“Kronos performed exceptionally well in the first quarter,” said Aron Ain, Kronos chief executive officer. “There’s no doubt that our strategy of innovation is creating business demand, driving our financial performance, and completely transforming the way organizations manage their workforce. We fully anticipate a continuation of this momentum throughout Fiscal 2012.”

First-Quarter News Facts

• In the first quarter of Fiscal 2012, Kronos signed agreements with organizations around the world such as: ARAMARK, a global leader in providing award-winning professional services; Best Buy Mexico, a leading electronics retailer; Continuum Health Partners, parent company of four distinguished voluntary teaching hospitals including Beth Israel Medical Center, St. Luke’s Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital, and New York Eye & Ear Infirmary; El Paso County in east central Colorado; Gaylord Entertainment, a leading hospitality and entertainment company based in Nashville, Tenn.; Harrison County Board of Supervisors in Harrison County, Mississippi, located along the Mississippi Gulf Coast; Hannaford Bros Co., a supermarket chain operating in New England and upstate New York; INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma’s largest health system; Lehigh Hanson, one of the largest construction materials companies in North America and part of the Heidelberg Cement Group; Maryland Live! Casino, a gaming and entertainment destination located in Maryland; Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, the largest fire/rescue agency in Palm Beach County, Florida; Peet’s Coffee & Tea, specialty coffee roaster and retailer; Pep Boys, a full-service and tire automotive aftermarket chain; Prestige Care, assisted living skilled nursing and retirement communities in eight Western states; Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Ind., the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system; Ridgeview Medical Center, an independent, regional health care network serving the west-metro area in Minnesota; Sainsbury’s, a leading food retailer with more than 150,000 colleagues across more than 1,000 sites in the UK; Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, a faith-based, not-for-profit health system; SEHA (Abu Dhabi Health Services Company), an independent public joint stock company founded to manage the curative activities of the public hospitals and clinics of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi; The City of Nashua, the second-largest city in New Hampshire; The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), one of the largest and oldest children’s hospitals in the world; Tru Blu Beverages, a leading Sydney, Australia-based manufacturer of juices, mineral waters, soft drinks, and energy drinks; and Winter Haven Hospital, serving as the major medical center for east Polk and Highlands counties in Florida.
• Sales of revolutionary new time clock exceed expectations – The new Kronos InTouch™ time clock reshapes the way organizations think about, and employees interact with, their workforce management solutions. Kronos booked nearly 4,000 units of InTouch in the first 45 days, as organizations across all targeted vertical markets begin to embrace the time clock’s unrivaled user experience, seamless integration, cloud readiness, application platform, and rock-solid reliability.
• Product revenue growth continues – For the past two years, Kronos has been delivering on its vision for the next generation of workforce management, innovating faster than ever before by delivering unprecedented functionality and ease of use. Its new user interface, mobile applications, and InTouch time clock are quickly achieving widespread adoption, contributing to product revenue growth in the first quarter. As another indication of its innovative product offerings, in a year-over-year comparison, Kronos closed more transactions with new customers during the quarter. In addition, sales of its labor analytics, human resources and payroll, and scheduling products significantly increased year over year. During the quarter, Kronos delivered the latest version of its award-winning mobile applications and a major new release of its Workforce Central® suite.
• Million-dollar orders on the rise – Kronos closed a significant number of million-dollar orders in the quarter, with significant orders from new and existing customers including a leading international hotel chain; multinational healthcare products manufacturer; leading food retailer; multinational food service and facilities management company; highly respected university; and several state department of transportation groups.
• Vertical expertise as a competitive differentiator – Kronos’ vertical-specific approach to software and services continues to deliver enormous benefits to organizations seeking to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Continued expansion took place within all industry groups, with significant acceleration in retail, hospitality, public sector, manufacturing, and long-term care.
• Cloud services continues steady growth – Annual contract bookings increased 88 percent year over year, as organizations increasingly embrace Kronos’ cloud services offering including application hosting and system management and monitoring. Today Kronos hosts its application for hundreds of current customers.
• Strong contribution from international regions – International product bookings increased a stunning 48 percent year on year. Significant product wins occurred around the globe including meaningful customer expansion in the Middle East, UK, South Africa, India, and Mexico. Today Kronos is the only workforce management provider with a true global solution that meets complex work rules in more than 80 countries where Kronos products are installed.

Read More…

News Facts

• As part of Sainsbury’s commitment to being a “Great Place to Work”, it required a workforce management solution to support employees by offering a consistent, fair, and equitable approach to working practices.
• Prior to selecting Kronos, Sainsbury’s managed time and attendance and scheduling through a blend of manual and partially automated processes.
• Sainsbury’s selected Kronos following an extensive search of the market on the basis of Kronos offering technology that is easy to use; having vast experience in delivering rapid implementations; and a proven track record with large-scale retail implementations.

Supporting Quotes

• Rob Fraser, IT director, Sainsbury’s
  “Kronos software will help us manage and allocate our labor in store and pay our colleagues more effectively, while allowing us to benefit from simplifying our current processes. Improved information will make it easier to provide our customers with fantastic service.”
• Tim Bisley, general manager, Kronos EMEA
  “It’s essential for retailers to manage the workforce effectively. We’re very pleased to be working with Sainsbury’s on a project that will improve their operational efficiencies and bottom-line results.”

Read more…

Due to the success and growing popularity Boeing has had with quickcharge, a promotional event was recently held for our cashless payment solution at two of Boeing’s locations, Everett and Auburn. The MM Hayes team spent two days helping employees learn about quickcharge and its many benefits: no interest, no fees, faster lines, and convenience. The event went very well — a big thanks to all of those involved!

So what are some of these great new features you ask? Here they are:

• POS Anywhere !!! This web based POS system is definitely the most exciting new feature, and the next version is just around the corner!
• POS Anywhere Offline Functionality – difficult for a web based solution, but we did it!
• Reporting – We added a bunch of new standard reports and improved the performance of all of the reports
• Kronos Integration – We made some key improvements her that allow employees to view their charges or deductions on their time cards and on Kronos 4500 terminals
• Online Ordering App for Kronos InTouch Terminals – Soon you’ll be ordering pizzas from the time clock!
• Quickcharge Kiosks – Our new kiosks can be used to load funds onto declining balance accounts using your credit card or cash and also to view transactions and deduction history. The feature list on our kiosk is growing daily … soon it might even do your laundry!
• Improved integration with POS Terminals and Vending Machines – We have increased the number of models that can be used with Quickcharge and are constantly adding more.
• Single Sign-On with Active Directory – Your IT Department will love this!
• Gift card dispensing

Some pretty cool features, huh? Some of these have not even been released yet! Got any more?

News Facts

• Elements of Successful Organizations is organized in three sections that represent essential components of a successful organization: Strong Leadership, Smart Management, and Engaged Employees. Within each section, authors tap into their own deep experience and expertise in various industries to deliver anecdotes and advice on how to achieve success.
• Edited by Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos, the book’s authors include:
  • David C. Almeda, EdD, GPHR, SPHR, vice president of Human Resources, Kronos
  • Ruth N. Bramson, CEO, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
  • Karen Brennan-Holton, senior executive, Accenture HR Transformation and Talent Management

Read more…

News Facts

• The Kronos Retail Labor Index: (This index is defined as the ratio of hires to applications within a given month, expressed as a percentage. A level of 3.0 percent means that for every 100 applications received, three hires occurred). The Kronos Retail Labor Index dipped to 3.5 percent in December 2011 from a downwardly revised 3.8 percent in November.
• Retail Hiring Level: The retailers representing 18,362 distributed locations across the U.S. that make up the Kronosdata sample made 32,570 hires (seasonally adjusted) in December 2011, down 7.6 percent from an upwardly revised 35,259 hires in November 2011. Even with the decline in December, monthly hires remain above lows reached during the recession and suggest retail hiring has improved modestly following sharp declines in 2008 and 2009.
• Retail Applications Level: The number of applications received by retailers included in the Kronos sample declined 1.2 percent to 922,474 in December 2011, from an upwardly revised 933,837 in November 2011, all on a seasonally adjusted basis. The level of applications in December was down nearly 3 percent from its level one year ago.
• Retail 60-Day Retention Rate: The 60-day retention rate, measured as the number of hires who remain employed for at least the first 60 days divided by the total number of hires made in that month, decreased to 83.1 percent (seasonally adjusted) in August from 83.8 percent in July. (Note: There is a four-month lag on this indicator as two months are required to measure whether a hire remained employed for 60 days and Kronos customers have two months to return data on separations.)

Supporting Quotes

• Chris Varvares, senior managing director and co-founder, Macroeconomic Advisers
  “The Kronos Retail Labor Index dipped to 3.5 percent in December, reflecting a 7.6 percent drop in hires made. The December decline in hires followed a strong 8.0 percent increase in hires in November, which could indicate retailers made hiring decisions earlier in the year in anticipation of increased traffic and stronger holiday sales. On average, retailers in the Kronos sample made nearly 34,000 hires in November and December, broadly consistent with the number of hires made over the previous six months. This suggests retail hiring has stabilized following sharp declines during the recession. However, retail hiring in this sample remains far below pre-recession levels, when firms made roughly 55,000 hires per month.”

Supporting Resources

• Organizations that use Kronos hiring solutions employ approximately 15 percent of the U.S. consumer retail labor market, providing Kronos with a unique set of data on employee job applications, hires, and length of service.
• The Kronos Retail Labor Index is released on a monthly basis. Go towww.kronos.com/retail-labor-index to access: the full report; a schedule of upcoming Retail Labor Index release dates; the Retail Labor Index methodology; and downloadable graphics.
• Note to reporters:  cite findings as “Kronos Retail Labor Index”.
• About Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC

Read more…

I’ve witnessed several locations reinforce their badge policy through quickcharge. Since one needs their badge to make purchases via quickcharge, companies can use that as an excuse to reiterate policies. I, for one, think this is a great idea.  Why forgo the ability to easily distinguish from a hospital employee and a hospital patron? If there are valid concerns for the opposite I would certainly be interested in them.

It’s true that cashless is king.  Credit and debit is so much easier and convenient.  But does it have to come at such a high cost?  Should you have to pay a fee to use your own money?  Shouldn’t you be able to pay for something in a cashless way without having fees associated with it?  What do you think?