Winnebago County Sheriff

Overview of Winnebago County Sheriff

The Winnebago County Sheriff (Winnebago) is comprised of 349 full-time employees and 31 part-time employees. They are spread across four departments, including a patrol division, county jail, county 911, and civilians.

The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Past Challenges

Before the decision to move to InTime, Winnebago was previously using a paper system to manage scheduling, overtime and leave requests, and their payroll processes. Their paper-based system caused operational agency inefficiencies resulting largely from human error and employee accountability.

Tami Goral, Winnebago County Sheriff’s Fiscal Director and HR Liaison, shares the consequences of their old solution and how InTime addressed their challenges.

TEDIOUS PAYROLL PROCESS CAUSED ENDLESS ERRORS

“People were not paid correctly a lot of the time, due to missing papers and a lack of documentation”

Using a completely paper-based system allowed for many payroll errors to occur. Employees would be required to sign a sheet of paper, which would notify payroll when they worked. However, Winnebago experienced pay inaccuracies that resulted from human error and a lack of proper documentation. Without an audit trail, Winnebago was allowing their agency to be open to risk and liability issues which contributed to their operational inefficiencies.

INEFFICIENT MANUAL PROCESS IMPACTED EMPLOYEE MORALE

“If they wanted to request leave time, that was also done on paper which would get lost, and employees wouldn’t get the leave deducted properly”

A paper-based system was also used to handle Winnebago’s overtime, leave, and comp requests. Due to a lack of accountability, comp time and leave requests would often be submitted late and occasionally would get lost. In addition, sick and vacation days would be accrued on the employees’ anniversary date. In the event that an employee requested time off, supervisors had to manually calculate whether an employee had time in their balance to cover it. This often led to miscalculations and left many employees with negative balances in their sick and vacation banks. With employees not receiving their requested hours, this has the potential to result in issues with employee morale at large.

THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS SPENT MANAGING CLUNKY PROCESSES

“We had one full-time person who exclusively did payroll. It was very inefficient, and the position could have been utilized somewhere else”

Due to a completely manual process, Winnebago was spending their resources on a full-time employee working 40+ hours on payroll. In the event that employees failed to sign the attendance sheet, payroll would track that employee or their supervisor to confirm whether they worked that particular day. In addition, if an employee requested time-off throughout the year, supervisors had to manually calculate whether they had available time to cover it. Winnebago’s manual process still left room for human error and ultimately, did not allow for agency resources to be used efficiently.

MANUAL PROCESS EXPOSED WINNEBAGO TO RISK AND LIABILITY 

“Another person could sign the payroll sheet saying the employee worked. Employees would forget to sign the payroll sheet. Employees left early and signed that they were here all day”

Winnebago’s paper-based system lacked employee accountability. Without an audit trail, there was no documentation or formal system to check whether employees were recording the correct hours worked. After discovering these issues, Winnebago realized they needed more accountability in the department to avoid risk and liability issues.

The Decision to Move to InTime

Once Winnebago realized how much unnecessary time and effort it was taking to do payroll, they agreed on imminent change. In addition, they recognized that they were putting their department at risk if they continue to allow for human error to occur. Winnebago decided to look for an automated solution that would solve their accountability and efficiency issues. After researching on the top scheduling and workforce management software, Winnebago unanimously found InTime was the best fit to address their challenges. In 2016, Winnebago began the process to move away from a manual system to a completely automated solution. And since 2018, Winnebago has been exclusively using InTime to manage their daily operations. 

“Our breaking point was realizing the number of errors that was happening with our employee’s time, and constantly making payroll adjustments. It was overall very inefficient to do everything on paper. We narrowed it down to 3, we had demos and discussions with command staff, it was pretty much a unanimous thing to go with InTime”

Present Day Improvements

90% TIME SAVED WITH 0 ERRORS

“Payroll is done easily now, and InTime has reduced the time taken to do payroll from 40+ hours a week to an average of 10 hours a week. By having employees submit their own timesheets, payroll errors have been reduced drastically”

Now, with a completely automated process, Winnebago experiences no payroll errors. Employees submit their own timesheets which removes any discrepancies and any need for manual checking. With a significant amount of time saved, labor can be allocated elsewhere for better use. With InTime, Winnebago streamlined their tedious workflows, resulting in a much more efficient and accurate operational process.

LEAVE REQUEST AUTOMATION BOOSTS EMPLOYEE MORALE

“The majority of our employees love the system. They like the app, they like seeing their schedule, they like the reports and what they like the most is the overtime and leave requests being automated. Now when an employee works overtime and they want comp time, it’s in their bank immediately. There’s no risk of going over in the bank or going in a negative balance”

The automation of Winnebago’s overtime, leave, and comp requests enables real-time tracking of an employee’s time bank. Now, employees submit their requests, and their balance is automatically deducted from their time bank. Supervisors no longer need to do manual calculations resulting in accurate time banks for all employees. Employee requests are always tracked and addressed which boosts employee morale. In addition, employees can submit their requests through the InTime Mobile App. This improves employee engagement since they can submit their requests at anytime and anywhere.

INTIME IMPROVES ACCOUNTABILITY BY PROVIDING LINE OF SIGHT INTO SCHEDULING DETAILS 

“My favourite part about using InTime is the improved accountability of the employees. I can look at the schedule anytime, day or night, and see who was working and if they aren’t working, what their reason is”

Employee accountability is at an all-time high for Winnebago after using InTime. Employee hours submitted through a timesheet are approved, so supervisors know exactly how many hours their employee worked. In addition, InTime’s built-in intelligence ensures that schedulers comply with agency and union rules when staffing shifts. By improving employee accountability, Winnebago ensures that their agency is protected against risks and liabilities.

BETTER OVERTIME INSIGHTS HELPS WINNEBAGO SPEND SMARTER

“With InTime, I can narrow down exactly how many hours were spent on a specific overtime activity, which makes it easier to be accountable to our county board when we go over budget in our overtime spend. It’s been so helpful with COVID to see who was off due to sick leave”

InTime’s robust reporting feature allows for command staff to see where they are spending the most overtime to accurately plan their overtime budget. With this insight, Winnebago ensures better agency spend through solid audit trails and documentation.

OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SUPPORT 

“The InTime customer support is superb. Anytime I need anything, or if I run into an issue, I send an email and the response is quick and the issue is almost always resolved. Nothing has gone wrong that InTime hasn’t helped us with. It was a great choice for us”

Implementing a new software is never easy. Especially one that affects the agency at a large scale. However, Winnebago found this transition seamless due to InTime’s responsive customer support. Winnebago has experienced that issues they encounter can be solved painlessly through InTime’s customer support. And they can feel confident knowing that InTime is dedicated to support their agency in managing their resources confidently.