Washington County School District Uses Kronos® to Improve Efficiencies and Compliance While Reducing Costs

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Washington County School District oversees the education of 24,000 students in grades K-12 in southwestern Utah. The district operates approximately 50 schools and auxiliary locations and employs approximately 2,200 salaried and 700 hourly employees in a range of positions. District employees include administrators; teachers; paraprofessionals; secretaries; coordinators; specialists; and workers in the food service, facilities, and transportation departments.

Managing the district’s workforce data using manual processes and disparate systems was an ongoing challenge. HR, payroll, and timekeeping processes were overrun with paper, resulting in lengthy processing times, duplicate data entry, errors, delays in accurate accrual and leave balances, no history capabilities, limited reporting, inconsistent practices, inefficient use of staff time, and added costs. In addition, manual processes made compliance with Fair Labor Standards Act and Family and Medical Leave Act regulations extremely difficult.

Eager to move to an automated and integrated system to better manage its processes, Washington County School District implemented the Kronos® Workforce Central® suite of solutions. Since then, payroll processing has been cut from a few weeks to less than two days with only two full-time equivalents, while open enrollment has been reduced from eight weeks to one. Efficiencies have saved both significant staff time and paper costs, and compliance is much improved.

More accurate labor tracking and compensation

The prior system’s lack of history forced Washington County School District to rely on paper tracking. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week submitted timecards, but handwritten hours didn’t always accurately reflect time or leave taken. Those working more than 20 hours are considered salaried employees and were required to submit paper leave requests, but not everyone did. Leave requests were tallied on spreadsheets and entered into the system, yet balances were often out of date when they appeared on pay stubs. The system lacked accountability.

The Kronos solution has given the school district real-time access to workforce information and improved accountability. All employee time and leave is now easily and accurately tracked. With information on employee overtime, compensatory time, and retirement eligibility at their fingertips, administrators can make timely decisions to avoid additional budget cuts. And dramatically improved audit capabilities eliminate leave abuse, track benefits eligibility, and identify fraudulent claims.

“Now, employees are paid for all the hours they work and can see their actual time and leave balance in real time,” says Kesha Schultz, the district’s HR specialist. “They are also confident their comp time is automatically calculated correctly, so they don’t need to track it on paper.”

The school district is confident the solution’s detailed audit trail documents the district’s compliance with accurate pay practices, saving it from potentially expensive fines, grievances, and litigation. In addition, the Kronos solution’s flexibility has been able to meet the district’s varying pay schedules. Full-time nonexempt employees who work 10 months a year are paid on a 12-month pay schedule. “This was a critical process we couldn’t change,” says Schultz, delighted that Flexi-Time in Workforce Timekeeper has given the district the ability to continue this process, but automatically.

Sizable efficiency and paper cost savings

Payroll processing is simplified now. Payroll technician Kathy Adams used to print, sort, and distribute timecards by location and then manually tabulate employee hours and calculate pay rates. This arduous, less-than-perfect process took two weeks from timecard collection until completed payroll. Using Kronos, this process takes only one to one and a half days, freeing up staff to focus on other responsibilities, and has eliminated the need for half of a full-time equivalent.

In addition to time and labor savings, Washington County School District has seen considerable paper cost savings with the automated system. The elimination of paper timecards, leave requests, pay stubs, and process changes has resulted in a 90 percent reduction in paper costs. “The cost of buying and storing paper, as well as postage for mailing pay stubs in the summer, really added up,” notes Adams, calculating the school district is saving $9,000 per year.

Self-service enhances accountability and productivity

Employees use the Kronos online self-service feature to view pay stubs, print advices, and change their addresses and W-4s. Self-service has cut HR staff time spent on manager and employee inquiries by 80 percent, a time savings that continues to increase. Self-service has also reduced the open enrollment process from eight weeks to one. Employees make benefits selections online, and enrollment information and changes are automatically transmitted to benefits providers, saving time and eliminating rekeying errors.

“We just generate and send benefits reports to employees and ask them to let us know if anything is incorrect,” explains Schultz. “Going paperless for payroll and benefits has been a big win for us because it’s allowed us to focus on other aspects of benefits, leave, and risk management.”

Compliance issues mitigated

The manual system made it difficult to accurately determine FMLA leave eligibility, as well as track and manage leave. Using Workforce Timekeeper and Workforce Absence Manager, Schultz says the school district now has an accurate accounting of FMLA eligibility and is able to set up notifications of potential FMLA qualifying events and easily track all leave time.

Having an integrated system has improved compliance with FLSA regulations, including payroll accuracy, calculating weighted overtime, and eliminating “volunteering” of extra time. Before, when district employees worked multiple jobs at different pay rates, payroll and HR staff might not input the same information, leaving room for error. “Having an integrated system has unified all our processes, unified our departments, and improved our compliance,” claims Schultz.

Valuable implementation and support services

In looking back at Washington County School District’s early days with its integrated workforce management solution, Schultz raves about the Kronos implementation team and support services. “Having someone teach us how the system works made a huge difference. We didn’t just learn how to enter the data or run reports. We learned the background and what the system was doing, so it made more sense.”

Since then, having a Kronos support team that understands the school district’s business practices has been extremely helpful, she adds, especially as they continue to optimize the district’s automated workforce management solution.

Washington County School District Summary

Employees: 2,200 salaried, 700 hourly

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

PROJECT BENEFITS

• Payroll processing is reduced from a few weeks to one to two days, eliminating half an FTE

• Self-service cuts the open enrollment process from eight weeks to one and supports transfer of more accurate information to benefits providers

• Automated, paperless solution eliminates 90 percent of paper costs, saving $9,000 a year

• Tracking, managing, and compliance with labor regulations is simplified

“Having an integrated system [with Kronos] has unified all our processes, unified our departments, and improved our compliance.” - Kesha Schultz, HR Specialist

More information about Kronos customer success stories may be found at www.kronos.com/resources .

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