About the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) Project
This page includes the following content:
About Gryphons at Work
The University of Guelph, under the joint sponsorship of Elaine Do Rosario, AVP and Chief Human Resources Officer and Robert Devries, AVP and Chief Information Officer, is on a multi-year journey to replace the aging Human Resources management system (HRMS) with a new platform that reinforces HR as strategic partner for University units.
The new platform is called “Gryphons at Work.”
The replacement of our old HR systems with Gryphons at Work will have broad impact across campus on our HR processes and those involved in administering HR processes -- departmental and college administrators, faculty, staff, and our central HR team. Over time, the benefits of this program will be significant:
- Transformation of HR and payroll-related processes from those that are largely transactional and manually-driven to automated and efficient processes;
- Provide enhanced employee recruitment and onboarding, as well as user-friendly, self-service personal information management for employees;
- Improved employee data management including access to HR data to support the strategic needs of the University; and
- A reduction in the regulatory, operational, and financial risk through greater systems reliability.
Together with our implementation partners, Gryphons at Work will implement three integrated, compatible software applications to meet the comprehensive needs of the University:
- SAP SuccessFactors (for employee records, recruitment, onboarding, and payroll)
- UKG Pro Workforce Management (for timekeeping and basic scheduling)
- Sodales Solutions (for Labour Relations administration).
The implementation is happening in two phases:
- Phase One (implemented Summer 2024):
- Core HR (employee records management)
- Organization and position management
- Recruitment
- Onboarding
- Leave of absences
- Labour relations administration
- Payroll administration
- Phase Two (coming 2025-2026)
- Onboarding enhancements
- Time recording and basic scheduling
- Phase 1 optimizations and improvements
Questions or comments about this project? Contact the Gryphons at Work team at hrms@uoguelph.ca.
Vision, Objectives & Guiding Principles
Vision
The vision of Gryphons at Work is to provide an integrated HR Management System (HRMS) that supports the strategic vision of the University and the call for efficiency, cost savings, and productivity improvements.
Objectives
- Allow HR to share knowledge and required data, enabling departments throughout the University to make strategic decisions.
- Provide accurate data for analytics and reporting, improving the quality of business decisions that are transparent and accountable.
- Create a better user experience to help recruit and retain top talent.
- Enhance services and increase efficiency and effectiveness.
- Provide smooth and seamless integration with other systems used by the campus community.
- Ensure a reliable system is in place that mitigates a substantial amount of regulatory, operational, and financial risk for the University.
- Provide sustainable solutions that are fiscally responsible by using resources responsibly to remain an employer of choice.
Guiding Principles
- Efficiency and simplicity: Improve the efficiency of administrative operations and end costly, inefficient, and ineffective processes. Standardize our processes and not design the system for exceptions.
- Think outside the box: Look at old ideas in new ways with the intention of making things better.
- Comprehensive stakeholder engagement: Work together towards solutions that address our stakeholders' business needs.
- Enhance employee experience: Optimize our technology solution and processes to ensure the best possible employee experience.
- Access to data: Ensure reliable, integrated, and accessible data that enables strategic business decision making.
Project Team
You can view the project team members on the Project Team page.