Paper timekeeping, a process criticized for its inefficiency, will largely become obsolete by the end of the semester after the majority of UC Berkeley departments and colleges finish transitioning to a new, electronic timekeeping system.
CalTime – an Operational Excellence program – is a response to complaints from various departments about the inefficiencies of paper timekeeping, which was still in place in departments at the beginning of the academic year. The system is designed to improve efficiency and ensure staff and faculty are fully paid for their hours.
“More than 100 different timekeeping processes are currently used across campus, most relying on manual processes and paper time sheets and considerable effort on the part of staff, supervisors and employees,” said Caryl Miller, communications manager for Operational Excellence, in an email. “Supporting multiple systems across campus may also lead to inconsistencies and increase the potential for error.”
The program was first implemented in late September in three campus departments – the Residential and Student Services Program, Student Affairs Information Technologies and the office of the assistant vice chancellor for human resources – following planning and design in early 2011.
“Overall, the conversion to CalTime has been very positive,” said Marty Takimoto, director of communications and marketing for the Residential and Student Services Program, in an email. “It’s much more efficient than the former paper time sheets, and we’ve made the transition smoothly thanks to the preparations and training of our payroll staff.”
The project began with an investment of $2.9 million from the Operational Excellence initiative – which aims to reorganize campus programs to cut costs – and projected annual savings of $3.2 million. It utilizes software from the timekeeping technology company Kronos, which was chosen after about 18 months of reviewing available options and consulting with other universities, according to the CalTime website.
The new system will align the campus with the UC Office of the President’s UCPath project, which will introduce a systemwide timekeeping system to the University of California and avoid significant changes to timekeeping in the future, Miller said in the email.
CalTime is one of the 19 approved projects currently included in the Operational Excellence initiative. Others, such as the project BearBuy, are aimed at restructuring procurement systems within individual departments, while other programs like CultureCal seek to garner campus employee input in redefining the guiding principles of the campus workplace.
The next round of deployment for CalTime will take place Oct. 25 in a number of campus departments, including the Office of the Chancellor and the College of Engineering. Officials expect deployment of the system to be largely completed by late November, according to the website.
Sara Khan covers academics and administration. Contact Sara Khan at [email protected].
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