County of Santa Clara
Santa Clara County Increases Productivity, Accuracy, and Efficiency with Workforce Timekeeper
The County of Santa Clara is a local government employer that provides services in law enforcement, social services, voter registration, mental health, county hospitals, public defense, and other services. It employs nearly 18,000 people and has an annual operating budget of over $4 billion. Commonly known as “Silicon Valley,” Santa Clara County covers more than 1,300 square miles from Palo Alto to Gilroy, and comprises nearly 5 percent of California’s population.
With such an expansive workforce, Santa Clara faced a number of difficult challenges with a paper-driven timekeeping system. Manual sign-in sheets made tracking which employee was at a specific site at a certain time — critical in 24-hour operations such as hospitals and law enforcement — extremely difficult. Additionally, managers lacked real-time labor information, which hindered their ability to monitor staffing levels.
Santa Clara knew it could improve payroll accuracy and gain more control over its labor costs by moving to an automated solution. By implementing Kronos® Workforce Timekeeper™, Santa Clara dramatically increased its ability to manage its workforce, better comply with union pay practices, and maintain appropriate staffing levels. “We looked at other companies’ products, but they couldn’t compare to Kronos’ solution. Workforce Timekeeper was the best option,” Fiscal Services Manager Steve Conrad says.
Automation saves time and money
When Santa Clara first approached Kronos more than ten years ago, it relied on a manual system for timekeeping. The process was based on paper timecards, which employees used to submit their time and attendance information. These timecards were collected by managers and then totaled and processed by payroll — a system that Santa Clara found labor intensive and prone to human error.
Kronos has helped make this process a thing of the past. Workforce Timekeeper allows Santa Clara to automate its time and attendance processes, which helps the county reduce expensive payroll errors and deliver pay in an accurate and timely manner. Combined with Kronos’ data collection devices, Workforce Timekeeper helps Santa Clara employees and managers save time and increase productivity.
“Now employees only have to swipe their ID badges through the terminals and their labor information is immediately captured and stored,” Conrad explains. “It’s fast and easy for them and gives our managers more time to focus on strategic objectives, as opposed to worrying about timecards."
Santa Clara uses a combination of Kronos 4500 Touch ID™ biometric terminals and nonbiometric terminals for tracking employee time. The terminals can help employers eliminate the practice of “buddy punching,” the costly act of employees punching in for one another. The initial success of the devices in the county hospital led to integration in other service sectors, such as the sheriff’s office. “It was an easy sell for our other areas, due to the success at the hospitals,” Conrad explains.
Enhanced reporting preserves quality staffing levels
“Workforce Timekeeper’s reports not only help us provide optimal public service and hospital care, but also better adhere to various regulations that mandate certain staffing levels,” Conrad says.
Because of the solution’s reporting abilities, Santa Clara can quickly determine staff levels and skill set mix, which is particularly critical for 24-hour institutions such as law enforcement and hospitals. Since the county knows which employees are on-site at any given time, managers can easily generate reports to determine if one department is understaffed and then quickly shift resources to maintain the right balance.
Workforce Timekeeper has also helped Santa Clara improve its payroll processes. “Before Kronos, getting accurate information on a real-time basis for our managers was a big challenge,” Conrad explains. Now, with the convenience of Kronos’ reporting functionality, managers can quickly check the completeness of their employees’ time before the information is sent to payroll. Then the payroll staff creates its own real-time reports to see if any additional edits are needed.
Additionally, Workforce Timekeeper helps with labor distribution and grant reporting. The county uses the solution to associate employee time worked with certain project and grant tasks and activities. As a result, Santa Clara can better determine how much time has been devoted to each task associated with a variety of projects and grants for reporting and reimbursement purposes.
Compliance with union agreements improves
Compliance is an important consideration when working with the nearly 30 unions that exist within the Santa Clara County workforce. Employing a large number of union workers means challenges such as managing multiple collective bargaining agreements.
Workforce Timekeeper allows the county to designate overtime and shift differentials and better comply with union pay provisions. “It was difficult to keep up with the different pay provisions dictated by the different union agreements,” says Conrad. “Now Workforce Timekeeper helps us apply the complex work and pay rules accurately and effortlessly.”
Seamless upgrades and efficient training
As a longtime Kronos customer, Santa Clara has been through many upgrades and has utilized Kronos professional services each time. “Kronos helped us re-engineer many of our business processes in addition to the upgrades,” Conrad says. “For each upgrade, the implementation team performed quickly and efficiently. We are thrilled with their level of knowledge and professionalism — other vendors just can’t compare.”
Additionally, Santa Clara County saves time and resources through on-demand training provided by Kronos professional services. This online education allows the county to obtain information on new upgrade features right away, without scheduling training sessions across the state or the country. “On-demand training helps us get the information we need when we want it,” Conrad explains. “And I have a feeling we will try the live virtual classroom approach for future training.”
Further enhancement plans in place
In addition to upgrading to the latest version of Workforce Timekeeper, Santa Clara has plans to expand its use of Kronos 4500 terminals across the organization. The county is also going to launch the Workforce Timekeeper Employee Self-Service feature of the terminals with its employees when it upgrades its Workforce Timekeeper solution. Additionally, Santa Clara is planning pilot programs for Workforce Scheduler™ and Workforce Record Manager™.
“We are looking forward to these many pilot programs,” Conrad says. “Kronos’ time and attendance solution is best of breed — and given our success with it, we’re looking forward to expanding into other areas of workforce management with Kronos.”
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