2.1 Navigation Techniques in Workday

Why Navigation Is Exam Material

Workday Pro HCM Core is not a pure theory exam. HCM Fundamentals (about 30 of 50 questions) expects you to demonstrate knowledge of navigation techniques — how a trained user moves through the tenant to find people, organizations, tasks, and data. On the job, navigation is muscle memory; on the exam, questions test whether you know which tool opens what, and when Related Actions, Search, or My Tasks is the correct path.

Navigation also multiplies every other topic. You cannot hire, change job, adjust compensation, or assign security if you cannot locate the Worker, Position, or Supervisory Organization and open the correct business process. Treat this section as the shared front door to staffing models, job profiles, orgs, compensation, and security.

Search: The Primary Finder

Search (the global search bar, often reached with a keyboard shortcut or from the header) is the default way to open almost anything in Workday:

Practical technique. Type a distinctive fragment rather than a full formal name. Prefer employee ID when names collide. Use category chips or result filters (People, Organizations, Tasks, Reports) when the list is noisy. Search respects security: you only see objects and tasks your security groups allow.

Exam angle. If a scenario says a user needs to open a specific worker or start a named task and does not already have a dashboard link, Search is usually the intended first step — not hunting through every menu under the gear icon.

Related Actions: Context-Aware Tasks

Related Actions are the object-specific menu of what you can do once you have found something. In classic Workday UI, Related Actions appear as the orange button (or the actions control next to an object’s name). Hovering or clicking that control lists tasks such as:

• Hire, Change Job, Terminate, Request Compensation Change
• Create Position, Edit Position Restrictions, Close Position
• Assign Roles, View Security Groups for the worker
• Move workers, reorganize, or maintain org attributes (when secured)

Related Actions are context-aware: the menu for a Worker differs from the menu for a Position or Supervisory Organization. They are also security-filtered: if a task does not appear, the common reason is domain or business process security, not a missing button.

How this maps to the exam. Many HCM Fundamentals scenarios describe a goal (“start a job change for this worker,” “create a position in this org”). The navigation path is almost always: find the object → Related Actions → select the business process. Memorizing long menu trees is less important than knowing that Related Actions are the launch point for object-level work.

My Tasks / Inbox

My Tasks (often labeled Inbox in tenant language) is your personal action queue. It holds:

• Approvals waiting on you in a business process
• To Dos you must complete before a process continues
• Questionnaires or forms assigned to you
• Other actionable items routed by BP configuration

Unlike Search (which finds objects) and Related Actions (which start work from an object), My Tasks is where work finds you. After you initiate Hire or Compensation Change, later steps land in someone else’s My Tasks. After they approve, the next step may return to yours.

Exam angle. Distinguish initiation from completion: starting a process uses Search/Related Actions; completing an approval or To Do uses My Tasks. Do not confuse My Tasks with a report of all open processes in the company — it is personal and security-scoped.

Home, Dashboards, Favorites, and Recent Items

Dashboards surface high-volume manager and HR Partner work (team headcount, open requisitions, pending time-off) without forcing Search every time. Favorites are ideal for recurring reports and configuration tasks you will run during training and on the job. Recent items recover a worker or org you just left after a multi-step process.

Global navigation still matters when you are exploring configuration areas (for example, browsing Security or Business Process Administration) and do not recall an exact task name. For day-to-day HCM transactions, Search + Related Actions remain faster.

Finding Workers, Organizations, and Tasks

A reliable pattern for almost any HCM scenario:

1. Identify the object type — Worker, Position, Supervisory Organization, Job Profile, Location, Cost Center, Company.
2. Search with the best unique identifier (ID preferred when available).
3. Open the object and confirm you are on the correct instance (same name can exist in different orgs or companies).
4. Use Related Actions to start the correct business process or view related data.
5. Complete routed steps in My Tasks as they arrive.

Finding workers. Search by name, preferred name, or employee ID. From the worker profile you can open job, organization, compensation, and contact views (subject to security) and launch staffing events.

Finding organizations. Search the supervisory org, cost center, company, or location name. Related Actions on a Supervisory Organization drive staffing model tasks such as creating positions or viewing hierarchy.

Finding tasks. Search the task name (for example, “Create Position,” “Hire Employee,” “Assign Roles”). Some tasks require a prompt for the target object after you open them; others are only available from Related Actions on a specific instance. Both paths are valid; the exam cares that you can reach the task securely.

Navigation Skill Maps to Every Other HCM Topic

If you can always answer “What object am I on?” and “Which tool starts the next step — Search, Related Actions, or My Tasks?” you will move faster on both the practice tenant and the Pro exam.

Common Exam Traps

• Treating the menu tree as the only way to start work when Search or Related Actions are correct.
• Assuming a missing Related Action means Workday is broken rather than security blocking the task.
• Confusing My Tasks (your queue) with a company-wide open process list.
• Opening the wrong worker or org because the search result was not verified by ID or hierarchy.
• Forgetting that Favorites and dashboards are productivity tools, not a substitute for knowing object-level Related Actions.

Scenario Walkthrough

Scenario. An HR Partner must start a job change for worker E-10482 into a new position in Supervisory Organization “Finance – Americas.”

1. Search E-10482 (or the worker’s name if the ID is unknown) and open the correct Worker.
2. Confirm current job and organization on the profile so you are not acting on a namesake.
3. Open Related Actions on the Worker and select the job change / Change Job process available in your tenant.
4. Complete prompts (effective date, new position or org, reason) and submit.
5. Approvers receive the step in My Tasks; you track progress via process history if secured, and complete any To Dos returned to you.

If instead you needed to create the target position first, you would Search the Supervisory Organization, use Related Actions → Create Position, then return to the worker path. Navigation is a sequence of find-object → act → complete-inbox, not a single screen.

Study Habit for the Pro Path

In the learning tenant, deliberately practice three drills: (1) open ten random workers by ID only, (2) from each, list three Related Actions you are allowed to run, (3) clear three My Tasks items end to end. That muscle memory is exactly what “demonstrate knowledge of navigation techniques” is testing.