Stop Using Workday Docs as PDFs

Workday Docs: More Than a PDF Button

In many tenants, Workday Docs is only used to spit out offer letters, contracts, and confirmation letters as PDFs. HR or Talent teams click a button, a static document is generated, and everyone moves on. This works—but it barely uses what Workday Docs can actually do.​

When Workday Docs is treated only as a PDF generator, you miss out on automation, personalization, and tighter integration with your Workday data and processes. With a bit of design and planning, Workday Docs can become a core part of how you communicate and formalise HR and Finance processes.

Below is a step‑by‑step approach to move from “just PDFs” to powerful, dynamic documents inside Workday.

Step 1: Decide Which Documents Really Belong in Workday

Before touching configuration, decide which documents should live in Workday and which can stay in external tools.

Documents that are great candidates for Workday Docs:

• Offer letters and employment contracts.
• Promotion and compensation change letters.
• Policy acknowledgements and key HR communications.
• Confirmation of changes (job change, transfer, location change).

Documents that may stay outside Workday:

• Highly creative marketing-style PDFs.
• Long-form policy documents that rarely change and are stored in a policy portal or intranet.

The goal is simple: if a document is tightly connected to Workday data and processes, it is a strong candidate for Workday Docs.​

Step 2: Map the Data You Need in Each Document

Once you know which documents belong in Workday, list the data elements needed for each one. For example, for an offer letter:

• Worker/candidate name.
• Position title and job profile.
• Supervisory organization or manager.
• Compensation details (salary, currency, grade).
• Start date and location.

For a promotion letter:

• Old and new job details.
• Old and new compensation.
• Effective date.

Write this out as a simple table for each document template. This step ensures you know which Workday fields you need to reference and prevents last-minute surprises when building the template.

Step 3: Design Templates With Dynamic Fields, Not Static Text

When building templates in Workday Docs, avoid hard-coding data that should come from Workday. Instead, use dynamic fields wherever possible.​

Bad pattern (PDF mindset):

• Typing “Annual Salary: 10,00,000 INR” directly in the letter.

Better pattern (Docs mindset):

• Insert a field that pulls the worker’s compensation from Workday.

In practice:

• Use merge fields for worker names, dates, job titles, compensation, locations, and other key details.
• Where possible, avoid manually typing values that are already stored in Workday.

This ensures documents always reflect actual system data, and reduces manual editing before sending.

Step 4: Use Conditions to Handle Variants in One Template

Many tenants create separate templates for every variation of a letter: by country, by grade, by employment type, and more. This quickly becomes unmanageable. Workday Docs supports conditional content, so you can handle multiple scenarios in one template.​

Examples:

• Show one clause for full-time employees and another for interns.
• Include a specific bonus clause only if the worker is eligible for variable pay.
• Display different legal text based on country or company.

Step by step:

1. Identify what varies: clauses, paragraphs, disclaimers, or signatures.
2. Map those variations to Workday data (e.g., worker type, location, company, eligibility flags).
3. Use conditional logic in the template to include or exclude text based on those fields.

This reduces the number of templates you maintain and ensures consistency.

Step 5: Attach Workday Docs to Business Processes

Workday Docs becomes powerful when integrated directly into business processes instead of being used ad‑hoc.​

For example:

• Attach the offer letter document step to your Offer business process.
• Attach promotion or compensation letters to your Job Change or Compensation Change business processes.
• Attach confirmation or notification letters to Termination or Location Change processes.

Step by step:

1. Identify where in the process the document should be generated (e.g., after approval, before final completion).
2. Add a document step that uses your Workday Docs template.
3. Decide who sees and/or approves the document (HR, manager, candidate, employee).

Now the document becomes a natural part of the workflow, not a manual afterthought.

Step 6: Use E‑delivery and Acknowledgements Instead of Manual Emails

Sending PDFs manually via email makes tracking hard and adds extra work. Workday Docs allows you to deliver documents directly to workers or candidates inside Workday, and optionally capture acknowledgements.​

Consider:

• Deliver offer letters through Workday so candidates can view and respond in a consistent way.
• Deliver policy or HR communication documents and capture employees’ acknowledgements or acceptances.

This offers:

• Better tracking (who saw what, and when).
• Less manual emailing and fewer versions floating around.
• A consistent experience for employees and candidates.

Step 7: Establish Simple Governance for Templates

Without governance, templates multiply, wording diverges, and legal/compliance risk increases. You do not need a heavy process, but you need clear ownership and rules:

• Assign owners (HR Ops, Legal, or HRBP) for each major template.
• Define who can request changes and who approves them.
• Keep a short change log for each template (what changed, why, and when).

This ensures templates stay trusted and up to date, and avoids the “mystery clause” problem where no one remembers who added which paragraph.

Step 8: Keep Documents Simple, Clear, and Branded

Even with dynamic fields and conditions, aim for clarity and simplicity in your documents:

• Use consistent heading styles and fonts aligned with your brand.
• Avoid overly dense paragraphs; use bullets where appropriate.
• Keep boilerplate legal text precise but as readable as your legal team allows.

The goal is to make Workday Docs feel like part of your company’s communication style, not just system-generated output.

Step 9: Test End-to-End With Real Scenarios

Before rolling out a new or redesigned template:

1. Pick a few realistic worker/candidate scenarios (different countries, grades, employment types).
2. Run the full business process, generate the document, and review every field and clause.
3. Involve HR, Legal, and a few end users to validate content, layout, and data accuracy.​

Testing with realistic examples will catch:

• Missing fields or broken conditional logic.
• Incorrect or outdated wording.
• Formatting issues on screen and in PDF output.

Step 10: Measure Usage and Improve Over Time

Once Workday Docs is live in your processes, treat it as an area for continuous improvement:

• Track how often each template is used.
• Collect feedback from HR, managers, and employees about clarity and accuracy.
• Adjust templates as your policies, legal wording, or business requirements change.

The more you iterate, the more Workday Docs becomes a strategic asset rather than a simple PDF generator.