The "Kronos Guy" Blog

So our last QuickTip illustrated the process of recording a labor account at the start of a shift.  An underused and often confusing process to say the least.  So even though most users are familiar with this type of labor account transfer, we decided to include a QuickTip on labor account transfers in the middle or end of a shift.  Again, we are trying to change your perspective when recording this by asking the following questions: 

Skills and certifications are a useful Kronos feature that allows organizations to schedule employees more effectively.  By using skills and certification, a business can better serve its customers or a hospital can ensure that departments have nurses with specific certifications. Let’s start by defining skills and certifications, and then talk about where Kronos stores this information, and finally, how it is used.

Anyone who has experience will tell you that the retail market (as opposed to manufacturing, health care or government/education) is very unique.  When planning a Workforce Timekeeper upgrade or implementation, a critical aspect of the overall success and adoption of the system is application/system training; a top consideration should be: How can Workforce Timekeeper training be adapted to the retail environment?  This is by no means an in-depth blog entry, but more of a quick review, the main ideas expressed here can be used to develop something more individualized for a retail organizations individual needs.  So let's start:

So a few years ago, I was shopping with my wife and she found what must have been the most beautiful sweater ever made.  The color and fabric were perfect for me; it was cool! I  know this because those were her exact words.  Anyway, I tried it on and found it to be a little itchy.  "Don't worry about it," my wife replied, "that will go away after a few washings, besides, it's on sale!"  Well, guess what, it's been washed 10 to 15 times by now, and though it still looks cool, the thing continues to itch like crazy.  I purchased something I really liked, but was less than happy with so I could save money.

Goals.  We love them.  We set them, we strive for them, we meet them.  Sometimes we exceed a goal and sometimes we come up short.  Regardless, goals are a great way to motivate us.  Now, I am an obsessive goal-setter, but here is the catch.  I set too many goals.  Why is this a bad thing?  Well, when a lot of goals are set, it's common to miss a few.  Heck, it's common for me to just plain forget some of them.  Why?  They become unmanageable; and when they are unmanageable, they are unimportant.  There.  I said it.  I know that some folks will argue this point, thinking all goals are important.  That just isn't the case.  Setting too many goals lessens their significance, therefore, going against the goal of setting a goal! So what goals should be set for Workforce Timekeeper training?  Shoot, how do we qualify a goal as good in the first place?  Here are a few things to think about...

In previous entries of this series, we discussed how to build KRonos training for non-technical learners. We discussed why non technical learners are well, non technical. We also developed tactics to follow when writing curriculum for a class of non technical learners. So, we understand a lot of this stuff, but when we are actually in a class, how can we direct the event to this type of learner? 

I’m sure you have heard this before.  Your nurses are too busy to sit around the timeclock waiting to punch in and out.  They need to get to work, and worrying about department transfers will simply slow them down, or worse yet, take them away from what they are supposed to do, care for their patients. 

This is a continuation of the blog series dealing with non technical learners training on Workforce Timekeeper.  In this entry, I will discuss how we should build training materials for non-technical learners understanding Kronos Workforce Timekeeper.  In previous entries in this series, I discussed some of the characteristics of non-technical learners, why they are not technical, and how to adapt to them.  We should take into consideration these learners both when developing materials and in training events.  So lets revisit some of the tactics we should take when building learning materials.