Latest Business Intelligence News

HCF Management Live on Latest Version of Kronos

HCF Management Inc., a skilled nursing care and assisted living organization, and a long-standing Kronos® Incorporated customer, has completed its upgrade to version 6.1 of the Kronos Workforce Central® suite

CHICAGO, HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 01, 2009) –

HCF Management Inc., a skilled nursing care and assisted living organization, and a long-standing Kronos® Incorporated customer, has completed its upgrade to version 6.1 of the Kronos Workforce Central® suite. HCF Management is one of nearly 200 customers to go live on the latest version of Workforce Central in the seven months since the product became available.
News Facts

* HCF Management, an existing user of Kronos time and attendance, employee scheduling, and HR and payroll solutions, upgraded to the latest version of the Kronos workforce management suite to further control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity.
* HCF upgraded because of the new device management tools that lowered its total cost of ownership; enhanced ease-of-use features including new self-service employee scheduling; and advanced reporting capabilities.
* By completely automating critical workforce business processes, Kronos has helped HCF achieve bottom-line and quality-care benefits such as:
o Reduction in overtime from five percent to three percent in numerous facilities.
o Elimination of buddy punching, the costly act of employees punching in for one another.
o Active engagement of employees in the scheduling process to increase manager productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and produce more cost-effective schedules.
o Significant reduction of time – from days to a few minutes per day – that employees and managers spend on workforce business processes.

Supporting Quotes

* Lisa A. Kiel, controller, HCF Management, Inc.
“With Kronos, we have already reduced overtime and managed policies across the board effectively. We are looking forward to the added benefits of the new version, which will further reduce the total cost of ownership of the software, and enable our employees and managers to spend minimal time on processes, and instead focus more on resident care.”
* Brian Graves, global practice leader of healthcare, Kronos
“It is critical for skilled nursing care and assisted living organizations that quality care is never compromised – rather enhanced whenever possible – irrespective of macro-economic conditions. We are committed to helping HCF Management achieve this objective by helping it control its largest controllable expense: labor costs, and optimize its biggest asset: labor.”

Supporting Resources

* About HCF Management Inc.
* Kronos is exhibiting in booth 350 at the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, being held this week in Chicago.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

Source: Kronos

Tags: Kronos

Ceradyne Inc. Live on Latest Version of Kronos

Ceradyne Inc., a worldwide leader in the development and production of advanced technical ceramics, and a long-standing Kronos® Incorporated customer, has completed its upgrade to version 6.1 of the Kronos Workforce Central® suite

CHICAGO, HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 01, 2009) –

Ceradyne Inc., a worldwide leader in the development and production of advanced technical ceramics, and a long-standing Kronos® Incorporated customer, has completed its upgrade to version 6.1 of the Kronos Workforce Central® suite. Ceradyne is one of nearly 200 customers to go live on the latest version of Workforce Central in the seven months since the product became available.
News Facts

* An existing user of the Kronos time and attendance and labor activities solutions, Ceradyne upgraded to the latest version of Kronos to collect and manage machine utilization data and related labor and material data together in one integrated solution.
* The new version is enhancing Ceradyne’s lean manufacturing practices while positively impacting employee morale through complete automation of critical workforce business processes, high-quality information, and ease-of-use enhancements.
* Traditionally handled as distinct disciplines, the combined view of reconciled labor and machine utilization enables shop floor managers to identify and resolve bottlenecks in real time, resulting in higher levels of productivity.
* Many existing ERP or MES systems collect and batch machine performance information and provide reporting on the results a week or two later. Ceradyne uses Kronos to fill this gap left by SAP, its ERP vendor.
* Kronos helps Ceradyne control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity by standardizing processes, reconciling labor hours to hours paid, and eliminating buddy punching across locations in China and the U.S.

Supporting Quotes

* Jerry Pellizzon, chief financial officer, Ceradyne
“Kronos continues to be an excellent tool we utilize to improve the efficiency on a real time basis for managing our production groups at many different locations. The key result is that we continue to experience improvement and growth in productivity and the reduction of our costs. Kronos together with our rollout of SAP form an integral information tool that gives our management team the ability to make better and quicker decisions; resulting in growing efficiencies that are demanded by all areas of our business. We welcome the increased capabilities it brings to our business.”
* Mark Nguyen, information technology project manager, Ceradyne
“SAP is good at managing materials, but Kronos is the expert at managing people and can provide accountability regarding where every labor dollar is spent. With Kronos, we don’t experience delays with tracking and recording labor data, which leads to better decision making for HR and senior management. The new resource tracking capability will further improve throughput, labor cost performance, and on-time delivery.”
* Gregg Gordon, senior director of manufacturing industry marketing, Kronos
“Many manufacturers focus on driving out cost through inventory reductions and automating production. But a third resource, the workforce, can also provide an area for improving effectiveness. Through gains in labor utilization, performance and quality, Ceradyne is an example of a progressive manufacturer that controls labor costs and enhances productivity.”

Supporting Resources

* About Ceradyne Inc.
* Kronos is exhibiting in booth 350 at the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, being held this week in Chicago.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

© 2009 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos and Workforce Central are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Source: Kronos

Tags: Kronos

Kronos

Nurses attest that ease-of-use and advanced functionality offered by Kronos enable delivery of quality care

LOUISVILLE, Ky., ANCC National Magnet Conference (October 01, 2009) –

Healthcare facilities across the world are turning to Kronos® Incorporated to centralize and completely automate the employee scheduling process. Kronos helps organizations attain Magnet® recognition or adopt characteristics of Magnet facilities to create and sustain a superior work environment that attracts and retains a workforce that delivers high-quality care.
News Facts

* Kronos helps more than 600 healthcare facilities completely automate the staffing and scheduling process; accurately create schedules that align labor with anticipated demand; while adhering to all facility and regulatory policies; all of which create an environment that attracts and retains nurses.
* The latest version of the Kronos solution released earlier this year offers enhanced self-service features, which enable employees to better set their schedule preferences, view open shifts, and request to fill open shifts as they become available.
* By actively engaging employees in the scheduling process, the Kronos solution increases manager productivity, improves employee satisfaction, and produces more cost-effective schedules that meet the needs of the organization. These outcomes help reduce supplemental labor costs and decrease overtime, while improving patient care and employee satisfaction.
* The Kronos scheduling solution integrates with other complementary workforce management solutions available within the Kronos suite including time and attendance and labor analytics.
* Several Kronos customers in the U.S. are among the elite group of Magnet-designated facilities including Abington Memorial Hospital, Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, Poudre Valley Health System, University Health Care System (Georgia), and Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.

Supporting Quotes

* Barbara Wadsworth, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, Abington Memorial Hospital
“As a Magnet-designated hospital, AMH embraces the philosophy of collaborative, inclusive decisions that involve nurses in almost every aspect. Although the evaluation team had largely settled on a vendor, we knew it was important to let the nurses weigh in on this matter. We asked them to also score vendors and share their opinions. We’re happy that their judgments aligned well with the opinions of the evaluation team, which was in favor of selecting Kronos.”
* Kathy Baker, director, resource management, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center
“At VCU Medical Center, departments can now create a balanced and fair schedule in just a few minutes, instead of the many hours that our previous paper-bound process required. Perceived staffing equity is a major criterion for achieving Magnet status because staffing and clinical outcomes are intricately linked. When it’s time for us to re-apply for Magnet designation, we believe the Kronos scheduling solution will play a key role in our re-designation.”
* Karen Ripper, senior vice president and administrator, chief nursing officer, Martin Memorial Health
“We selected Kronos to have a centralized solution with complete automation and real-time capabilities. Controlling labor costs and boosting staff morale through a fair and consistent system ensures the highest level of productivity, which is essential for quality-care delivery. We also achieved swift ROI with Kronos in just one year and we’re looking forward to more results.”
(Martin Memorial saved $600,000 in overtime costs within one year of the Kronos implementation.)
* Mary Lou Kurilla, nurse manager, Abington Memorial Hospital
“The integration between the Kronos time and attendance and scheduling systems shows on-premises, late in, early out and absences, to allow managers to react to staff status in real time to ensure that the right person is in the right place at the right time for quality patient care.”
* Shirleen Gamonal, nurse manager, Huntsman Cancer Hospital, University of Utah
“The use of the scheduling function in Kronos has been a huge nurse satisfier. It gives staff nurses a chance to make decisions related to their work schedule, which affects their work-life balance. We have been using Kronos scheduling for more than a year for our RNs and they report that they typically get 90 percent of their ideal schedule requests. It has been such a great success that we have recently made the system available to our aides and clerks. The benefits to myself, as a nurse manager, include having more time and being able to make simple adjustments to a schedule to the staff’s liking, rather than starting out with a blank sheet.”
* Sue Marino, director of nursing informatics, Hartford Hospital
“The Kronos upgrade to the new version went smoothly and the transition was very easy for our end users. Our staff members are very pleased with the latest self-service features including the in-house and remote access to their timecards, schedules, and accruals.”
* Angel Schrunk, patient care services staffing specialist, Bay Area Hospital
“The easy access to high-quality information offered by the Kronos scheduling solution allows nurses to quickly and properly fill an open position and use its internal staff more efficiently.”
* Brian Graves, global practice leader of healthcare, Kronos
“An advanced, automated scheduling tool creates optimal staffing levels, enables a greater work/life balance, and fosters fair personnel policies that attract and retain quality staff. These lead nurses to experience lowered stress levels, improved work-life balance, and heightened job satisfaction. We’re extremely pleased with our customers’ continued enthusiasm for our scheduling solution and fast adoption of the new enhancements.”

Supporting Resources

* Kronos is exhibiting in booth 636 at the ANCC National Magnet Conference, being held this week in Louisville, Ky.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

© 2009 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos is a registered trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Source: Kronos

Tags: Kronos

Retailers Achieve Fast Payback with Kronos

From ensuring an optimally scheduled store to selecting the best-fit associates, retailers must make effective workforce decisions. Retailers are increasingly turning to Kronos® Incorporated to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and grow revenue. And they are increasingly citing fast pa

CHICAGO (September 30, 2009) –

From ensuring an optimally scheduled store to selecting the best-fit associates, retailers must make effective workforce decisions. Retailers are increasingly turning to Kronos® Incorporated to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and grow revenue. And they are increasingly citing fast payback as a result.
News Facts

* Kronos helps retailers automate workforce management business processes such as time and attendance, budgeting, forecasting and scheduling, absence management, human resources and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics.
* Automation of these processes can result in immediate payback and ROI by minimizing payroll inaccuracies, increasing conversion rates and sales, reducing unnecessary overtime, and decreasing employee turnover.
* According to a recent study by AMR Research, retailers reported 3.8 percent of lost sales due to non-optimized labor scheduling, and 3.5 percent decrease in payroll costs as a result of implementing a workforce management solution.
* Using Kronos, a mid-size grocery retailer cut overtime expenses to half, saving $95,000 in one year.
* Using Kronos, a large consumer electronics retailer with more than 1,000 locations and more than 90,000 employees reduced hourly staff churn by 30 percent and reported ROI of $2.5 million in less than 12 months.
* The AMR Research study also notes that the average fine that retailers paid for noncompliance lawsuits in the last 12 months was $250,000. Kronos helps retailers easily comply with federal, state, and union labor regulations through automated and centralized policy administration, local policy application, and detailed audit tracking.
* Kronos works with retailers around the world including Best Buy, Finish Line, and Jamba Juice.

Supporting Quotes

* Robert Notte, vice president of IT, Jamba Juice
“We were looking for efficiencies and savings in labor scheduling. After reviewing our options, we chose Kronos. In less than a year, the workforce management system was rolled out to Jamba’s company locations and we immediately realized improvements in controlling expenses and optimizing processes.”
* Adrian Peace, head of simplification and productivity, Somerfield UK
“With Kronos now holding all employee information including hours worked, availability for work, and skills, we now have complete visibility into the workforce. We rely less on overtime now that absence levels have reduced and can identify when working additional hours will take a colleague into premium overtime payments. Our premium overtime bill has decreased by £2.3 million per year.”
* Nicholas Hess, senior vice president, operations, Dunn-Edwards Paint Stores
“Kronos helps us optimize our most important asset and largest controllable expense – labor. With Kronos, we are able to optimize store scheduling, leverage historical sales, customer traffic, and store profile data to derive accurate weekly sales and labor plans. No other workforce management vendor has such a comprehensive suite to enable enterprise visibility and control of store productivity.”
* Kara Barker, director of retail industry marketing, Kronos
“Retailers that continue to think strategically about labor through the downturn will be better prepared to profitably handle the influx of customers once the economy improves. Based on our knowledge of hundreds of successful retail implementations, we are committed to helping our retail customers improve hiring practices, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost employee productivity to ultimately sprint – not limp – out of the recession.”

Supporting Resources

* Kronos is exhibiting in booth 350 at the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, being held this week in Chicago.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

© 2009 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos is a registered trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Source: Kronos

Tags: Kronos

Kronos

Recognizing that many organizations want to partner with a vendor that can provide them with complete control over how they acquire, deploy, and manage their workforce management solution, Kronos® Incorporated is seeing a surge in demand for its Managed Services offering.

CHICAGO (September 30, 2009) –

Recognizing that many organizations want to partner with a vendor that can provide them with complete control over how they acquire, deploy, and manage their workforce management solution, Kronos® Incorporated is seeing a surge in demand for its Managed Services offering.
News Facts

* With Kronos Managed Services, IT organizations can focus their resources on other projects because Kronos experts perform all configuration, maintenance, upgrades, and support of the Kronos solution.
* Kronos offers Managed Services to customers regardless of whether they have deployed the software in their own data center or in one of Kronos’ secure hosting facilities.
* Managed Services is an option regardless of how the customer elects to acquire the solution – they can purchase a perpetual license or rent the Kronos software on a monthly basis.
* More than 125 organizations have already taken advantage of the Kronos Managed Services offering, including BWAY, Levy Restaurants, Minyard Food Stores, and Signature Hospital Corporation.

Supporting Quotes

* Chris Todd, vice president of professional services, Kronos
“For years, workforce management vendors have tried to dictate how organizations acquire, deploy, and manage their workforce management solutions. At Kronos, we give customers complete control by allowing them to pick and choose which options best fit their needs.”
* Lisa Rowan, program director, HR, learning and talent strategies, IDC
“Kronos has really listened to its customers and is providing them with the flexibility they’re asking for. The Kronos Managed Services offering puts the customer in the driver’s seat, empowering them to decide what level of support makes sense in their organization and providing them with what they need to be successful.”
* Jack Phillips, corporate controller, BWAY
“We chose to have Kronos maintain our application because it reduced our total cost of ownership in maintaining our solution. Now Kronos is the single point of accountability for our workforce management needs.”

Supporting Resources

* Kronos Hosting and Managed Services
* Kronos is exhibiting in booth 350 at the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, being held this week in Chicago.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

© 2009 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos is a registered trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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Source: Kronos

Tags: Kronos

Kronos

Kronos® Incorporated today announced availability of Workforce Acquisitionâ?¢ 8.5. The latest version of the Kronos selection and hiring solution provides new features that deliver on Kronosâ?? commitment to providing a unified solution for both hourly and salaried hiring

CHICAGO (September 30, 2009) –

Kronos® Incorporated today announced availability of Workforce Acquisition(TM) 8.5. The latest version of the Kronos selection and hiring solution provides new features that deliver on Kronos’ commitment to providing a unified solution for both hourly and salaried hiring. In addition, ease-of-use enhancements make the user experience for employers and applicants better than ever. Customers in more than 44,000 locations use the Kronos hiring solution to control costs, minimize the risk of making a bad hire, and improve productivity.
News Facts

* Major advancements in salaried recruiting – New requisition management tools help recruiters better manage the hiring process from sourcing to on-boarding. Using a set of pre-configured job templates, managers can, from a single portal, quickly create, monitor, and update salaried requisitions.
* Enhanced on-boarding – Employer-specific branding, process checklists, and conditional forms, coupled with enhanced security and support for low-bandwidth locations, enable hiring managers to more efficiently process new hires. Employees and managers can access the solution from any location, and sophisticated self-service capabilities guide new hires and managers through the process to ensure complete and accurate data collection.
* Easy verification of employment status – Organizations can determine legal employment status on all potential new hires with E-Verify, a web-based system that compares employee information from Form I-9 with more than 449 million records in the Social Security Administration’s database and 80 million records in the Department of Homeland Security’s database. The system helps employers comply with state and federal labor laws and avoid penalties associated with unlawful hiring.
* Embedded job videos – One of the primary reasons employees leave jobs soon after being hired is they don’t feel they had a realistic idea of what the job entailed. Videos can now be embedded into requisitions, giving applicants a realistic job preview and ultimately reducing turnover.
* New Behavioral Assessments – Workforce Acquisition 8.5 introduces new assessment content using the latest techniques in assessment development with a focus on customer service for grocery and general supervisory skills. The goal of the new assessment content is to improve the overall applicant experience while identifying best-fit candidates.

Supporting Quotes

* Albert Pang, research director, enterprise applications research, IDC
“Kronos’ hiring solution is a fast-growing part of its business and a key element of the company’s workforce management vision and strategy. Because of its software-as-a-service approach, Kronos is able to help companies implement their hiring systems in a matter of weeks, not months. The company’s leadership position in the hiring space means they can provide deep insights into employment trends based on massive amounts of historical hiring data.”
* Greg Buehler, director of training and development, Buehler Food Markets Inc.
“Workforce Acquisition 8.5 has increased reporting capabilities and a user-friendly layout that make the hiring process easier than ever. In addition, the increased efficiencies in the on-boarding process will save both time and money.”
* Steve Earl, director of product marketing, Kronos
“Workforce Acquisition 8.5 continues to deliver on Kronos’ promise of a unified hiring solution for both hourly and salaried workers with an ever-increasing focus on the applicant experience. With the challenges placed on businesses in a downsized economy, the demands on recruiters and hiring managers can be overwhelming. Kronos helps organizations create and manage requisitions with greater ease and speed while providing the tools needed to onboard new hires efficiently.”

Supporting Resources

* Kronos Hiring
* Kronos Workforce Acquisition customers include: Best Buy, Cambridge Healthcare, Caribou Coffee, Costco, Finish Line, Marriott, ResCare, Rock Bottom Restaurants, Securitas, Southwest Airlines, and Yum! Brands.
* Kronos is exhibiting in booth 350 at the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, being held this week in Chicago.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

Source: Kronos

Tags: Kronos