Contributed for Mark Coldren, Associate Vice President for Human Resources.
“TRAC” is the new on-line Time Reporting and Accrual Collection system that staff and student employees will use to capture key information such as time worked, and medical, vacation, and personal time accrual and usage. All staff and student employees will interact with this tool starting February 2008.
TRAC has been a collaborative effort of Human Resources, Student Employment, and Information Technology Services to design and implement an on-line process that makes sense and meets the organizational needs of the College. Currently all staff that are paid hourly (non-exempt) and student employees are required to complete a paper time report form known as the infamous “TRF” for each pay period that they have worked. This reporting process is required by law and is designed to accurately record the hours that people work to be able to pay them appropriately. The current practice on campus is to have hourly staff and student employees submit a paper TRF form to their supervisor who then sends them along to the HR/Payroll group. These TRF forms are then manually separated, manually keyed into the system, and then balanced and reviewed in Parnassus (IC’s HR and financial computer system). This is a very time intensive and manual process that clearly has an opportunity to improve!
The new TRAC system will have all hourly staff and student employees enter their time worked on-line and submit it to their supervisors electronically for review and approval. Some departments use a clock to capture this work time. There will be new clocks put in place that interact with the TRAC system so individuals will be able to swipe their ID cards to “clock in” and “clock out”. We are excited to make this a streamlined and efficient process.
One other important aspect of using the TRAC system will be the introduction of on-line record keeping of accruals. Accruals are the time we use outside of work such as when we are sick, vacations, and personal time. All benefits eligible staff (hourly and salaried or non-exempt and exempt) accrue time to be used during the course of the fiscal year. This has been a manual and paper-based process tracked by each department area. When we start with TRAC next February, all accrual record keeping will be done on-line electronically. The monthly additions that we receive for sick and vacation time will be increased automatically based on your length of service. Staff members will be expected to enter any use of accrued time off each pay period using the Employee Self-Service feature in Parnassus.
We will continue to update you on information regarding the process of implementing TRAC over the course of the fall semester. There will be informational and training sessions offered for student employees, staff, and supervisors. If you have any questions, please contact myself (x-3853 or mcoldren@ithaca.edu) or anyone in Human Resources or Student Employment.
Thanks!
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20070815163622929