Position Management

Position Management connects workforce needs with budgeting so leaders can plan and hire more effectively. Today, the way positions are created, changed, and approved differs across schools, colleges, and administrative units, based on local needs and past practice. This work builds a more consistent, university-wide approach, with clear decision steps and shared visibility, while preserving appropriate local flexibility. 

A key goal is an approved, budget-aligned baseline of positions and a forward-looking plan, so hiring and resource decisions can be made proactively rather than reactively. 

This is part of the Operational Excellence portfolio of administrative efforts aimed at advancing the way we operate across campus.

On this page

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“This whole process is a puzzle, and the data is not accurate. It’s truly the wild, wild west.”
School Administrative Leader

Why this Work Matters

UW–Madison leaders at many levels, from department chairs to campus executives, lack the data they need to make confident decisions about hiring, headcount, and the staffing of strategic priorities. Position decisions are often reactive, ad hoc, and may not be strategically planned. More critically, positions are often not consistently tied to approved budgets, which means departments could hire into structural deficits without full financial visibility. The current landscape includes slower hiring, misaligned budgets, and processes that create more work. 

Position management work will deliver

  • A single, approved source of truth for positions that align with school, college, and division budgets.
  • A single process with clearer criteria when requesting either new positions or routing requests to fill vacancies.
  • Better workforce visibility and planning.
  • Stronger alignment between strategy, budget, and hiring decisions before transactions occur in Workday.

The path forward

This work moves UW–Madison from ad hoc, reactive request-driven processes to a proactive, fiscally aligned framework that ties position requests to budget availability, with an escalation path for necessary exemptions.

The Project’s Executive Committee have authorized a pilot to build governance and policy frameworks, cleanse and standardize position data, optimize supporting technology, and establish the change management and training needed to launch a pilot aligned to the next budget cycle.

UW–Madison implemented Workday and Adaptive, which are fully integrated HR, finance, and budgeting systems that currently support this work but are not yet optimized for school/college/division or central office processes. Schools, colleges, and divisions currently rely on a mix of local intake tools and spreadsheets to track position requests and approvals. This pilot will define the enhancements and configurations needed to move toward a consistent, governed approach. 

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“Historically, departments have been at risk of hiring into positions that create structural budget deficits within their divisions.”
Campus Administrative Leader

What this Means for You

Only the five pilot units, including the Office of Human Resources, the Madison Budget Office, the Wisconsin School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the School of Veterinary Medicine will be impacted by this change.

HR, Fin, or Administrative Staff

  • A direct hand in shaping future processes through activity analysis and design work
  • Early access to new tools
  • Standardized workflows and reports
  • Faster, more consistent HR and Finance support

School & College Leaders

  • Greater visibility into position status and budget alignment before hiring decisions are made
  • Access to better, timely, and accurate data to support informed decision-making

Other Staff

  • Faster, more transparent position decisions
  • Less time spent tracking requests through inconsistent local processes

Faculty

  • Clearer, more predictable staffing and hiring support for your departments.

Timeline

Each month of the design phase has a defined milestone. Pilot units will work alongside project leads to help shape communications, reporting needs, and intake processes along the way. 

August

Data cleanse plan finalized.

September

Data cleanse launched and reporting needs collected.

Assess how position management currently operates, acknowledge gaps, and define the desired future state.

October

Data cleanse completed and intake tool fully scoped.

Pilot unit leaders and SMEs actively participate in design workshops, not as reviewers, but as co-builders of the future state process alongside the project team.

Draft is then socialized and tested with other campus units before anything is finalized.

November

Reporting and intake tool build-out started.

From there, the developed requirements are handed off to technical teams to build the intake tool and Workday reporting enhancements.

Winter 2026/27

Long-term technology solution roadmap drafted. Technology rolled out and training support in place.

Project Management teams will work with WEST and DoIT defines the longer-term technology roadmap.

Post-pilot launch

Pilot stabilized, monitored, and supported. Expansion includes: current out-of-scope positions within pilot units, followed by other schools, colleges, and divisions

Scope

The pilot design phase is estimated to run from July through Winter 2026 across five pilot units, including the Office of Human Resources, the Madison Budget Office, the Wisconsin School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the School of Veterinary Medicine. 

Most administrative job groups, such as finance, HR, research admin, and IT are included in scope. Below are groups of employees that are excluded from this pilot because they require more nuanced budget planning or different hiring processes: 

  • Faculty and instructional staff
  • Part-time positions, such as graduate positions and student workers
  • Temporary employees
  • Postdocs and research positions

Get Involved

There will be a session on Position Management at HR@UW on November 10, 2026.
Upcoming virtual deep dives, open to all UW–Madison employees:

UW–Madison shares regular updates on this work with shared governance groups and campus leadership. Past Position Management sessions took place on March 9 and May 18. Additional sessions will be announced as they are scheduled. 

Frequently Asked Questions

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Karen Massetti-Moran, Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer, leads the Position Management project.

The sponsors are Rob Cramer, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and John Zumbrunnen, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

With oversight from a group of senior leaders including:

  • Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, Vice Chancellor for Research
  • Nancy Lynch, Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs, Compliance, and Enterprise Risk Management
  • Kristin Eschenfelder, Interim Dean of the College of Letters & Science
  • Nita Ahuja, Dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health and Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs

For questions or feedback about the IT Federation project, please visit their project site.

For questions or feedback about LinkUW, please email help.linkuw@wisc.edu.