When Jess Wagner joined Deluxe, she found a Workday environment that looked familiar to many of us: requests coming from every direction, priorities unclear, and the HR and IT teams working in silos. The system worked — barely — but the people behind it were burning out.

Instead of adding more hours, Jess added structure. She merged the configuration and integration teams under one roof, introduced Agile methodology, and started tracking capacity to bring transparency to both her team and HR leaders.

The shift wasn’t easy. “We had to slow down to speed up,” she says. But over time, the results spoke for themselves — clear priorities, cross-training, stronger communication, and even something rare in support teams: true work-life balance.

Today, Deluxe’s Workday team can take vacations without laptops. HR COEs discuss priorities collaboratively, supported by analytics that show exactly what the team can deliver. Jess calls herself “air traffic control,” guiding work smoothly rather than firefighting daily emergencies.

She also shared how AI tools like Mando AI Docs are transforming their documentation process — reducing tedious manual work and freeing up time for value-add configuration and innovation.

This episode is a blueprint for every Workday leader who wants to replace chaos with clarity — not by adding people, but by changing the way people work together.

👉 Listen to the full episode here!

Keith Bitikofer is a Workday coach and consultant who helps professionals navigate their careers in the Workday ecosystem. Listen to the Workday Gold podcast for more insights on career transitions and leadership development here

Want to learn more from the Workday ecosystem? Connect with Keith Bitikofer on LinkedIn for ongoing insights about Workday support and team management.

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