The Tempe Elementary School District in Tempe, Arizona, employs a staff of 1,700 at its 23 schools, which include both elementary and middle schools. The district has a student population of approximately 11,000 students, consisting of diverse cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic groups.
Challenges
In addition to salaried administrators and teachers, the Tempe Elementary School District has hourly employees that include instructional assistants, custodial staff, nutrition staff, crossing guards, and transportation drivers. To track the time of these nonexempt employees and determine which of them are eligible for benefits, the district had them fill out paper timecards.
Sometimes, however, timecards got lost in interoffice mail before reaching the payroll office. Employees also didn't always accurately record their time. In addition, payroll data entry errors sometimes occurred when employee time was keyed in, creating accuracy and accountability issues.
Solutions
Tempe Elementary School District realized it needed to overcome these issues and implemented an automated UKG® workforce management solution to better manage labor costs, increase productivity, and improve compliance. The solution interfaces with Munis, the district's enterprise resource planning system.
“Once employees punch in and punch out, they know they are done, there is no paper to fill out, and they trust that everything after that happens correctly. They have confidence that their paychecks are accurate.”
Michelle Long
Applications Support Analyst, Finance
Results
Because of a relatively recent Arizona law that requires organizations to give hourly workers one hour of personal time for every 30 hours they work, all hourly employees, including temporary staff and substitute teachers, now clock in and out at UKG time clocks. This has enabled the school district to easily comply with state and federal laws and provide a clear audit trail.
"If employees do have questions, they know everything is in UKG, with an audit trail to look back on at any time," said Michelle Long, Applications Support Analyst, Finance, at Tempe Elementary School District.
Managers approve timecards electronically, and employees can view their punches and accrual balances at the time clock, increasing their engagement.
"Once employees punch in and punch out, they know they are done, there is no paper to fill out, and they trust that everything after that happens correctly," said Long. "They have confidence that their paychecks are accurate."
With accurate tracking and real-time visibility into employee time, the district has been able to offer comp time in lieu of overtime, reducing overtime costs and providing staff with additional time off.
The district has realized considerable efficiencies with its UKG solution as well as through other process improvements. When a part-time payroll employee retired, more efficient processes resulted in the district not needing to replace this employee.
With readily available data and detailed reporting, the district can make data-driven workforce management decisions to more effectively manage its workforce and labor costs.
