City and County of Denver

Transcription

1 City and County of Denver Case Study City and County of Denver Realizes Millions in Labor Cost Savings with Kronos Solution The City and County of Denver is home to approximately 600,000 residents and includes Denver International Airport, the nation s fourth-busiest airport. Nearly 13,000 employees keep government departments operating, from municipal offices to the airport to numerous event and recreation facilities. Category: Government Business Type: County and municipal government Employees: 13,000 Products: Workforce Timekeeper Workforce Absence Manager Workforce Scheduler Workforce Activities Workforce TeleTime PROJECT benefits Automated time and attendance leads to payroll efficiencies that deliver millions in labor cost savings Consistent application of pay rules and policies mitigates compliance risk Improved workforce management tools expand visibility and ROI With a manual paper-based payroll system, accurately processing payroll for employees at 51 agencies was a major headache. Employees completed paper timesheets and three-part leave slips that often took weeks to reach the agency s timekeeper, who manually entered data into PeopleSoft. The payroll department had no access to the source documents for verification and was unsure if pay rules were applied consistently and accurately. Without timely workforce information, employees and their supervisors did not have accurate leave balances, making it difficult for supervisors to know if an employee had available time off. Taxpayer approval of a new consolidated Department of Finance was a catalyst for centralizing all payroll functions into one division. To accomplish this, the City and County of Denver needed a system that would meet the complex needs of its many agencies, as well as enforce career service rules, comply with FLSA, and ensure accurate employee leave balances. Unique business needs met, significant benefits delivered An analysis of solutions quickly showed the Kronos Workforce Central suite would best meet the organization s needs and integrate easily with PeopleSoft, and with TeleStaff in the future. I knew we had a lot of flexibility within Kronos that could meet the needs of our various businesses, says Linda Misegadis, director of citywide payroll and administration services. With 19 different industries with unique business needs, we needed a system that didn t require a developer every time we had a business requirement change or new pay rule or career service rule. The City and County of Denver has seen impressive results with its Kronos solution: millions of dollars in annual labor cost savings, increased productivity and efficiencies with its automated payroll system, and improved compliance with accurate and consistent application of pay rules and policies. Efficiencies reduce FTEs and save millions in labor costs All employees use the Kronos solution, except uniformed staff in the police, fire, and sheriff s departments. A solution is being developed with Kronos that will meet the needs of the uniformed staff in the police, fire, and sheriff s departments. Most employees clock in at their desktops, while field workers use the Workforce TeleTime application to log in and out. The automated time and attendance solution has brought new efficiencies to payroll processing. The City and County of Denver reduced payroll staff from 80 to 35, with impacted employees moving to open, unfilled positions or choosing to retire. The reduction of 45 full-time equivalents has resulted in $1.5 million in yearly labor cost savings. Looking ahead, the organization sees further savings. We anticipate an ROI of $5.2 million over the next five years related to our Kronos implementation, claims Misegadis, and an additional savings of $1.1 million per year in cost avoidance. This ROI reflects an additional reduction in full-time equivalents, as continuing with the prior system would have

2 City and County of Denver We anticipate an ROI of $5.2 million over the next five years related to our Kronos implementation and an additional savings of $1.1 million per year in cost avoidance. Linda Misegadis, Director, Citywide Payroll and Administration Services required hiring additional staff to manually process payroll when new employees were added, and cost avoidance savings from choosing Kronos over another solution. Payroll and FLSA compliance issues resolved Prior to implementing its Kronos solution, the organization faced challenging issues with payroll accuracy and FLSA compliance. Overtime was not calculated but was reported on leave slips, allowing employees to be paid for overtime not worked and for supervisors to not record all employee time. When an employee left the organization, city auditors required the employee s agency to submit a year s worth of leave slips. If the agency was unable to produce slips to verify leave time taken, the employee had to reimburse the city. With the manual system, tracking flexible work schedules under FLSA was also inconsistent. Kronos resolved all these issues for us and has helped with compliance, says Misegadis. Employees now enjoy immediate access to their payroll information and leave balances, and supervisors like seeing verification of leave time they have approved, leading to an increase in employee and supervisor satisfaction. Evidence of the marked improvement includes the organization earning the 2009 American Payroll Association s Prism Award for excellence. With greater access to timely workforce data, managers are now more proactive in managing their budgets. Payroll can be controlled when you re checking your budget and seeing things in real time, instead of waiting until year end and discovering you don t have enough budget, explains Misegadis. The Kronos solution is also helpful in tracking employee furlough days and cost savings generated. Additional modules to increase ROI To further extend its ROI, the City and County of Denver has plans to roll out additional Kronos modules. The Workforce Scheduler solution will be used to create and track the critical schedules of employees at Denver International Airport and other city agencies with complex scheduling requirements, with the call-out function ensuring required coverage of all shifts. Using the Workforce Activities solution to automatically track grant and project activities will save thousands of journal entries every month, notes Misegadis. The solution will help accurately track use of grant funds and a project s labor costs to provide a true total cost of ownership. Then Workforce Analytics will tie everything together, she adds. Management will be able to present strategic business plans related to workforce management, and they will have the tools to see if they need to increase FTEs. Noting that government will be held to the same standards as the private sector, Misegadis says that considering that labor is our county s largest operational expense, the Kronos system is instrumental in helping us be accountable and transparent with both our taxpayers and employees. Kronos Incorporated 297 Billerica Road Chelmsford, MA (800) (978) , Kronos Incorporated. Kronos, Workforce Central, Workforce TeleTime, and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks and Workforce Timekeeper, Workforce Absence Manager, Workforce Scheduler, Workforce Activities, and Workforce Analytics are trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change. All rights reserved

3 City of Orlando Case Study City of Orlando Minimizes Compliance Risk, Improves Workforce Productivity with Kronos Workforce Management Solution Category: Government Business Type: City government Employees: 4,000 4,500 (varies seasonally) Locations: 200+ Products: Workforce Timekeeper Sunny Orlando, Florida, home to more than 200,000 residents, is one of the world s most visited vacation destinations, with more than 30 million tourists visiting annually. For the City of Orlando, providing essential services to its burgeoning population and large number of tourists is a top priority. City department heads must carefully manage their budgets to ensure tax revenues are used effectively and efficiently. The city s employee base of 4,000 increases significantly during the summer months, as seasonal workers are hired, making the accurate tracking of time and labor even more complex. Managing employees time and labor information had been a challenge. We had so many different ways that people were keeping time and delivering timesheets, we weren t able to be consistent in how rules and policies were being enforced, says John Matelski, chief security officer and deputy chief information officer for the City of Orlando. We were dealing with a mix of automated systems, spreadsheets, and manual timecards. The city turned to the Kronos Workforce Central suite including Workforce Timekeeper to implement a centralized, automated workforce management solution that is providing consistency, minimizing compliance risks, and controlling labor costs through improved efficiencies. Centralized system minimizes compliance risks The City of Orlando uses Workforce Timekeeper to manage time and labor for employees in 12 municipal departments. All employees, from garbage collectors to the mayor s staff, are using the Kronos solution, which interfaces with Infinium for payroll, as well as SunPro, a rostering system for 24-hour departments such as fire and police services. Creating a centralized, automated system has made it easier for the City of Orlando to have confidence in information and react to the changing makeup of its workforce. It was important for us to have all the data in one place, along with a set of consistent processes, says Matelski. Kronos lets us address various legislative, union, and policybased challenges. We can do a change in one place using Kronos and not have to worry about how 400 managers across the city are going to interpret the rule. Kronos does it all. Compliance is no longer a concern. Following an economic downturn in 2001, a number of new unions were established, increasing the city s unionized employees from 40 percent to 90 percent of its workforce. This is another big advantage for an automated solution like Kronos, says Matelski. Now when union contracts are revised, we only have to make the changes once. And we aren t relying on each supervisor understanding and misinterpreting the contract changes. Since the implementation of Kronos, Orlando has seen a decrease in union grievances. The flexibility of the Kronos solution also stands out. Being able to configure things to match our organizational changes is easy, adds Rosa Akhtarkhavari, customer services support manager. All of the information is centralized in one place, and we can get detailed information when we need it.

4 City of Orlando Automated system streamlines processing, controls labor costs Payroll is another area where the City of Orlando has realized significant improvements. Prior to Kronos, timesheets were sent out for management approval to over 200 locations, a timeconsuming and error-prone process. Now employees time is captured accurately in Workforce Timekeeper and transferred directly to our payroll system, says Akhtarkhavari. Payroll adjustments have decreased, and payroll staff has been able to move their responsibilities away from more clerical tasks, and reduce payroll department overtime. During the hurricane season of 2004, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne battered the Orlando area over five weeks, causing widespread damage and flooding. In an innovative use of its Kronos solution, the City of Orlando used Workforce Timekeeper to track law enforcement, fire department, public works, and parks and recreation hours that would be eligible for FEMA reimbursement. Hours were charged to specific projects through our Kronos solution, explains Matelski. Because the data was consistent, with no contradictions in the budget and reporting, we were reimbursed by FEMA quickly and accurately. Easy to own, easy to use The City of Orlando worked closely with Kronos to ensure it would be able to implement the Kronos solution itself and quickly. IT staff took all of the relevant Kronos training courses, and were then able to provide implementation and training support to end users. The result? Being up and running fast for greater control of labor costs and a faster payback. Every time we ve needed Kronos support, it s been there. We know that with Kronos, we have a strong partner. John Matelski, Chief Security Officer and Deputy Chief Information Officer Every time we ve needed Kronos support, it s been there, says Matelski. The training was very good, and we were satisfied that Kronos offered a solution that we could implement ourselves. We know that with Kronos, we have a strong partner. Future plans will include Kronos The City of Orlando is upgrading to the latest version of Workforce Central, and Matelski is looking forward to a number of features the city will be implementing. Now we ll be able to better handle effective dating for pay rules and configurations in union contracts, which will save us a lot of time and aggravation. Whatever comes next for the city, Matelski is confident that Kronos will be a part of Orlando s workforce management solution. Kronos has the support of our users. It would be extremely difficult to take it away from them. Kronos Incorporated 297 Billerica Road Chelmsford, MA (800) (978) , Kronos Incorporated. Kronos, the Kronos logo, and Workforce Central are registered trademarks, and Workforce Timekeeper is a trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be the trademarks of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change. All rights reserved

5 Palm Beach Gardens PD Improves Compliance and FEMA Reporting with Kronos TeleStaff Solution CHALLENGES Palm Beach Gardens Police Department Industry: Municipal Police Location: Florida, USA Residents: 50,000 Employees: 148 Service Area: 56 square miles Founded in 1959, the city of Palm Beach Gardens is more than a beautiful vacation spot; it is also home to a PGA Tour event, an award-winning Art in Public Places program, celebrity residents, and approximately 50,000 people. As the city has grown, so has the police department, but its scheduling system needed a boost to catch up with emerging needs. The scheduling process used by the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department (PBGPD) consisted of staffing 148 employees across a dozen divisions with paper and pen. The antiquated practice created numerous difficulties in accountability, consistency, and retrieval of historical data. Another significant disadvantage of the manual process was that extra duty details were not distributed fairly throughout the department. Historically, it had been difficult to monitor leave time banks as well. The city and the police department are also on a heightened state of alert during hurricane season, from June through November. During two consecutive years, the city had been hit by three hurricanes, with most of the city losing power for days and many traffic signals destroyed. SOLUTION Kronos TeleStaff Benefits: Automates scheduling Speeds scheduling communications Supports client-specific configuration Improves operational efficiency Increases staffing accuracy Helps ensure compliance Controls labor costs Promotes employee satisfaction Integrates with the Kronos workforce management suite Integrates with third-party systems Realizing that it needed an automated scheduling solution to update and streamline multiple processes, the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department implemented the Kronos TeleStaff solution. BENEFITS Improved staffing accuracy and reporting With the new automated solution, scheduling personnel can now utilize codes to organize workforce assignments, create work history reports, and easily retrieve historical data. The Kronos TeleStaff system also allows supervisors to staff officers with comparable qualifications to different positions, as allowed by the organization. And supervisors now have the tools to make performance assessments, including of the dependability of officers, with the use of pie chart summaries. In addition, the software solution has been configured to allow for the staffing of personnel for large special events, including the PGA Tour Honda Classic and Holiday and Crime Task Forces.

6 Palm Beach Gardens Police Department Consistent application of rules and policies improves compliance By replacing its tedious paper-based scheduling process with the automated Kronos TeleStaff system, PBGPD is able to maintain consistency. The solution equitably assigns officers requesting extra duty detail by automatically applying unbiased rules. The Kronos TeleStaff system also creates an equitable solution for awarding overtime shifts, which complies with collective bargaining agreements and policies. Efficiencies deliver time and labor savings In addition, the Kronos TeleStaff solution has created significant labor cost savings. The city no longer needs to employ a full-time police department payroll clerk. What was once a 40-hour-perweek-plus job has been reduced to minutes spent by individual bureau supervisors, and has created a more efficient and automated payroll process. Each road patrol supervisor spends approximately 15 minutes per day over the course of a shift, with administrative supervisors spending even less time. Employees enjoy using self-service tools Police department employees like being able to view their schedules from remote locations via the internet. With the solution s customized database, PBGPD personnel are able to review full calendars for future shifts, days off, and when off-duty officers will return, as well as electronically enter leave requests and remotely sign up for extra duty details. Faster scheduling communication and FEMA reporting The Palm Beach Gardens PD is also able to more easily deploy personnel for hurricanes and generate a visible schedule for hurricane season. FEMA reporting time after a hurricane has been drastically reduced due to the Kronos TeleStaff solution, which can generate the federally mandated reimbursement report in seconds. We re buying a lot less paper and Wite-Out now, says Sergeant Jack Schnur. Unfortunately, we have had the opportunity to use this feature, and I suspect it will come in handy again, says Sgt. Schnur. The software has proven itself time and time again in many areas. Reports for sick leave, vacation, and training, along with assignments, are generated in seconds. The software is practically totally customizable for agencies. We have not been let down. The Kronos TeleStaff solution has been embraced by the end-users, supervisors, and administrators. The text notifications have been a selling point to the younger crowd, and the senior officers appreciate the ease of putting in for leave or signing up electronically for extra duty work. Sergeant Jack Schnur Palm Beach Gardens Police Department More information about Kronos customer success stories may be found at , Kronos Incorporated. Kronos and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. For a full list of Kronos trademarks, please visit the trademarks page at All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change. All rights reserved PS0044-US