Around four months after Old Saybrook’s new time and attendance system for town employees went live in September 2019, word from Town Hall is the rollout has gone as smoothly as hoped.

The town began its preparations of the Nova system about six months ahead, explained Finance Director Lee Ann Palladino.

“We have four union contracts and non-union people. And each union contract has its own set of rules,” she explained. “When we would codify those rules in the system, we had to make sure that everything matched the collective bargaining agreements perfectly.”

Each union contract specifies the amount of paid time off for employees who are covered by the contract. Not only did those parameters have to be set up in the system, they had to be checked and mistakes corrected.

Punching-in Practice

Next, town employees practiced punching in when they arrived at work; this was a change for most. Previously, Transfer Station employees punched in with a traditional timeclock while others filled out timesheets by hand, which were checked and signed off by their supervisors. This paperwork was then entered into an Excel spreadsheet by finance department employees and this was reviewed before it was entered into the accounting system.

Now employees were asked to check in and out in one of three ways: on a computer by way of a secure website, using an app on a smartphone, or via a timeclock, which required entering an employee number. There are five timeclocks: at Youth & Family Services, Town Hall, Parks & Recreation, the Department of Public Works, and the Transfer Station. The Town Hall timeclock was added when employees requested one, said Palladino, explaining that may people find punching in upon entering the building more efficient than doing so at their desk.

“For most of the professionals, it kind of took a while for them to remember to punch in,” she said. “Because you’re not used to it.”

So they practiced.

“And of course all kinds of questions arose from the staff over that,” Palladino said. “What if I’m late? What if I’m early? What if I got stuck in the snow or something like that? We had time to resolve that.

“Sometimes your computer doesn’t just turn on,” she explained.

When a problem came up, she’d advise employees not to punch in.

“Tell your supervisor that you were here at 8:30 but you had difficulties getting on the computer,” she said.

“You trust your employees,” she said. “You want to make sure that their time is recorded properly. And the timeclock—I use the timeclock—it’s so much more reliable. Just punch in, walk down the hall, and come in.”

The phone app is particularly useful for those who have work-related appointments first thing in the morning or conferences to attend. Employees can use any of the five timeclocks, as well. Seasonal employees and those who come in to run programs for Parks & Recreation, for instance, are served well by the timeclocks and phone app, Palladino said.

“[A]ll the kids have cell phones now so when they work down at the beach...[they] just punch in on their cell phone,” she said.

PTO

“Then we did the requesting time off, which I think the employees really loved,” Palladino said. “They didn’t love so much punching in because it was a little inconvenience in their world—they’re not used to it. But they do like requesting time off over the system.”

Departments have shared online calendars, allowing employees to see who in their department has already scheduled time away. That allows a member of the department to ascertain a likely good time for his or her own time off. Each person’s paid time off accruals are on the bottom of the page, and requests for time off are automatically sent to supervisors for approval.

“What is nice from a financial perspective is that we used to keep this by hand,” Palladino said. “So if you have somebody who gets three weeks off, or two weeks off, or one week off—that monthly accrual is different for each person.”

Now the system automatically deducts the time. Finance staff, however, is continuing to keep track manually to ensure that the Nova system is accurate.

So far, so good, according to Palladino.

“We paid everybody correctly the first time around,” she said. “We didn’t have any problems at all.”

All that preparation and practice paid off.

So far, there’s been both positive and negative feedback from employees, in addition to questions, Palladino said.

“When we interviewed the providers of these types of systems they said it was very common for [there to be some] resistance simply because it’s a change,” said Palladino. “And then over time, you see a understanding of the system, and you acclimate to it, and then they find it becomes part of their routine.

“And then you see it eventually turns into, ‘Gee, I really like this. I get to punch in from my phone. I don’t have to worry about anybody wondering where I am because I’m all punched in and they can see that now,’” she said.

“We are automating, streamlining, implementing software programs town-wide as a means for better service, as a means for lowering mistakes, as a means for reducing risk,” she explained.

And the employee time that’s reduced by automating cumbersome tasks such as manually entering work time into a spreadsheet? It will allow the finance department to shift its work into a different gear.

“As we move forward, it gives us more focus on the important things of what we’re here doing,” said Palladino. “We can analyze the data, we can make sure it’s correct, we can see if there’s any concerning issues or trends.”

As for all the town’s future plans to engage technology, she continued, “we’re going to do them one at a time and we’re going to do them—like everything else we do—slowly, carefully, make sure that people are comfortable with the technology, that they don’t have questions.

“We want to make sure we do it right,” she added.