IRIS Portal

Implementing Timekeeping in Employee Self Service (ESS)

The purpose of this page is to provide agencies guidance for the steps necessary to implement timekeeping in IRIS Employee Self Service (ESS), including:

1. Department Readiness
2. Employee Home Unit Verification
3. Work Cycle Assignment Review
4. Workflow Rule Verification
5. Timekeeper and Supervisor Security Roles and Worklist Verification
6. Training
7. Notify DOP Payroll Services
8. Additional Resources

STEP 1 - Department Readiness

Complete the steps outlined below to prepare for implementing timekeeping through ESS. When the steps below are completed, contact the IRIS HRM Team at iris.project@alaska.gov to initiate the scheduled implementation for your department.

After reviewing the material below, please let your IRIS HRM contact know if a meeting to further discuss the preparation steps, or process in general, will be useful. We are here to make this transition as smooth as possible.

NOTE: The following types of employees are not good candidates for ESS TIMEI entry:

• Short-term Nonpermanent
• On-call Nonpermanent
• Interns
• Employees regularly earning multiple premium pays such as overtime, shift differential, recall pay, etc.
• Employees with complex project reporting to multiple accounting resources.
• Employees working in the field without connectivity.

Employees with basic timekeeping needs who have regular access to a computer are the best candidates for ESS. Even if your agency has pockets of employees for which timekeeping via ESS may not work, this does not mean that your entire agency is prevented from using ESS. Portions of a department can choose to use ESS while a division timekeeper can continue to assist processing timesheets for those groups for which timekeeping in ESS is not feasible. An employee can report through ESS for most of the time, and submit a paper timesheet to their timekeeper when an occasional complex reporting pay period occurs.  

STEP 2 - Employee Home Unit Verification

Review the IRIS HRM Listing of Employees by Department and Home Unit with Work Cycle [XLSX] spreadsheet to verify the accuracy of the home unit assigned to each employee. Corrections must be submitted to the Division of Personnel and Labor Relations (DOPLR) through the Online Position Description System (OPD), finalized, and processed in IRIS HRM prior to the creation of TIMEIs for the implementation pay period. The effective date of home unit updates must be on or before the first day of the implementation pay period.

Note: The batch job that creates TIMEIs runs following each payroll. For example, payroll for the pay period ending March 31, 2020 ran on April 10, 2020. TIMEIs for the pay period ending March 31st were available on March 28th. Therefore, for the TIMEI to reflect the correct home unit, updates need to be final no later than March 27th with an effective date on or before March 16th.

STEP 3 - Work Cycle Assignment Review

Hours are populated in the TIMEI based on the employee’s work cycle. Review the IRIS HRM Listing of Employees by Department and Home Unit with Work Cycle [XLSX] spreadsheet to verify the accuracy of assigned work cycles. For those requiring an updated work cycle prior to ESS implementation, you will need to submit a Personnel Action Request Form (PARF) request to DOP&LR Payroll Services for processing. A complete list of available work cycles is available here [PDF].

Within IRIS HRM, the work cycle assigned to an employee can be viewed in IRIS HRM in the Employee Profile Management (EPM) Activity Folder, Employee Status Maintenance (ESMT) tab, Assignment Information section. If the work cycle field is blank, the employee’s work cycle defaults to the standard workweek such as 7:30 per day Monday through Friday for employees who work a 37:30 work week.

STEP 4 - Workflow Rule Verification

Review the Configured Workflow Rules [XLSX] spreadsheet for workflow configured in IRIS HRM. Use the report filters to narrow your search to your department and the document type of TIMEI. An additional filter by division may be useful as well.

Timesheet documents submitted by employees must be approved by a Supervisor (Level 1) and then a Timekeeper (Level 2) prior to going to DOP&LR Payroll Services for final certification.

The columns labeled “CONDITIONS LVL XX/XX” will assist you in identifying the workflow for TIMEIs submitted through ESS. The workflow condition ESS_TIME evaluates whether a TIMEI was submitted by the employee or a Timekeeper and will determine workflow based on this information.

If updates to workflow rules (routing) are necessary, these updates can be communicated via email by an IRIS Workflow Contact [XLSX] to the DOF System Security group.

STEP 5 - Timekeeper and Supervisor Security Roles and Worklist Verification

It is also important to determine that the appropriate staff are assigned the necessary security and workflow roles.

To review assignees to the approval groups, contact Amanda Thomas, IRIS Security and Workflow Business Analyst, for your department specific workbook. This workbook can be used to review security and workflow role assignments for your Supervisor and Timekeeper worklists. It can also be used to define what role assignments needs to be added in preparation for your rollout.

Without the appropriate security role, users will be unable to interact with documents that show up in their worklists. Users must have the DEPT_TIMEKEEPER OR DEPT_SUPERVISOR security role in order to work with TIMEI documents. These roles can take the following actions on TIMEI documents:

STEP 6 - Training

Prior to implementation, encourage all employees to view the following resources posted on the IRIS Portal References and Resources page for Employee Self Service (ESS).

• ESS TIMEI Job Aid [PDF]
• Change a Labor Distribution Profile [MP4] video tutorial, if applicable

Those supervisors that have not read IRIS-660: IRIS HRM for Supervisors [PDF] will want to do so to ensure they have an understanding of the approval and workflow process and the employee information available to them in IRIS HRM. In addition, employees who are on an alternate workweek and their timekeepers must review the Alternate Workweek Training [PPTX].

STEP 7 - Notify DOP Payroll Services

The final step before your agency begins using ESS for Timekeeping is to notify your DOP&LR Payroll Services contact which Home Units will be utilitizing ESS for Timekeeping and which pay period the department is planning on rolling out the service.

Additional Resources

• ESS TIMEI Helpful Hints for Timekeepers [PDF]
• Email Template [OFT] may be distributed to employees/supervisors at the end of each pay period

Questions?

Contact the IRIS HRM Team at iris.project@alaska.gov