Missoula County approves Workday, Cognizant statements of work for new HR system

Missoula County commissioners voted to authorize the chair to sign statements of work with Workday and Cognizant to implement a consolidated human capital management (HCM) system.

The request, presented by a county staff member identified in the meeting transcript as Speaker 5, asked the board to "approve, chair to sign statement of work both with Workday and Cognizant for the Human Capital Management Software," and said the system will consolidate recruitment, personnel files, benefits enrollment, and time-and-attendance into a single platform. Speaker 5 told the commission the project is scheduled to begin in April 2025 with a goal of being operational in April 2026.

County presenters and commissioners said the change is meant to reduce manual data entry and duplicated records. As one participant (Speaker 1) put it, "for all my years here at Missoula County, we have kept employee data in no less than, 3 locations. And I think currently right now, it's 5." The presenters said a single system will make it easier to track vacancies, payroll reports and grant-funded positions.

Commissioner business included a motion from Speaker 4 to approve the chair signing the statements of work and a second from Speaker 3. The motion passed on a voice vote. Staff indicated the executed documents will be delivered electronically (Adobe Sign) to commissioners for signature and that the county expects the implementation timeline to span approximately 12 months from kickoff to go-live.

The county did not disclose contracted dollar amounts or detailed budget line items for the Workday/Cognizant engagement during the meeting; funding and contract specifics were not specified in the public remarks. The next procedural step is execution of the statements of work and subsequent implementation planning with county departments.