Denver Metro Wastewater Reclamation District Streamlines Labor Management Processes

Serving approximately 1.5 million people, the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District is the wastewater treatment authority for most of metro Denver, including Arvada, Aurora, Lakewood, Thornton, Westminster, and more than 45 water and sanitation districts. Formed by the Colorado state legislature in 1961, it provides wastewater transmission and treatment services to member municipalities and special connectors in compliance with federal, state, and local laws.

Workforce Challenges & Issues

Automating time collection at the Metro District was a decade-long goal. Documenting employee work hours was a manual, paper-based process that was time consuming and difficult to reconcile as there were multiple systems to enter time and labor information. Employee hours and exceptions were tracked using paper timesheets. A significant amount of time was spent reconciling hours between the payroll system, the work order system, and the project management system. The redundant data entry wasted time and lowered productivity. Engineers and maintenance staff submitted paper timesheets with their work hours, and then entered project and work order information into another system. Not only was this manual process time consuming, but also became a logistical nightmare apportioning hours worked to a project or work order. If hours did not balance, then the engineer or maintenance person would have to revisit the same process; this could require several iterations before the numbers balanced. The Metro District wanted to automate its workforce management processes to save time and money.

Selecting WorkForce Software

The project team at Metro District spent a great deal of time gathering requirements to create a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP). Based on the software vendor RFP responses, the team invited three workforce management vendors to demonstrate their software. When it could not meet the complex labor distribution requirements for the demonstration, one of the vendors dropped out, leaving just two vendors in the race.

The Metro District project team was thorough and created a complete list of available technologies to solve the business issues. WorkForce Software’s EmpCenter^® product was chosen because it could be configured, without modifying its source code, and meet all of Metro District’s needs. The other finalist’s product required product customization that would add more cost upfront and slow down future upgrades.

“WorkForce Software was the only vendor that could easily support our complex labor distribution needs,” said Sr. Programmer/Analyst Carmen Linnebur, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District. “Because we track our labor costs to work orders and projects, we needed a workforce management solution that could seamlessly integrate with our HR, project management, and payroll systems, so information only needed to be entered once.”

Implementation

WorkForce Software typically implements the EmpCenter solution for its customers, but the Metro District chose to implement the suite itself, with WorkForce Software’s project team available for assistance. “Since we learned how to configure EmpCenter, we can make important changes on-demand,” said Linnebur. “This is a huge benefit that saves us time and money.”

The ability to configure EmpCenter to meet any organization’s requirements, regardless of the complexity, and without customization was key in the selection process. “The WorkForce consultant trained us on how to configure the system and get the desired results,” said Linnebur. “This was a new experience for me, but the consultant was patient, thorough, and always available for support.”

Data Collection

EmpCenter’s Employee Self-Service module automates employee interactions, including reporting time, absence reporting, time billed to projects and work orders, time-off requests, manager approvals, and more. The fully integrated Activity Based Costing and Time and Attendance modules allow an employee to enter hours and project codes simultaneously and accurately the first time.

“The data entry and reconciliation of hours could take a full day, but now that the work order and project information is entered into EmpCenter at the point of time entry and then imported into our warehousing and project systems, the information is already balanced,” said Accounting Administrator Cathy Ott, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District. “This has been a huge time savings for us, from eliminating redundant data entry to reconciling accounts.”

A group of plant employees who do not have access to computers use time clocks and badge readers to track their time. Timekeepers easily access the WorkForce timesheets and allocate the employee’s time to the appropriate work order for reporting and budgeting. EmpCenter has significantly reduced the Metro District’s manual timekeeping processes.

Testing & Rollout

Once the configuration was complete, the IT department tested all the configured scenarios. The team analyzed the output of the system, adjusted the configurations, and re-tested the scenarios until everything was working perfectly. Before rolling out the system to employees, WorkForce Software conducted a “train the trainer” class for the IT and accounting people who would be supporting the system.

Knowing change can be difficult, the Metro District project team expected some pushback from employees trying to adopt the new system during the training, but the rollout went smoothly. The system was easy-to-learn and use, making it easy for employees to readily accept the change.

“EmpCenter has been universally accepted throughout the Metro District,” said Ott. “In fact, I’ve never seen a system so widely accepted here. It is user-friendly and works well for us. The self-service functionality empowers employees to enter their own time, request time-off, view hours, and more, without having to contact payroll. This gives payroll more time to spend on other tasks, such as reporting or process improvements.”

Customer Service & Support

WorkForce Software had a thorough understanding of what our goals were, and their expertise in the industry was apparent as we went through this process,” said Linnebur. “Our consultant was very helpful, and we were impressed with her experience and knowledge of the system and our needs.”

Results

The bottom line results of implementing WorkForce Software include enhanced productivity, data accuracy, improved processes, and a fully automated system that saves the Metro District time, money and resources. By choosing EmpCenter, they were able to utilize their existing systems. The seamless integration between EmpCenter and the HR and payroll, warehousing, and project tracking systems has streamlined the entire process.

“One of the biggest impacts we’ve seen from using EmpCenter, is the elimination of reconciling the three systems to each other,” said Ott. “It saves a significant amount of time for our maintenance and accounting staff.”