UKG Eases Burden on Small HR Team in Managing Complex Payroll, Compliance, and People Practices

UKG Ready® is transforming workforce management at the Associated Students of California State University, Chico, a student-led auxiliary that operates university services like cafeterias and childcare centers. By leveraging the all-in-one HR suite, the auxiliary manages HR, timekeeping, payroll, and compliance efficiently, even accommodating the unique employment needs of student workers. This digital transformation has streamlined payroll processing, enhanced compliance, and supported a culture focused on equity and engagement. With UKG’s technology, the organization has reduced paperwork, increased productivity, and embraced sustainable business practices, illustrating the potential of modern HCM solutions in higher education.

University auxiliary services program drives efficiency and productivity with all-in-one UKG Ready® HR suite.

UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture solutions, today announced that the Associated Students of California State University, Chico, a student-led auxiliary of the university that runs its cafeterias, dining halls, coffee shops, and childcare centers, is leveraging the all-in-one UKG Ready^® suite to manage every aspect of its complex workforce — from HR and timekeeping to payroll and compliance reporting.

“Our biggest win with the UKG Ready suite is having an easy-to-use, single source for all HR and workforce data to help us work efficiently and maximize productivity — all while creating a great place to work environment for our entire staff,” said Thang Ho, director of IT at the Associated Students of Chico. “The solution is remarkably flexible and adapts to our evolving needs, giving us confidence in knowing that we selected a solution, and a partner in UKG, that we can rely upon for years to come.”

The Associated Students of Chico employs a diverse 550-person workforce, including a mix of professional, union, and auxiliary employees, as well as hundreds of student workers who often work multiple jobs and whose hours can fluctuate from week-to-week and semester-to-semester. Some of the auxiliary’s greatest achievements with UKG include reducing payroll processing time and adding the ability to support nuances specific to the employment of student workers, which allows the university to get accurate paychecks into the hands of its people.

“Many students work multiple jobs with multiple pay rates. The complexities of our payroll have been one of our biggest challenges, and our transition to UKG Ready for payroll has been game-changing,” said Katrina Robertson, associate financial director at the Associated Students of Chico. “We can make mass edits to change Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) exemption statuses, so that when student employees transition from schoolyear to summer work and don’t have full-time enrollment status, we can easily adjust Social Security and Medicare withholdings in processing summer paychecks in a matter of minutes. That’s been a huge time-saver.”

As with any college or university, HR leaders have competing priorities vying for their time, which is why it’s important that the Associated Students of Chico has access to proactive and trusted insights in the UKG Ready suite to make timely decisions to build, support, and grow an engaged and connected workforce.

“My absolute favorite thing is the real-time, comprehensive reporting capabilities in the UKG Ready solution,” said Leah Mercer, HR director at the Associated Students of Chico. “I believe internal pay equity is a key value in our culture. With UKG, I have data-driven insights at my fingertips so that offers made to new hires are competitive with industry standards yet in line with our overall organization. Moreover, we’ve leveraged UKG Ready to create an automated workflow that notifies us when employees hit their five-year anniversary. It means a lot from a leadership perspective to be able to spend more time focused on creating a strong, engaged culture that recognizes and rewards our employees for the important work they provide.”

UKG Ready not only champions the auxiliary’s employee-centric culture but has also created a culture of compliance within the Associated Students of Chico to help address essential business requirements such as mitigating compliance risk associated with processes, labor laws, and university policies.

“It’s incredible how our UKG Ready suite simplifies compliance,” said Robertson. “We get audited every year and need accurate documentation for mandatory reporting in California, including labor distribution, payroll reporting, and workers’ compensation. Employees used to have to walk across campus to HR to hand-deliver their forms. Now, we have a single source of truth for employee data with all compliance resources and tools in one place.”

“What’s important to me is the weight that has been lifted from our small team by utilizing UKG technology to make us less paper-dependent,” added Mercer. “Our file cabinets are half-empty since we’ve eliminated paper forms and automated manual processes with UKG. Not only have we experienced significant time savings from workers no longer needing to process paper forms, but I’m incredibly proud that Associated Students of Chico State has moved the needle on a core value to foster sustainable business practices that are good for our people, our business, and our environment. With UKG by our side, I’m confident that we have a technology partner that makes our jobs easier while ensuring our employees have a great place to work.”

“For higher education institutions, success hinges on putting people at the center of everything they do to ensure an engaging and fulfilling experience for students and campus staff alike,” said Chris Kiklas, vice president of SMB product management at UKG. “Modern technology like UKG, purpose-built to support the intricacies of every industry, including challenges specific to colleges and universities, has the power to transform everyday operations and inspire the campus community to perform at its fullest potential.” 

Supporting Resources 

• About the Associated Students of California State University, Chico. 
• Discover how UKG for Higher Education helps higher ed institutions recruit, onboard, manage, and engage an inspired and productive workforce.
• Hear why UKG customers are Partners for Life.
• Follow UKG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

About UKG

At UKG, our purpose is people. We are on a mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through HCM technology built for all. More than 80,000 organizations across all sizes, industries, and geographies trust UKG HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture cloud solutions to drive great workplace experiences and make better, more confident people and business decisions. With the world’s largest collection of people data, work data, and culture data combined with rich experience using artificial intelligence in the service of people, we connect culture insights with business outcomes to show what’s possible when organizations invest in their people. To learn more, visit ukg.com.

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