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Top 7 Time and Attendance Questions of 2011

December 30th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Absence Management | Benefit Accruals | Biometric Time and Attendance Facial Recognition System | Biometric Time Clocks | Business Software Automation | Cloud Based Time Management Solution | Employee Time and Attendance | Employee Time Attendance | Employee Time Clock | Employee Time Tracking | Employee Time Tracking Software | Hosted Time and Attendance Software | Payroll | Time and Attendance | Time and Attendance Blog | Time and Attendance Software | Workforce Management Solutions - (0 Comments)

Many people tend to use the end of the year as a time of reflection. We, at Apex Time Solutions, decided to compile of a list of questions received from businesses over the past 12 months. In some cases, these questions came from companies who were unhappy with their time and attendance vendor. We also received several calls from prospective customers who were using manual time sheets and wanted to understand the benefits of automating the attendance process at their organizations. This list is not exhaustive. It represents a small fraction of the many queries we received during the course of this year.

1.    Do you offer support across different provinces and/or states?
Yes. In addition, we also provide support in different time zones. When selecting a vendor, make sure they can not only answer this question but have customers who can attest to this as well. Support made it to the top of the list because this question came up numerous times from prospective customers.

2.    I am told fingerprint readers are better than other biometrics, is that true?
Based on our experience that’s false. The data collector (employee time clock) should be recommended based on   your company’s needs. There is range of things that should be taken into consideration when deciding on which data terminal will work best for your company.

3.    Can we implement payroll, ERP and time and attendance at the same time?
We would not recommend a company implement several modules or different systems at the same time. Each product requires its own project plan and testing. The implementation of business automation software should be given careful consideration and all the facts laid bare prior to deployment.

4.    Would you recommend web-based software over an on premises solution?
That depends on a company’s corporate culture and internal resources among other things. Recommendations are made based on a the needs of a company.

5.    Can your system interface to our payroll software?
This question is usually followed up by: “Are you sure, your software is compatible with our payroll application?” We have created interfaces to 300 plus payroll HR and ERP systems. Today’s software applications have import utilities that allow for interfacing to third-party programs.

6.    How fast can you implement our system?
There are many variables to consider prior to deployment of workforce management software. Once we have a full understanding of your needs, we will be in a better position to give you a timeline.

7.    If there is a certain report we want, can you build it?
Absolutely! We have no shortage of expert programmers who can build any report you want. We do, however; recommend that customers first browse through our library of reports as it may already exist within our software.

The ATS Time & Attendance manages absences and accruals, streamlines payroll integration and eliminates time fraud/buddy punching. For more information about workforce management software go to our website.

As the year comes to a close we would like to take this opportunity to wish our customers a Happy New Year!  

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Employee Facial Recognition: A Revolution in Timekeeping

December 20th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Biometric Time and Attendance Facial Recognition System | Biometric Time Clocks | Employee Time Attendance | Employee Time Clock | Employee Time Tracking | Time and Attendance Blog | Time and Attendance On-Demand | Time Management Solutions | Web-Based Time and Attendance - (0 Comments)

Over the years we talked to a lot of businesses and also helped many of them solve a variety of time and attendance problems. One of the most common problems we hear about is buddy punching. Of course, buddy punching is nothing new. It is the practice of one employee punching in/out for his or her colleague.

So, the question becomes, how do you eliminate this practice in your organization? The ATS Biometric Facescan is a robust time tracking device that reduces payroll fraud. When combined with TimeWork  ATS’s leading edge time and attendance solution, the Biometric Facescan helps reduce labour costs and manage your resources.

ATS FaceScan Biometric Time Clock Features:

  • Scans employee face and records time in less than 1 second
  • High-Sensitivity CCD Camera with IR
  • Non-intrusive and non-contact verification process
  • Operating environment temperature: 0-50°C
  • Multi factor authentication

 Benefits and features of ATS TimeWork:

  • Cost savings through means of tracking employee attendance and eliminating human errors
  • Business automation reports that covers all aspects of attendance, absence, and overtime
  • Labour analytics data that enables an organization to analyze and forecast its workforce requirements
  • Automated and accurate payroll calculations
  • Up-to-date real-time information in an easy to use format
  • Employee self-service capabilities that enables managers and employees to access up to the minute information
  • Tracking of employee punch data through various data terminals including:  Barcode and magnetic swipe clocks, fingerprint time clocks, proximity time clocks,  biometric hand punch data collectors  smart phones and tablet pc’s

The ATS solution gives you the tools necessary to capture employee time data, automate mundane processes and integrate with payroll and human resources applications. The results are reduced administration time and increased workforce productivity. ATS state-of the art facial recognition technology extracts real-time data and stops budding punching in its tracks.

For an onsite demo, go to our website or contact us by phone.

 

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It’s the holiday season: What are you using to track overtime hours and statutory holidays?

December 19th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Business Software Automation | Cloud Based Time Management Solution | Hosted Time and Attendance Software | Labour cost | Workforce Management Solutions - (0 Comments)

It’s that time of the year when some businesses have “shut-downs”, while employees at other companies are working multiple overtime hours. Whether your company is in an industry that reduces its hours during this period, or increases them employee hours need to be tracked accurately.

Are your managers creating schedules by hand, and/or asking employees to verify what time they arrive or left for work? If so, it’s a sign that your business needs to automate. In addition to the tracking of attendance, you also have to manage how much time each person is allocated by jobs, projects or department. A time and management system can save companies a great deal of time and reduce errors that are made from manual calculation of attendance.

The ATS workforce management software provides comprehensive and accurate data collection of your organization’s working hours. It tracks premiums, statutory holidays and streamlines payroll costs.

Here are some of the benefits to automating employee attendance:

  • Hosted software solution that can be accessed 24/7 via any web browser
  • Elimination of manual calculation and the risk of making errors while tracking attendance on paper
  • Reduction in time spent managing employee attendance
  • Instant real-time labour analytic reports
  • Available via the internet 365 days a year and from any computer with Internet access
  • Employee self-service for vacation request and other personal time-off
  • Interface to any payroll, HR or ERP application

The ATS workforce management software demonstrates our expertise in the following areas of: implementation, maintaining, hosting and evolving leading solutions.

To learn more go to our website or join our user group on LinkedIn.

 

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Access and Manage Employee Data with your Tablet PC

December 12th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Scheduling | Employee Time and Attendance | Employee Time Tracking | Hosted Time and Attendance Solution | Labour cost | Labour Forecasting | Overtime | Payroll | Web-Based Time and Attendance Software - (0 Comments)

A couple of months ago we signed a customer up with our cloud-based solution. During training she could not hide how excited she was about the prospect of accessing: reports, attendance trends, audit trails and downloading employee hours to her payroll software using her tablet PC.

The challenges of running a business are real, and in our experience, business executives opt for solutions that are commensurate and adaptable to their needs. Our solution provides all the benefits of an employee time management solution without the IT infrastructure requirements (database, server hardware, data backups, security management, system management, service packs and patches, etc.). The

ATS on-demand time and attendance solution does not require installation of any software on your employee workstations or network.  

The ATS hosted solution gives you instant access to: real-time labour reports, overtime hours, employee vacation request and labour forecasting all designed to reduce payroll costs.

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The Evolution of Workforce Management Software

December 8th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Time Tracking | Employee Time Tracking Software | Hosted Time and Attendance System | Overtime Equalization | Time and Attendance On-Demand - (0 Comments)

 A blog by Cindy Waxer titled “A New Dawn for Time and Attendance Technology” encapsulates the importance of a time and attendance system in an organization. Here excerpts of the paragraphs we found most poignant:

“For years, time and attendance software has been the least sexy cousin of the work-force management family – a humdrum tool lacking payroll’s sense of urgency and analytics’ flair for number crunching. But that’s slowly changing.

“For years, time and attendance software has been the least sexy cousin of the work-force management family – a humdrum tool lacking payroll’s sense of urgency and analytics’ flair for number crunching. But that’s slowly changing.

These days, time and attendance software is quickly gaining a reputation for generating more accurate data, boosting revenue and cutting labor costs. In fact, according to “Evolving Time and Attendance,” a report by Aberdeen Group Inc., the best-in-class companies surveyed were able to improve the accuracy of time data by 65 percent and decrease overtime costs (as a percentage of payroll) by 59 percent by using time and attendance solutions.”

Here is another paragraph we felt pretty much sums up the evolution of time and attendance as we know it today.

“Corporate America’s rekindled interest in this age-old HR technology is understandable. More and more companies are now struggling to manage an increasingly mobile, culturally disparate and geographically scattered work force. “A lot of the renewed interest in time and attendance systems has to do with the changing demographics of the work force,” said David Weldon, an Aberdeen analyst and author of the “Evolving Time and Attendance” report. “Companies are trying to capture, analyze and measure data from a lot of different locations for a lot of different people. That’s getting harder and it takes more work to do it right.”

Apex Time Solutions product offerings are complemented by a portfolio of web-based software solutions. Our software suite represents years of investment in capturing our industry expertise and an ongoing commitment to add value to our customers’ business operations.

To learn more go our website or check us out on Twitter for product updates.

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The Pros and Cons of Telecommuting

December 7th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Business Software Automation | Telecommuting Employees | Time and Attendance Blog - (0 Comments)

The advent of employees working from home has been a challenge for companies and employees alike. Over the last 15 years, many fortune 500 companies have strongly encouraged their sales representatives to work from their homes. Of course, working from home is not suited to everyone.

Some companies will agree to their employees working from home if there are checks and balances in place. For example, an agreement between the company and the employee may require that the employee log in and out at the start and end of their shift and record projects they are working on.

Here are some advantages and disadvantages to this arrangement:

Advantages:

Time with the kids – A parent with small children will get time to spend with them and help in their development. There many successful businesses who have adopted the idea of employees working from home with great results. Some examples include: mom bloggers, many of whom balance blogging and recommending company products and also taking care of little kids, sales reps of major pharmaceutical conglomerates and technology companies to name a few.

Travel time –When working from home, you don’t have to contend with traffic or gridlock. Also the damage to the environment with all these cars on the road is insurmountable. Millions of people commute to work each day, spending numerous hours on the road, all of which has an adverse effect on their health.

Flexibility – You can choose which tasks need to be accomplished based on its deadline. Someone who is disciplined can get more done while working at home with no distractions from colleagues.

Disadvantages:

Personal chores – It takes someone with a great amount of discipline to work from home and ignore tasks such as; doing laundry, going out for a two hour coffee break with a friend, grocery shopping or watching their favourite soap operas for a few hours.

Human interaction – The lack of human interaction will be hard for some employees to get use to. The daily ritual of meeting at each other’s office cubicle to discuss who got booted off the latest reality TV series can be a stress relief for some people. Trying to replicate these activities through a teleconference with co-workers is next to impossible when working from home.

Temptation Island – There are a range of other distractions for anyone who is working from home. If expectations are not set between the employer and the employee it’s easy for the employee to slack off. Productivity can suffer since there is no pressure to start work at a certain time or dress a certain way.

To read more about our business automation telecommuting tools, go to our website. You can follow us on Twitter or sign up to participate to in our monthly webinars. The next one is schedule for January 2012.

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Time and Attendance Software Webinar for Healthcare

December 5th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Forecasting | Hosted Time and Attendance Software | Web-Based Time and Attendance | Workforce Management Software - (0 Comments)

In our recent blog of November 23rd we gave notice of our upcoming workforce management software webinar for the healthcare industry. This webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, December 6th 10:00am-12:00pm EST.

Attend if you are:

  • A Controller/Director of Finance, Director or Manager of Human Resources or if you are a Payroll Administrator
  • New to time and attendance and are interested in how it can work for your organization
  • A current customer of Apex Time Solutions in the health care sector and are interested in other modules of our solution

Objective:

This webinar will highlight the value of ATS workforce management software in the workplace.

Areas within the healthcare industry that will benefit from this session include:

Life sciences, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, physician’s offices, dentist’s offices, home health care, health practitioners, ambulatory services, medical and diagnostic laboratories.

Attendees will learn how to:

  • Manage complicated requirements of the FMLA with the ATS time and attendance system
  • Facilitate compliance with weekly and bi-weekly work hours and other rules
  • Automate time off used and earned, as well as time off requests with our employee self-service module
  • Use the scheduling and forecasting module to their company’s exact needs
  • Navigate through the vacation planning calendar module for employee vacations

 Real-Time Data Collection:

The ATS workforce management software suite maintains continuity between time and labour, employee scheduling, shift management and payroll calculation.

Attendees will gain insight into:

  • How employee hours can be tracked through online timesheets, mobile devices, biometrics and a range of other data collection devices
  • The ability of managers to review and approve employee’s time and absences online and automatic transfer of hours to payroll.
  • An actual break down of labour costs through budget vs. actual costs by cost center, floor, ward and location

This is your last chance to REGISTER for this year webinar. You can also contact us at 1.866.294.2467.

You can follow us on Twitter for product updates of join our LinkedIn group.

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