San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine

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As one of the largest not-for-profit hospices in the U.S., San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine provides palliative care services and end-of-life care to more than 1,000 patients daily in the San Diego, California, area. In addition to patient and family care services, The Institute for Palliative Medicine is a world leader in training palliative medicine physicians and specialists. About 400 of its 800 employees work at the organization’s administrative offices and two inpatient facilities, and another 400 are clinicians who visit patients at home or in long-term care facilities.  

Summary

Employees: 800

Products: Workforce Timekeeper™, Workforce Payroll™, Workforce HR™

PROJECT BENEFITS

• Bringing HR and payroll in house saves 75 percent in associated outside vendor costs, for a less than three-year pay back
• More efficient payroll process saves half an FTE and provides anytime access to data
• Average weighted overtime is calculated accurately and on schedule, mitigating compliance risk
• Self-service streamlines performance review process and reduces open enrollment process from weeks to days, with improved accuracy

In-house solution delivers efficiencies and savings

While the organization’s mobile health care workers cared for patients, its HR and payroll staff struggled to care for HR and payroll needs. The timekeeping, payroll, and HR systems were automated but not integrated, requiring interfaces. Payroll processing was outsourced but presented challenges with turnaround time, accuracy, increasing rate hikes, and correctly calculated average weighted overtime (AWOT). The HR system was paper-intensive, requiring information to be double-entered with payroll for onboarding of new hires and other HR activities. Open enrollment took weeks of organizing, keying in, and faxing of information to benefits carriers, a process open to errors. The HR and payroll process sorely needed attentive care itself.

An impetus for taking action was the inability of an outside vendor to calculate AWOT weekly, says Payroll Manager Elizabeth Krahn, as well as a cumbersome payroll transmitting process. After evaluating a number of vendors, San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine selected the Kronos® Workforce Central® suite, bringing payroll processing and HR services in house. Now, AWOT is calculated correctly, payroll processing is streamlined, and employee self-service has reduced the open enrollment process from weeks to days, while improving accuracy with no duplicate entry of benefits selections. In addition, the organization has reduced annual HR and payroll processing costs by 75 percent, as well as saved staff time.

Compliance issues mitigated

A major concern before was the inability to calculate AWOT every week, as required by California law, explains Krahn. “Now, with Kronos, it’s perfect,” she says about the automatic weekly AWOT calculations with timekeeping and payroll. “It’s always running exactly as it should.”

Improved productivity, timely reporting, reduced costs

Utilizing the Kronos solution has made the payroll process more efficient. “Normally when you bring a project in house that was previously outsourced, you usually have to add an FTE to keep up with the work demands. But with Kronos, we were able to bring HR and payroll in house and save half an FTE, which is tremendous,” says Krahn.

Before, she needed the assistance of another employee to prepare payroll for an outside vendor. After sending the information, she says it went into a “black hole for a couple days,” as she was locked out of the system. Days passed before she received reports, created a frustrating lag time. Using Kronos, Krahn handles payroll for all 800 employees on her own and can access HR and payroll information and reports at any time.

 “Normally, when you bring a project in house that was previously outsourced, you usually have to add an FTE to keep up with the work demands. But with Kronos, we were able to bring HR and payroll in house and save half an FTE, which is tremendous.” “Normally, when you bring a project in house that was previously outsourced, you usually have to add an FTE to keep up with the work demands. But with Kronos, we were able to bring HR and payroll in house and save half an FTE, which is tremendous.” 

By bringing HR and payroll activities inside with Kronos, San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine not only has more control over its processes, but also has reduced related annual costs by 75 percent, notes Krahn, saving $75,000 to $100,000 per year in outside vendor costs. Additional savings have been realized through employee self-service, as pay stubs can be viewed online and are no longer printed and mailed, and HR is fielding fewer employee inquiries. Outside vendor savings alone have allowed the organization to pay for its in-house workforce management solution within three years, in addition to allowing the nonprofit organization to operate more cost-effectively and efficiently by streamlining operations.

Self-service: increased savings, accuracy, and satisfaction

San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine is enjoying additional time and cost savings through open enrollment self-service. With a large remote workforce scattered across a 100-mile area, the organization previously had to print and mail employee benefits packets. Using Kronos self-service, employees now review and select their benefits online and at their leisure.

“Because of the interfaces, the improved accuracy has been phenomenal,” explains Project Manager Janet Wytrych. “Since employees can now enter their benefit selections directly into Kronos, we don’t have to double-key information and can send their selections directly to the benefits carriers. It has eliminated duplicate data entry at both ends of the process.”

Kronos self-service has also improved performance management. Conducting performance reviews with a remote workforce has unique challenges. Now, up-to-date information and prior reviews are conveniently available through Kronos self-service for both the manager and the employee. “This new performance review process has definitely increased employee and manager satisfaction,” says HR Specialist Traci Hawkins.

San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine has recently brought its tax filing in house and will soon do the same with direct deposit. Initially, when the organization switched to Kronos, it continued tax-filing and direct deposit services with an outside payroll vendor. This decision proved to be costly, as the
outside vendor did not calculate unemployment wages correctly, which Krahn says was “a serious issue in processing taxes and costly in the manpower hours required to fix it.” Now, Krahn has confidence with the Kronos solution in making these calculations from payroll data, and she uploads everything directly to the federal and state tax websites.

Early success with Kronos Services builds confidence

As the organization has added to its Kronos solution, success in implementing new capabilities has given staff greater confidence in adding features. Playing a key role is what Wytrych calls “phenomenal” services. She notes that Kronos implementation services were instrumental in getting the system up and running quickly. Application consultants were also helpful in sharing their knowledge to enhance the staff’s understanding of the system. “We’ve forged really strong relationships with the consultants and support services staff,” Wytrych says, noting that they understand the organization’s system and stay on a case until it is resolved. In addition, personalized training, right-sized virtual classes, and thorough training materials have given the healthcare organization a strong start for early success.

“There’s something to be said for the feeling of being independent with the help of Kronos,” she adds. As San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine provides comfort and expert care to patients, Kronos continues to provide the same to this vital community-owned organization.

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