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| Vol. 40, No. 6 -- June 2005 | ||||
Vol. 40, No. 6 -- June 2005
ePayStubs provide Loudon a remedy for payday headaches
Every two weeks, Loudoun County’s Department of Financial Services used to print thousands of paper pay stubs for employees. The stacks of pay stubs were counted manually and placed into a folding and sealing machine. The pay stubs were separated by department, placed in boxes and wheeled down three floors to the Treasurer’s Office. Payroll liaisons from each department in the county government were required to drive to the Government Center to pick up their box of pay stubs, go back to their office and manually distribute pay stubs into employee mailboxes in multiple locations throughout the county.
The process was expensive and inefficient. The solution: Electronic pay stubs, often referred to as ePayStubs.
Planning and research
The Department of Financial Services initiated a dialogue with the Department of Information Technology in January 2003. A workgroup was established to discuss options for distributing ePayStubs. Representatives from the Department of Management Services and county administration were consulted regularly to discuss employee relation issues. The County Attorney’s office was consulted to discuss any legal issues. The director of information technology opened dialogue on the subject with a listserv group that included IT directors and administrators from governmental organizations across Virginia. Several of the group members subsequently contacted the ePayStub project managers for more information about how the program was implemented. The county also consulted with the employees of the Virginia General Assembly and carefully researched the Code of Virginia to be sure that all requirements were met.
In planning for distribution of the ePayStubs, an original idea to use e-mail with the ePayStub as an attachment was quickly replaced by a Web-based solution. This way, an e-mail account was not a requirement to view the pay stub and instead, employees would be able to access their pay stubs via any PC that was connected to the Internet or Intranet. This saved the county thousands of dollars in extra licenses for new e-mail accounts and followed the growing trend toward Web-based solutions.
In the early 1990s, direct deposit was made a condition of employment for new employees. When this program was implemented, only 3 percent of employees received paper checks. Employees that chose to continue to receive a paper paycheck were informed that their checks would be sent via regular U.S. mail. The ePayStubs are posted for all county employees, regardless of direct-deposit status. A number of employees moved to direct-deposit. The county currently issues paper paychecks to fewer than 30 regular full-time employees out of approximately 3,000.
Development, innovations and customizations
The registration and login processes were developed with three factors in mind: simplicity, security and self-maintenance. To use ePayStubs, employees simply registered using their employee ID number, last name, zip code, and then chose a password. No new login ID was required. For security purposes, the ID number is obscured with asterisks when registering or logging into the system. It is not visible to anyone, including the employee. Password security is at the highest level possible with a requirement of both alpha and numeric characters, and at least one non-alphanumeric character (such as a “$” or “!”). Both the ID and password are sent with encryption and md5 hashes, making it almost impossible to hack. (The county also employs no less than two firewalls to block out illegal activity.) The county did provide an option for “opting out” of access via the Internet. This option must be selected at the time of registration. For ease of reference, instructions for completing the registration, including password requirements, are made available on the registration screen. Finally, the ePayStub program was designed so that if an employee forgets his or her password, the employee can simply click a “Forgot Password” button, re-enter their employee ID, last name, and zip code, then choose a new password – all within the Web-based interface. To maintain security, this can only be done from the Intranet.
Using ePayStubs
Once registered, an employee can immediately login to check his/her ePayStub. A counter states how old the password is and a note recommends that it be changed every 90 days. To view the ePayStub, employess simply select the pay date from the drop down menu and the pay stub appears. The ePayStubs are listed in descending chronological order. Up to three years of pay stubs are stored on-line.
The workgroup carefully reviewed the layout of ePayStub as it compared to the paper version and determined that a number of improvements could be made. Increasing the font sizes made the entire pay stub much easier to read. Headings were bolded and color was added to each heading block to provide a very user-friendly look and feel. Most of the critical information was placed in table format, making it much easier to follow the rows of data. The “Leave Accrual” block was changed from a large, wide block with a small font to a table similar to the other tables of important data. Finally, the “Net Pay” line was bolded to provide a quick reference point for verifying the most critical information of the ePayStub. All development of the ePayStub, including the database, interfaces with the county’s payroll system and was done completely in-house by county employees.
Notification, documentation and training
The Department of Financial Services issued memorandums to all department heads in the county to establish open lines of communication about the ePayStub program and solicit feedback. The office automation coordinators and payroll liaisons in each department were contacted to discuss implementation plans and any technical issues. Particular attention was paid to employees who were not as computer savvy as their cohorts. Finally, demonstrations were done for both the department heads and the automation coordinators, as well as for individual departments. Demonstrations open to county employees who wished to see the application before using it also were provided. Time was provided for employees to register on-the-spot if so desired. Documentation with step-by-step instructions was provided both in paper and electronic format.
“Effective communication was the key to success. The more people were informed about what was happening, the easier it was to make the change,” said Chris Rossbach, who served as project manager.
“We reserved our Board of Supervisors meeting room for large group training and question and answer sessions,” he said. “We helped some folks learn to use a mouse for the first time. This kind of personal touch went a long way toward making people feel comfortable with the new system.”
Implementation
A pilot group of five departments was chosen (all of whom volunteered) and a date for implementation was set. Feedback on all facets of the ePayStub program was solicited and as a result, the system was further tweaked to better suit the needs of county employees. Two pay periods after implementation, paper pay stubs were no longer issued to the pilot group. The program proved to be an overwhelming success. A schedule of implementation for the remaining departments was created and by January 2004, all employees in the county government had been trained and were using ePayStubs.
Enhancements
To make it even easier on employees, the county began sending e-mail notifications each pay period with a link to EPayStubs. Thus, an employee could click on a link to review his/her pay stub without having to manually open the web browser and type the address. Documentation was written and added to the county’s Procedures Manual. Finally, the program was added to the Loudoun County new employee orientation program to complete the implementation of the EPayStubs Project.
In short, the EPayStub initiative represented a major enhancement for the government of Loudoun County. It provides the county annual savings of more than $25,000 in employee time and supplies.
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