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Is Manufacturing Really Making a Comeback?

September 30th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Scheduling | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Software | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Is Manufacturing Really Making a Comeback?)

Some Recent reports are shedding positive light on the manufacturing sector and its possible comeback. While many manufacturing companies disappeared during the 2008 crisis, some remained and had adapted to the changes like cloud-computing technologies around them to remain relevant.

An article written by Bill Cornely for Forbes.com reads in part;

“The U.S. manufacturing sector is coming back, we learn from the Federal Reserve’s industrial production report. Last month’s gain was 0.9 percent, more than making up all the ground lost in the early months of this year. Looking forward, production will continue to expand, but don’t expect a lot more factory jobs.

Manufacturing is the largest component of industrial production. The overall industrial numbers are pushed around by utility production, which rises or fall as weather is unusually warm or cold. Manufacturing is thus a better gauge of underlying economic activity than industrial production.”

The article concludes with the following; “It’s not going to be easy sailing for factories. The world is a very competitive place. But look for further gains by American manufacturers in the year to come.”

For many years manufacturing in Canada and the US outperformed other industries by leaps and bounds and created well paying jobs for thousands of workers. And, while the number of manufacturing companies today is, probably half the size of what it use to be, the ones still standing have had to endure a great deal to survive. And to that, we say Kudos to them!

To learn about ATS go to our website. You can also register for a live demonstration of our intuitive manufacturing time and attendance solution. To reach us by phone, call; (866) 294.2467.

Is Manufacturing Really Making a Comeback?

 

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Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Time and Attendance System

September 28th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Business Intelligence | Employee Scheduling | Employee Self Service | ERP | Forecasting | Labour Costs | Payroll - (Comments Off on Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Time and Attendance System)

As hard as you try, it’s taking longer and longer to process employee time-sheets at the end of the week. Tabulation of employee hours are based on guesswork instead of solid figures and your CFO is having a hard trying to figure out the company’s actual payroll cost, that’s somewhere within the many spreadsheets you provide each week. If this sounds like your business—or close to it—then it may be time to consider a modern time and attendance solution.

Based on our years of experience, we have come to realize that the companies who benefit most from a time and attendances system usually face problems that are similar in nature. If your organization is experiencing the issues mentioned above, then read on, here are the top five signs that you need a new time and attendance system.

Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Time and Attendance System

1. You Have a Time and Attendance and you are also using manual time sheets
Spend a few minutes thinking about how your employees record their attendance. For example, if you have a time and attendance and employees are also using time-sheets you should get rid of the system. If you are using an effective time and attendance system there shouldn’t be a need for manual time sheets. Next, figure out how long does it takes payroll and HR staff to process employee hours and then manually key them into your accounting software.

ATS time and attendance integrates into a various system including; ERP, payroll and HR providing your organization with a single point of entry one that contains accurate, up-to-the-minute business intelligence data. ATS time and attendance helps staff make better decisions more quickly and frees up their time to work on more high-value exercises like increasing workforce production.

2. The Difficulty in using multiple systems
One of the biggest challenges with using multiple systems to track employee attendance is the amount of time it takes. Conversely using an ATS cloud-based time and attendance, managers and employee alike, have access to real-time information on any workstation or mobile platform in real-time. For example, employee can see their schedules, hours of work and also request time-off. Supervisors get an email alert when a vacation request is submitted and can respond in real-time.

3. You have limited access to information about your organization
Do you know how your company is performing against budget? For example, do you how many employees that should be on the work schedule today or even next week based on business demand? Without solid key performance indicators (KPI’s) in place, some companies rely on spreadsheets that need to be constantly updated and reconciled manually.

4. Payroll processing is taking too long
Sometime the first signs that your company needs a time and attendance solution will come from the payroll department. When employees record their time on manual time-sheets or antiquated punch clocks—after that, a supervisor goes over the records to make sure it’s accurate. Afterwards, this information is sent to the payroll department, who spends hours on a weekly basis, calculating and then manually entering the data into different systems.
5. Your business is growing
No business executive wants their company to remain stagnant so why use a system that’s not growing with you? And, it is safe to assume that if your company has a time and attendance in place, then your business has probably matured a bit since that system was installed. As the business has matured, the time and attendance system has probably been added to and cobbled together with other components to help with the changes in process and direction. Spreadsheets don’t cut it and most antiquated time and attendance systems don’t have the capabilities to support today’s growing businesses. An ATS cloud-based time and attendance has a plethora of analytics to help you see the big picture, will enhance workforce productivity and provide you with greater financial visibility and insight.

In conclusion

Replacing your time and attendance system has a number of benefits, from better workflow and mobile technology interface to increased efficiency and real-time reporting. So what’s holding your company back from ditching that antiquated system?

To learn more register for one of our monthly webinars, find us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest. To reach us by phone call (866) 294.2467.

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ATS Workforce Management Software Helps Retailers Maintain A Competitive Edge

September 17th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Time and Attendance | Employee Time Attendance | Overtime | Payroll | Retail | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on ATS Workforce Management Software Helps Retailers Maintain A Competitive Edge)

Today’s retailers are faced with stiffer competition, price-sensitive consumers and an economy that’s filled with uncertainty. And using old fashioned time clocks or spreadsheets is a sure way of slowing productivity and seeing your competitor, who is using modern technology pass you by as they increase their sales and lower payroll costs.

ATS Workforce Management for Retail provides a set of integrated and best-in-class solution that delivers all the attendance information you need to accurately; schedule employees, create forecasts to meet business demand and gain access to up-to-the minute analytic reporting. ATS Workforce Management for Retail is designed to support your core operations and helps you take advantage of modern-day cloud computing business technology.

ATS Workforce Management Software Helps Retailers Maintain A Competitive Edge

With ATS Workforce Management for Retail you will have:

A Scalable Solution Designed to Meet the Needs of your Business
With ATS Workforce Management, you will have access to; employee self-service, job costing, instant time and attendance analytic tools, payroll, enterprise resource planning (ERP), employee recruitment and HR data integration for in-store supply chain management.

Access to Data at Anytime, Anywhere
ATS Workforce Management forecasting tool enhances predictive capabilities by providing you with real-time data to understand and overcome difficulty in anticipating fluctuations and customer demand. And with the right data at your fingertips, you will gain a competitive advantage and turn siloed information sources into synchronized ones with ATS Workforce Management business intelligence tools and innovative integration capabilities. ATS Industry-specific workforce analytics is robust and includes personalized dashboards, and workflows and alerts that can all be accessed from a smart-phone or any workstation with a Internet connection 24/7, 365 days a year.

Optimized Workforce Planning
ATS Employee Scheduling give employee access to their schedules and the ability to request time-off. ATS Workforce Management for Retail encompasses best-in-class —time and attendance, automated onboarding, and workforce planning tool—that helps to control costs during seasonal demand and reduce turnover and decrease payroll costs.

ATS Workforce Management for Retail gives you all the tools to make on-the-spot decisions including; analytics, mobility, visualization, and collaboration—to make sense of it all, get critical information to the department or personnel, and discuss it in real time.

To learn more, download a demonstration or contact us at (866) 294.2467. You can also register for one of our monthly webinars on our website.

ATS Workforce Management Software Helps Retailers Maintain A Competitive Edge

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Why Should I Register For ATS Workforce Management Software Webinars?

September 10th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance On-Demand | Time and Attendance Software | Workforce Analytics | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Why Should I Register For ATS Workforce Management Software Webinars?)

ATS webinar series are designed for companies researching and evaluating the capabilities and functionality of Workforce Management Solutions. During the demonstration, you will gain valuable insights into specific features and functions that address the unique business requirements of manufacturing, healthcare, retail, life sciences and hospitality.

These in-depth demonstrations are interactive and you will learn how ATS has helped rapid-growth companies to improve operational performance by streamlining payroll costs, accelerating global financial consolidation with analytic reporting, and eliminating disjointed and manual based time tracking processes.

All of our webinars feature a CEO/COO, finance or HR executive guest speaker from a from a mid to large size company, who will outline how they transitioned from manual time tracking to modern cloud-based time and attendance.

Our attendees include:

 CEOs/Chief Operating Officers
 CFOs/ Financial controllers
 VP/Director/Manager of Human Resources/Payroll Managers
 VP/Director of operations/manufacturing
 VP/Director supply chain

To learn about ATS, you can take advantage of our library of learning materials and stay up to date on the latest in business software and best practices.

You can also join our LinkedIn business group or follow us on Pinterest and other social media channels. To reach one of our account executives, call (866) 294.2467.

Why Should I Register For ATS Workforce Management Software Webinars?

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Why Implement a Time and Attendance System? Lower Payroll Costs, That’s Why

September 8th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Based Time Management Solution | Employee Self Service | ERP | Forecasting | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Why Implement a Time and Attendance System? Lower Payroll Costs, That’s Why)

Studies conducted by industry giants IDC, Gartner, Aberdeen and others have consistently revealed that most executives do not have an effective time and attendance solution with the capabilities for; forecasting, data integration, workforce planning, job costing, and up-to-the-minute reporting. So what kind of benefits can these executives derive from implementing an effective time and attendance solution?

They include:

 Greater understanding of employee overtime, absenteeism and payroll costs.
 Uncover patterns, trends and analyze labour costs, and identify areas of potential risk.
 Improve the speed and quality of decision making gained from instant business intelligence capabilities.
 Giving employees the freedom to view their hours, request vacation and other approvals via any workstation or mobile device.
 An integrated workforce management solution that encompasses; talent management, payroll, enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resources information system (HRIS), and customer relationship management (CRM).

Companies that deploy a time and attendance solution say they have increased their net profit margins, often by 10% to 30%, while reducing payroll costs, and increasing workforce productivity. And, these same companies say that a few months after the deployment, they noticed improved employee relations—and morale. Maybe this has something to do the eradication of the time-consuming paper time-sheets.

To learn more about ATS Time and Attendance, register for one of our monthly webinars, or you can download a prerecorded demonstration from our website. And to reach us by phone call; 866.294.2467.

Why Implement a Time and Attendance System? Lower Payroll Costs, That's Why

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Is Your Company Compassionate?

September 2nd, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Absence Management | Workforce Management Software | Workforce Management Solutions | Workforce Scheduling Software - (Comments Off on Is Your Company Compassionate?)

The recent New York Times Article created a topic of conversation for “water coolers” across North America and elsewhere and was a hotly debated on major networks and online forums. An article titled “The Power Of Compassion To Drive Your Bottom Line” written by Rob Ashghar for forbes.com espouses the virtues of how several organizations treated their external customers. it goes without saying, that a company that does not have compassion in its corporate DNA towards its internal customers/employees cannot expect its workforce to be a happy one.

Three of the most of the most poignant paragraphs in the article reads, in part;

“Dignity isn’t the only example of an enterprise that has benefited from a human touch. UCLA’s health system has long had a sterling reputation for cutting-edge research and technical knowledge. But it had a middling reputation for the human touch. Hospital CEO David Feinberg concluded that the most state-of-the-art medical instruments would be rejected if they were too cold, and accordingly made human touch the utmost priority at all levels of the organization. Within a few years, UCLA’s hospitals moved from the 38th percentile to the 99th percentile in responses to the question, “Would you refer us to a friend?”

Marvin O’Quinn, chief operating officer for Dignity, says that the compassion model isn’t just a nebulous attitude, but a concrete tool for making decisions at an enterprise that employs nearly 11,000 physicians and 56,000 employees at some 300 care centers and hospitals spread across 21 states.

He points to Dignity’s choice to keep the doors open at four hospitals in bankrupt municipalities, lest many thousands of people in those communities lose the ability to receive care. Those hospitals are not profitable in and of themselves, but they are still seen as core to the mission and character of the overall organization.”

While there are some companies who continue to treat their employees as a number, rather than a human being, there are many others that treat their employees with a great deal of dignity and pay them a respectable salary including overtime when applicable. Is that a lot to ask for?

Bottom-line; a company that does not have a compassionate bone in its corporate DNA, towards its internal customers/employees, should not expect its workforce to be a happy or long tenured one.

To learn more about ATS you can go to our website or join one of our monthly webinars. You can also download a demonstration to review our time and attendance product.

Is Your Company Compassionate?

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