Eight Outstanding Organizations Recognized as Kronos® Best Practices Awards Winners
Awards presented at KronosWorks™
ORLANDO, Oct. 16, 2006 — Earlier today at KronosWorks™, Kronos® Incorporated (Nasdaq: KRON) announced the winners of its eighth annual Best Practices Awards. The awards recognize individuals and organizations that have been innovators and have achieved unprecedented value and success through the effective implementation and deployment of Kronos solutions. The winners of this year's awards are All Children's Hospital, Best Buy, City of El Paso, City of Orlando, Columbia Distributing, National Frozen Foods, The Ohio State University Medical Center, and Texoma Medical Center. KronosWorks, the industry's largest venue for exchanging ideas in how to effectively manage the workforce, is taking place this week in Orlando.
"These Best Practices Award-winning organizations are truly inspiring in the way they use technology to manage their workforce," stated Aron Ain, Kronos chief executive officer, during this morning's opening remarks at KronosWorks. "They have all taken advantage of Kronos' expertise and solutions to help their organization reduce costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance the level of service they provide."
All Children's Hospital, one of the top 25 children's hospitals and a leader for pediatric treatment, education, and research, was recognized for managing labor productivity to drive quality of care in a healthcare organization. Using Kronos' analytics solution, All Children's adjusts daily staffing needs on a timely basis and balances appropriate staffing with productivity targets. As a result, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based hospital is better able to monitor growth of labor expenses while increasing its ability to serve patients in the best way possible.
Best Buy, the electronics retail giant, was recognized for leveraging Kronos' talent management solutions to drive quality hiring and business productivity. With built-in support for internal hiring and organizational restructuring, Best Buy is now poised to boost employee retention and enhance effectiveness by incorporating Best Buy culture, environment, and behaviors into the hiring and selection process.
The City of El Paso, Texas was recognized for an enterprise-wide implementation across its various business units and locations. In just six weeks, the City of El Paso implemented a Kronos solution for 6,000 employees in more than 30 departments including unionized police and fire. A mandate to implement a zero-overtime policy put the Kronos solution to the test and the results were dramatic. In addition to reduced overtime costs for police officers who had to appear in court, better overall tracking and easily accessible records means the city is now better able to resolve employee grievances and help ensure compliance with FLSA and other regulations.
The City of Orlando, Florida was also recognized for an enterprise-wide implementation across its various business units and locations. In an effort to streamline and consolidate workforce management practices for more than 4,000 employees working in 200 different locations, the City of Orlando implemented the Kronos solution to achieve centralized control and greater flexibility. The flexibility of the Kronos solution proved itself during a recent hurricane season as the solution was configured to track hurricane-related work time eligible for FEMA reimbursement.
Columbia Distributing, one of the largest distributors of beer, wine, and natural beverage products in Oregon and Washington, was recognized for engaging employees and managers in a self-service application. Columbia Distributing has achieved better management of its mobile workforce, including delivery drivers and merchandisers, with a telephone time-entry solution from Kronos. Now, managers have instant access to employee information and are more accountable for employees' time, therefore increasing compliance with state wage and hour laws.
National Frozen Foods, a family-owned, private-label company with a global presence, was recognized for achieving operational excellence in a manufacturing organization. Kronos' time and labor and scheduling applications enable National Frozen Foods to effectively manage a fluctuating seasonal workforce. Kronos' scheduling solution enables the manufacturer to automatically create schedules based on a variety of factors including employee preferences, availability, and skills. In addition, the Kronos solution resulted in a savings of $1,000,000 in the first five years.
The Ohio State University Medical Center was recognized for using a Kronos analytics solution to make better workforce decisions, reduce labor costs, and improve productivity. Today, all 300 departments are using Kronos analytics to align workforce data with business goals. The medical center has achieved a multi-million dollar savings by integrating Kronos into key management processes including budgeting, staffing, new employee request approvals, and internally driven labor cost reduction initiatives.
Texoma Medical Center, a healthcare organization serving North Texas and Southern Oklahoma, was recognized for its implementation of Kronos solutions including human resources and payroll. With reduction of overall cost a top priority, Texoma implemented the Kronos suite and consolidated multiple systems into a single, integrated solution for human resources, payroll, and time and labor. Texoma achieved an immediate return on investment. With substantial savings in nursing and non-exempt overtime costs, Texoma was able to reinvest the savings into other critical IT initiatives.
About Kronos Incorporated
Kronos Incorporated empowers organizations around the world to effectively manage their workforce. At Kronos, we are experts who are solely focused on delivering software and services that enable organizations to reduce costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance the level of service they provide. Kronos serves customers in more than 50 countries through its network of offices, subsidiaries, and distributors. Widely recognized as a market and thought leader in managing the workforce, Kronos has unrivaled reach with more than 30 million people using a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos at www.kronos.com.
