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As a corporate executive, you can book your business travel and request your preferred seat-from the comfort of your kitchen table or from anywhere in the world by using through your smartphone or tablet. So, why it is that your employees have to call their supervisor or someone in HR to request time-off?

With ATS Employee Self-Service (ESS) employees can request time off by using their smart phone, workstations or tablets from anywhere.

Here Are 5 Reasons Why You Need Employee Self-Service

Here are 5 reasons to use ATS Employee Self-Service:

Good-Bye Spreadsheets- Your employees really hate filling out paper work each time they need time off. ATS Employee Self-Service simplifies and automates employee requests for time off. When a request for time off is made, an email alert is sent directly to the employee’s supervisor to begin the request review process. HR, payroll and managers have decision-making information at their fingertips.

No More Using Emails To Request Leave-With ATS Employee Self-Service your managers no longer have to waste time trying to find that email that was sent some time ago by the employee requesting leave.

Time and Attendance Update Review-Employees can update their availability for shifts, request time off, view schedules, overtime, and trade shifts – letting them better manage their work-life balance.

Your Company’s Communication Tool Of The Future- Engage your entire workforce with a user experience that’s easy to navigate, wherever they are. Let all employees communicate and collaborate, even without a corporate email address.

Approval And Message Centre-You can tailor approval processes to your organization and, authorized users can view and audit the progress and approval status of a workflow to make sure it stays on track. Send personal messages or create and save distribution lists to message multiple employees at once. Notifications, reports and actions requiring an employee’s attention will also be delivered to the ATS Employee Self-Service Message Center.

ATS Self-Service is a powerful tool that will empower your employees and make them feel more engaged, increase their workforce productivity and free up valuable resource within your Payroll and HR departments.

To learn about ATS Employee Self-Service go to our website and download the demo. To reach an account executive by phone, call 866.294.2467.

Change is never easy, especially when it comes to embracing and adopting cloud-based enterprise applications. But today’s executives (including many CIOs) understand that moving to the cloud offers efficiency, speed, and significant savings.

But what really makes cloud-based applications so different than those built and designed to work on traditional Servers with embedded legacy-type architecture?

ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud is the most powerful, unified solution available today. It redefines how you modernize, collect employee data, innovate, and compete in a face-pace digital world, delivering comprehensive and integrated cloud services that allow your users to cost-effectively build, deploy, and manage workloads seamlessly and—in the cloud.

Adopting A Corporate Cloud Mindset

Here is why companies rely on ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud:

Complete and Integrated Platform- Businesses need complete technology solutions that reduce complexity. They want robust time and attendance applications that can fully integrate to a multitude and platforms to deliver a seamless experience.

Open Architecture-ATS gives you more options for where and how you access the cloud. You can run ATS TimeWork OnDemand workloads, and connect third-party apps with those from ATS data centre.

ATS Adaptive Choice-ATS helps you realize the value of emerging technologies, including Big Data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud helps –infuse business and IT operations with adaptive intelligence, intuitive business processes, and with lower operational cost and complexity.

Sensitive Applications and Data-ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud enables seamless path to the cloud with layers, throughout every aspect, of your cloud adoption. ATS cloud services make leading technologies available everywhere to organizations large and small.

Deployment-With ATS, deployment tool, you can manage apps through the cloud. ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud is managed by ATS, so that you can take advantage of the agility, innovation and subscription-based pricing, while meeting data-residency requirements.

ATS product developers and solution experts help you accelerate innovation and successful transition to the cloud. From project planning and deployment to connectivity, ATS— provides the support and services needed so you can maximize the value of ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud solutions for your business.

To learn about ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud or to view a demonstration, go to our website. You can also register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. To reach us by phone, call 866.294.2467.

3 Key Features To Look For In A Time And Attendance Solution

February 27th, 2018 | Posted by ATS in ATS TimeWork OnDemand | Google | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Toronto - (Comments Off on 3 Key Features To Look For In A Time And Attendance Solution)

Looking for a time and attendance solution is not an easy undertaking. While the web is a powerful tool that can help you quickly browse through various vendor offerings, you won’t a true picture of what each vendor can actually provide.

3 Key Features To Look For In A Time And Attendance Solution

Here are three features to look for:

  1. Support

This is an important feature, yet, many companies unwittingly ignores it and instead focuses all of their attention on the price. Price is incredibly important. No one wants to pay more that they actually should and it’s within their right to make sure that’s the case. However, focus too much on the price, and at the expense of everything else, and you will likely end up with the cheapest solution that will not meet your requirements, may not even last for 5 years, or worse, with little, to no support.

  1. Industry Expertise

Employment Acts are being amended by several jurisdictions in order to keep pace with the 21 century workforce expectations. The time and attendance you select should be easily scalable to adhere to applicable laws as they change. Make sure you select a provider that can proactively monitor employment laws and regulations to help you keep pace with changes that could affect your business, whether –you want to minimize payroll costs, or are looking to automate data gathering compliance tasks.

  1. Self-Service Offerings

Today’s employees do not want to waste time calling their HR department to request time-off. Your provider’s solution should have capabilities within its application, for employees to review personal information, view overtime and hours worked, and make vacation requests. An employee self-service solution like ATS TimeWork OnDemand is accessible through any Internet browser (Google Chrome, FireFox Opera), smartphones, desktop and tablet apps, that enables employees to perform a variety of HR-related tasks on their own, without needing to file paperwork with — their HR or payroll practitioner.

Some companies start of with a list of things that they are looking for in a provider as a starting point. If you do not have a list of requirements, it’s a good idea to write a simple one that will help you compare your options. The right vendor can help you streamline your current manual business practices so that you can focus more time on other tasks that can propel your organization towards its profitable goals.

To learn more about ATS TimeWork OnDemand, or to read through customer testimonials, go to our website. You can also view brochures, register for one of our bi-monthly webinars or download a demonstration. To reach us by phone, call 866.294.2467.

 

 

Successful implementation of a time and attendance project requires the commitment of stakeholders on both sides, i.e. the vendor as well as customer. The vendor clearly has to absorb the bulk of the responsibility, and at the same time, has to steer the project in the right direction if they notice it is not going as planned.

Your Time And Attendance Project Can Succeed If Everyone Remains Committed

In her most recent blog titled 5 early warning signs of project failure for online publication, cio.com, Moira Alexander’s writes in part;

A change-resistant Culture
One of the first (and biggest) warning signs that your project may be headed for failure is an internal culture that is resistant to change. Projects bring about improvements in workflows and new operational best practices, often with an increased use of technology. These changes can create a significant amount of fear, as employees assume the end result will mean job losses or major disruption to their individual working world. Many projects have been internally sabotaged right from the start as result of these fears.

 Sponsors that are seldom Available
Another major reason projects fall short is a lack of project sponsorship and buy-in by executives. The role of project sponsors is to assist with championing the project, assisting with securing funding, resolving conflict, and providing support to project, program and portfolio managers. Project managers rely on sponsors for day-to-day support, leadership advice, and to demonstrate to employees and other stakeholders that the project is backed by company executives.

More questions than Answers
An ambiguous project purpose leads to more questions than answers and eventually leads to unrealistic goal attainment. At the onset it is crucial to nail down the exact purpose of the project and as many of the key details as possible for later breakdown. Proceeding with a project without having a clear understanding of the need for the project or its goals will make it virtually impossible to be successful.

Disconnected or disinterested team Members
As project teams are assembled, it’s vital to ensure all individuals are fully vested in the project and their role in it, and that they are fully accountable for their impact on the project. If team members fail to recognize their role, it can create a gap in their contribution levels that may become large enough to jeopardize the project. The full strength of the team depends on the weight that each individual contributes.

Lack of confidence in the project Manager
If stakeholders, project teams, vendors, or other executives lack confidence in a project manager at the start of a project it can be a great cause for concern. The reasons can be many; some may be warranted, while others may not necessarily be substantiated, but the outcome remains the same and can derail a project early on.

If your company is going to invest in a time and attendance, you want to make sure you avoid these mistakes and more importantly, if you recognize any of the warning signs described here should take immediate action to get your project on track again.

To learn about ATS Time and Attendance Project Methodology, or to download a demonstration, go to our website. You can also register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. To contact an account executive, call 866.294.2467.

Today’s HR managers are embracing automation, because they know it will help them improve workforce productivity reduce the amount of time it takes to process payroll, count employee hours, recruit and retain talent. Debating the benefits of business process automation is akin to asking, why do we need to use smartphones in this digital era?

In an article titled Why Automating HR Technology Is Key to Keeping Up Rick Goad presents a strong business case about the importance of HR automating its business processes. He writes in part;

“For years, HR technology was used to support and manage mundane back office paper processes and to ensure HR regulations and payroll laws were being met. More recently these platforms have shifted focus to better support talent acquisition and retention. A new generation of employees is entering the workforce with well-defined expectations of how they will interact with employers. HR technology is leading digital transformation in creating a new onboarding culture along with new ways to attract and engage talent.

HR Wants To Automate Your Business Process, Shouldn’t You Want The Same?

How much easier would it be if you could automatically generate visual process diagrams, complete documentation, and materials for compliance and training? Automation can deliver these benefits in a fraction of the time we’re used to with manual or legacy approaches. Consider the impact of faster testing and better automation coverage. How could that speed projects, reduce production downtime, and give executives peace of mind knowing a multi-million-dollar technology package is going to work the way it’s expected?

With end-to-end automation, companies can be sure HR processes operate without disruption. This is true even when it comes to frequent changes in intricate approval chains, tax calculations, employee benefits, withholding classes, payroll and more. And, because these business processes are tested and can easily generate documentation, companies can verify they are meeting compliance requirements.

For example, accurate, effective payroll operations depend on end-to-end business processes executed across HR apps, and the other applications in a company’s landscape. Today’s technology can automatically capture these as-is business processes to provide visuals and documentation for insight and improvement. Captured processes are used to create an automated regression test library that can be continuously run to validate that mission-critical end-to-end processes are functioning as designed. This eliminates delays and mitigates the risks that come with packaged applications the business depends on.”

The larger question about HR and automation is no longer when is your company going to adopt it, but instead why haven’t you?

To learn about ATS HR Software and our complementary TimeWork OnDemand App go to our website. And, while you are there, you can also register for one of our bi-monthly webinars, download brochures or request a product demonstration.

To reach an account representative, call: 866.294.2467.

The benefit of moving business applications to the cloud is no longer up for the debate. And while, there are some companies who still cling to the belief that having software installed on their server is part of a corporate policy, that they are not willing to abandon. However, this attitude towards the cloud, is dwindling as more companies realize that the cloud has become part of everything we do in this digital era.

Cloud Computing Predictions For 2018 According To Forrester Research

In a recently published article titled ‘Predictions 2018: Cloud Computing Accelerates Enterprise Transformation Everywhere’ by Dave Bartoletti for Forrester Research, he writes in part;

“Cloud now permeates all company sizes, industries, and geographies. And all of this innovation isn’t only happening in the big public clouds; exciting new private cloud technology stacks and fresh partnerships between infrastructure vendor stalwarts and upstart cloud-native companies bring the power and energy of elastic, on-demand cloud services to the enterprise data center as well.

In 2018, we’ll pass that magic threshold: Forrester predicts that more than 50% of global enterprises will rely on at least on public cloud platform to drive digital transformation and delight customers. As highlighted in our 2018 cloud predictions, cloud is truly business critical and is now a mainstream enterprise core technology”.

Many of the companies who have migrated to the cloud are reaping several benefits, including: a reduction in IT operating costs, more simplified user workflows across multiple applications, improved employee mobility, having access to real-time workforce analytics, and an increased ability to innovate business operations.

So what if your company happens to part of the few holdouts, who remain unconvinced about the benefits of migrating to the cloud? Our suggestion is to start small and/or ask other businesses who are using the cloud about their experience. Chances are you might be surprised to find out that some of today’s companies who are using cloud-based solutions held similar views to that of your organization.

To learn about ATS TimeWork OnDemand, our best-in-class cloud computing application, go our website, where you can view a demonstration or register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. To reach an account representative, call; 866.294.2467.

 

There was a time when biometrics was seen as futuristic and, too intrusive to ever be accepted by the general public. Many of today’s smart phones, tablets and laptops are equipped with biometrics. As part of its security protocols airports around the world, have installed fingerprint readers and voice recognition technologies and Disney World have installed biometrics that enables its visitors to gain access to theme parks.

Biometric Technology Is Shaping The Future Of Time And Attendance

If your company is an early adopter of biometric time and attendance, you are likely the beneficiary of a productive workforce, and at the same time are saving hundreds of dollars on payroll costs.

If you are considering a biometric time and attendance system to enhance your company’s HR process and workflows, here are three types of the most common biometric technologies for recording and tracking employee time.

Hand Geometry: Hand recognition is the most common employee biometric time clock technology. The method uses 3D analysis of the hand for tracking and identification purposes. An individual places their hand (palm down) onto a special plate. A camera takes a picture of it and analyzes the length, width, thickness and surface area of the hand. This recorded biostatistics information is then stored for future use. Companies have used this type of biometrics for attendance tracking and accessing secure entrances.

Facial Recognition: ATS FaceScan Time Clocks, uses algorithms to analyze features. These include the position/size/shape of the eyes, nose, cheekbones and jaw line. Initially, this process was known as 2D facial recognition. The 2D images were typically taken from security cameras that have integrated facial recognition technology. For the best results, face images needed to be looking directly at the camera with enough lighting. After analysis, they could be compared to other face images for identification purposes. Employee Time clocks that use facial recognition are growing in popularity— it’s as simple as snapping a photo; the time clocks are equipped with HD cameras. This type of technology is now readily available on ATS TimeWork OnDemand mobile time tracking apps as well.

Fingerprint Identification:This type of biometrics compares either one or two fingerprints (depending on the type of time clock selected) to determine identification. It analyzes the ridges and valleys patterns on the fingertip for differences. The process involves measuring and comparing employee fingerprints against data stored in the time and attendance system. It is fast and easy to use— the employee simply presses a fingertip against the time clock screen for a moment as part of the clock in/out process. Some laptop computers and smart phones, utilize fingerprint biometrics for authorizations purposes such as logging in and entering website passwords.

Other biometrics include voice authentication, which is the analysis of vocal behavior by matching it to a voice model template (that was previously recorded). Since every voice is unique, the physical characteristics of the speaker’s voice can be measured. Retinal and iris scanning is employed by different industries.

Bottom-line:

Companies deploy biometric time and attendance systems to ensure the person/s clocking in, are who they say they are. Biometric time clocks helps prevent employee time theft, ensures workforce compliance, and helps employers collect accurate time and attendance information. In short, it makes life easier for payroll and HR practitioners.

To arrange a demonstration of ATS TimeWork OnDemand and our array of biometric time clocks, go to our website or call, 866.294.2467.

The Annual Office Christmas Party And The Headaches It Can Create For HR Managers

December 7th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in HR | Leave Management | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Toronto - (Comments Off on The Annual Office Christmas Party And The Headaches It Can Create For HR Managers)

The annual boisterous and sometimes, boozy office Christmas party means HR has to be on high alert. This staple of corporate culture year-end party is usually seen by some, as a way to unwind, get to know our co-workers a bit better, boost our social capital or win the next promotion. Some employees might even use this time of the year to request a vacation day or two so, they can relax or use it to spend time with their family.

The Annual Office Christmas Party And The Headaches It Can Provide For HR Managers

 

And, while you might be waiting with great anticipation for your company’s annual office party take heed from this list of ‘The Do’s And Don’ts Of Any Office Christmas Party’ by Lynda O’Neal in a recent Yahoo publication.

“Don’t: Enflame The Office Drama
The Etiquette School of New York, which offers training to large companies, universities and individuals, provides a long list of optimal behaviors for workplace holiday parties and devotes a large portion of text to small talk.

Do: Expand Your Network
Mingling outside of the team you interact with on a day-to-day basis could help you take away something positive from the event — a longer-lasting benefit, at least, than free drinks and hors d’oeuvres, Susan Bryant, a contributor to job search engine Monster’s career advice section, opined.

Don’t: Try To ‘Keep Up’ With The Heavy Drinkers
No one likes a hangover, but it can be easy to go overboard at office parties, especially if an open bar is involved. Stick to one drink per hour, and two in total if you can help it, manners blogger and author Maralee McKee advised in a post”.

 Bottom-line, use common sense before you attend your company’s office Christmas party, or you can always seek the advice of someone with the HR department or a trust colleague.

And remember, to relax and have fun. ‘Tis the season to be merry.

Keep current with ATS:

Small and mid-size companies that use the cloud spend 40 percent less on the need for a fulltime IT person. Deploying a time and attendance solution to the cloud is much faster and don’t need as much of an investment in upgrading infrastructure and as a result, this frees up expenses that would otherwise, be used for upgrading server licenses-thus making more capital available to support business growth.

3 Great Reasons To Move Your Employee Time Tracking To The Cloud

So, if you happen to be one of those companies that are still sitting on the fence, when it comes to embracing the cloud, here are some compelling reasons to take note.

  1. The Cloud is simple to use: A cloud-based time and attendance is easier to implement, and use when compared to the traditional on-premise solutions. With a cloud-based time and attendance– commonly referred to as software-as-a-service (SaaS) – you only pay for what you use. For example, a large hotel chain will have a high number of employees during the summer months, as this tends to be the busiest time of the year for that industry – but during the fall and winter months, those numbers will decrease. A company using ATS TimeWork OnDemand can scale easily, thus paying for only the employees who are working during this slow period.
  1. Mobile: With a application like ATS TimeWork OnDemand employee self-service (ESS),  a company can now give its employees the ability to request time-off, switch shifts and review hours worked at anytime, from anywhere instead of using paper time cards or spreadsheets. In the cloud, employees only need an Internet connection and they can tap into the power of mobility.
  1. Efficient and compliant: A growing body of evidence highlights the efficiencies and return on investment (ROI) that many businesses are experiencing by moving to the cloud.  Companies are required to comply with ever changing payroll and other workforce related rules- a cloud-based time and attendance like ATS TimeWork OnDemand can help businesses keep with these rules and other compliance matters, while driving business growth.

To learn about ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance, go to our website. You can download brochures, pre-recorded demonstrations or register for one of our bi-monthly webinars.

Whether you are implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Workforce Management, Payroll or Human Resources Information System (HRIS), you need a plan and someone project manager to lead it. And with the advent of cloud-based solutions gaining momentum in the world of business, deploying a software solution has becoming easier for companies.

If You Follow These Implementation Tips Your Rate Of Success Will Improve

If you are considering automating your business process this article, 6 Tips for Full HR Automation That Will Dramatically Increase Efficiency written by Carlie Bush, for HR Daily Advisor, is a useful guide for any business.

  1. Step into employees’ shoes. It is important to consider the transition from the perspective of the employees.  Too often, we discuss the potential changes with the leaders of the various departments, but to do the transition right, employee input should be prioritized and included in the discussion.  Employees are often resistant to change, so including them in the discussions, answering their questions, and using their ideas will go a long way in reassuring them throughout the transition.
  2. Consider a consultant. From start to finish, a third-party expert can help companies transition to automation.  As an external consultant, they can provide unbiased advice including how to get support from the top-level executives, what to look for in a provider, how to help employees through the transition, and many other critical parts of the transition process.
  3. Collaborate with Information Technology (IT). IT plays an invaluable role in the transition to automation.  From the beginning, collaborate and plan alongside IT.  Their knowledge and vision for how things should work will help HR departments consider the options available to them as well as provide a backdrop for a well thought out transition.
  4. Have a robust communications plan. Before starting the transition, have a formal communication plan in place that outlines for employees what to expect, a timeline of when things are going to change, and information on training and where they can get help.  Remember to give them adequate time to prepare.  The more transparent you are with employees the higher the chances of a smooth transition.
  5. Get executive support and buy-in. From the top down, there needs to be support for the transition.  Employees need to know the leaders of the company understand and fully support the change.  By being part of the change and talking openly about the benefits to employees, company executives can have a huge impact on how the transition is received.
  6. Help employees along the way. Employees will need help throughout the transition.  It is important that they feel supported through training and communication.

It’s also useful to note, that every implementation is different and some will go smoother than others. However, the best implementations are the ones where both sides (vendor and customer) are flexible in their approach and have contingency plans, should the implementation not go as planned. In other words, a contingency plan should be part of any implementation.

To learn more about ATS Workforce Management Solution and our implementation methodology or to download a pre-recorded demonstration go, to our website, where you can also register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. And, to reach an account executive by phone, call; 866.294.2467.