Kronos Timekeeper and the DCAA continued

During the implementation I mentioned yesterday, the ‘feature’ of Kronos that prevented an employee from changing a timecard entry after the fact was raised as an issue. It would apparently create a lot more work for the supervisor since only they had the ability to make corrections. “And these guys are gonna make a lot of mistakes” the supervisor said. Of course my first thought was ‘these guys’ make things that might explode —what exactly is your tolerance for mistakes here?

The DCAA points out the need for constant vigilance on this point. Under section 2-302 Labor Charging Systems in their document, Information for Contractors 7641.90, they state:

“(4) Individual employees must be constantly, although unobtrusively, made aware of controls that act as an effective deterrent against violations…”

They further recommend companies institute a time keeping policy where

“… accurate and complete preparation of time cards is a part of the employee's job. Careless or improper preparation may lead to disciplinary actions under company policies, as well as applicable Federal statutes.”

Wow… and I thought I was the only one who was at risk of violating Federal statutes at work each day. In reality it is pretty unlikely that errors on time cards would result in penalties at the employee level. Herein likes the psychological problem. When you put so much focus on the worst possible scenario (that isn’t likely to happen) there is a tendency to lose respect for the less dramatic but more consistent benefits of good behavior. Like the judge vetting a witness on the stand:

Judge: “Do you know what happens if you lie under oath”?
Witness: “I go to hell”
Judge: “Is that all?!?”
Witness: “Isn’t that enough?”

In the client scenario I mentioned above, the project manager jumped in and pointed out that, unlike the old system, Kronos Timekeeper was more secure and helped enforce the company policy of accurate and daily project time keeping. What the PM was actually doing was reminding the supervisor that it was her job (not to mention good business practice) to ensure the employees on the floor knew what they were working on and did a reasonable job of accounting for it each day. If this is too hard for the employees and a supervisor must constantly fix the entries then the complaint shouldn’t be let the emps ‘fix’ their own mistakes it should be

1. Fix the project accounting system, and/or

2. Improve the training or

3. Get new employees or supervisors who can do the whole job.

There is huge downstream value if you get this happening correctly at the source. You have employees that not only understand their job but also how it fits into the surrounding company processes, policies and obligations. Providing accurate daily productivity information also alerts managers to problems sooner giving more time to fix before they worsen. In lean manufacturing environments this data is crucial to the analytic engines that drive out the last few points of waste or error.  Faster, better, cheaper starts here.

While landmark legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley and federal prison sentences make initial, short term impressions we need to focus more on the fundamentals of good business practices for the daily returns they produce. The DCAA is primarily interested in protecting the taxpayer from fraud but also sloppy vendor practices. In that mission over the past 45 years they have most definitely gained an understanding of what tends to go wrong and how to prevent it. While the marketeers are apt to highlight the DCAA compliant nature of (a properly implemented) Kronos Workforce Central or ADP eTime WFM system I suggest that the bigger returns lie in enforcing the daily rigor of age-old accuracy, diligence and attention to detail on the shop floor. Besides, it’s hard to scare the folks that deal with explosives on a daily basis into better time keeping practice.

What are you relying on to enforce diligence in time accounting in your company?