LinkUW is changing the way administrative work gets done at UW–Madison. We will deliver timely and customer-centered support that enables school, college, and division partners to focus on advancing the university’s mission.
The university, currently in the first phase of LinkUW, is consolidating human resources and finance employees into LinkUW Operation Teams who will perform high-volume or time-bound operational services for units across the university, while ensuring quality support to the units served.
The executive sponsor for LinkUW is Rob Cramer, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and the project sponsors include Patrick Sheehan (Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Human Resources Officer) and David Murphy (Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance).
This is part of the overall administrative transformation effort taking place at UW–Madison. Accomplishing this and other vital initiatives will require us all to work together.
Why LinkUW
Across the university, there is a high level of inconsistency and complexity in processes that leads to rework and delays, while multiple employees may share HR and finance duties within a unit. Additionally, the world of higher education is fundamentally changing at a rapid pace. As a university, we continue to seek ways to increase efficiency and improve our administrative services to best serve the mission.
LinkUW will consolidate some of the services currently completed in schools, colleges, and divisions into LinkUW where employees will become experts in the services provided, leading to more consistent service delivery across units and continuous improvement over time.
LinkUW will also leverage emerging technologies to enhance the service experience, improve processes, and ensure compliant operations.
Guiding Principles for LinkUW
Partner Success
Foster and maintain strong relationships with school, college, and divisions to ensure consistent and quality service
Customer Service
Ensure services align with school, college, and division needs and prioritize service experience and transparency
Proactive Support
Respond quickly to emerging needs, continuously adapting to improve performance, and using data to predict the needs of partners
Innovation
Pursue creative solutions and leverage technology to enhance services, improve processes and drive continuous improvement
Operational Stewardship
Demonstrate excellent stewardship and effective financial management while using resources responsibly, ensuring transparency and accountability in all processes
Intentionality
Make deliberate decisions that support long-term institutional goals and deliver value through thoughtful design and purposeful implementation
Positive benefits for employees and units
Employees in LinkUW will:
- Ensure processes and information remain accurate and reliable
- Create future operational processes
- Participate in trainings so they can assist with a variety of requests and questions from the units they serve across campus
- Gain expertise in multiple function areas within HR or finance
- Broaden their team and community support
Participating Units will experience:
- Responsive and timely services that support the mission
- Service performed by a customer-focused team that will help partners navigate HR and financial processes
- Reduced complexity through standardized processes
Project Implementation - Phase One Services and Units
HR Services
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Benefits
LinkUW manages a range of responsibilities related to Open Enrollment as well as ongoing new hire benefits setup, customer service, leave and life event processing, and general administrative support.
Time & Absence
LinkUW handles time tracking responsibilities including time system setup, processing, monitoring, and validation, along with absence processing tasks such as managing changes, comp time, and leave.
Payroll
LinkUW performs payroll responsibilities including processing, monitoring, auditing, and report review.
Audits (other than payroll)
LinkUW monitors leave, Temporary Employee (TE) and Terminal Employee End Dates.
Job Changes
LinkUW facilities job change responsibilities including counseling in coordination with payroll, validating new hires and internal movement, processing job changes, and monitoring Fair Labor Standards Act changes between positions.
Finance Services
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Purchase Card
LinkUW performs purchase card (p-card) reconciliation by collecting documentation and business purposes, makes purchases on behalf of the unit, and monitors compliance through ongoing tracking and review.
Travel & Expense
LinkUW handles travel & expense responsibilities including initiating expense reports (p-card and travel) and arranging and reconciling cash advances.
Purchasing
LinkUW executes purchasing responsibilities, including initiating, reviewing, and submitting catalog and non-catalog requisitions; gathering three bids and completing simplified bid documentation; processing change orders; evaluating the need for continuing blanket orders and managing related requisitions; requesting suppliers in ShopUW+; and preparing and submitting voucher upload requests to Business Services.
Payments
LinkUW completes and submits supplier invoice request form in Workday
General Support
LinkUW provides general support responsibilities including answering funding and policy questions, guiding purchasing decisions, explaining financial procedures, booking travel, and providing transaction updates.
Participating Units for HR
- Administration Innovation and Planning (AIP)
- Administrative Transformation Program
- Division of Business Services
- Division of Extension
- Division of Teaching and Learning
- Facilities Planning & Management
- International Division
- Madison Budget Office
- Nelson Institute
- Office of Human Resources
- University Housing
- Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
- Workday and Enterprise Solutions Team (WEST) effective 1/1/2026
- Wisconsin Public Media
Participating Units for Finance
- Division of Teaching & Learning
- Facilities Planning & Management
- School of Pharmacy
- Nelson Institute
- University Housing
- Workday and Enterprise Solutions Team (WEST) effective 1/1/2026
What is changing?
LinkUW will change how the university conducts some finance and human resource services by moving work being done today within academic and administrative units into LinkUW.
What can I expect?
The LinkUW core team is working collaboratively with the Phase One participating units to understand their current work. The goal is to thoughtfully design the best service delivery model for UW–Madison through continuous improvement and input from an engaged advisory council and participating units.
Phase One Implementation Timeline
Here are some important dates to be aware of as select units transition into LinkUW.
- April – June 2025: Gather information on how work is done today to better support units transitioning into LinkUW
- July – December 2025: Continued engagement with participating units and transitioning employees
- January 2026: LinkUW officially launches
- January – and beyond: Ongoing evaluation and enhancement to improve services
Institutional support for administrative transformation will be ongoing. Our intention is to continuously improve how we do our work at UW–Madison.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Why start with phase one and only select units?
By including a mix of academic and administrative units in the pilot, Phase One, we aim to understand how best the change the way services are provided at UW–Madison, gather feedback throughout the process, and refine our practices and processes to meet unit needs.
How is this initiative different than the College of Letters and Science (L&S) Administrative Regional Teams (ARTs)?
While LinkUW and the College of Letters and Science (L&S) ARTs may share areas of focus, they are distinct in their purpose and approach. LinkUW involves selected academic and administrative units from across campus and will expand overtime, while ARTs concentrates on processes and stakeholders within L&S.
Although there may be opportunities for collaboration or shared insights, each initiative operates independently to address different aspects to enhance services and increase efficiencies.
How have Phase One units been engaged in this process?
The LinkUW project team has actively partnered and collaborated with Phase One participating units from the start of the initiative. The project team has taken time to understand each unit’s culture, operations, and needs. For HR and finance, this meant working closely with HR Leads and finance directors to learn about current business processes and how they function. Additionally, an HR Working Group and Finance Design team played a key role in shaping the pilot service catalog and designing processes for LinkUW.
How is LinkUW thinking about customer service?
The LinkUW project team is focused on ensuring quality customer service. The mission of LinkUW is to deliver timely and customer-centered support. There will also be service-level agreements between LinkUW and participating units to clearly define expectations regarding service delivery.
Will people lose their jobs because of this?
LinkUW is not a workforce reduction process, it is a redistribution of work. We will help realign and reorganize HR and finance functions with participating units in order to best leverage Workday, improve the customer experience, and return resources, including time, to the university’s mission. LinkUW will ensure service continuity for campus, as our demographic data shows many finance and human resource employees may choose to retire in the next few years.
How is shared governance being involved in this transition?
The project leaders are committed to providing communicating information and updates shared governance bodies. Additionally, the team is committed to communicating, collaborating, and considering the perspectives of impacted staff members in participating units.
Why should my unit participate?
We expect improved process efficiency and reduced time to complete transactions. By moving operational work to LinkUW, schools, colleges, and divisions will be able to focus more time, effort, and resources on strategic and mission-centered work.
How is this different than just centralizing everything?
Through a variety of mechanisms – advisory council(s), service-level agreements, and data-driven business process improvement – LinkUW will remain accountable to the units it serves.
Does a unit have to utilize all services provided by LinkUW?
The goal of this transition is to standardize the service offerings delivered by LinkUW. Units will not be able to pick and choose which services are included/they participate in.
Will LinkUW expand the services it offers?
The project team engaged with Phase One units to determine which services were the right fit for LinkUW. This list is likely to expand as employees within LinkUW gain expertise and additional units join.
Contact Us
If your question has not been answered or you would like to provide feedback on this initiative, please email us at pilotsharedservice@vc.wisc.edu.