Jefferson County School District in Birmingham is the second largest school district in Alabama, serving more than 36,000 students in 57 schools. The district's mission is to provide rigorous learning for all through engaging, innovative instruction; responsible resource management; and meaningful community and family collaboration focused on student success.
Challenges
Manual timekeeping created compliance issues for the Jefferson County School District. Employees felt pressured to sign timesheets completed by their supervisors, and one payroll staffer ignored paying reported overtime, leading to a labor-related civil lawsuit.
Capturing accurate employee time was an issue. When nonexempt employees arrived late, they often wrote down their required, not actual, start time. And employees eligible to work overtime often worked extra hours but didn't report their time.
After paper timesheets were collected, payroll staff needed two weeks to manually calculate employee time and key the information into the payroll system. This process was inefficient and created opportunities for incorrect calculations and data-entry errors.
Solutions
The school district recognized that it needed to automate its processes and selected a UKG® workforce management solution. All of its 4,500 employees except bus drivers use the solution. Administrators and the district's 2,500 teachers punch in for attendance purposes; hourly employees punch in and out to start and end the day and for breaks.
“Over three years, we saw a 30% increase in teachers' professional development time during the school day. UKG helps us see areas where we can improve and keep teachers in the classroom with kids.”
Brandon Seigman
Director of Payroll
Results
All regular and overtime hours are now captured, improving compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and wage and hour rules. Teachers who log extra-duty time are paid an hourly rate tied to a labor level transfer in the solution, so their time on these activities is accurately captured and paid.
Complying with reporting requirements, including the state-mandated Continuous Improvement Plan report on teacher absences, has been streamlined with the automated solution.
The district can easily track leave types now, helping administrators create strategies to reduce teacher days out of the classroom — in support of improved student performance. "Over three years, we saw a 30% increase in teachers' professional development time during the school day," said Brandon Seigman, Director of Payroll at Jefferson County School District. "UKG helps us see areas where we can improve and keep teachers in the classroom with kids."
Leave time liability decreased 7% during the first seven months as tardy employees now must use leave time when arriving late. With leave time used to fill the gap in time, employees are no longer paid for time they haven't worked.
Payroll processing has seen significant productivity improvements. By automating timekeeping, the payroll process has been reduced from two weeks to just 20 minutes — and with two fewer staff members involved in the process.
Since implementing its UKG solution, Jefferson County School District has mitigated its compliance issues, dramatically streamlined the payroll process, helped ensure employees are paid correctly and for their actual time worked, and improved productivity.
