What Goes Where?

As a review, let's briefly recall where our Quest has taken us so far. Remember that our Grail is WFM (workforce management) system harmony for healthcare organizations. We have dreamed what our system would like in a perfect world... and we know that it doesn't exist. But we also know that a Schedule-Centric approach to Kronos Workforce Central lets us start with staff schedules and utilize the features of the Schedule Planner to funnel data into a single point of entry.

Now, let's talk specific about what should go on into the Schedule Planner and what is still best kept elsewhere.

Things you should put on the schedule:

EVERYTHING YOU CAN!!

Not too much ambiguity here. You want the Schedule Planner to be the place where you spend most of your time, so you want to put in everything that the Genie will let you enter on it. That means transactions like:

• Scheduled shifts

• Pay code edits

• Work Rule transfers

• Job transfers

• Comments

Not only do you have the ability to put all of those data elements on the schedule directly, but you should design your processes to require entry there. There are downstream benefits that you want to realize from you implementation that are going to be a direct result of putting all the data in here first.

[SNEAK PEAK: If you are looking to see where "Labor Level transfers" are on the list, they're not there. Nor are they going to be on the list of items of to put elsewhere. Next week's blog entry is going to address Labor Levels and the Org Map. Prepare for controversy!]

So what goes elsewhere? The primary (and traditional) point of data entry left is the timecard. And by design in WFC, this is where punches end up and all punch-related data (like visual day divides and virtual punches) or data that is created as a result of punches (like exceptions and totals). So, with no other choice, the timecard is the place where you must manage employee punches (fixing missing punches, etc.) and resolving punch exceptions. You don't have a whole lot of choice here...

But that's okay because those are minor tasks compared to the amount of data that goes on the schedule. You will still spend most of your time on the schedule and just come on the timecard as needed or prompted by your exception Genies or your pay period signoff process.

The way WFC works and can be configured to take advantage of is that all the important data that you put on the schedule that affects totals-we're talking mostly transfers here-flow from the (1) schedule through the (2) timecard punches and end up the in the (3) totals. So by putting the work rules and job transfers on the schedule (and the pay codes too, for that matter), you are changing the location of your traditional timekeeper workload to the schedule. An effective design means you eliminate the duplicate data entry/tracking that often happens and you also eliminate inconsistencies between the schedules and the timecards (and totals).

And what about the Absence Management modules of Leave & Attendance? They still have their own screens built for you to interact with their core functionality, but designing the entire system to work together in harmony means that Leave & Attendance can be specifically built to support the schedule-centric approach. More on that later...