Nearly all students employed on campus have switched over to Kronos, a computer-managed timecard system, over the past three years — except for students working in the Student Recreation and Wellness Center and Student Center.

Within Kronos, these departments have the same job code for different pay rates — which causes employees to get paid the same amount regardless of their assigned salary.

“Right now, Kronos can’t handle the different pay rates because of the way it’s set up,” said Steve Hujarski, project manager for business and finance who oversees the Kronos project. Hujarski hopes to have the glitches worked out of the system by January 2007.

Some of the problems Hujarski said he has encountered are students lacking up-to-date FlashCards and employees who aren’t in the system. Supervisors usually resolve problems within 24 to 48 hours.

The Kronos project went through its final wrap-up in September and will be updated in January 2007 with Kronos 5.1. The updated version of Kronos will be able to handle the different pay rates, Hujarski said.

The Student Recreation Center and Student Center will keep using the timecards until the Kronos update goes into effect.

Hujarski said using Kronos in the two departments would be a managing nightmare because of the 300 employees involved within the departments.

Rick Schneiderman, senior fiscal manager of residence services, said implementing the Kronos system within his department was moderately difficult. He was in charge of communicating use of the new system.

“It was a big change in how people accounted for their time,” he said.

He sent e-mails, met in groups with the employees and worked with human resources to set up training and presentations to help the process.

Mitch Smouse, sophomore computer science major, uses the Kronos system for his job at ResNet and attended a group session to learn about it. He said the system is easy to use by logging in and clicking the timestamp.

“It’s more accurate, but at the same time, it’s a little less convenient,” Smouse said, explaining that with the timecards, he was able to fill it out at the end of the week. Now, he has to remember to clock in and out every day.

He’s been using the system since it was implemented in September.

Although Smouse said he hasn’t had any problems with the system, Schneiderman said the hardest thing about the new system is getting employees familiar with it.

He said a lot of the questions that came up in group meetings were about how it was going to work and how to make sure the employees’ time was going to be recorded accurately.

Employees can use the system using their FlashCard with the Kronos swipe clocks or they can log in on the computers when they get to work. Schneiderman said most students use the computer system because they have the access. Custodial workers usually use the swipe clocks.

Contact alumni affairs reporter Theresa Edwards at [email protected]