By : Subuk Hasnain
Fri, 12/13/2013 - 11:03am
The City Colleges of Chicago Board on Thursday approved a $360,000 addition to its contract with Workforce Software Inc., which is providing equipment and services for CCC’s new time and labor management system.
The amendment is to an already-existing, three-year, $1,500,000 agreement with Workforce Software beginning on Mar. 30, 2012 and ending Feb. 13, 2015. Under the newly-approved amendment, the company will provide “additional time collection devices, and additional training, professional and technical services,” according to CCC Senior Director of Communications Katheryn Hayes.
Based in Michigan, Workforce Software develops flexible workforce management programs that can run on a number of devices, including desktop computers, smart phones as well as tablets.
Once it is fully implemented, the new time and labor management system is expected produce annual savings of $1 million for City Colleges by increasing the efficiency of the institution’s time and labor management system. As described on Workforce Software’s website, the “automated and paperless time sheet system will provide every City Colleges of Chicago employee a faster, easier, and more accurate way of recording time and attendance, requesting time off, and tracking leave balances.”
Hayes said that all CCC employees will use the new system, but “we have not decided on how some employee groups, such as faculty, will interface with the system.” Another decision CCC also has not yet made is whether employees will use the Workforce Software system’s biometric attendance component, which allows employees to check in and out of work using a canner that reads their fingerprint.
Floyd Bednarz, a faculty member at the Harold Washington College explained that come of his colleagues are concerned about the biometrics system. During the meeting, he urged the board to make sure there is clear communication with employees about what changes are to come.
Also at Thursday’s meeting:
*Chancellor Cheryl Hyman announced the appointment of Arshele Stevens as the new president of Kennedy-King College.
Stevens, who has served as Interim President of Kennedy-King since July 2013, implemented a “mandatory tutoring program to tackle problems related to satisfactory academic progress and retention” at the college, according to a press release.
She joined CCC in 2011 and worked as the system’s vice chancellor and chief information officer before taking the top spot at Kennedy-King. In total, Stevens has worked in education for 20 years, and spent seven years at Chicago Public Schools before moving to CCC.
*The CCC Board passed a resolution that allows students who have earned a 21 or higher on the English portion of the ACT to enter English 101, a college-level English course, without having to take the COMPASS test. Currently, all students are required to take the COMPASS, which is used to determine whether students are prepared for placement in college level courses.
Students who have not taken the ACT or have a score lower than 21 will continue to take the COMPASS test.
“More systematic use of the ACT, where possible, will allow CCC to more efficiently determine course placement, saving time and resources for students and taxpayers,” according to Hayes.
This article was originally published on the Daily Whale website in 2013.