green Bay Human Resources staff. In the meantime, you can get a feel for the nature of the project at the website and especially the “Sponsor Blog” update http://hrs.uwsa.edu/index.html.