Dive Brief:
- The Maricopa County Community Colleges District in Arizona is reeling from controversy after a change to its payroll system has created hundreds of pay discrepancy claims among faculty and staff, AZCentral.com reported.
- System officials say gaps in the system and a lack of familiarity among employees entering data has resulted in 79 overpayments discovered thus far ranging from $10 to $10,057, and 760 incidents of underpayments have also been identified.
- Employees say the problems have been ongoing since February, and some are saying that the frustration adds to existing issues stemming from the discontinuation of a pay negotiation process for employees. System officials say more than two dozen testing sessions and 100 employee training modules were held system-wide in preparation for the early-year rollout.
Dive Insight:
Growing pains are common on campuses rolling out new technological systems. Commonly, faculty and staff struggle when campuses make upgrades to systems for grade entry, procurement logging, and research archiving and analysis; sometimes for bugs surfacing when the software tries to interface with other systems, and sometimes because training can be a long and tedious process for an entire campus of new users.
College leaders have to make a more concerted effort to include faculty, staff and other stakeholders in considerations for new licensing, software or system on campus which can wreak havoc during times of the year when the system is likely to be overloaded, such as the add/drop period for course registration, when final grades are being logged and checked by students, or when departments are looking to close out financial records for the fiscal year.
The effort also should coincide with administrators having a solid understanding of specific campus tech needs, how they are likely to be integrated with existing systems, and how faculty and staff can add input on elements that can streamline their training.