During the payroll transition, supervisors will experience this change in two different ways: as the supervisor of the time tracking process for their employees and the key leader helping employees prepare for the transition.
Preparing Employees for the Payroll Transition
Supervisors play a key role in helping employees understand, prepare for, and confidently navigate the statewide payroll transition.
- Source: Prosci
- Estimated read time: 4 minutes
- Source: Prosci
- Estimated read time: 3 minutes
Tasks associated with the Time and Time Off Apps do not apply to the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Aviation, Oregon State Hospital, and parts of the Department of Corrections that do not use Workday Time Tracking.
Communicate Key Messages
Employees expect to hear about changes directly from their supervisor. Your role is to explain what the shift to biweekly pay means and why this change is happening.
Consider:
- Adding a standing payroll transition section to team meeting agendas for updates, announcements, and questions.
- Being ready to answer basic questions about what is changing, why the pay schedule is changing, why now, and how it may benefit employees.
- Forwarding statewide announcement emails to reinforce messages coming from you, the preferred sender.
- Encouraging employees to stay current by visiting the Payroll Transition website.
- For direct updates, encouraging employees to subscribe to the Payroll Transition newsletter.
Stay Connected with Your Agency Readiness Team
Supervisors are closest to daily operations and often identify needs or concerns early. Acting as a bridge between employees and your agency’s readiness roles build trust and helps surface important information.
Consider:
- Keeping payroll transition messages frequent, clear, and factual.
- Sharing agency-specific updates you receive from your readiness team with employees.
- Escalate employee concerns or questions to your readiness team.
- Submit feedback or common themes using the Payroll Transition feedback form.
Advocate for the Change and Model Desired Behaviors
Employees look to their supervisor to gauge how seriously they should engage in the change. Your visible support directly influences their willingness to participate.
Your participation helps:
- Signal leadership commitment.
- Reinforce key messages.
- Build confidence within the team.
- Model a positive, future-focused mindset.
You can show support by:
- Demonstrating consistent, timely time entry and approval practices and a positive outlook toward the payroll transition changes.
- Encouraging employees who attend readiness events to share takeaways in team meetings.
Resources:
Manage Resistance and Help Employees Overcome Barriers
Managing resistance means proactively identifying challenges, understanding their root causes, and helping employees take part in readiness activities. Employees will need to prepare both personally and professionally for the transition.
Consider:
- Looking for patterns in employee feedback and submit themes through the Payroll Transition feedback form.
- Remove barriers to participation by ensuring employees have the time, tools, equipment, and access they need to read emails, complete training, or submit feedback.
- Provide time and space for employees without regular computer access to use digital resources.
- Build staffing and coverage plans so frontline employees can attend readiness activities.
- Give advance notice and clear expectations to help employees manage workload shifts.
Resources:
Ensure Employees Understand Time Entry Responsibilities
The upcoming changes to how State of Oregon employees are paid include:
- All employees – represented, unclassified, and management service– will move to a biweekly pay schedule instead of a monthly pay schedule.
- Employees eligible for overtime under federal law (Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Non-Exempt employees) who currently receive a monthly salary will transition to hourly pay.
- The state will pay employees using a lag period rather than forecasting hours. Employees’ pay will be based on actual hours worked in the previous biweekly period, not projected hours.
Supervisors can help employees understand their new responsibilities and what being ready looks like.
Consider:
- Setting a clear vision for employee readiness.
- Define measurable goals for accurate, timely time entry and communicate them.
- Having employees enter and submit their time once a week now to build the habit, where practical.
- Communicate expectations early so employees know how to prepare.
- Share practical tips employees can use to enter time weekly.
- Celebrate successes and recognize improvements.
- Make time-entry coaching a standard part of one-on-one conversations.
Resources:
More Employee Support Resources
The following articles may support you in leading the payroll transition changes within your team as a supervisor. The following are articles accessible to the public.
Preparing for Supervisor Time Entry Changes
As a supervisor, you play a critical role in ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time. Below are practical, optional activities you can start using now to prepare for more frequent time entry and approval. Adapt them to your agency’s operations and team’s needs.
Tasks associated with the Time and Time Off Apps do not apply to the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Aviation, Oregon State Hospital, and parts of the Department of Corrections that do not use Workday Time Tracking.
Understanding the Risks of Not Approving on Time
Supervisors are a key checkpoint in the payroll process. Delayed or incomplete approvals can impact the accuracy and timeliness of employees pay.
Consider:
- Reviewing legal risks and penalties for late approvals.
- Reviewing applicable collective bargaining agreement (CBA) language.
- Review the Oregon Accounting Manual (OAM) standards and align current practices.
Resources:
Block Calendar Time for Review and Approval
Biweekly pay requires more frequent review. Building the habit now will ease the transition later.
Consider:
- Adding approval dates as recurring reminders in your Outlook Calendar or your workflow tool.
- Block weekly time on your calendar for reviewing and approving time.
- Run weekly reports to verify team time entry compliance.
- Complete time entry review and approval at the end of each week.
Resources:
Delegate Tasks in Workday
Delegation ensures that employees’ time gets approved and they get paid during planned leave or high-demand periods.
Consider:
- When requesting planned leave, immediately delegate Workday-related tasks to a peer or upline manager.
- Work with your manager to establish a contingency plan for time review and approval.
- Use delegation proactively when workload or emergent tasks prevent timely approvals.
Resources
Help Employees Build Timely Time-Entry Habits
Supervisors often face delays because employees have not entered their time. When employees fall behind, it prevents you from completing your review and approval responsibilities. Helping employees build consistent habits protects payroll accuracy and reduces disruptions for supervisors, while keeping the focus on support, not oversight.
Consider:
- Starting supportive conversations early about current time entry habits and identifying what makes it hard to stay on schedule.
- Frame expectations as supportive by reinforcing why timely time entry matters (accurate pay, consistency, risk reduction).
- Use collaborative correction – when errors occur, work with the employee to resolve them together.
- Offer timely reminders, such as weekly or pre-cutoff check-ins, and encourage daily or weekly time entry to help employees stay on track and avoid last-minute backlogs.
- Use one-on-one meetings to offer supportive guidance, answer questions, and acknowledge progress while reinforcing shared responsibly and employee independence.
- Ensure employees have the tools and resources they need, such as devices, shared workstations, and quick reference guides to resolve issues independently.
- Encourage employees to seek support from peer networks, including your agency’s payroll transition readiness roles, for informal guidance and problem-solving.
Resources
More Manager Support Resources