Kronos^® Workforce Central^® Solutions Increase Accountability and Deliver Savings for Pioneer Bank

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Pioneer Bank, the only locally headquartered full-service bank operating exclusively in the Capital Region of New York, has 15 branches in urban and suburban communities across a 100-square-mile area. Nearly one-third of the bank's 335 employees work part-time, which presents challenges in ensuring consistent customer service because of high turnover among the part-time employees.

Soon after arriving at the bank, Susan Vernooy, senior vice president and human resources executive, determined that a system that consistently enforced the bank's employment policies could reduce employee turnover and minimize compliance risk. After reviewing several workforce management solutions, the bank chose the Kronos^® Workforce Central^® suite.

Consistent policy enforcement and flexibility boost employee retention

Workforce Timekeeper, a key component of the Workforce Central suite, has played a vital role in improving enforcement of attendance and leave policies. Prior to implementing the time and attendance solution, the bank used paper timesheets to collect employee work data. Payroll staff at the bank's main office had little time to question managers about employee hours before rushing to complete payroll.

"We didn't have an accurate picture of what we were paying for time not worked because employees completed their paper timesheets at the end of a two-week period, not day by day," says Vernooy. "We had a very generous sick and personal time policy, which led to increasing amounts of unworked time without our ability to easily validate legitimate use of leave time."

Now employees log onto Workforce Timekeeper each day via their PC, which helps ensure that they receive appropriate credit for time worked. The bank can also generate reports on employees' time off, from specific hours to individual days. Employees now have more flexibility in using their paid time off benefits, which Vernooy says has improved morale and employee retention. "Policies that we could not have administered before because they were too cumbersome are now much easier with Workforce Timekeeper."

Reduces compliance risk and improves satisfaction

The automated workforce management solution allows HR staff to enforce compliance with employment policies at all bank locations. Additionally, branch managers better understand the importance of consistent compliance with work rules, which improves employee satisfaction, and have tools to monitor, report on and enforce policies. "When we had paper timecards, we couldn't expect managers to be as accountable for their employees' work hours and paid time. Now we have put some of that ownership back on managers," explains Tim Kelly, director of human resources.

With responsibility for overseeing payroll, the HR department can easily audit time and attendance information from all branches to better ensure that employees are taking only allowed time off and create comprehensive payroll audit reports to meet the requirements of internal and external auditors. Kelly says, "We can provide accurate, up-to-date employee lists and pull reports required for the audit trail, which gives us some risk mitigation. These applications are a vital part of the audit process."

Greater visibility and control over labor costs

Before implementing the Kronos solution, Vernooy reviewed two years' worth of paper timesheets to track time off taken other than approved vacation time. The review showed that the bank paid nearly $100,000 a year for time off not clearly designated as approved vacation, sick, or other leave time."The expense for this time off has now evaporated," she says. "We are now paying only for work done and authorized time off and have seen major savings in productivity because of Workforce Timekeeper."

Self-service tools deliver huge time savings

Using Kronos self-service tools, employees check their accrued time off, vacation time, and even direct deposit receipts online, while managers can access information on employees, saving HR staff valuable time in answering telephone inquiries.

Self-service tools for open enrollment of health benefits have delivered additional time savings. When employees update their information, HR staff generates reports reflecting changes to send to vendors so employees do not have to fill out enrollment change forms. "We have gained a lot of soft costs and efficiencies just through that one process due to our Kronos solution," Kelly says.

Vernooy adds, "It's fabulous to be able to communicate and educate our staff on employee benefits issues without extensive clerical work or courier support to distribute benefit plan documents, enrollment forms, handbooks, and employee policies."

Application support and future plans

Kronos Global Support has provided "golden glove treatment," Vernooy says, allowing the bank to leverage Kronos' expertise to use the Workforce Central suite of solutions more effectively. Kelly reports that issues are typically resolved in 24 to 48 hours, and he likes tracking a job ticket through the customer portal so HR staff know the status of an issue.

In looking ahead, Vernooy says the bank is considering an upgrade to the latest version of the Workforce Central suite, in addition to utilizing other features such as performance and applicant management. "We have a lot of ideas about how we want to utilize more features," she notes. "Our Kronos solution has given us a level of accountability, consistency, and employee communications that we just didn't have before."

©2009, Kronos Incorporated. Kronos, the Kronos logo, and Workforce Central are registered trademarks and Workforce Timekeeper, Workforce HR, Workforce Payroll are trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change. All rights reserved.