From Preview to Production, How to Make the Most of Workday 2025R2

The latest Workday 2025R2 release is here—and with it comes new opportunities to make your Workday system work harder for you.

We know how easy it is to feel overwhelmed by release notes and unsure of where to focus first. That’s where our Kognitiv Product Lead team steps in. We’ve done the heavy lifting to identify the features that matter most—so you can spend less time sorting through updates and more time putting them to work for your organization.

Some features are ready to use right away, others need a bit of setup, but all of them are designed to help you drive efficiency, improve user experience, and keep your business moving forward. This blog will guide you through what to prioritize and how to start building them into your roadmap—so you can take full advantage of what’s next in Workday.

Workstream/ Functional Area	Feature	Description	Setup Effort	Product Lead / Info Provided By
Compensation	Improved Compensation Review Manager Experience	Workday continues to update and improve the compensation review manager experience. For 2025R2, the improved manager experience will be automatically available. You’ll no longer have to opt in to the feature. See the Related Information section for previous Release Notes detailing the improved compensation review manager experience that are currently in Preview tenants and will be automatically available for the 2025R2 release.	Automatically Available	Mitchell Angott
Compensation	Templates for Request Compensation Change	Workday enables you to configure compensation change templates for the compensation process within Request Compensation Change. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrcomp/8725081.html	Setup Required	Mitchell Angott
Compensation	Remove Prior Compensation for Rehires	With this release, Workday enables you to rehire previously terminated workers without reassigning or displaying compensation from their previous employment in the Propose Compensation Hire step of the Hire process https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrcomp/8040077.html	Setup Required	Mitchell Angott
Compensation	Enhanced User Interface for Compensation Subprocesses and Business Processes	Workday continues user interface enhancements to multiple compensation change business processes. The enhanced user interface simplifies compensation processes and reduces the likelihood of error. It also provides a modernized and consistent compensation change experience across the Compensation product https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrcomp/9462461.html	Setup Required	Mitchell Angott
Prism Analytics	Visual Representation of Stages within Datasets	Prior to this release, when performing a data transformation task, all the stages were listed on the left side of the data set page. With this release, Workday provides a much cleaner lineage view at the top of the screen showing all stages. This enhancement lets you visualize all the data set joins within the transformation as well as all other stages. It provides a much cleaner view of what each transformation stage is doing, where it is in the transformation sequence, as well as providing an easier way to insert or delete stages. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/prism/7723091.html	Automatically Available	Igor Bekman
Reporting	Trended Worker - 6 Years of History	Trended Worker now allows for up to six years of data to be captured. In order to fully utilize this feature, you must use the task "Maintain Trended Workers" where you will see a new field called "Number of Periods" on the "Configuration" tab. The default value is 36 which can be updated to 72. In order to then have trended worker go back in time beyond the defaulted 3 years, after setting the number of periods to 72 you must run the task "Purge Worker Trending Data" followed by "Create Worker Trending Data." https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrcore/9019385.html	Setup Required	Igor Bekman
Absence	New Absence Calendar Experience	This feature has been available to opt in for a few releases, but it is finally being forced and the previous time off and absence calendar configuration will be deprecated. Workday will make the configuration changes, but it is recommended to confirm in Preview that the setup works as expected for your organization. The biggest change is the user interface and will likely require updates to job aids and documentation for users requesting time off or leave of absence. https://community.workday.com/node/1178507	Automatically Available	Christina Duritza
Learning	Acknowledgment Lesson Type	Workday Learning introduces a new Acknowledgment lesson type, enabling learners and extended enterprise learners to acknowledge their understanding of learning content. The Acknowledgment lesson type enables reporting on acknowledgment responses and courses with acknowledgments, which can help organizations with compliance by providing records of learner understanding. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/lrn/8365514.html	Setup Required	Peter Stevens
Learning	Enforce Content Order in Programs	With this release, Workday introduces the ability to enforce content order within Learning Programs. This ensures that learners complete required content items in the designated sequence. By enforcing the content sequence, learners build on the knowledge they have learnt from the previous course and gain a deeper understanding before they can, for example, complete an assessment. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/lrn/8355383.html	Setup Required	Peter Stevens
Time Tracking	Enter Time by Type (New!)	A new, easier to navigate, Enter Time by Type screen is now available and can be enabled on Time Entry Templates. This is intended to make entering project time easier and less time consuming. There is also a new Enter Time by Type (New!) option on the Enter Time BP policy that must be updated with the new groups to enable workers to use this new task. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/time/8992961.html	Setup Required	Christina Duritza
Time Tracking	Calculated Time Offs Crossing Midnight	With this release, we update the behavior of calculated time offs to work the same way as calculated time blocks. This enables you to use the Time Offs Crossing Midnight feature along with time calculation tags on time offs for use in time calculations. This update ensures that absences are properly captured in time calculations, the correct calculated and shift dates are applied to time blocks, and calculated time offs respect all of the advanced shift settings. When workers request time off that crosses midnight, they receive the same premiums that they’re eligible for when working a night shift. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/timecore/7648504.html	Setup Required	Christina Duritza
Absence	Time Off Balance Storage and Change Detection	With this release, Workday automatically stores time off balances for a 1-month period. We also automatically detect any retroactive changes that impact a worker's time off balance. This feature enhances the performance of tasks that are related to time off balances, and enables you to maintain accurate and up-to-date time off balances for workers, reducing manual effort. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/abs/8985330.html	Automatically Available	Christina Duritza
Performance	GenAI for Give Requested Feedback Suggestions	Workday leverages the Google Vertex AI model to enhance the Give Requested Feedback experience. Employees can utilize Generative AI (GenAI) to write more effective and actionable feedback by providing guidance based on the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) framework. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/talpip/9452360.html#qid=1228948	Setup Required	Heather Tomer
Performance	Flex Team Hosts as Performance Review Additional Managers	Flex Team hosts can now be chosen to complete additinal manager reviews during the performance review cycle.	Setup Required	Heather Tomer
Talent Marketplace	Flex Team Match Analysis	Workday now displays the worker’s match analysis when viewing a flex team opportunity in Career Hub and Opportunity Marketplace. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/taladv/8703903.html	Setup Required	Heather Tomer
Succession Planning	Succession Planning in HR Partner Hub	Succession Planning reports for HR Partner Hub are now available. HR Partners can quickly access succession planning information on the organizations they support in the card framework. Reports such as Succession Plans for Organization, Succession Plans without Candidates, and Plans Without Updates in the Past 6 Months will all be available as well as easy access to Create, Manage, and Navigate Succession Plans!	Setup Required	Heather Tomer
Student - Records	Filter Courses by Periods With Published Course Sections	Workday adds a new Academic Period filter to these reports that you can use to filter courses by their availability: Find Courses Find Course Definitions Note: You can filter on past academic periods within 3 years and on all current and future published sections. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/stucurr/8832791.html	Automatically Available	Melissa Ginelli
Student - Records	Automatic Refreshes for Registration Appointments	This enables Workday to reassign registration appointments for students more responsively when there are changes to their appointment eligibility, such as updates to programs of study and cohort memberships. Additionally, this reduces manual effort for you. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/stureg/8623390.html	Setup Required	Melissa Ginelli
Student - Financials	Mass-Apply Student Charges	Workday delivers a new Mass Operation Management (MOM) function, Apply Student Charges, which you can use to batch-apply administrative fees to students based on criteria in a custom report. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/stufin/8524682.html	Setup Required	Melissa Ginelli
Student - Financials	Real-Time Student Accounts	Workday now enables students, administrators, and third-party proxies to view real-time data for student accounts. When enabled, any student financial reaction triggers an immediate update to: Student charges Student waiver payments Account balances Hold removals https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/stufin/9165257.html	Setup Required	Melissa Ginelli
Student - Financial Aid	Streamlining Alternative Loan Management	Workday enhances your management of alternative loan applications. These updates significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy of alternative loan processing, and the services offered to students. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/stufad/8958319.html	Automatically Available	Melissa Ginelli
Peakon	Percent Favorable Score Mode	You can now set percent favorable as the default score view in Peakon. This new score mode shows the percentage of responses and breaks down all responses into 3 clear categories: • 0-3: Unfavorable • 4-6: Neutral • 7-10: Favorable Administrators can apply 2 new different modes across all manager dashboards directly from the Data Settings panel: • Average score with favorability distribution • Favorability percentage with favorability distribution Managers will then see the favorable score and its full distribution by default, making results easier to interpret. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/doc/8756548.html	Setup Required	Heather Tomer
Benefits	New Enrollment Event Coverage Begin Date Option	This new option helps your organization align benefit enrollment coverage begin dates with deduction begin dates that fall on the first day of the pay period containing the event date. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrbencore/8743154.html	Automatically Available	Michael Patterson
Onboarding	New Workday Onboarding Experience	Originally released in 2025R1, adds significant enhancements to the onboarding experience including sending preboarding steps to candidates (for Workday Recruiting customers) that requires uptake and setup https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/onb/8133451.html	Setup Required	Matt Freeman
Staffing	Job Architecture Hub	This new hub helps with identifying data gaps, current status, and other metrics around your job catalog. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrcore/8706609.html	Automatically Available	Alex Wilson
Staffing	Multiple Jobs for Contingent Workers	This update allows you to leverage multiple jobs/positions for contingent workers. There is a new setting in Tenant Setup - HCM to enable the feature. https://doc.workday.com/release-notes/en-us/hrcore/8986653.html	Setup Required	Alex Wilson

From Preview to Production, How to Make the Most of Workday 2025R2

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