Kronos Workforce Central Software

Overall, a good system, but could improve.

Pros

What I like most about Kronos is it's reporting features within the system. Working in our HR department, we are often times asked to create very specific reports for our leadership team and Kronos allows us to get very detailed with the information we need to generate reports on in the system. Another feature I really enjoy is the timekeeping side of the system. Employees always share with us how simple the process is to record their time, which is nice when you have a large amount of employees to keep track of their time.

Cons

What I like least about the system is that it is often very difficult to understand how a change in one area of the system will have an effect on other areas of the system because their is so much information being stored in so many different ways within the platform. Something as simple as a date change in Kronos can effect so many other areas that you don't realize until you stumble across a problem later down the road. It would be nice to see Kronos make the system more user friendly for those not as ingrained in the system.

It's ok

Kronos Workforce Central is probably best suited to a large, multi-location corporation. If you are a small business with, say, under 100 employees, it is probably overkill.

Pros

The system is very flexible. It's underlying database is SQL-based, which means it will run on many database platforms, and be accessible to your database administrators and analysts. The timeclocks are very reliable.

Cons

The version 6 user interface is awkward, and because it is written in java, it can require some degree of configuration management of your desktop browsers. With flexibility comes the need for a lot of customization of your timekeeping rules. While it is SQL based, you'll have to invest a lot of time in understanding the table structure if you want to generate reports that Workforce Central can't do. Cost of product is very expensive, as licenses are required for managers, users (if, say, you want your employees to be able to view their own data). Upgrading to new versions is challenging and requires purchasing new licenses.

Configuration Vs Custumization

Kronos WFC continues to listen to the users to develop new and innovative ways to look after business operations. It's the working relationship with their customers that puts Kronos at the head of the pack.

Pros

Configuration vs. Customization. Kronos WFC allows you to configure the system to meet the needs of your business, which allows a large range of options to the company. Customization usually requires a custom build that is not part of the product and can cause issues down the road when changing your business needs or applying an upgrade to the system. Kronos allow the user to learn the system set up and configure the system to meet their needs. This translates to a scaleable software that can easily adjust to changes in your business. Kronos is also a very easy system to learn and manage, both from a user perspective as well as a system support side. The features of the software allow businesses to change on the fly without disruption to business.

Cons

From a cost point, Kronos WFC is a big investment and can sometimes be a challenge to show ROI. As a standalone product the ROI is real and significant, however adding licences for each additional suite product can add up.

Out of the box, Kronos Workforce Central works just right for our organization!

So far, so good is my experience with Kronos. I enjoy learning new things all the time and I have only the utmost respect for those technicians that, given the right feedback on what we need, they seem to know exactly how to help each and every time.

Pros

I believe the entire suite is satisfactory. Our employees use the Kronos clocks to log their time and enter PTO requests. Managers get the request and approve them as they see fit. KWC has tons of reporting options, lots of ways to view data. And by tons of reports I mean an overwhelming amount that would be great for analysts to use as needed for managerial decision. As an admin I can assign different reporting and security choices to user as needed for the individual to perform their work. A huge plus: their technical support staff always happens to be

Especially useful for health system payroll management. Convenient for managers and employees to enter, check, and direct hours and PTO.

Overall, the simplicity and accuracy of the product, in addition with its ability to integrate with various clock systems -- whether managing hourly or salaried clinical or professional staff -- are well worth the added complexity of a catchall system.

Pros

Very helpful for managers who have both hourly and salaried direct reports, especially in healthcare professions where clinical and business side employees are managed very differently. Employees love the simplicity, and as a manager, it is very convenient for keeping track of time for hourly and salaried clinical and non-clinical staff alike.

Cons

It is a little complex occasionally. Although the ability to manage several types of employees in one place is convenient, it also means that there is a lot of information that does not apply to each individual. It's a necessary tradeoff for the convenience factor that is nevertheless irritating at times, especially to the individual employees who see no added value.

Awesome Software and Support

Awesome system and I would recommend to others.

Pros

WFC is very user friendly. If I do have an issue that comes up their support team is awesome to deal with. They do not just fix the issue, they explain how the issue may have come about and why they are recommending this fix. Everything is much easier in the Cloud and I like the on line ability to open and view my cases.

Cons

I have spoken to many payroll users at conferences and one drawback is the fact that users are not mandated to enter in Comments and/or Notes in Kronos. this would help tremendously.

upgrade to 8.0 was a big disappointment as many of the available tabs and views that we had before are no longer working

Pros

Easier than figuring time cards by hand! The system can be configured to pay different shift differentials to different sets of employees.

Cons

I lost the historical view and abilities that I had before. I lost a way to delete a moved amount. I lost the moved amounts tab that only appears when a move is made. I now have a much longer scroll to view just 1 time card since it only show 2 punches per line. I lost the approval tab that shows what manager approved the time card.

Could be better.

I would be unlikely to recommend this product due to the unfavorable experiences we had during implementation and recent upgrade to version 8. I find it difficult to find information on the community site and do not care for the new format. I think support needs to work just a little bit harder to get it right.

Pros

It has a lot of potential to be a great system. It's relatively easy to use. More than one person at a time can work on the same page.

Cons

It doesn't live up to its potential. Although it claims to be, it's not a fully integrated system. It is not consistent in the functionality.

Kronos Reveiw

The product has been a good step up from what we had be before. It is capable of more calculations and automation.

Pros

I like the genie feature for quick reporting and also the complexity that the interfaces we had build have.

Cons

System speed is often an issue. The reporting is very limited and not easy to customize. The genies also have limitation and you cannot combine information from a detailed genie with an accural genie, causing us to have to do a lot more work in excel.
Response time from KGS is slow and case seem to be left open with no resolutions for too long. I find that I have to constantly monitor the case log and send updates asking for meetings or timelines when I can get answers/help.

Kronos-Helpful Tool for Employees to Record Time and Access Payroll Information

I would recommend this product to larger organizations as it streamlines the payroll process and has robust reporting.

Pros

Especially helpful for managing payroll for employee scattered in the region. I found the tool was very easy for employees to learn and easy for them to document their time even if recording time out of the office. Employees could access their pay information from home and able to print a summary of all the paystubs. It also kept track of their hours earned for PTO and recalculated as they used their PTO hours. This probably worked best for larger businesses such as a 100+ employees.

Cons

Obviously the software cost was a little pricey but the return on the investment of saving time and resources to calculate payroll was quick with a large employee base. It still requires a manager to prompt employees to record their time. It was difficult to make the employee realize that it was their accountability to record their time but even with non-compliance by the employee, it is always the responsibility of the manager to pay the employee. This is more of an business policy then a fault of the software.

It is a great software with a great amount of functionalities, but lacks ease of use.

Pros

It has a lot of options and customization tools, it can let you pull all sort of reports with all the employees in the system, also allows to create notifications and reminders for individual employees as well as for group of employees. The reports are customizable and allows to create the different roles to match every need.

Cons

The software lacks depth sometimes needed for approaching specific reports, even thought it has a great variety of customization options some of the lack ability to modified to fit specific needs . Some reports have to be pulled with trial and error since its not clear with the option what results you will be getting. The learning curve is too steep.

Kronos Review

Pros

In my organization, we use Kronos as our HRIS system. The best function within Kronos is the timekeeping system, which has allowed us to completely get rid of hand written timecards. Within the timekeeping system, we have also utilized several of the add-on features such as delegate authority allowing managers to delegate their employee's timecards to other managers within their departments when that manager is out of the office or on vacation for approval.

Cons

Having used Kronos for several years now, my biggest complaints is that the system overall is not very appealing to the eye. In recent updates, Kronos has tried to make the appearance a little bit better such as the new tile look for the employee homepage, but this is an area that I believe the system still could use many improvements. Overall, the system is good, but at times the appearance, titles for different functions, etc. could be greatly improved.

All solutions with one vendor to manage time, attendance, scheduling, human resources and payroll!

Pros

Ease of use, great customer support from sales to service to global support, able to customize to our needs, easy for our end users to use and understand, having divisions set up by industry, being HOSTED in the cloud saves us time and money!

Cons

The only con I have is our industry post-acute care is usually combined with all healthcare and our needs are very different from a hospital however, Kronos has come a long way in the past few years by dedicating more time and staff to our industry.

Kronos Workforce Central

I have been a Kronos customer for almost twenty years. The software and hardware provided by Kronos continue to improve and keep up with and exceed industry standards. I would recommend Kronos WFC for any medium to the large company requiring a Time/Attendance, Scheduling, and/or Attestation solution. The customer service is great and they will let you do everything yourself or can provide full support. There are also plenty of candidates to hire with Kronos experience. Incoming employees have often used Kronos at a previous company and get up to speed quickly.

Pros

Kronos does everything you need for a robust corporation. Pricing is a la carte so you only what for whatever products you need in whatever quantities.

Cons

Kronos may not be the right fit for a mom & pop company with limited requirements.

Okay but manual work needed

Pros

The scheduling portion is amazing. It has great reporting capabilities.
Entering time changes, PTO requests, reimbursements etc is really easy.

Cons

We have both systems and they don't talk to each other like we were told they would.
They gave us a temporary "fix" for this problem that only last about 6 weeks.
Calling in for customer service can be cumbersome at times.

Essential software for keeping control of your workforce.

If one would like to manage one's workforce more efficiently, one would most likely need this software!

Pros

Makes paperwork and payroll editing a breeze. Would not know what to do without this software. Very feature loaded. Allows you to keep glances on payroll, edit pay times, add pay times, keep track of time-in, time-out, EO'd, vacations, etc.

Cons

The amount of keystrokes, shortcuts, and just knowing how to navigate the software in initial run. However, learning curve is not difficult, and pretty much repetitive once we get the hang of it.

Poorly written software

Pros

Best? I'm really unable to come up with an answer to this question. I'm concerned that administrators might rely on reports using this software as a basis for making decisions.

Cons

System unable to make calculations and auto fill in most basic areas. Instead it requires same information to be entered multiple times in multiple places increasing opportunity for error. This system not ideal for healthcare scheduling applications. Multiple glitches requiring necessity of Payroll Dept writing supplemental checks for employees.

System frequently freezes and requires clearing of Java and restarting.

Vendor charges extra for any and all customization.

Easy to learn yet complex system

Pros

System was easy to learn. Clear options on features. Allowed for multiple reports and ability to not only look at raw attendance data but transform it into costs analysis.

Cons

Could get confusing on running reports. Setting schedule patterns was extremely difficult. It proved an issue every time in getting it to line up with other associates of a same department.

The nightmare started with the conversion and continued for 5 years....then we chose a new vendor.

Again, I would never use the Kronos products...none of them. Also, their support group could not fix a lot of our problems...instead they would give us a work around.

Pros

The time and attendance product does have a lot of features. However, the products costs a fortune to set up and it takes a ton of tweaks to get it to work. Even after all of the tweaks we had a ton of work a rounds because Kronos could not fix out issues.

Cons

The whole system. We were told that the HRIS and the payroll were one system, but that is not true. They are two separate systems and you have to update the system every night in order for both programs to have the same data. The HRIS system never worked correctly. The reporting did not work. The ACA set up was wrong and we were not able to submit the electronic part of the ACA at all. The timekeeper had a lot of work around's. At times, the timekeeper lost information and no one could tell us why. Basically, it was awful...I would never recommend this product.

Kronos is great for some industries, but not so great for others

Kronos has a lot of whistles and bells, so if you have deep pockets and a need to manage timekeeping for a large number of employees in different locations with unique needs by location, Kronos may be a good fit. If your timekeeping policies are not strict (i.e., you allow employees to flex, work from home), I would recommend a less expensive, simpler tool for timekeeping. You may get more bang for your buck if you also use Kronos HR and payroll modules (we do not).

Pros

The software has been around for a long time and is not buggy. Most of the issues we have observed are due to the configuration. The implementation folks were very knowledgeable. We are using the latest version of Kronos (v8.0.11)

Cons

Configuration is VERY complicated. We did the majority of it on our own to save cost (Kronos charges $180/hr), and the set-up and roll-out to over 1,500 employees took over a year. The interface with our ERP is also clunky and a bit of a black box. Kronos changed their customer support portal in October 2016, which was right in the middle of our launch, and they did not migrate all of the documentation until a few months later. That was not fun.