Topic Reduce the number of monthly pay calendars by consolidating academic and summer pay calendars across institutions. Problem and Effect Each institution s pay calendars have historically mirrored their respective unique academic calendars, resulting in differing monthly pay period begin and end dates across institutions. This necessitates additional effort by the Service Center payroll team to complete the annual process of configuring future-year calendars. Additionally these inconsistencies have contributed to various HRS break/fix issues and clean-up, including: Annual benefit rate changes becoming effective one month too early for an institution Benefit events falling on dead days of certain pay calendars failing to correctly process At the end of the fiscal year, certain campuses pulling funding from the next fiscal year prior to other institutions Many issues such as these directly impact employees and pull both Service Center and institutional staff away from normal operational duties. Roadmap Proposed Solution Consolidate pay calendars, reducing the current total configured in HRS from 951 to less than 150. This consolidation will simplify the academic and summer calendaring across institutions while retaining existing monthly and bi-weekly pay schedules, and more importantly, still allow institutions to retain their unique academic calendars. Project Team Members Jason Beier, UWSA Diane Lund, UWSA Tim Danielson, UW-Oshkosh HR Director Greg Lampe, UW-Colleges Provost Steve Lund, UW-Madison Unclassified OHR Carla Raatz, UW-Madison representative Colleen Kerl, UW Service Center Payroll Kevin Sippl, Huron
Executive Sponsor Al Crist Current State HRS is currently configured to have different payroll calendars for each institution and is further complicated by multiple employment categories (ex. annual, 9-month academic, summer service) and tax considerations. The result is that at one point in 2012 HRS had 951 separate pay calendars configured, and finished the year with 1,329 calendars. This is due to the traditional practice of allowing individual institutions to customize their calendars (including summer sessions) thus complicating calendaring. In addition the to the direct configuration effort and the administrative break/fix costs mentioned above caused by the multitude of calendars, the varying begin and end dates between institutions and between employment categories requires additional direct deposit and paper check transactions. For example, if professor has concurrent appointments at both UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater, the differing begin and end dates between the two institutions for the same monthly payroll will cause the employee to receive two separate direct deposits/paper checks for the month, and two separate earnings statements as well. Similarly, if an Academic Staff employee has two concurrent appointments at UW-Whitewater one academic-year position and one annual position the differing begin and end dates between the two pay bases for the same monthly payroll will also require the two separate payment transactions. Aligning the pay period begin and end dates across institutions and across the 9-month academic, annual, and summer service pay bases would combine these duplicate transactions into a single payment. In fiscal year 2013, this would have saved approximately 7,000 employee pay transactions. Project Team Proposed Solution Identification of key issue(s) being addressed: Removing pay calendar inconsistency across institutions and pay bases in order to reduce the amount of HRS maintenance and break/fix effort incurred by the Service Center Discussion of proposed state: Phase I Institutions agree to consolidated monthly academic and summer service pay calendars which align with the annual-based calendars, independent of their actual academic calendars The Service Center configures reduced number of academic and summer service pay calendars, and correspondingly consolidates paygroup configuration based on calendars Existing academic-year employees will have their paygroup values converted to the proper new value, and new employees will have the proper new paygroup value assigned to them
Phase II Institutions agree to consolidated monthly summer session pay calendars which align with the annual-based calendars, independent of their actual academic calendars The Service Center configures reduced number of summer session pay calendars The Service Center correspondingly consolidates paygroup configuration based on calendars, doing so at a point prior to summer session hiring in order to avoid the need for an employee conversion Business justification for recommended proposed decision: Cost savings: o Configuration and break/fix effort: $21,000 $53,000 per year, dependent on resource type (430 hours per year) o $2,500 per year in reduced employee payment transactions Timeline to realize cost savings: o Approximately 1 5.5 years, dependent on resource type Other benefits: o Decreased testing costs associated with future HRS upgrades o Unclassified employees receive a partial August paycheck for the time worked prior to classes starting, instead of their first paycheck being from September (ex. paychecks for August 2012 were paid on 8/31/12, while the paychecks for September 2012 were not paid until 10/1/12) o Please see Appendix for full list of implementation benefits ( pros ) Implementation challenges of the proposed decision: Past attempts at consolidation have been unsuccessful due to a lack of buy-in for: o Separating pay calendars from academic calendars o Moving to another institution s current pay calendar if own monthly calendar was not to be selected to be used moving forward HRS data entry and processing for academic year new hires would need to be completed prior to the August monthly payroll in order to avoid retro pay/deductions in September o If this is not feasible, a work-around would need to be developed to avoid manual calculations and adjustments for missed August pay (ex. customized retro-pay calculation process, attach August academic calendar to the September payroll for processing, run a supplemental August academic payroll in early September, etc.) o Please see Appendix for full list of implementation challenges ( cons ) If approved, when will the decision be implemented and how many staff will be affected: Phase I The HRS implementation would begin immediately following policy/project approval, targeting a July September 2014 date to begin use of the consolidated calendars Implementation would affect approximately 14,250 employee appointments based on 2012 summer service and 2012-2013 academic year job records
Phase II The HRS implementation could begin immediately following future policy/project approval Implementation would affect approximately 1,625 employee appointments based on 2012 summer session job records If the decision is not approved, the ramifications are: Continued maintenance of large number of pay calendars and risk of future break/fix and cleanup issues developing Cost Analysis of the Proposed Solution High-Level Effort Savings Estimates: $21,000 $53,000 per year* Phase I Reduction in Annual Pay and Absence Calendar Configuration 30 hours/year Reduction in Break/Fix Issues due to Variations in Calendars 400 hours/year o Examples: o November pay end date of 12/1 for one institution, causing annual benefit rate changes effective 12/1 to go into effect one month early o All benefit events that fall on dead days for certain pay calendars do not become effective in the system o Due to funding being based on calendar month, at fiscal year-end some campuses begin to pull funding from the next fiscal year prior to other campuses Reduction in Multiple Checks or Advices for Same Pay Period 7,000 checks or advices/year o Employees paid on two jobs within the same period but with differing pay begin and end dates, receive two separate checks or advices Phase II Given that there are approximately one-quarter as many summer session calendars as there are academic and summer service calendars being consolidated in Phase I, the effort savings would be approximately 25% of that experienced in Phase I High-Level Effort Costs for HRS Implementation: $59,000 $147,500* Phase I Planning 160 hours Design 80 hours Configuration 80 hours Development 240 hours Testing 360 hours Deployment 100 hours Change Management 160 hours Total 1,180 hours Phase II: TBD * Variance accommodates differing possible resource types and allocations
Impact of Proposed Solution on UW Institution and External Agencies Business impacts from proposed solution: Operations: HRS data entry and processing for academic year new hires would need to be completed prior to the August monthly payroll in order to avoid retro pay/deductions in September Earnings would be distributed on the August monthly payroll for academic year employees Organization (internal): Change management and communication with academic employees regarding changes to August and May paycheck amounts Organization (external): N/A HRS/SFS/Other system functionality: HRS Insert new effective dated rows on the PS_PAYGROUP_TBL table to create new consolidated C- basis and V-basis paygroups (Phase I) and S-basis paygroups (Phase II) Insert new effective dated rows on the PS_UW_HR_PYGRP_OTH table for the new paygroups to be used going forward Create new sets of pay calendars and load to PS_PAY_CALENDAR table via Excel to CI (current state process with reduced number) Create new sets of absence calendars by executing SQL against pay calendars, manipulating data, and loading to HRS via Excel to CI (current state process with reduced number) Implement logic updates to HR Paygroup Defaulting Edit (HRS-1197) for C- and V-basis paygroups (Phase I) and S-basis (Phase II), in order to assign new correct paygroups to future employees Convert all active C-basis employees paygroups by running a Job Data Row insert program (possibly as part of the Return from Short Work Break process) Modify existing retro pay calculation program to calculate missed earnings in a pay period with no originally calculated earnings, due to late HRS hire entry; earnings would then load to next unclassified payroll Validate that new pay calendar-related configuration is correctly synced to SFS Possibly update any paygroup or pay calendar related Finance configuration (none identified at this point) Other related HRS items that will require basic validation and/or regression testing*: o Absence Eligibility o Earnings Programs o Earnings Codes o Earnings Code Swap o Payline Page o Earn Month Balance o A- and C-/V-basis payments combined into one check/advice o ACH Reversals o Primary Payroll Paygroup o Short Work Break processing o Deduction Prepay
o Finance Journal Edits *Testing would anticipate running approximately 3 monthly payrolls as part of testing effort, dependent on exact conversion timing (ex. July, August, and September; August, supplemental payroll, and September; August, September, and October) SFS Preliminarily SFS SMEs indicate that all planned configuration changes would not require corresponding manual configuration changes for SFS, as the new values would be transmitted via: o Integration Broker (IB) messages (ex. UW_HR_PAY_CAL data and person data) o Database (DB) links (ex. EDT table data) Proposed Solution Implementation Strategies 1. Project Implementation Approach and Timeline: In outline format, explain step-by-step approach to implement the project including high level project plan and time-line Phase I: Discovery a. Draft Project Charter Document (July 2013) Huron Kevin Sippl b. Engage Institutional HR Directors, Provosts, and payroll staff to gauge feasibility and promote buy-in (July August 2013) UWSA Jason Beier; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson; UW-Colleges Greg Lampe c. Identify HRS Impacts of Solution Options (July August 2013) UWSC Colleen Kerl; Huron Kevin Sippl d. Determine Preliminary Effort Estimate of HRS Implementation (July August 2013) UWSC Colleen Kerl; Huron Kevin Sippl e. Present Preliminary Options and Progress to HR Directors for Discussion and Feedback (August 2013) UWSA Jason Beier; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson f. Address Feedback as Necessary from HR Directors and Finalize Project Group Proposal (August September 2013) UWSA Jason Beier, Diane Lund; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson; UWSC Colleen Kerl g. Present Proposal to HR Directors (September 2013) UWSA Jason Beier; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson h. Present Proposal to Governance Committees (SC and EC) (October 2013) UWSA Jason Beier; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson
i. Present Proposal to Faculty Senate (October-November 2013) UWSA Jason Beier; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson j. Finalize Project Charter (November 2013) UWSA Jason Beier; UW-Oshkosh Tim Danielson; UWSC Colleen Kerl; Huron Kevin Sippl Phase I: Implementation k. HRS Planning and Project Plan (1.5 months) l. HRS Design (1 month) m. HRS Configuration and Development (1.5 months) n. HRS Testing (3 months) o. Deploy Solution (1 month) p. Change Management (4 months) q. Support (1 month) Phase II: Discovery a. Draft Project Charter Document, Leveraging Phase I Charter (TBD) b. Engage Institutional HR Directors, Provosts, and payroll staff to gauge feasibility and promote buy-in (TBD) c. Update Preliminary Effort Estimate of HRS Implementation (TBD) d. Present Proposal to HR Directors (TBD) e. Present Proposal to Governance Committees (SC and EC) (TBD) f. Present Proposal to Faculty Senate (TBD) g. Finalize Project Charter (TBD) Phase II: Implementation h. HRS Planning and Project Plan (TBD) i. HRS Design (TBD) j. HRS Configuration and Development (TBD) k. HRS Testing (TBD) l. Deploy Solution (TBD) m. Change Management (TBD) n. Support (TBD) 2. Communication Strategies: a. Provide necessary information to HR Directors prior to fall appointment letters being distributed in the spring b. Utilize HR Director channels of UWSA to coordinate and distribute necessary communications regarding new calendars to counselors and employees c. Utilize Affinity Group channels of UW Service Center to coordinate and distribute necessary communications regarding consolidated paygroups and new calendars to HRS users d. Utilize UW Service Center Wislines and Hot Topics sessions if and when necessary e. Notify and work with EPM and Interactive Reporting teams to ensure any required changes are implemented
3. Training Strategies: f. Utilize HR Director channels of UWSA to coordinate and distribute necessary training to counselors and employees g. Utilize Affinity Group channels of UW Service Center to administer and distribute necessary training regarding consolidated paygroups and new calendars to HRS users h. Update Knowledge Base (KB) documents referencing pay groups 4. Outstanding Issues: i. Utilizing annual-based calendar dates for academic pay calendars will result in employees being paid for the actual number of days worked in their respective academic year 1. Institutions whose academic calendar differs from 273 days would pay their employees either slightly more or less than their current nine-ninths salary 2. For example, if an institution has a 279 day academic year, their employees would receive 6 days of additional salary (about one-fifth of one-ninth), for a total annual salary of approximately 9.2-ninths of their base annual salary j. The customized retro-pay calculation process must be modified and successfully tested in order to avoid a large number of manual retro-pay calculations that would cause a large administrative burden for both institutions and the Service Center k. In order to consolidate summer session calendars, both the business and technical processes for calculating payments and tracking summer session appointments would need to be reviewed at all institutions, may require significant changes (temporary rate adjustments, lump sum payments, two-ninths tracking, etc.) Readiness Assessment Business readiness assessment: Initial institutional outreach to HR Directors has shown a willingness and agreement to consolidate monthly calendars in order to achieve consistency and best-practices Technical readiness assessment: Consolidating paygroups and reducing pay calendar configuration would require a manageable amount of HRS effort for up-front development/configuration, but would require a large testing effort due to the change affecting fundamental system configuration for HR and payroll Measuring Success 1. Institutions accept the independence of pay calendars from academic calendars 2. Monthly payrolls and employee paychecks process correctly following the paygroup consolidation 3. Partial-month earnings and deductions process correctly on the first August monthly payroll, and when necessary, retro-pay calculations process correctly on the September payroll 4. Reduced number of HRS break/fix and clean-up issues due to varied pay period begin and end dates.
Appendix: Implementation Benefits and Challenges (Pros/Cons) and Affected Entities Implementation Benefits (Pros) and Affected Entity* *Affected Entities: EE Employees, UWS UW System and Institutions, and SC UW Service Center 1. Elimination of over-payment to employees when a change in pay basis occurs, and the old and new pay calendars overlap a. EE, UWS, SC 2. Reduced calendar maintenance for both initial loading and ongoing break/fix a. SC 3. Reduced number of employee payment transactions (direct deposits and paper checks) as a result of aligning C- and V- basis calendars with A-basis a. UWS 4. Reduced number of direct deposits or paper checks for employees with concurrent C-/A-basis or V-/A-basis appointments a. EE 5. Reduced testing effort required for future HRS upgrades, due to smaller number of paygroups and pay calendars a. UWS, SC 6. Providing employees paychecks on 9/1 for their August work, rather than waiting until 10/1 for their first paycheck a. EE 7. Reduced administrative costs and direct bank transaction fees from employee payment reversals a. UWS, SC 8. Reduced effort needed for training new HR/Payroll employees and for counseling all new employees on the differences and impacts of the varied calendar system a. UWS, SC 9. Organizational perception for streamlining HRS system and HR business practices a. SC 10. Simplified no-leave-taken reporting for UWOSH faculty/academic staff, by eliminating pay calendars containing two 1 st s of a month a. EE, UWS
Implementation Challenges (Cons) and Affected Entity* *Affected Entities: EE Employees, UWS UW System and Institutions, and SC UW Service Center 1. Increased manual retro calculations for new fall hires entered into HRS after the August payroll necessary, unless automated retro solution from Pay Plan project is implemented a. UWS, SC 2. Change management with faculty/academic staff relating to misperception of pay calendars impacting academic year dates a. UWS 3. Change management with employees due to no longer receiving nine equal paychecks a. EE, UWS 4. Change management relating to benefit prepay process confusion with prepaying for August deduction when an employee may have sufficient August earnings (system-wide policy vs. controlled at a department/division level?) a. UWS, SC 5. HRS system implementation cost (ex. design, configuration, testing) a. SC 6. UWS implementation cost (ex. UWSA change management with institutions, institutional change management with employees) a. UWS 7. Unknown funding implications relating to S- and V-basis calendars being funded from different fiscal years