Optimizing HR management processes for 90,000 public sector workers with GXflow.
The National Civil Service Office is responsible for the development and implementation of the attendance management module of SGH 2.0. The objective of this application is to optimize all processes related to Attendance management in the Central Government. GeneXus, GXserver and GXflow were the technologies selected to help achieve this objective.
SGH 2.0 is an IT system developed with GeneXus, GXserver and GXflow that is being implemented since early 2012 to enable optimal employee attendance management. It falls within the scope of the National Civil Service Office (ONSC) -Executive Unit of the Presidency of the Republic of Uruguay- whose main objective is to define and promote HR management policies in the Central Government. It should be pointed out that the Central Government is composed of the Presidency and 13 state departments, comprising a total of 121 executive units with about 90,000 employees.
The system was created with the purpose of using technology to achieve efficient, flexible and transparent attendance management. In this complex scenario, a dynamic and scalable tool was needed to automate employee processes, self-management of incidences, queries, current accounts and all the information generated in their working days. According to Project Director Rodrigo Martínez, GeneXus Server and GXflow proved to be the right technologies for this project because they have low resource requirements and allow realizing the maximum potential in managing data from large user groups. In addition, processes run smoothly thanks to GXflow. The result was a full web application with a focus on user interface design.
This implementation, which has been gradually and successfully performed in various Central Government bodies, is expected to reach 90,000 users within three years. However, the optimization of these processes -among other advantages- can already be seen and paper forms, signatures and delivery waiting times have been eliminated. According to Ivonne Barbé, HR Director at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay (MIEM): “We have reduced the use of paper and achieved great agility for processing requests, authorizations and notifications of incidences, considering that the Unit’s offices are geographically dispersed.”
Celia Tiscornia, CPA and Head of the HR Management Techniques Unit at the National Civil Service Office said that “Employee attendance management is implemented through SGH 2.0; thanks to this implementation, employee attendance is managed in a customized, direct and transparent way. It is customized because incidences and their corresponding authorizations are entered into the system by the employees themselves and/or their managers; it is direct because there are no intermediate proceedings, and everything is performed through the system; and it is transparent because data is available online at any time of the month for all those involved... When the system is fully implemented, these three basic conditions will allow us to achieve efficiency and decentralization in the traditional task of “Registration and Control”, with the resulting savings of work hours in the Department and the possibility to apply them to tasks aimed at efficient HR management.”
At present, modules are being developed for performance evaluation, training, health and occupational hygiene and are scheduled for release in the near future. In addition, touch screen terminals are planned to be incorporated in order to reach those employees who don’t have computers at their workplaces.
+ This project, version 2.0, was undertaken by the end of 2010 to replace version 1.0, which had been developed with Oracle Forms in 1993.
+ It was developed using GeneXus, GeneXus Server, GXflow, Microsoft SQL Server, Apache and JAVA.
+ The KB is made up of 135 transactions, 554 web panels and web components, and 818 Procedures.
+ When fully implemented, it will centralize the attendance management of about 90,000 employees.
A dynamic mechanism for managing work attendance and incidences is crucial for an organization that comprises a large number of employees, both to support attendance control and employee retention, and to manage vacations, among other labor-related day-to-day proceedings.
Far from being an invasive control of Central Government employees, attendance management allows nearly 90,000 employees to smoothly manage the 60 different types of incidences that, in average, exist in each executive unit.
Optimization of HR staff work
The application also generates data that is made available to the HR Department for evaluation, generation and verification of employee management policies. For example, they can undertake a cultural change if they deem it necessary, based on the analysis of summarized incident data used by the staff and on the criteria used by managers to grant authorizations.
How does it work?
• Incidences are entered: users enter incidences (for example: individual hours, vacations, commissions, etc.). An email is immediately sent to the manager who must be notified or who is responsible for granting an authorization.
• Monthly closings: the system groups incidences occurred every month. In addition, it allows viewing the number of minutes away from the office that haven't been accounted for, or minutes worked out of working hours.
• Management reports: real-time reports can be obtained to exchange data with other systems through spreadsheets or other means. This data can be fed into other databases and be used, for example, to enter movements in the payroll calculation system and perform crossings with accounting data, with medical care systems, statistical systems, etc.
As a result, the HR staff’s work is enhanced, because they no longer have to spend time on repetitive, boring tasks such as calculating minutes late for work, or unaccounted for time away from the office. Instead, they can focus on tasks inherent to HR management such as personnel planning, selection and recruitment, training, and evaluation.
Having a single database provides information for data analysis and decision-making, both at each department level and at Central Government level.
The system was created with the purpose of using technology to achieve efficient, flexible and transparent attendance management. In this complex scenario, a dynamic and scalable tool was needed to automate employee processes, self-management of incidences, queries, current accounts and all the information generated in their working days. According to Project Director Rodrigo Martínez, GeneXus Server and GXflow proved to be the right technologies for this project because they have low resource requirements and allow realizing the maximum potential in managing data from large user groups. In addition, processes run smoothly thanks to GXflow. The result was a full web application with a focus on user interface design.
This implementation, which has been gradually and successfully performed in various Central Government bodies, is expected to reach 90,000 users within three years. However, the optimization of these processes -among other advantages- can already be seen and paper forms, signatures and delivery waiting times have been eliminated. According to Ivonne Barbé, HR Director at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay (MIEM): “We have reduced the use of paper and achieved great agility for processing requests, authorizations and notifications of incidences, considering that the Unit’s offices are geographically dispersed.”
Celia Tiscornia, CPA and Head of the HR Management Techniques Unit at the National Civil Service Office said that “Employee attendance management is implemented through SGH 2.0; thanks to this implementation, employee attendance is managed in a customized, direct and transparent way. It is customized because incidences and their corresponding authorizations are entered into the system by the employees themselves and/or their managers; it is direct because there are no intermediate proceedings, and everything is performed through the system; and it is transparent because data is available online at any time of the month for all those involved... When the system is fully implemented, these three basic conditions will allow us to achieve efficiency and decentralization in the traditional task of “Registration and Control”, with the resulting savings of work hours in the Department and the possibility to apply them to tasks aimed at efficient HR management.”
At present, modules are being developed for performance evaluation, training, health and occupational hygiene and are scheduled for release in the near future. In addition, touch screen terminals are planned to be incorporated in order to reach those employees who don’t have computers at their workplaces.
+ This project, version 2.0, was undertaken by the end of 2010 to replace version 1.0, which had been developed with Oracle Forms in 1993.
+ It was developed using GeneXus, GeneXus Server, GXflow, Microsoft SQL Server, Apache and JAVA.
+ The KB is made up of 135 transactions, 554 web panels and web components, and 818 Procedures.
+ When fully implemented, it will centralize the attendance management of about 90,000 employees.
A dynamic mechanism for managing work attendance and incidences is crucial for an organization that comprises a large number of employees, both to support attendance control and employee retention, and to manage vacations, among other labor-related day-to-day proceedings.
Far from being an invasive control of Central Government employees, attendance management allows nearly 90,000 employees to smoothly manage the 60 different types of incidences that, in average, exist in each executive unit.
Optimization of HR staff work
The application also generates data that is made available to the HR Department for evaluation, generation and verification of employee management policies. For example, they can undertake a cultural change if they deem it necessary, based on the analysis of summarized incident data used by the staff and on the criteria used by managers to grant authorizations.
How does it work?
• Incidences are entered: users enter incidences (for example: individual hours, vacations, commissions, etc.). An email is immediately sent to the manager who must be notified or who is responsible for granting an authorization.
• Monthly closings: the system groups incidences occurred every month. In addition, it allows viewing the number of minutes away from the office that haven't been accounted for, or minutes worked out of working hours.
• Management reports: real-time reports can be obtained to exchange data with other systems through spreadsheets or other means. This data can be fed into other databases and be used, for example, to enter movements in the payroll calculation system and perform crossings with accounting data, with medical care systems, statistical systems, etc.
As a result, the HR staff’s work is enhanced, because they no longer have to spend time on repetitive, boring tasks such as calculating minutes late for work, or unaccounted for time away from the office. Instead, they can focus on tasks inherent to HR management such as personnel planning, selection and recruitment, training, and evaluation.
Having a single database provides information for data analysis and decision-making, both at each department level and at Central Government level.