8/17/10 – Kronos Upgrade Completed

While many campus employees use HR Direct self-service for time entry and approval, we do have some employees (Facilities and University Police) who report time via the Kronos TimeClock system.

The Kronos Workforce Central(WFC version 5.1) application was installed in 2006 to support Facilities and University Police operations. We currently have approximately 160 active employees and 30 managers using the system. Kronos has since released versions 5.2, 6.0, 6.1 and will be releasing 6.2 last quarter of FY 2011. To maintain vendor support as well as follow best business practices, the decision was made to upgrade to version 6.1 Summer 2010. The Project started in May 2010 and was completed by July 2010 when we completed a full payroll cycle. As part of the upgrade project, a small group of managers were involved in testing and product review. Drop-in training sessions were offered to accommodate all shift supervisors before the application deployed on July 21st End users at the clock have not seen any changes in functionality. Managers using the application have commented on the visual improvements and the ease of transition to version 6.1. We have also implemented LDAP logon for consistency with the HR Direct process as well as more secure access to the application.

Questions about the Kronos application can be directed to Norma Clark at x4764 or email atnorma_clark@uml.edu .

8/4/10 – Changes coming for Student Employee Time Reporting

“Student time will need to be approved by managers or the student will not get paid.”

Student

As part of the ongoing rollout of time reporting self-service, Lowell will soonbe granting all student employees access to report time via self-serivce. This will allow student employees the ability to report their own time without having to complete a paper timesheet.

Timekeepers

Departmental timekeepers will still have security to report time as they do today, but the preferred method of time reporting will be via the self-service pages for the studentemployee.

As key resources within academic and administrative departments, it is important for employees whoserve astimekeepers to be familiar with the student self-service time reporting and approval process.

Managers / Time Approvers

Hourly student time will need to be approved by the manager before it can be paid — this is similar to the paper process in that a timesheet can only be processed if it is first authorized. Currently,Human Resources is still ‘batch approving’ any reported time that isn’t approved by the manager by the ‘Approval Monday’ deadline, but come this fall the campus will no longer ‘batch approve’ student hourly time. Managers will need to approve time or the student will not get paid that pay period. Hence, it will become more critical than everfor managers to adhere to the time approval deadlines within HR Direct.

Things you can do now…

In preparation for this change here are a couple tips for departments and managers:

  • Confirm that managers listed on student contracts are aware of their time approving responsiblity. Make any changes as necessary.
  • Managers that will be responsible for time approving, should become familiar with the HR Direct application. There are training tools on http://www.uml.edu/hrdirect and current managers should already be using the time approving functionality.
  • Discuss a backup plan for your student employee time approval. The existing functionality of HR Direct is that if you can’t approve time, then your manager could approve time for your employees.

More information to come, but please ask questions and share your concerns. Contact ASI@uml.edu .