Time registration at NWO-I: more insight into who does what
On 1 January 2023, employees of the NWO-I office started to register their hours. A large part of the institutes was already doing this. With the exception of NSCR and the employees of the Administrative Unit University Research Groups (BUW), the entire NWO-I organisation now registers its hours using U4ERP.
What is the benefit of this? And why do all tenured employees now have to register the hours they have worked?
The same work processes
Jan van der Boon, interim general director of NWO-I, explains:"‘Time registration gives our organisation more insight into the allocation of work capacity among the institutes, the office, and across different projects. Many funding bodies require an accurate account of the hours worked on projects. That has been the case for a long time and institutes are used to that. We decided to introduce time registration for everybody because that enables us to align all the work processes. This means that employees in support functions need to register their hours as well".
It does not take a lot of time
Van der Boon explains that this is important for the internal cost allocations of work costs, for example, if colleagues work for another NWO-I unit temporarily or for a longer period of time. Which services does the NWO-I office provide for all of the individual institutes? That will become clearer as well thanks to time registration.
Van der Boon states yet another benefit: "With the information that we acquire from the time registration, NWO-I can control the work pressure better – both for colleagues who have too little work and for colleagues who have too much". "Recent experience, like the introduction of time registration at the NWO-I office, has taught that everybody quickly gets used to recording their hours and that it does not take a lot of time".
Van der Boon adds that the registration of hours is certainly not meant to strictly monitor the employees' work. "We have every confidence that our colleagues perform their tasks well. What we’re really interested in are insights into the capacity."
How does it work?
Hours are only registered by employees with an NWO-I contract, BUW staff and temporary employees do not. The registration is done in U4ERP, the financial system of NWO-I. The employee records the hours on work orders (mostly departmental) and the line manager, project leader, or controller approves these. No other parties are given access to the data in the employee records. If the line manager does not approve the time registration, then the employee will be given the opportunity to adjust the figures. NSCR is an exception to this approach since it only registers time for projects where funding bodies require a detailed account of the hours worked.
Text: Anita van Stel
Newsletter Inside NWO-I, February 2023
You can find the archive of the newsletter Inside NWO-I on the NWO-I website.