Legendary basketball player Michael Jordan once said, “I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.” Jordan is equally famous for his hard work in practice as his athletic prowess during games. Instead of walking tiredly to the locker rooms after a strenuous practice, he’d drag a teammate back to the court to play one-on-one. Jordan’s dedication to the sport made him an indomitable player. No doubt you’ve heard of him, but you’re likely wondering what one of the greatest athletes of all time has to do with implementing the UKG Dimensions® solution.
In this edition of the Working Smarter Café blog, you’ll get to know Vivian Dietz – the Michael Jordan of UKG Dimensions implementations. Dietz serves as the Financial Analyst for Great Plains Health Alliance, a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization of leased, managed, and affiliated hospitals in Kansas and Nebraska. In less than two years, Dietz implemented UKG Dimensions Timekeeping at 22 of their partner hospitals.
Dietz continues to implement the solution at new locations and at this point, is so efficient, she completes most of the work by herself. Here, Dietz shares her tips and tricks for successfully implementing new sites, and how, like Jordan, she never stopped improving her game.
Game Plan #1: Find your executive cheerleader and invite them to your kickoff call.
Dietz implemented UKG Dimensions Timekeeping across a variety of community hospitals, each with their own rules and policies. But some things remained consistent including the need for executive buy-in to ensure overall dedication from the team. It’s not enough for leadership to sit on the sidelines.
If you’re in payroll or operations/IT, you’re likely teaming up with a UKG project manager to lead the implementation at your company. While your executives typically won’t be as involved in the day-to-day process, Dietz strongly encourages them to attend the kickoff meeting and support you in the reviewal of goals, timelines, requirements, etc.
“The key thing is in the kickoff to have the right people there at the right place at the right time,” Dietz explained. “Get their commitment right off the bat.”
Game Plan #2: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
Throughout her implementation projects, Dietz worked closely with UKG Lead Solution Consultant Bill Mayer and attributes their success to strong communication. Dietz and Mayer met multiple times a week and kept in continuous contact via email. As for her own hospital project teams, Dietz made sure they provided Mayer with the information he needed like pay rules, interfaces, and source files to successfully build their systems on time. Dietz also scheduled dedicated working sessions with project leaders as well as round table discussions, if she sensed they were falling behind.
“Everybody knows communication is key,” she said. “If you establish that camaraderie where ‘we’re in this together, we’re here to help you,’ then the communication just seems like it’s easier or it’s more inviting.”
Game Plan #3: Learn from others and don’t be afraid to take risks.
During their meetings, Dietz shadowed Mayer, dutifully taking notes and screen shots on everything from the work rules to business structure to configurations to settings. Dietz learned quickly and over time became increasingly independent.
“If you’re going to be the support mechanism for the facilities after the implementation consultant has signed off, you have to be self-driven and you have to try things,” she explained. “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake, otherwise you won't learn. Sometimes you do have to be living on the edge just a little bit to teach yourself.”
Because the Alliance partners with hospitals smaller in employee count, Dietz and Mayer were able to implement two or more hospitals at one time. It’s an approach that allowed for collaborative and productive working sessions.
“They [hospital project teams] were sharing ideas or tips for training their staff, so getting everybody around that kitchen table again and sharing ideas and sharing each other's problems and issues – that was beneficial,” Dietz said.
Game Plan #4: Leave plenty of time for testing.
With tight deadlines and a go-live date, allocating sufficient time for testing may easily get overlooked during an implementation. Dietz and Mayer agree that’s a big mistake and encourage you to begin testing as soon as possible. In fact, they began testing four months into the implementation. Mayer suggests that the core team test pieces of the system like shift zone requirements early on – even if it’s with fake employee names – so tweaks can be made along the way.
"I need you to break it so we can make sure when it gets down to the end with your managers and employees, it's working great,” he explained. “We want the employee and manager buy-in. Your managers won't test until they see their employees, but if we can get someone [to test] ahead of time, that'll lead to less push back down the road, more cooperation.”
Game Plan #5: Dedicate time for training.
As with everything in life, preparation and training are the keys to success, and a UKG Dimensions implementation is no exception. It’s important for you to complete assigned training courses on time; however, for managers and employees, Dietz cautions against training them too early, as you want the lessons to be fresh for go-live. This doesn’t mean you can’t start the awareness campaign ahead of time! Several months prior to go-live, Dietz and her project teams began spreading the word about the new timekeeping system at staff meetings. They even provided access to a test environment for employees to practice punching in and out and to become familiar with the system.
When it came to formal training, Dietz focused on managers, providing them with detailed user guides and taking a train-the-trainer approach. The managers ultimately became super users, training their own employees and serving as the first line of support. One of those super users is Kelsey Andrist, Director of Human Resources at Cheyenne County Hospital, which went live in February 2022.
“I felt like it all stemmed down from Vivian showing and teaching us [super users] and then me learning and teaching the department managers and then so on, so it's just kind of a chain reaction of all of us educating each other,” Andrist said.
There you have it! Five steps for a game-winning UKG Dimensions implementation and go-live. They’re lessons from a pro to help you succeed in your project and lay the foundation for strong user adoption. For more information log into the UKG Community™ and click on UKG Dimensions Getting Started Launch. Be sure to also check out the User Adoption Toolkit: UKG Dimensions Timekeeping and Basic Scheduling where you’ll find information on building awareness and excitement, go-live preparation, post-live reinforcement, and training resources.