Ball State University
Ball State University, located on a sprawling campus on Muncie, Indiana, has
18,600 students and seven colleges. Its workforce, including students, is over
7,000 strong. As a major employer, the university has Federal labor regulations
to comply with, a bargaining unit to answer to, and as many sets of pay rules,
policies, and procedures as it has employee groups.
To better meet these challenges, the payroll department switched from circa
1950s timeclocks to a Kronos Timekeeper Central® solution. It also became one of the first offices on campus to install its own LAN.
One of the reasons for those moves, said Deborah Tudor, director of payroll
and employee benefits, was a compelling need to replace timeclocks that were so
old, the university could no longer find replacement parts; another was a slow
payroll processing system.
"We either had to replace the old timeclocks with new manual ones,"
said Tudor, "or go to an automated system. If we wanted to solve the problems,
we knew we had to change the process. Automation won quick and unanimous approval."
Tudor evaluated the cost-effectiveness of implementing an automated system. Her
estimates, conservative at best, showed total losses from manual payroll-related
audits, inefficiencies, and overpayments of more than $84,000 a year.
Tudor joined with the university's director of financial information systems
to study user needs and evaluate alternative time and leave management systems.
"We went out and talked to the larger users, like the library," said
Tudor. "Then we took a look at what the market had to offer." According
to Tudor, "Kronos could do what other suppliers couldn't even attempt — install
a centralized system that would streamline payroll processing, and at the same
time, function in the field like a decentralized system by putting department
level data and control in the hands of managers and supervisors."
The Kronos solution delivered the speed, accuracy, efficiency, and objectivity
needed to achieve Ball State's goals. "We wanted a solution that provided
better management of overtime; less exposure to grievances; and a more consistent
application of each workgroup's pay policies," explained Tudor. "When
supervisors use daily exception reports to get a better handle on overtime and
absenteeism, the university comes out ahead. When payroll staff can analyze data
instead of just entering it, productivity improves." Tudor also values system
benefits like complete audit trails and department-based editing.
Ball State's system includes 53 Kronos badge readers, located in buildings
throughout the campus, and centrally located software that resides on the payroll
and employee benefits' LAN. Data processing is carried out by the university's
pay policies. An automatic interface transmits the processed labor data to SCT,
the payroll application for the university's human resources information system.
For university staff, recording time is a simple process. To record in and
out times, 1,230 student workers and 650 service staff employees from grounds
keeping, athletics, the student union, plant maintenance, payroll and food services
departments simply swipe an ID badge through the nearest Kronos terminal. Non-exempt
staff report hours and leave time on OCR-readable scan sheets.
Pre-payroll edits can be handled quickly and easily by supervisors, ensuring
accuracy on payday and the decentralized control that was key to the university's
decision to implement the Kronos system. Management reports can be run by payroll
staff, or on a department level. Supervisors review daily exception and weekly
punch detail reports. At the end of each biweekly pay period they approve final
punch detail reports.
According to Tudor, both supervisors and employees are putting Kronos system
data to good use. "Our managers can really stay on top of issues like overtime,
absenteeism and tardiness. Our employees can use the terminals to get updates
on such information as hours worked and sick days."
"We have the flexibility we need to adapt and grow," she attests,
citing a trouble-free midstream changeover from one payroll system to another.
"We have a solid base."
Looking into the future, Ball State is exploring expansion and upgrading of
their Kronos system. Deborah Tudor concludes, "From the start, I felt very
confident that Kronos would meet our goals. Our experience with the system has
shown that confidence was, and is, well placed."
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