Unsafe Harbor: a podcast about Workday

Christian Delcid

A podcast about tips for your Workday tenant and your Workday Career

  1. Apr 16

    #14 - Hot Workday Takes from a Pragmatic Futurist with Michael Domingo

    Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Unsafe Harbor Podcast. In this episode, I get to sit down with Michael Domingo. If you've spent any time on Workday LinkedIn, you probably already know Michael. He has a gift for saying the quiet part out loud and in the public eye. In this conversation, we review a few of his hottest takes so see if they've stayed the same or if they've cooled down a bit. We dig into what it actually means to think like a product manager inside an HR tech org, why curiosity might matter more than your ability to configure, and where Michael stands on his bold Workday Rising 2025 claim that the Business Process Configurator may soon be obsolete. We also get into the foundational stuff: data governance, integrations, & UI. Make sure you're connecting with Michael on LinkedIn and subscribing to The Department of First Things First. Here's my conversation with Michael: Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpdomingo/ Michael’s Substack: https://www.michaelpdomingo.com/ Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/  Chapter List: 00:00 Introduction 00:50 Michael's Origin Story: From COBOL to Workday 04:35 Christian's Background & The Kitchen Table Test 07:19 The Department of First Things First 12:35 ERP UI: Quick Wins for End User Experience 17:23 Integrations: Map It, Rationalize It, Orchestrate It 22:35 Data Governance: The Unsexy Strategy 28:34 Hot Take: Think Like a Product Manager, Not an IT Leader 32:42 Hot Take: Childlike Curiosity > Configuration 35:16 Hot Take: Is the Business Process Configurator on Notice? 38:58 Hot Take: The Battle for the Employee's Front Door 41:46 Career Advice: From Wrench Turner to Blueprint Reader 46:51 Where to Find Michael

    48 min

  2. Apr 7

    #13 - Running the System vs. Engineering It with Neelan Veloo of Mando

    Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Unsafe Harbor Podcast. In this episode, we get to talk to Neelan Veloo of Mando. It's almost exactly one year after our first podcast conversation with Mando and there's SO much that has changed. We get into some of the biggest debates in this one: Is AI eating Legacy SaaS? Is AI eating the User Interface (UI)? And where should the Workday Admin actually be focusing when it comes to learning AI? Make sure you're following Mando and Neelan on LinkedIn and check out all of the resources below. Here's my conversation with Neelan: Mando Website: https://www.mando.work/  Neelan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelan-veloo/  Adi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaviswanathan/  Mando LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mandosystems/  Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/ Chapters List: 0:00 Introduction & One Year Anniversary Check-In1:13 How Mando Has Evolved: From AI Search to a Full Platform3:25 How Christian's Relationship with AI Has Changed6:26 Why Mando Added Reasoning Models (and Why They Were Afraid To)9:02 Experimenting Practically: Don't Stop at "Wow, That's Cool"12:16 Why Great Enterprise Systems Get Bad Reputations14:03 How Much Code at Mando Is Actually Handwritten?16:21 The Workday Admin as Code Reviewer: What That Shift Looks Like18:59 Debate #1: Is AI Eating Legacy SaaS?22:51 Will Workday Stay in Its Lane or Expand?25:29 Debate #2: Is AI Eating UI?30:12 Live Demo: Mando's New Interface36:45 The Capture Layer Becomes an Execution Layer39:00 DIY vs. Vendor: What Gets Built Internally vs. Externalized?41:28 What Citizen Developers Miss About Building for the Enterprise44:43 How the Workday Admin Role Is Shifting with AI47:56 The Backlog Will Never Clear Itself — Unless You Do This54:08 Where Should Admins Focus? Skills, MCP, CLI, or Agent Swarms?58:52 Closing Thoughts & How to Connect with Neelan

    1h 3m

  3. Jan 29

    Can AI actually fix the worst parts of Workday M&A?

    Can AI actually fix the worst parts of Workday M&A integrations? I built two experimental Claude Skills to find out: an M&A Data Validator that checks employee lists against 19 business rules, and a Supervisory Org Builder that generates complete organizational hierarchies and Supervisory Org EIB files. In this demo, I test both workflows using fake employee data with intentional errors. Not ready for an actual M&A event yet, but it's a glimpse of what's possible when you combine Workday expertise with AI tooling. All employee data shown is AI-generated (no real PII). Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

    9 min

  4. Jan 22

    Workday + AI: Is this the future of Workday Admin work?

    Is this the future of Workday Admin work? I've been building this MCP integration over the last few months using Python and Workday APIs. It's slow (running locally for data security), not perfect, and it's definitely a prototype right now. But it works and it does so without having to touch the Workday UI. You don't need to be technical. You just need to start small and build something. What are your thoughts? Is this what our jobs will look like soon? What do you wish you + AI could do in Workday? Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/ #Workday #WorkdayHCM #HRIS #AIAutomation #HRTech

    11 min

  5. 07/21/2025

    #12 - The Perfect Storm: How AI, Extend, and Built on Workday Are Changing the Game with Rick & Matt of Incubane

    Hi everyone, and Welcome back to the Unsafe Harbor podcast. In this episode, we’ll be talking to Rick and Matt of Incubane. We cover a ton of different topics in this one. We explore the differences between Extend and Built on Workday Marketplace, the impact of AI on HRIS processes, and the future of the Workday Admin role. Make sure you’re following Incubane, Rick, & Matt on LinkedIn. They have some of the best content (and memes). Here’s my conversation with Rick and Matt: Incubane LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/incubane/posts/?feedView=all Rick’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickleunisse/ Matt’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkomendolowicz/ Built on Workday Marketplace - https://marketplace.workday.com/en-US/homeChristian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/ Chapters List: (00:00) Introduction to Incubane and Its Vision (01:19) Evolution of Extend Apps (03:38) First Experiences with Extend (07:17) Understanding the Built on Workday Marketplace (11:44) Subscription Models for Built on Workday Apps (13:40) Favorite Extend Apps and Their Impact (18:43) Business Cases for Extend vs. Built on Workday Marketplace (24:29) Navigating Technical Debt and Integration Costs (25:05) The Evolution of Workday and Extend (25:55) The Perfect Storm: AI and Workday Marketplace (26:54) Transforming Workforce Management with AI (28:36) The Future of Workday: Speed and Strategy (30:40) AI's Impact on HR Roles and Responsibilities (32:20) Vision for Extend Apps and Built on Workday (36:40) Essential Skills for HRIS Administrators (40:47) Understanding Technology: A Path Forward (41:01) Advice for Career Advancement in HRIS

    44 min

  6. 05/23/2025

    #11 - Dani DeMaio & Scott Lawrence

    Back by popular demand, I talk to Dani DeMaio & Scott Lawrence in this episode. Dani is a Global Director of People Systems and Technology for a customer in the tech sector and Scott is a HRIS Manager for a customer in the Financial Services space. If you haven’t heard their original episodes of the Unsafe Harbor podcast, I highly recommend checking those out. Scott was episode #1 and Dani was episode #6.  We cover a TON of ground in this episode related to mergers & acquisitions, selling the benefits of Workday to the company being acquired, how to give feedback to others for improving the M&A process, and much more. Here is my conversation with Scott and Dani Connect with Dani: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellelotuswelle/ HRIS Coaching - https://lotuswelle.com/ Connect with Scott:  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-lawrence-mba-37676190/ Website - https://slawrwnce7.wixsite.com/senior-hris-analyst Connect with Christian: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

    53 min

  7. 04/13/2025

    Workday AI Workflow Experiment

    Check out this Workday AI Workflow that I've been experimenting with. Please note, this is just a personal experiment I'm running in my free time but I wanted to share a quick demo, what I'm learning as a result of all of this, and the principles I'm (loosely) holding onto during this AI murkiness. Here's the full video and you can also view the video on YouTube and Spotify as well. Let me know what you all think. Also, if you are building AI agents or workflows for the Workday ecosystem, I would love to connect with you about that. Enjoy!

    19 min

  8. 04/03/2025

    #10 - Neelan & Adi from Mando

    In this episode, we’ll be talking to Neelan Veloo and Adi Viswanathan, the co-founders of Mando, the AI Co-pilot for Workday Admins. Mando is an official Workday Partner that is using AI trained on Workday Community and knowledge contributed by a team of Workday experts. We’ll talk a lot about Mando, how it works, and how we’re preparing for all of the incoming AI innovation. Before we get into that, I did want to make sure that I shared some information. My company is a happy Mando customer. As an independent podcast, I’ve decided early on to not take any sort of sponsorship. In fact, I’m personally paying out of my own pocket for things like video editing, recording, and hosting software and subscriptions.  The reason I share all of that is to say that the guests that I’m inviting to the podcast are all people and partners that I really believe in and want to highlight. Here is my conversation with Neelan and Adi from Mando. Mando Website: https://www.mando.work/  Neelan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelan-veloo/  Adi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaviswanathan/  Mando LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mandosystems/  Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/Building Effective AI Agents by Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents

    1h 14m
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A podcast about tips for your Workday tenant and your Workday Career

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