As part of your company’s workforce management admin team, your plate is full. There’s probably stuff rolling off your plate and onto the floor. You’ve got upgrades to tackle, service releases to install, outstanding configuration and interface work, and compliance data to update.
How can anyone stay on top of it all?
Good question, and the answer is that they usually can’t—at least not without tapping outside expertise in the form of a UKG or Kronos consultant.
Unless you plan to add more hours to your day to learn or add more WFM staff, a consulting team with UKG expertise is one of your best options to knock out the staffing and skills gaps that are likely impeding your efficiency.
Even so, if you’ve never worked with a UKG consultant, making that leap to outside resources can feel like a gamble. We get it. No one likes to ask for help, all firms are not created equally, and you don't have a lot of time to stop and find the right fit. But sometimes, you've got to do exactly that if you want to get out of the problematic WFM cycle you are in.
Here are a few signs, it’s time to stop wishing and start applying the right brains on the your problems with a qualified, expert team of Application Consultants.
1. You have WFM admin staffing gaps. If you are in the healthcare, manufacturing, or retail verticals, chances are you are operating with less staff than you had three years ago. You may have lost your UKG Admin or a portion of your UKG tribal knowledge bank. Those losses add up to significant gaps.
Solution: Hire a UKG consultant and resolve your workflow issues once and for all. When you work with Improv, there are several ways to structure a consulting contract that fits the unique needs of your workforce.
For instance, hours can be specified with contract work or calculated into a monthly retainer. Another way to work with Improv is to request a Staff Augmentation, which places a part- or full-time Improv staff member on your team and devoted to your UKG workflow. Another option is that Improv can create a custom plan for your UKG workforce issues.
An experienced UKG consultant can immediately take care of your day-to-day workflow issues, update your configurations as needed, install service releases, and ensure you are meeting your compliance updates (yep, changes to those union contracts aren’t going to update themselves).
2. You keep procrastinating on big fixes. We all want to DIY our solutions but that's not always a practical solution. If your system configuration work keeps getting pushed to the back burner, it's time to stop hoping and hire out.
Solution: Give that nagging, stress-inducing To-Do list to an experienced Kronos consulting team. Poof—and your list is gone! Chances are, you will have what you need in a matter of weeks rather than living in limbo (and inefficiency) for the following year.
3. Outdated configurations are costing you. One of the best ways to stop procrastinating and decide is to do the math.
If you are like most companies, your IT department can’t take on additional UKG configuration work or analyze the business processes attached to them.
Solution: Calculate the hourly pay total of each person internally who would have to invest time in learning how to solve the problem. How does that number compare to hiring a UKG expert (for a few days a week or a month) who could immediately remedy the issues and boost optimization?
Additionally, calculate how much the unfixed issue costs your organization each week. Each month? Annually? That ongoing cost is probably more significant than the cost of hiring a consultant who could save you on labor and potential compliance missteps.
4. You dread payroll week. If you are like many teams reliant on manual or make-shift processes, there’s a good chance that preparing payroll causes you to cry a little inside each cycle. Calculate how many hours you and your team will take to finish a manual payroll and scheduling process each week.
Solution: A few hours with a UKG-certified expert could automate critical areas of your system. Soon, your managers will get valuable time back that they can spend elsewhere.
5. The processes that worked then are not working now. As UKG consultants, we often see frontline UKG admins and managers remain loyal to outdated, inefficient processes.
With further exploration into why they perform their tasks the way they do, many HR, IT, or Payroll managers confess, “it's the way we’ve always done it.” They also acknowledge they know their process is likely dinging their efficiency.
Solution: Read our Tree Top case study (download it below) and see how Improv UKG Application Consultants reduced the company's manual process from six weeks down to one day! Then, connect with Improv, and let’s look at your processes and start figuring out how to automate them.
A few takeaways: First, it’s okay to ask for help everyone has to periodically. You can’t be an expert at everything. Second, everyone loves their processes, they are comfortable. However, if that process thwarts your efficiency and dings your ROI, it's time to bring in trained brains to help you automate as much of your process as possible.
If any of these points have you nodding in agreement, you are not alone. We all put big things off until we can no longer live with the pain of not changing them. The good news? Your workforce (and your stress level) can dramatically improve simply by putting fresh eyes on your problem.
If your staff isn’t as UKG-savvy as it should be or if you have workforce management skills gaps, we can promise you that when you work with the Improv team—a trusted UKG and Kronos-certified consultancy firm—we can help you boost your efficiency and enjoy the work you do! Let’s talk today.