Feature: Article Lifecycle Management

Product: Home Experience / Case Management (Workday Help)

Setup Effort: Automatically Available

Targeted Production Date: March 14, 2026

Summary: With this release feature, knowledge articles get lifecycle controls! 🎮 These come in the form of a publication date and an optional expiration date. While that might not seem like much, it's actually exactly what's needed to make article management proactive instead of reactive.

HR teams can now publish knowledge articles right when they matter (think: open enrollment, compliance windows, fiscal-year content) and automatically retire them afterward, instead of relying on cleanups that—let’s face it—rarely happen. The new “Schedule Publication” option with both of these date options is found under the top-right Publish button on the knowledge article itself.

Beyond just being awesome for admins, this feature also helps keeps your knowledge base credible. When employees encounter outdated content, they stop trusting the articles, and naturally stop using them. Tickets then go up and HR ends up re-answering the same questions ad hoc with slightly different wording each time. Lifecycle controls turn the knowledge content into a governed system 🛡️

Setup: This feature is automatically available, but there are 3 configuration options to be aware of that can be found within the Article Lifecycle section of the task Edit Tenant Setup - Help.

Note 1: There is a pending question about whether or not the start and end dates for the articles will be reportable.

Note 2: The article expiration notification goes to the author who made the most recent changes to the article, not the original author, if different.

Note 3: If you want to edit a knowledge article that’s pending publication, you must cancel the scheduled publication first.

🔗 Release Note

Feature: Object Transporter for Configurable Security

Product: Data Access (Configurable) Security

Setup Effort: Setup Required

Targeted Production Date: March 14, 2026

Summary: Cue the music 🎶 Configurable security is no longer a wallflower in the eyes of Object Transporter! That’s right folks, you can now migrate security groups AND their domain permissions from a source tenant to a target tenant utilizing Object Transporter (OX) 👏 This can be done as a single object or part of a configuration package.

There are 22 different configurable security objects that can be migrated, including domain security policies, whole functional areas (new module rollout anyone?), and a slew of security groups types (check out the release note for a comprehensive list).

However, there is one big catch to keep in mind… while this new feature supports the migration of adding new domain permissions to a security group that already exists in your target tenant, it doesn’t support removing them. This approach lends to prioritizing expanding access, and eliminates the possibility of removing critical access, unintentionally.

To ensure a smooth migration, review the report Object Transporter Supported Objects to assess dependencies and possible impacts that could result from your migrated changes before making any moves.

And lastly, don't forget the tried-and-true finishing touch for any security change:
‼️ activate those security policy changes ‼️ once they're in your target tenant.

Setup: There’s no setup required beyond having access to Customer Central and OX. But, if you want to restrict which Customer Central Users can migrate security config packages from tenant to tenant, you set up those guardrails within Customer Central’s Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling setting if you’re a Customer Central Security Administrator.

Note 1: BP Security Policies aren’t part of this initial release. Depending on feedback, they could be targeted for a future release (same goes for removing domain permissions). You know the drill, Safe Harbor applies 😅

Note 2: There’s no ability to test this feature prior to the release due to the inability to migrate from preview to production-level tenants. It’ll be available after March 14th. At that point, we highly recommend building familiarity with the functionality between testing tenants before jumping straight to migrating security changes to PROD.

🔗 Release Note

Feature: Restart Business Process in Error User Experience

Product: Business Processes

Setup Effort: Automatically Available

Targeted Production Date: March 14, 2026

Summary: This update shines a spotlight on BP definitions that have an error. First, it repositions that dreaded task/alert (you all know what it looks like 😅) at the top of the admin’s My Tasks each time a new BP event is initiated while its associated BP definition is in an error state. So, for high-volume BPs with errors to fix, the task will stay towards the top of your inbox (and top of mind).

Here’s what the task looks like when clicked…

Look familiar? This task itself didn’t change—it still shows you the BP definitions in error (“with exceptions”) and its related business processes that aren’t impacted. But, when there are a large number of BP events to restart, two things happen after an admin initiates a restart: the “Restart Business Processes in Error” button is disabled while the job processes and help text displays to reduce confusion for others admins while the task is still visible.

This feature also introduces a new stand-alone task Fix Business Process that makes errored BP definitions more easily searchable (and fixable!) at any time. The prompt “Business Process Type” only displays BP types with a definition(s) in an error state.

Once selected, you’re presented the same experience as if you accessed it via My Tasks. You can peruse a list of any impacted in-progress BP events, then restart them after the BP definition is fixed.

Taken together, you’re no longer fishing through your inbox to determine which BP event stalled and why. And, with the addition of the standalone task, admins are given the ability to proactively fix definitions instead of waiting for a BP event to fail.

If you ask us, this gets you one step closer to a #wellbuiltworkday, quicker 🏗️

Setup: No setup!

Notes: The release note states that the task is automatically removed from My Tasks once the BP definition in question is fixed and the last BP event associated with it is successfully restarted. The behavior we’re seeing is you still have to hit “submit” on the task 👀 (those darn To Do vibes again 😐)

🔗 Release Note

Feature: The New Workday Experience for 2026R1

Product: Home Experience, Mobile Applications, Workday AI

Setup Effort: Automatically Available

Targeted Production Date: March 14, 2026

Summary: Workday has a new look and feel! 💅 With the recent acquisition of Sana, Workday delivers a refreshed homepage with more branding moments, a global navigation sidebar that’s no longer opt-in (it’s opt-out), and a redesigned search with Sana’s “consumer-grade simplicity” and “Workday’s enterprise-grade power” per the release note. (Truthfully, we have yet to see this play out in a material way, but we believe 🙏 ).

Here’s how all that change presents visually and navigationally…

Right away, you’ll notice that the legacy search bar moves center stage.

Then, when you actually search, you’ll notice the toggle option for using the Simplified Search setting has also been moved. It’s now a personalized, more permanent search preference (not a setting per search) located under My Account > Change Preferences. Within the new Search Experience input, each user automatically gets “Simplified” selected, but it can be changed to “Standard”, if desired.

Now let’s take a look at what’s new with tenant branding 🎨

Whatever you’ve selected as your general branding color within the task Configure Tenant Branding becomes newly visible in 4 places: the branded bar at the top of the homepage, where your cursor hovers over items in the Global Navigation bar (a hover‑activated flyout menu pattern, if you’re curious 🤓), and the colored glow around the search bar ✨

The branded bar now sits flush at the top of the screen and the grey background extends upward into the header (which was previously white) for a cleaner, more cohesive look.

And lastly, if you haven’t already opted in, the Global Navigation Bar will seem new. This bar provides access to key tasks, pages, and external links in one centralized place. Beyond your branding color showing up here, what’s also new is that the text has increased in size for accessibility and you’re now opted into Global Navigation Menu Categories for a more organized user experience. For extra information on the Global Navigation Bar, check out the dedicated 2026R1 Release Note.

Notes: With this release, you get automatically opted into the New Workday Experience and the Global Navigation Bar. But, you can still opt out of both separately! To opt out of The New Workday Experience, run the task Maintain Feature Opt-Ins and click “Opt Out of Feature”. To opt out of the Global Navigation Bar, run the task Edit Tenant Setup - System and uncheck the checkbox “Enable Global Navigation Sidebar”.

🔗 Release Note

Feature: Workday Self-Service Agent (WSSA) in Slack and Microsoft Teams

Product: Workday Everywhere

Setup Effort: Setup Required

Targeted Production Date: March 14, 2026

Summary: To understand this release feature, you first need some background…

Workday Self‑Service Agent (WSSA) is Workday’s next‑generation conversational AI that became available early 2026 (so very recent as of this publish date 😆).

Up until now, you’ve all had free access to Workday’s legacy chatbot, Workday Assistant. This chatbot answers basic questions using pre-programmed responses and keyword matching—think single-turn interactions like "What's my PTO balance?". It can look up the information, but if you want to request time off it does not assume intent so you have to prompt that task. Workday Assistant was then extended to Slack and Teams via the product Workday Everywhere.

WSSA is the bigger badder successor of Workday Assistant. It uses conversational AI to understand intent, remember context across multi-turn conversations, and actually initiate tasks for you in Workday. The potential here is… incredible. Now when you ask for your PTO balance, WSSA will ask if you would like to submit a time off request, and will even suggest dates based on your teams absence calendar!

If (that’s a big if 😏) Workday pulls this off, it changes what “self-service” means—less independent navigating, more “tell me what you need, and I’ll do it for you.”

So what's new with this 2026R1 feature?

WSSA gets added to Workday Everywhere, so you can now converse with it in Slack and Teams, giving you the upgraded AI experience available in your tenant right within your internal chat tools as well 👩🏻‍💻 Workers can complete tasks and get answers without ever leaving the tools they're already in all day.

Here’s a closer look…

But there’s one more major update that comes with this feature that’s raised some eyebrows 🤨

Per the release notes, “WSSA replaces the legacy Workday Assistant”, which now has a stated retirement milestone set for September 2027 (2027R2).

This is not a fire-drill 🚒 Although Workday Everywhere and Workday Assistant comes delivered with your Workday subscription, this move to the Self-Service Agent requires the purchase and use of Flex Credits. To maintain at least the same level of functionality you currently have out-of-the-box, going forward you’ll have to pay for it.

If the comments throughout Community are any indicator, some customers aren’t happy about this change.

The flip side to the negativity? Workday’s Self-Service Agent is set to be a fantastic AI option when compared to third party AIs for two main reasons:

Regardless of your company’s use of Workday Everywhere or Workday Assistant, you should care about this update because this is part of Workday’s long-term AI strategy, not a one-off feature. Start change-management messaging now, well before the September 2027 retirement, and loop in your IT team early if you do use Workday Everywhere.

Setup: To use WSSA, your organization must be on the Universal Main Subscription Agreement (UMSA), sign the Workday Flex Credits and Platform Entitlement Policy, and purchase Workday Flex Credits (for use in PROD).

After that, you need to:

(👆intentionally high-level, this will need to be its own future newsletter)

Note: If you have the Sana Core SKU, you automatically get access to WSSA.

🔗 Release Note

Say hi 👋 on LinkedIn — @ceciblomberg | @wellbuiltsolutions

🚀 Learn Workday calculated fields—for free!

🤝 Want to partner? Get on Well Built’s project waitlist here