County of Santa Clara
Easily Configurable Kronos Solution Reduces Labor Costs and Compliance Risk for Santa Clara County
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The County of Santa Clara is a local government employer in the Silicon Valley area of California that provides law enforcement, social services, voter registration, mental health services, county hospitals, and public defense, among other services. The county employs nearly 17,000 people and has an annual operating budget of more than $4 billion. Covering more than a 1,300-square-mile area from Palo Alto to Gilroy, Santa Clara County comprises nearly five percent of the state's population.
With an expansive workforce spread over a large area, Santa Clara County faced a number of challenges with its paper-driven timekeeping system. Manual sign-in sheets made scheduling and staffing level analysis extremely difficult. This information is of critical importance to 24-hour operations such as the county's hospitals and law enforcement offices, where managers need to accurately monitor staffing levels.
In addition to needing real-time labor information, Santa Clara County wanted to improve payroll accuracy and gain greater control of labor costs. Selecting the best solution to meet these needs, the county chose Kronos® Workforce Timekeeper, instead of extending or adding to its ERP solution. "We considered an ERP option, but Kronos stands out as being extremely configurable and having everything we need without customization," says Senior Fiscal Services Manager Steve Conrad. "It was a no-brainer to select Kronos." Now, Santa Clara County can easily configure its automated time and attendance solution to control labor costs, improve compliance with union pay practices, and boost workforce productivity by maintaining appropriate staffing levels without costly software customizations or drawn out implementations.
Automation helps control labor costs
When Santa Clara County first approached Kronos more than ten years ago, its manual timekeeping system was labor intensive and prone to errors. Employees submitted time and attendance information on paper timecards to their managers, who passed these on to Payroll for processing. The complete automation of time and attendance data collection with Workforce Timekeeper has helped the county reduce expensive payroll errors and pay employees accurately and on time.
To track their time, Santa Clara County employees swipe their ID badges through a Kronos 4500 Touch ID biometric terminal or nonbiometric terminal, depending on the location. The system’s integration of timekeeping and scheduling also quickly helps the county determine critical staffing needs on a real-time basis.
Real-time information improves workforce productivity
Payroll processing now runs much more smoothly with Workforce Timekeeper. "Before Kronos, getting accurate information on a real-time basis for our managers was a big challenge," Conrad explains. Now, the real-time capture of labor information and reporting functionality of Kronos allow managers to quickly check the completeness of employees' time and easily correct timecard exceptions before sending the information to Payroll. For the county, having immediate access to the latest workforce data has been a superior solution to the daily batch processing — style of the ERP options.
"Our payroll process is fast and easy for employees and gives managers more time to focus on strategic objectives, as opposed to worrying about timecards," Conrad says. He adds that the initial success of the timekeeping devices in the county hospital led to their use in the sheriff's office and other service sectors. "Other departments were eager to use Kronos time-collection devices as a result of their successful use at the hospital."
Enhanced reporting and configurability minimize compliance risk
"Workforce Timekeeper's reports not only help us provide optimal public service and hospital care, but they helped also better adhere to various regulations that mandate certain staffing levels," Conrad says. He notes that the reporting and configurability functionality of the Kronos solution was a decisive factor in the county's choice of Kronos over other solutions.
Using the solution's real-time reporting tools, Santa Clara County quickly can determine how staffing levels and skill sets match requirements, sometime that is particularly critical for 24-hour institutions such as hospitals and law enforcement offices. Managers can easily determine who is working at any moment, and then quickly shift staff as needed. Access to real-time reporting, a capability not usually found in ERP solutions, is vital to organizations such as the county for ensuring compliance with staffing regulations.
With nearly 30 unions representing Santa Clara County employees, compliance is also a concern. Workforce Timekeeper allows the county to designate overtime and shift differentials to better comply with union pay provisions. "Before, it was difficult to keep up with the different pay provisions dictated by the different union agreements," says Conrad. "Now, Workforce Timekeeper automatically calculates the complex work and pay rules accurately and effortlessly, which is a huge plus for us."
Easy to implement, easy to use
As a longtime Kronos customer, the county has been through many upgrades with Kronos professional services. "Kronos helped us re-engineer many of our business processes in addition to take care of the upgrades," Conrad explains. "For each upgrade, the implementation team performed quickly and efficiently. We were thrilled with their level of knowledge and professionalism — other vendors just can't compare."
The Kronos solution's ease of use has been a major benefit to Santa Clara County during the county's ten-plus year partnership with Kronos, says Conrad. He notes its user-friendly interface and tools, seamless integration of time-collection devices, and certified integrations with the county's other systems. The added benefit is the solution’s true automation, which has resulted in fewer manual workarounds and less IT administration.
"Our partnership with Kronos has been very worthwhile and easy to maintain," he adds. "What we have received for our investment has certainly paid off."