You’re Using Workday Dashboards Wrong

Are You Using Workday Dashboards the Wrong Way?

Workday dashboards are one of the most visible parts of your analytics experience. Leaders log in, see tiles and charts, and quickly decide whether they trust the system or not. Yet in many tenants, dashboards are treated as a dumping ground for every “important” report rather than as carefully designed decision tools.

If your Workday dashboards are slow, cluttered, or ignored by HR and Finance leaders, the issue is rarely technical. It’s usually a design and intent problem: too many reports, not enough focus, and no clear story.

Dashboards Are Not Just “Report Collections”

A common pattern looks like this: a stakeholder asks for a dashboard, the team gathers a list of “key reports,” and all of them are added to a single page. Over time, more and more tiles appear, each corresponding to another custom report. Soon:

• No one remembers which tile is truly important.
• Different tiles show similar data with slight variations.
• Performance slows because too many complex reports load at once.
• Leaders stop clicking into details because they feel overwhelmed.

In other words, the dashboard becomes a cluttered homepage instead of an analytical cockpit.

A true Workday dashboard should be designed around a set of questions and decisions, not around a list of reports you happen to have.

Start with Questions, Not Charts

The most effective dashboards begin with a simple question: “What decisions does this person need to make, and how often?”

For example, an HR leader might need to answer:

• Are we on track with headcount and hiring?
• Where are we seeing higher turnover or absenteeism?
• Which departments need attention this month?

A Finance leader might ask:

• How are labour costs trending vs budget?
• Which cost centres or companies need a closer look?
• Where are there anomalies in overtime or allowances?

Once you have the questions, you can design dashboard sections and tiles that align directly to those decisions instead of randomly combining reports.

Designing Dashboards for Specific Roles

Many Workday tenants have generic “HR Dashboard” or “Finance Dashboard” pages that try to serve everyone at once. A more effective approach is to build dashboards tailored to roles:

• HR Director Dashboard – strategic view of headcount, hiring, turnover, and critical risks.
• HR Operations Dashboard – focus on transactions, backlogs, SLA compliance, and data quality.
• Finance Leader Dashboard – focus on labour costs, budget vs actuals, and key variances.
• Talent Acquisition Dashboard – focus on pipeline health, time-to-fill, and recruiter performance.

Each dashboard should contain a small number of high-value tiles, not every report you’ve ever built. This makes it easier for each role to understand what they are seeing and act on it.

Less Is More: Curate Your Tiles

A Workday dashboard with 6–10 well-designed tiles is usually more effective than one with 25 tiles. When curating content:

• Prioritise metrics over raw lists.
  Use charts, KPIs, and summaries for the main view, and let users drill into detailed reports when needed.
• Group related tiles.
  For example, group headcount, hires, and exits together, or labour cost and overtime together, so the story is clear.
• Remove low-value tiles.
  If a tile is rarely opened or no longer used for decisions, retire it. Dashboards should evolve, not accumulate clutter.
• Align with how often decisions are made.
  Monthly or quarterly metrics do not need daily prominence; daily operational metrics might.

This curation step is often skipped but is critical for adoption: people are more likely to use a dashboard that respects their time and attention.

Make Dashboards Actionable, Not Just Interesting

Pretty charts that no one acts on do not justify the effort. For each tile or visual, ask:

• What action could someone take based on this?
• Does the dashboard make it easy to take that next step?

Some practical tactics to increase actionability:

• Link from tiles to relevant tasks or reports.
  For example, a tile showing “Open Requisitions Past SLA” should link directly to a detailed report where recruiters can triage them.
• Use prompts and filters intelligently.
  Allow users to quickly switch organization, time period, or population without rebuilding the report.
• Highlight thresholds and exceptions.
  Use visual cues (e.g., colours, bands, or markers) to show when a metric is outside the desired range.

The goal is for leaders to move from “interesting chart” to “I know exactly what to do next” in as few clicks as possible.

Performance and Maintenance: The Hidden Costs of Bad Dashboards

Overloaded dashboards do more than just annoy users—they strain your system and your reporting team.

• Performance issues
  Dashboards that load many complex advanced or composite reports at once can become slow, causing timeouts or long waits. Users quickly give up and export data to spreadsheets instead.
• Maintenance overhead
  Each tile points to a report. When you need to change logic or fields, you may have to update multiple reports and tiles across several dashboards. Without a clear design, this becomes error-prone.
• Version confusion
  Multiple tiles showing similar metrics using different report versions create disputes. Stakeholders argue about which tile is “correct” instead of focusing on the insight.

Investing in a clean dashboard design now saves time and frustration later.

A Practical Framework to Redesign Your Dashboards

If you suspect your Workday dashboards are “report dumps,” you can redesign them with a simple framework:

1. Pick one audience per dashboard.
   Decide exactly who this dashboard is for and what decisions they make.
2. List their top 5–10 questions.
   Work with real users to understand what they truly need to see and how often.
3. Map each question to 1–2 visuals.
   Choose charts, KPIs, or tables that answer each question directly.
4. Limit total tiles and group them.
   Aim for a clean layout with logical sections and minimal scrolling.
5. Connect tiles to actions.
   Ensure users can click through to more detailed reports or relevant tasks from key tiles.
6. Measure usage and iterate.
   Monitor which tiles are used, gather feedback, and adjust periodically.

This approach turns dashboards from static collections into living tools that improve over time.

Educating HR and Finance on “Good Dashboard Use”

Finally, dashboard success is not just about design; it is about user behaviour. Help HR and Finance leaders understand:

• Which dashboard is “the source of truth” for a given topic.
• How often they should review it (daily, weekly, monthly).
• What actions they are expected to take based on what they see.
• Where to go if they have questions or feedback on metrics.

Short enablement sessions, quick Loom-style walkthroughs, or written guides can go a long way in increasing adoption and trust.

When users see dashboards as trustworthy, focused tools rather than confusing walls of charts, they will log in more often—and rely on Workday rather than offline spreadsheets.