Sharon Grandison, director of human resources at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, is one of the 2017-2018 recipients of the Excellence Through Innovation Awards (ETIA), presented each year by the University of Toronto. The awards recognize the contributions of administrative staff in advancing the University’s strategic objectives, encouraging administrative innovation and providing a platform for sharing best practices.
Grandison was nominated for the award by Rosanne Lopers-Sweetman, chief administrative officer at KPE, for her work on the Implementation of Technological Innovations for Appointed and Casual Staff initiative. Grandison piloted an electronic time-tracking system called Kronos for hourly-paid staff at KPE, which has been rolled out in many other locations on campus.
“I am thrilled that this KPE project has turned into an institution wide, centrally funded initiative that is positively impacting so many staff and employees,” said Grandison. “I couldn’t have done this without the support and determination of Janice MacDonald, payroll officer at KPE, who was also an integral contributor to this project. I will share my award with her.”
The Faculty of KPE annually employs casual staff, mostly students, in about 1200 different positions across all departments. Manual tracking and paper processes presented numerous operational challenges, caused frequent errors and took up a lot of administrative time to process. Working closely with colleagues in Enterprise Applications and Solutions integration (EASI) and at Kronos, Grandison led the successful implementation of Kronos, which became known as UTime, at KPE.
Janice Macdonald, right, seen here with Sharon Grandison, who nominated her for the KPE Award of Excellence in 2016, for her contribution to the Kronos/uTime project
"Since implementing Kronos, I no longer have to deal with thousands of paper timesheets,” says MacDonald. “I can now spend time with department managers to better explain University-wide payroll related policies, procedures and legislation that impact managers' daily operations. The information is accurate and payroll has become a streamlined process.”
All awardees were treated to a special reception at the President’s residence on November 20 and received an email from the University’s True Blue Recognition Platform inviting them to select a gift with the points assigned to their account.