Employees at the Vermont State Colleges are reporting that after months of use, the colleges’ new payroll system is still making errors.
In an email to staff, Chancellor Jeb Spaulding apologized for the transition that he called “difficult and frustrating.”
“Though we are by no means out of the woods yet, everyone involved has been working hard to address the issues,” Spaulding wrote earlier this month. “I am confident we are making steady progress, that the new system will serve the VSCS well in the future, and that confidence in the system and OC team will rebound.”
The five VSC campuses previously used five independent systems to deliver payroll to staff, but over the summer, that process was centralized with a new payroll system called UltiPro.
However, soon after the new system was rolled out, complaints started racking up.
The Castleton Spartan reported in September that one student had gotten an $8,000 check for two weeks of part-time work-study. Other staff members said they’d worked six weeks and had yet to receive a check.
By December, the problems were still persisting. In Spaulding’s staff-wide email assuring “steady progress” Spaulding reminded them the change was made because of functionality and reliability concerns with the old system. UltiPro, he noted, was selected unanimously by a review team with members from all of the system’s colleges and universities.
On Friday, Spaulding said in an interview that the problems are far smaller in scale than they once were. He said last payday, 2,800 employees got checks, and only nine reported problems.
“Did we buy the Cadillac version? No, we did not,” Spaulding said. “We were not able to go out and spend what some larger systems would. But the system we have has been vetted, and has worked out well in many other higher education situations.”
He said some of the problems VSC employees have had are user error, with people still not used to inputting hours into the new system. He said some employees weren’t even using their VSC email account, so they didn’t get the emails that the administration sent trying to help them work out the problems.
The other persisting issues, Spaulding said, are with calculations like shift differentials (people getting paid more for working weekends or overnights) and other trickier parts of the payroll process.
“This is a brand new payroll platform, there are going to be problems, there are going to be mistakes made,” Spaulding said. “People are learning a whole new functionality — but the fact is, everyone is getting paid.”
Members of the Vermont State Employees Association met with the chancellor on Thursday to discuss some of the ongoing problems.
“VSEA members in the union’s State Colleges’ Unit have made it clear to the Chancellor that the payroll issues that still exist must be resolved today, not tomorrow,” Doug Gibson, VSEA communications director said in a statement. “Mr. Spaulding recently told VSEA’s VSC leaders that his office was working with UltiPro to quickly resolve the outstanding issues, and the workers are holding him to his word—and are watching.”
Gibson said the union is continuing to advise its members to closely examine their paychecks and immediately report any errors.
“We’re not overstaffed by any stretch of the imagination,” Spaulding said. “People are working extremely hard on a day to day basis. A lot of the issues have been solved, and lots more will continue to be solved as we move forward.”
Spaulding said before they even started the process of switching payroll systems, they talked about how it would probably take around 18 months for the system to get all its bugs worked out, and he said it’s still their belief that over time, all of the problems will be solved.
“Our employees deserve to get paid, and to get paid correctly,” Spaulding said. “I’m very sorry for the frustration out there, but this is not abnormal in a big switch like this. There’s going to be bugs and mistakes. It’s a learning curve but we’re working our way through it.”
