Comerica Takes Innovation and Integration to the Bank with Kronos
Comerica Incorporated is a Fortune 500 financial services company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, and is among the 20 largest banking companies in the United States. The company is strategically aligned into three major lines of business: the business bank, small business and personal financial services, and wealth and institutional management.
Despite the size and reputation of Comerica in the industry, managers in the company's operational services group were at a disadvantage due to the nature of their manual systems for tracking employee time and activity data. In an effort to increase productivity and improve business processes, Comerica selected Kronos to provide the key components in what it has termed its Enterprise Labor Optimization (ELO) system. The system includes Kronos' Workforce Timekeeper™, Workforce Smart Scheduler™, and Workforce Decisions® — all part of the Workforce Central® suite, as well as self-service kiosks for employee access. By leveraging these powerful applications for time and attendance, scheduling, and labor analytics, Comerica is now better equipped to manage critical workplace issues.
Problems of the past
Prior to implementing the Kronos solution, Comerica identified a number of areas that needed improvement. Employees kept track of their own time and attendance and productivity on manual log sheets. Then a separate group of people manually keyed in that data to create proficiency reports; this resulted in lag time between when the employees submitted their activity sheets and when managers were able to review them to determine individual and group activity and productivity levels. Managers also lacked visibility into when employees were arriving late or leaving early until it came time to process payroll. Jim Cook, vice president of production services, says, "As a result, recognition or early warning signs were delayed. We knew we needed to provide our team with better tools."
Since Comerica didn't have a system in place to check the integrity of data, valuable time was wasted correcting and re-keying it. But the broadest challenge Comerica faced was scheduling. They needed a system to help match staffing requirements to the fluctuating volume of incoming work, one that would also help manage the complexity of the 24/7 operation's multiple, same-day deadlines. They turned to Kronos.
Continuous process improvement
Comerica first deployed the Kronos solution in its Michigan check-processing operation, which handles 1.8 million checks each day. With the help of Kronos, Comerica is now able to forecast total job volume and work arrival times into its check servicing operation — an improvement that helped standardize and streamline Comerica's critical processes and improve its overall productivity.
Employees swipe their ID badges into a card reader on one of 15 Web-based touch-screen kiosks to sign in, sign out, or switch tasks. Visually displayed drop-down boxes allow each employee to choose information pertaining to their particular task. The screen also reminds the employee of what is to be tracked and the amount of work expected from them for each task.
All of this data — activity tracking, employee proficiencies, and time and attendance information — is available to Comerica's managers in real-time. Using Kronos' Workforce Decisions labor analytics application, managers have a tool right on their desktop that helps them track performance against specific business targets. With real-time data at their fingertips, Comerica's supervisors now have access to the information to make better business decisions.
In addition, Kronos' scheduling solution enables Comerica to create optimum schedules to align employees with ever-changing work requirements. This application uses Comerica's work volume data and other standards from its simulation modeling software to create the best possible schedules. As a result, Comerica's managers know how many employee hours they need in each process area, and they can match employee availability to production needs.
According to Cook, the real value comes from using all Kronos solutions together. "All of these systems feed each other and all of the data is available to our managers. This has given us an important tool to help us focus on continuous process improvement."
A perfect fit
For every change, there is an inevitable period of adjustment, but Comerica found this particular one to be relatively quick and painless. "We found the solution to be user-friendly and easy to adopt," explains Cook. But there are more reasons behind the ease of the transition than just the software itself, and he is quick to give credit where credit is due. "We were very impressed with the caliber, the professionalism, and the integrity of Kronos' development and support teams."
Comerica looked at several vendors, but determined that only Kronos could keep up with them. "Kronos did a better job than the other solutions we evaluated in terms of managing workload fit and handling the complexity of our operation and the flexibility necessary to meet our deadlines," says Cook.
The trick is managing employee labor data and adapting schedules to the changing demands of the check processing industry. "Kronos enables us to proactively create schedules to meet demands, allowing for continuous improvement in bank operations," says Cook. "This integrated suite allows our managers to optimize their operations by having the right people in the right place, at the right time." This is increasingly important in light of the dynamic market conditions expected in check services over the next several years.
The demands of this non-stop, three-shift operation also include very tight, often same-day deadlines. "Work may come in as late as 10 p.m., and it must go out by 3 a.m.," explains Cook. The staff works diligently to meet multiple deadlines in every shift. The Kronos solution keeps the whole operation running smoothly, saving time and increasing productivity. Cook affirms, "Accelerating those deadlines has had an economic benefit, both to the bank and our customers."
Significant results
With the help of the Kronos solution, Comerica has already begun to see significant operational and cost savings. The operations group was able to successfully restructure a number of shifts and rebalance staff. "Leveraging these tools in a number of different initiatives over the course of the year, the department was effectively able to re-deploy 14 percent of staff," reports Cook.
Attempting to pinpoint what part of the solution has had the greatest impact on the organization, Cook determines it's all about perspective: "From the managers' point of view, the automated scheduling has made the biggest difference. For the employees, it has been entering and accessing their data using the kiosks." Ultimately, it is the way all of the pieces work together.
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