OCSD Automates Complex Workforce Management Processes

The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD), in California, operates the third largest wastewater agency west of the Mississippi River. For over 50 years, OCSD has safely collected, treated and disposed of and/or reclaimed the wastewater generated by 2.5 million people living and working in central and northwestern Orange County. A professional staff of 603 employees manage the dayto- day activities, including protecting the health and safety of their community by making sure the sewer system efficiently operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

Workforce Challenges & Issues

One of the most important goals for OCSD was to eliminate the manual processing of paper timesheets.

The process for submitting time was long and tedious. On a weekly basis, employees would turn in Excel worksheets or handwritten timesheets to their supervisors. The supervisors verified information such as time-off , charge codes (project and phase numbers, work orders, and subledgers), appropriate pay types, and more. The timesheets were approved and turned over to payroll. Payroll staff then logged receipt of each timesheet and manually entered the information into the payroll system. Prior to the implementation of EmpCenter®, two full-time payroll clerks spent three business days each week performing these manual steps. There were often errors caused by missing employee time-off information, improperly entered pay codes, work orders, etc.—all of which required additional analysis and research prior to finalizing the payroll process.

Selecting WorkForce Software

OCSD began looking for a workforce management system over four years ago, but the software that was originally chosen did not have the necessary functionality. Predictably, the process was terminated before the product was implemented. WorkForce Software’s EmpCenter was subsequently chosen because it is an automated workforce management system that can be configured to meet any organization’s needs, regardless of the complexity of their payroll process.

“WorkForce Software’s EmpCenter is a web-based solution that could easily support our requirements without having to customize the software and incur additional costs,” said Pongsakadi Cady, project manager, OCSD. “We gathered requirements from each of our 24 divisions. One important requirement was the product’s ability to integrate with our existing systems, which would allow us to monitor costs associated with work orders and projects, post costs to the general ledger, and update other external systems. WorkForce was able to help us implement this system within months.”

Implementation

Fourteen people from OCSD and the WorkForce Software project management team were able to streamline the process for a quick implementation. Both groups worked together to define the project requirements, goals, business rules, and overall software configuration.

The single biggest challenge during the implementation was the creation of bridges between existing applications to ensure seamless integration and easy access to real-time data as needed. Working together as a team—and completing tasks on time—kept the project moving forward and made the challenges easier to manage.

“The communication between the WorkForce Software team and our team was a driving force in the success of the implementation,” said Payroll Accountant Marian Alter, OCSD. “We created a six-month timeline for the project, and we were able to meet our deadline. We used daily emails, scheduled bi-weekly group meetings, and held monthly staff meetings to keep everyone up-to-date, so there were very few surprises. WorkForce’s streamlined implementation process is impressive.”

Data Collection

Employee time is now entered into the EmpCenter Time and Attendance module, a web-based solution accessible by employees from any district computer. The system tracks employee time, specific projects and work orders for billing and better management, along with accrual use, overtime for compliance with FLSA, and more. The employee self-service functionality allows employees to enter their own time online and associate the time to the appropriate project and/or work order, as applicable. Now payroll clerks do not have to chase down employees to collect time and attendance data, and employees cannot submit timesheets with errors or incomplete data. By the time the clerks
receive the information, the data is accurate, validated, and ready to process into the payroll system. The time spent calling for corrections has been greatly reduced.

WorkForce Software has a long list of customers who run Oracle’s HR and Payroll system, so the integration with EmpCenter is seamless. EmpCenter synchronizes data with the HR system to ensure information on time and attendance, accruals, projects, and more is captured for new employees; it also makes sure changes in work site and supervision are also applied quickly.

Testing & Rollout

After implementing other types of enterprise software in the past, OCSD felt its employees should be trained individually for maximum knowledge transfer. “Although there was a lot of training involved for all 603 employees, it made sense for everyone to be trained consistently,” said Alter. “Our goal of having a consistent and streamlined workforce management process was best met by this method.” Cady and Alter developed in-house training for both users and supervisors, and they personally conducted sessions for all shifts and departments.

Change is difficult, but OCSD employees have embraced the change. “We’ve heard very little, if any, negative feedback from the users,” said Cady. “We expected push back, but EmpCenter is an easy-to-use and intuitive system that has been well received.”

“WorkForce Software provided the support we needed to get this project up and running in six months,” said Pongsakadi Cady, project manager, OCSD. “The ongoing communication with WorkForce helped assure us that our needs and requirements were met. We would recommend EmpCenter software to other organizations seeking to better manage their workforce.”

Results

“We have already seen a number of timesaving benefits, from time saved collecting data to the ability to produce invoices more quickly, to increased accuracy of paychecks,” said Alter. “We now have access to real-time information. Managers can pull information on specific work orders, projects, labor costs, employees, etc., to better manage their workforce, increase efficiency, and save money.”

“Implementing WorkForce Software’s EmpCenter also showed us where there were a few wrinkles in our timekeeping process,” said Cady. “With EmpCenter we have been able to identify and easily address them. We let EmpCenter help us enhance our processes.”