Chicago Public Schools Saves $15 Million with Districtwide Workforce Central Suite Deployment
Chicago Public Schools is the nation's third-largest school district and the second largest employer in Illinois. The school system operates 602 schools with 50,000 employees and 10,000 contractors, and serves more than 435,000 students.
In such a huge system, managing employee time and labor data used to be a costly and time-consuming process. But thanks to a districtwide, centralized implementation of Kronos' Workforce Central® suite, Chicago Public Schools was able to improve business processes and save more than $15 million as a result of better management of its labor budget.
Eliminating manual efforts saves time and money
A longtime Kronos customer, Chicago Public Schools first implemented Kronos solutions to automate processes related to collecting, processing, and managing employee time and labor. Its previous system was labor-intensive, time-consuming, and subject to human error. "We used to rely on paper timesheets, courier deliveries, and redundant data entry," says Mike Edwards, deputy chief financial officer (retired). "We were definitely ready for a change."
Automating these critical processes proved to be a huge benefit for the school system. Just eliminating paper timecards helped Chicago Public Schools save significant amounts of time and money. Plus, with better access and control over employee data, the school system increased overall productivity. "We evolved out of the Stone Age and into the 21st century," says Edwards.
Upgrading yields big benefits
Secure with Kronos as its technology partner, Chicago Public Schools later reaped the benefits of upgrading to the web-based Workforce Central suite. "We put employee data for all 50,000 employees on just one database," explains Edwards. "Database maintenance and backup procedures are much easier, and having all this information in one place gives us an enterprisewide view of our entire workforce. As a result, our managers have real-time insight into the information they need to make better decisions."
Another key benefit from the Workforce Central suite: employee self-service. "With Kronos' Workforce Employee™ application, employees use their PCs to access their own time and labor data and other personal information," says Edwards. "Now they can see their own data in real time, whenever it's convenient for them, and they don't have to ask HR, payroll, or their managers for answers. This initiative alone has helped us save a lot of time and money while making us much more productive."
Chicago Public Schools recently implemented PeopleSoft for their HR and payroll solution then easily integrated it with Kronos' Workforce Central suite. "We were already using Workforce Connect™ to integrate our current systems with Workforce Central," explains Cheryl Taylor, payroll manager. "Once the PeopleSoft implementation was complete, we simply leveraged Workforce Connect for data exchanges between Workforce Central and PeopleSoft. Combining these two great solutions makes accessing information and reporting much easier."
Kronos services and support teams impress
Edwards also gives Kronos' professional services team high marks for the role it played in getting Chicago Public Schools up and running during each upgrade. "It was a real partnership," he recalls. "Everyone was so focused on the end solution that you couldn't tell who worked for Kronos and who worked for us. The Kronos team was instrumental in helping us scale the solution to meet our needs."
Taylor concurs. "It's a joy to work with Kronos, and we have a wonderful working relationship with the support team," she comments. "The team truly takes ownership of any issues that come up — and solves them. We've received excellent support every step of the way."
Better analysis yields better results
Some of the most powerful results have come from using the powerful labor analytics within the Workforce Central suite. "Like so many other school districts, we needed to maximize our operational efficiency in order to balance the effects of budget cuts and reduced funding," says Edwards. "Before implementing a Kronos analytics solution, we had no way of comparing actual labor worked versus budgeted labor in time to affect the outcome."
He goes on to describe the challenge they used to face. "We just didn't have enough control over the amount of money we spent on state funding grants. We never knew where we stood until we actually ran payroll, which meant we only knew we had a problem when it was too late, and we had no way of getting information to principals in time to act on it. As a result, we had no way of holding anyone accountable for their actions."
The Kronos analytics solution gives managers a tool for tracking performance against specific business targets, such as real-time labor usage levels. "Now we can provide our managers with real-time information on actual labor worked by position, so we can compare that to what was budgeted," states Edwards. The software even offers threshold alerts, which trigger an email to a school and lets it know what it should do.
Implementing a Kronos analytics solution has clearly paid off — on the bottom line. "Now we receive more timely information about our labor budget utilization," says Edwards. "And in the last year alone, we've been able to save $15 million. Those are real results."
Adding biometric terminals and automated leave processes
As it continues to focus on improvement, Chicago Public Schools is considering replacing 100 of its 850 Kronos data collection terminals with Kronos 4500 Touch ID™ biometric terminals. "The biometric terminals will be used for employees who work off hours when schools are mainly closed, or for employees who work at locations without on-site supervision," says Taylor. These powerful terminals use finger scan technology to verify employees' identities as they submit time and labor data. This helps increase data accuracy and eliminates a costly workplace problem: buddy punching.
Chicago Public Schools is also exploring automating its leave processes with Workforce Leave™. "Right now, tracking leave is a completely manual process," explains Taylor. "It's not easy to accurately track leave between several different departments — and sometimes only an employee's manager knows that he or she is on leave. Workforce Leave would streamline our processes and help us ensure that people can't take leave they aren't entitled to."
Now, as they reflect on how far the organization has come, it's hard for Edwards and Taylor to imagine life without a Kronos solution. "We've automated so many processes and made so many improvements," says Edwards. "As a result, we've been able to better manage our workforce, increase productivity, and most importantly, reduce labor costs and strengthen the bottom line. Kronos has made all this possible."
|