OPTIONS cuts their payroll processing time in half with Humanity

Manual processes kept managers away from important duties

OPTIONS’ scheduling processes were completely manual when current executive director, Sean Yost, first joined the organization in April 2018. Sean noticed major inefficiencies early on, including that his facility director spent approximately 16 hours every pay period processing time sheets and evaluating vacation requests by hand for nine locations. Sean shared, “Tracking everything was done in Excel spreadsheets. The sheer amount of time that our different department directors were spending on making sure timesheets and vacation was correct was absolutely crazy.”

Sean began searching for a workforce management solution that would help modernize some of OPTIONS’ outdated practices:

• Tracking employee scheduling and vacation requests was paper based
• Pulling scheduling data for payroll processing was time-consuming
• Automating scheduling approvals for various roles was difficult

With the right platform, Sean could both empower OPTIONS’ staff members to take more responsibility over their schedules and free up the organization’s leaders to focus on more important matters, like coaching other faculty and searching for better ways to serve individuals under care at OPTIONS’ facilities.

The sheer amount of time that our different department directors were spending on making sure timesheets and vacation was correct was crazy.

Humanity Scheduling selected for breadth of functions and integrations

Sean decided to implement TCP’s Humanity Scheduling based on his past success in using the platform. Prior to joining OPTIONS, Sean ran several franchise businesses that also relied heavily on shift work and well-organized scheduling.

Back then, Sean evaluated several workforce management solutions, eventually choosing Humanity Scheduling for its breadth of functionality and ability to integrate seamlessly
with other business systems. Because employees could make requests directly in the platform, Humanity Scheduling saved Sean from having to sift through endless paperwork of PTO requests and scheduling changes.

With this in mind, Sean knew Humanity Scheduling would handle the task for OPTIONS, even though this was a completely different industry. The platform is customizable, which helps Sean configure it around the unique needs of his 196 team members. For instance, Sean can define different scheduling and vacation rules for multiple groups, allowing him to keep records related to OPTIONS’ 24/7/365 residential staffing separate from day support staffing.

“I love being able to customize what we define as a regular workweek and a regular shift,” says Sean. “ streamlines scheduling to our needs and allows us to attach rules specifically to individual roles. Plus, everything is really simple to manage.”

Humanity Scheduling also makes it easy for the OPTIONS’ payroll coordinator to pull time clock data directly into the organization’s payroll system for processing or auditing. Furthermore, Humanity Scheduling gives users a clear view of who has requested vacation when, which OPTIONS uses to ensure there are no gaps in caregiver availability or coverage.

I love being able to customize what we define as a regular workweek and a regular shift.

What truly differentiates Humanity Scheduling from other scheduling software is how easy it is for all users to adopt, even those with little technical knowledge. Based on his past experiences and understanding of the OPTIONS staff, Sean knew that any technology he introduced would have to be intuitive and user-friendly. He didn’t want employees to have to spend a significant amount of time training to be able to use the software.

The challenge was in convincing OPTIONS’ staff members that Humanity Scheduling would make their lives easier, not harder. The true “ah-ha” moment for the organization came in
the third week of testing, when one non-tech-savvy teammate who had been with OPTIONS for decades successfully used the platform for her workflow without error. The demonstration convinced others that Humanity Scheduling was well-worth the investment and a huge time-saver.

OPTIONS cut its payroll processing time in half, down from a week to three days. The organization’s payroll coordinator now spends far less time inputting data manually and is so much more efficient now that she can review information directly in the system.