Lindsay Unified School District Uses UKG Solution to Track Performance-Based Compensation for Grant-Funded Training
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Provides mobile functionality so staff can clock in and out using GPS coordinates, change cost centers, and complete labor transfers
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Streamlines time tracking with automated collection of time and attendance information and conversion of worked hours to payroll
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Applies user-defined pay and work rules to help improve payroll accuracy and reduce compliance risk
Lindsay Unified School District (LUSD) serves the educational needs of more than 4,200 students, half of whom are English Language Learners. LUSD operates six elementary schools, one comprehensive high school, one continuation high school, and one community day school. Staff members include approximately 200 full-time teachers, 380 classified employees, and 50 administrators.
Challenges
Lindsay Unified School District received a three-year U.S. Department of Education Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program grant to increase the effectiveness of its teachers, principals, and other school leaders by developing performance-based compensation and human capital management systems.
With three to five training sessions typically offered every weekend at multiple locations, the district's business office would have been overwhelmed by processing 500 to 600 paper timesheets each month for this professional development time.
In addition, LUSD needed to track the different levels of stipends that certificated staff members can earn for various professional learning proficiencies such as micro credentials and formal evaluations, a time-consuming task if performed manually.
Solutions
LUSD implemented a UKG Ready® human capital management solution to automate collection of time for its 300 certificated staff participating in TSL grant-funded sessions — and track their stipends earned — in order to increase productivity, better manage labor costs, improve compliance, and enhance staff engagement.
“We use the extra-duty pay function inside the timesheet and customized the cost centers to build out all the different levels of stipends paid for different instructional and learning purposes.”
Amalia Lopez
Teacher and School Leader Grant Manager
Results
"We wanted to create a new norm that when staff are ready to learn, we have a method that accounts for them," said Amalia Lopez, Teacher and School Leader Grant Manager at LUSD. "It's been very successful."
LUSD provided tech support and handouts to help training participants learn how to punch in and out using the UKG® mobile app on their smartphones. Geo-fencing indicates each session's location and provides attendance accountability. Training sessions are streamlined with no time spent collecting timesheets.
The district feels confident that participant attendance and time are accurately captured, so participants are paid correctly.
Using the solution's extra-duty pay function to report time — and cost centers configured to the different levels of performance-based stipends — LUSD accurately processes $2 million annually in grant funds for payroll related to the TSL grant. Reports on grant expenditures are easily created and exported.
"We use the extra-duty pay function inside the timesheet and customized the cost centers to build out all the different levels of stipends paid for different instructional and learning purposes," said Lopez.
Monthly grant-related payroll processing takes just three hours, a significant reduction from the estimated two to three days that processing would have taken with paper timesheets.
The human capital management solution also is considered a valuable tool in the recruitment and retention of high-performing staff, with the solution's functionality, including the mobile app, streamlining processes and improving the employee experience.
