Over the summer, Moravian’s Career Success and Payroll teams implemented a new student hiring system that utilizes Handshake, replacing the AMOS Student Employment page in the process. Staff and faculty can now post campus job openings directly to Handshake, and students can apply in just a few clicks.

Additionally, Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM), a new time clock system, replaced the Ascentis timekeeper application. This new system, stemming from the Project Horizon initiative, is meant to enhance digital efficiency for all users and improve payroll and time tracking. 

I will be honest and say that I was not the biggest Ascentis fan … if Ascentis even has fans. The application frequently lagged, and I often encountered bugs that would prevent me from clocking in. Moreover, it was frustrating not being able to edit timesheets and having to bother my supervisors with another “Forgot to Clock In” email. 

Imagine how relieved I was that I didn’t have to put up with Ascentis for another semester. Finally, I could use an application updated after 2011. Oracle seemed like a much more seamless timekeeper, and I was impressed with certain features that allow you to look at document records or edit your timesheet. 

While I do applaud this new system change, I’m not too happy with how it was presented to students. I only saw one email at the very beginning of August that fully announced it, containing links to student resources. Other than that, I completely forgot about it until I was reapplying for a campus job and suddenly realized, “Oh yeah, we’re using a new system.” 

Unless you worked on campus over the summer, you weren’t really given time to familiarize yourself with the system or figure out any issues before you started working. On Aug. 28, a Zoom student training session was held to help students navigate Oracle, but I barely heard about it, again, except for one email.

I understand that those managing Oracle are still trying to navigate it, but I wish there were more transparency. I hope there will be more sessions beyond one Zoom meeting at 9 a.m. on a Thursday. I’m glad that the United Student Government’s Finance Team held a meeting reviewing Oracle for club executives, but even then, student workers are still left in the dust. 

I work as a Writing Center consultant, and for a time, I found that I could not clock in for any of my shifts. Yes, the most basic function of any timekeeper application didn’t even work for me. 

When you clock in, you’re required to select an assignment, and if you’re as unlucky as I was, you’re met with “No Assignment Available.” I also had a hard time creating or submitting a time card, and the experience has been quite frustrating. 

I appreciate the IT workers and administrators who are working extra hard to make the change to Oracle smoother, and I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to roll out something so new with complications left and right. I don’t expect them to have all the answers when it comes to Oracle’s functionality. In the future, however, I would like to see more transparency for students, or at the very least, in-person panels where students can ask questions about the platform. I hope we can have more student worker training sessions as the semester progresses.