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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2024-02-09
Concept: Country-Specific Information, Locales, and Languages

Concept: Country-Specific Information, Locales, and Languages

Workday provides 3 levels of international localization support:
  • Use locales to format dates, times, and numbers according to a specific location. Example: the US formats dates as Month - Day - Year and the UK uses Day - Month - Year.
  • Use languages to control the display of text in Workday according to a user's locale.
  • Use localized fields to track country-specific information for an area, such as names and addresses.
Workday also supports localization through extended address formats and local script names and addresses.

Localized Fields and Country-Specific Data

Many business objects in Workday have localized fields, because fields for information such as names and addresses can vary between countries. Workday determines which country-specific data to display based on the associated business site location rather than the locale.
You can access the related maintain task of the localized field to configure country-specific data. Example: To configure data for the local termination reason field, access the
Maintain Local Termination Reasons
 task. See Steps: Set Up Termination.
For Workday-delivered localized fields, you can access the related Workday report to view delivered data. Example: To view national ID types, access the
National ID Types
 report. Before you track personal data, check the appropriate legal and compliance requirements of that country.
If you use localized fields with country-specific data for different countries, the country-specific data can have its translations for various locales. See Steps: Manage Translations.
The
Localized Fields and Values
 report displays all localized fields and the relating country-specific data you’ve configured in your tenant.
The
Global Library
 report displays Workday-delivered sample data. See Reference: Global Library.

Extended Address Formats

Extended address formats are available for:
  • Argentina
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Chile
  • Czechia
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Guernsey
  • Hong Kong
  • Indonesia
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Jersey
  • Korea Republic
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Philippines
  • Russian Federation
  • Singapore
  • Slovakia
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • UAE
Basic address formats conform to postal requirements. Extended address formats conform to local payroll and government requirements in addition to postal requirements. The most common difference between the basic and extended address formats for these countries is that
House Number
 and
Street Name
 are 2 separate fields. See Reference: Edit Tenant Setup - Global for more information.
Changing from basic to extended address formats requires a conversion to ensure existing data maps correctly to new fields and that reports and integrations incorporate the new fields.

Local Script Names and Addresses

You can track names and addresses in local script for:
  • Afghanistan
  • Algeria
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bahrain
  • Bangladesh
  • Belarus
  • Bhutan
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Bulgaria
  • Cambodia
  • Chad
  • China
  • Comoros
  • Cyprus
  • Djibouti
  • Egypt
  • Ethiopia
  • Georgia
  • Greece
  • Hong Kong (extended format only)
  • India
  • Iraq
  • Israel (extended format only)
  • Japan (Kanji and Kana)
  • Jordan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Korea Republic
  • Kuwait
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Laos
  • Lebanon
  • Libya
  • Macao
  • North Macedonia
  • Mauritania
  • Mongolia
  • Morocco
  • Myanmar
  • Nepal
  • Oman
  • Pakistan
  • Palestinian Territories
  • Qatar
  • Russian Federation (extended format only)
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Serbia
  • Sri Lanka
  • Tajikistan
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand (extended format only)
  • Tunisia
  • UAE (basic and extended format)
  • Ukraine
  • Uzbekistan
  • Vietnam
  • Western Sahara
  • Yemen
Before enabling name and address local script fields, ensure that integrations, reports, calculated fields, custom business forms, condition rules, and other interfaces can accommodate additional local script fields.
To set up address components, see Steps: Set Up Address Components by Country. When you access the
Maintain Address Components by Country
task, you have the option to select:
  • Enable Enter Western Script Check Box
    . This option enables you to enter the required local script address components that display by default. You can also select the
    Enable Western Script
     check box, enabling you to enter either local or Western script name components, but Western are required.
  • Western Script Required
    . This option enables you to enter only Western script address components.
  • Local Script Required
    . This option enables you to enter only local script address components.
When you set up name components with the
Maintain Name Components by Country
task, you can configure names for display in local script. See Set Up Name Components.

Locale and Language Settings

You can specify locales for your tenant and your business site locations. Workers at the business site locations inherit that locale.
When you enable a Workday-supported language, Workday displays self-service pages and business process notifications in that language for all users in the associated locales. See Workday Community: Languages for a list of available languages by Workday product. If your locale isn't associated with a Workday-supported language, then Workday displays in English.
To determine the language that displays, Workday evaluates the:
  • User's selected language.
  • User's selected locale.
  • Selected language of user's location.
  • Selected locale of user's location.
  • Selected language of the tenant.
  • Selected locale of the tenant (the default is US English).

Custom Names for Countries

Workday-delivered country names comply with ISO standards. You can also create custom names in the
Maintain Workday Delivered Country Names
 task for your local and organizational requirements that display on:
  • Fields and prompts throughout Workday.
  • External career sites.
Workday displays custom country names for a country based on the user's primary work location. If you translate custom country names, the translated custom name displays based on the preferred language that a user selects. You can use the
Native Country Name
 field to overwrite the country name in parentheses in the
Preferred Locale
 and
Preferred Display Language
 drop-downs in your Global Preferences. See Steps: Set Up Custom Names for Countries.