State of Hawaiʻi Employees Move to ‘Revolutionary Payroll System’

Gov. David Ige announced on Jan. 10, 2019, that all state employees have successfully transitioned to a modern, efficient payroll system, transforming the way the state and its employees conduct business.

On the first pay date of the year on Jan. 4, 2019, the PeopleSoft Payroll system issued 70,771 payments to 66,182 employees, as there are individuals issued pay for multiple positions—including those in the final group from the Department of Education and the University of Hawaiʻi. The first group of 1,300 employees successfully moved to the new system in May 2018, and a second, larger group of 22,000 employees was deployed in August 2018.

“This is a major milestone for the state,”said Gov. David Ige. “For 50 years, we’ve been paying employees with a labor and time-intensive, paper-based, manual process run on a legacy mainframe system. The diligent work and support of many employees across all state agencies have made this transition to the new system a reality. We also appreciate the support from the unions, banking community and third-party agents during the transition.”

The State of Hawaiʻi is using the same, stable, leading-edge enterprise system used in 20 other states and is reaping the transformational benefits it provides—including but not limited to:

• The most accurately computed payroll in more than 50 years—taxes and latest compliance changes, wage limits and garnishment routines applied
• World-class secured facility/system that provides the highest level of secure data for all State of Hawaiʻi employee personal information
• True direct deposit capabilities—a first-time convenience now available to all state employees
• Largest deployment of employee self-service from desktop or mobile devices for employees to view pay statements, with expanded functionality to direct tax withholding changes (W-4/HW-4) expected in Spring 2019
• Pay statements are now delivered online to all employees, significantly reducing paper and distribution costs
• Electronic W-2 forms are available for the first time, giving employees a choice between electronic or paper copies.

“The state’s payroll system modernization effort brings a major state operation in line with modern practices and has significantly reduced risks that were inherent in the legacy system,” said Chief Information Officer Douglas Murdock. “While work continues to stabilize the new payroll system and operations, we also look ahead to other opportunities to increase efficiencies and transform state government. Thank you to former Comptroller Roderick Becker for his sponsorship of this effort.”

The state completed this system modernization through a $17,037,148 contract with CherryRoad Technologies Inc. that began in October 2016 and fully deployed in early January 2019.