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Infractions: Poor Record-Keeping, Unpaid Overtime and Holiday Pay

January 26th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Benefit Accruals | Biometric Time Clocks | Collective Bargaining | Labour Analytics | Labour Costs | Leave Management | Overtime - (Comments Off on Infractions: Poor Record-Keeping, Unpaid Overtime and Holiday Pay)

A recent article in the Toronto Star newspaper, based, on a blitz by the Ontario Ministry of Labour into workplace violations by some companies, revealed, that a staggering number of these violations had to do with poor record-keeping, unpaid overtime and holiday pay. The issue of unpaid overtime is one that has lingered over some companies for the past several years. ATS cloud-based time and attendance was designed with built-in Canadian work-rules, can be deployed in only a matter of weeks and will help your company eradicate manual paper-based time tracking. And the best part, overtime is tracked and paid in accordance with jurisdictional pay policies.

If your company is considering deploying a time and attendance solution but remain ambivalent about its advantages, below, is a list of the three top benefits of an ATS time and attendance solution:

Infractions: Poor Record Keeping, Unpaid Overtime and Holiday Pay

Labour
Reducing costly calculation errors is just one reason to consider automating time and attendance management. Recent surveys from Aberdeen, Canadian Payroll (CPA) and American Payroll Association (APA), report that human error in manual time-card calculations is likely to cost a business between one and one-half to eight percent of its gross annual payroll. The manual calculation of employee time sheets takes an average of five minutes of administrative time per time sheet, equating to a loss of more than eight hours of productive time per pay period for an organization with 100 employees. These are alarming statistics, and frankly, not many companies would want to use valuable resources to track employee time manually, when this time could be spent with their customers, generating revenue.

Reduce Compliance Risk
ATS Time and Attendance has a set of built-in Canadian work rules to ensure pay compliance through automated wage and hour rules. ATS time and attendance will improve transaction times and information access through an intuitive user experience, thus, increasing profit margins while enhancing employee productivity. In other words, the tracking and paying of the appropriate; overtime, vacation, and other time-off request can be managed by our cloud-based time and attendance with ease.

Savings
An ATS time and attendance solution provides both direct and indirect investment returns. Automating your time and attendance process results in ongoing cost savings, such as a reduction in human-generated payroll errors, elimination of time theft from “buddy punching” through the use of biometric time clocks and overtime costs, as saved wages from enhanced productivity.

For example, when tracking time manually through spreadsheets or outdated methods, it’s not unusual to have employees claiming missed overtime and hours worked on their pay. Attempting to rectify this issue by counting hours collected on paper time-sheets can lead to additional errors. Perhaps the answer to this prevailing issue; is to automate the collection of employee hours, thereby gaining valuable data analytics, to help your organization, make effective business decisions that impacts, payroll cost and the bottom- line.

Infractions: Poor Record Keeping, Unpaid Overtime and Holiday Pay

Through the use of an ATS robust time and attendance solution, organizations are able to fully automate pay rules, work rules and benefit accrual rules as well as leave management, collective bargaining agreements (CBA), and exception-time (such as overtime) reporting. By having up-to-the-minute access to this information, organizations will gain complete and accurate visibility into their operations, thus, enabling them to meet production, forecasting and scheduling demands and stay compliant with the many federal and provincial, municipal and state laws, as well as company policies.

To learn how ATS time and attendance solution can help your organization keep accurate records of employee hours, pay overtime hours based on company’s pay policies and assign the requisite statutory holiday, you can download the white paper titled “Benefits of an ATS Automated Time and Attendance Solution”. And to view a demonstration, go to our website. To reach one of our account executives, call: (866) 294-2467.

 

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Manufacturing Can Improve The Bottom-Line By Embracing The Cloud

January 19th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Time and Attendance | customer relationship management | Employee Self Service | Forecasting | Software-as-a-Service (saas) Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Manufacturing Can Improve The Bottom-Line By Embracing The Cloud)

Cloud-Based time and attendance, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and host of other workforce management and human capital management software applications have made significant strides in manufacturing operations over the last several years. And, that’s due in part to many executives in the manufacturing industry embracing the many benefits that a cloud-based application brings with it. It is also worthy to note that the manufacturing sector have also had to adapt to global competition in the economic slowdown of recent years. In short, when your competitor is consistently outpacing you by using new and technology, thus, increasing their profits, wouldn’t you want to find out why and how?

Manufacturing Operations Will Improve Their Bottom-Line By Embracing The Cloud

Global market research and intelligence firm IDC released its 2016 prediction aptly titled “Top 10 Manufacturing Predictions For 2016: The Cloud Enables Greater Customer Centricity”. In no particular order, we have listed the following 3 predictions:

“In 2016, 20% of Manufacturers Will Begin to Break Down Organizational Silos, Reshape IT Portfolios, and Import New IT Talent in the Plant for Digitally Executed Manufacturing. IDC predicts that rigid, centralized factory control systems will start to give way to decentralized intelligence as machine-to-machine communications start to hit the factory floor. To support this transformation, IDC says that a new generation of technology-savvy and technology-empowered workers, with information available at their fingertips, will be needed.

By the End of 2016, 65% of Manufacturers Will Have Metrics in Place to Evaluate and Drive Pervasive Changes in the Workplace with Their New Technology Investments. IDC predicts metrics associated with 3D printing productivity and security will become more pervasive in 2016. In addition to these, advanced analytics that can recommend which customized product configurations, service bundles, and pricing options are optimal for a given sales cycle will emerge, supporting by cloud-based platforms capable of providing analytics reporting on any device, anytime. Tableau will continue to see adoption accelerate in manufacturing as a result of the myriad of new metrics being created today and in 2016.

By the End of 2017, 50% of Manufacturers Will Exploit the Synergy of Cloud, Mobility, and Advanced Analytics to Facilitate Innovative, Integrated Ways of Working on the Shop Floor. IDC believes that companies will realize the short-term opportunity of using the cloud as the fabric to establish a companywide platform to analyzing data coming from the shop floor and converting it into actionable information for enterprise decision makers. Acumatica, Microsoft AX on Azure, NetSuite, and Plex Systems are cloud-based ERP providers who have experience scaling manufacturing operations starting at the shop floor. A few including Plex have analytics that support shop floor to top floor reporting.”

These predictions are clear indications that all things cloud have changed rapidly and are being embraced by small and large organizations alike. ATS TimeWork OnDemand Manufacturing Time and Attendance solution was designed for industry-leading plant floor to top floor functionality. ATS TimeWork OnDemand delivers unprecedented customer success through a relentless pursuit of time tracking, analytics and data extrapolation through continuous innovation.

To learn about ATS cloud-based time and attendance solution, or to view a demonstration go to our website. And, to speak to a sales consultant call us at: (866) 294-2467.

Manufacturing Operations Will Improve Their Bottom-Line By Embracing The Cloud

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I’ve Got This Feeling, Somebody’s Watching Me. Really? Who’s Watching You?

January 12th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Biometric Time Clocks | Payroll | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Solution | Workforce Management Solutions - (Comments Off on I’ve Got This Feeling, Somebody’s Watching Me. Really? Who’s Watching You?)

The title of this blog references the popular song of the 80’s”Who’s Watching Me” by Rockwell. which brings us to the subject at hand, biometrics in the workplace. It wasn’t too long ago that the mere mention of biometrics being deployed at an organization, evoked fears of “Big Brother” mentality to the point that some employees offered a variety of reasons why they could not use this type of time clock. And, while a biometric time and attendance solution is becoming somewhat of an accepted practice in the workplace, it continues to have detractors, in part, because of misconceptions or because it was deployed in an organization that was not prepared for it.

I’ve Got This Feeling, Somebody’s Watching Me, Really? Who’s Watching You?

An article by CBC Canada, that references Apple’s iPhone marketing campaign states in part; “Biometrics made a mainstream splash with the 2013 launch of the iPhone 5S, which featured a “Touch ID” that uses a person’s fingerprint to unlock the phone. But similar technology appeared in commercial gadgets a decade earlier when Sony introduced a thumb drive with a fingerprint scanner.” The article discusses fingerprint technology and FaceScan biometrics, among others.

If you are thinking about deploying a biometric time clock solution within your organization, we suggest talking to an experienced ATS time and attendance software engineer. Their dept of experience include; different industries with a multitude of pay policies, collective bargaining agreements, across several continents.

There are different types of biometrics and depending on your organization some work better than others. And unlike the biometrics mentioned in the cbc.ca article, ATS time and attendance biometric time clocks are solely, designed, to capture employee hours of work for the purposes of payroll.

To learn more about biometrics, download the white paper on the role biometric plays in the workplace. You can also join the conversation by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter or GooglePlus. And, to reach one of our account executives by phone call (866) 294-2467.

I’ve Got This Feeling, Somebody’s Watching Me. Really? Who’s Watching You?

 

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Working Long Hours, Does It Improve Or Hinder Productivity?

January 5th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Scheduling | Overtime | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Solution | Web-Based Time and Attendance | Workforce Management Solutions - (Comments Off on Working Long Hours, Does It Improve Or Hinder Productivity?)

The Industrial Age brought with it among other things, mass production of goods and manufacturing and also the introduction of the 9 to 5 work day. And with several decades gone, the Industrial Age has slowly become a thing of the past. And with the changes in the working world, one of the new norms have now become the 12 or 13/14 hour shift, which begs the question, can humans actually work that long and still productivity?

A recent article titled “12-Hour Shifts — Are They the Best Fit for Your Organization”? by Jason Gogel for Industry Week, an online manufacturing publication, wrote in part;

“After the Great Recession, many manufacturers had to find new ways to increase productivity and efficiency. Some changed their shift schedules from eight to 12 hours so they lost less production time on shift changes each day.”

Numerous studies including, one for Harvard Business Review, concludes that an individual’s health eventually suffers by working too many hours, with the end result being less productivity. Of course, we have all at one point or another, worked overtime for extended periods, in order to complete or implement a project and that means putting in extra hours but, that’s the exception and not the rule.

Working Long Hours, Does It Improve Or Hinder Productivity?

The Industry Week article continues by stating that; “The biggest concern with 12-hour shifts is lack of sleep and fatigue, which can negatively impact performance, productivity, and safety- on the job and at home. Health professionals typically agree that quality sleep is essential for maintaining good health. Most adults require seven to eight hours of sleep for optimal functioning; however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 30% of the nation’s workers are sleeping less than six hours per day.

In addition to fatigue, not getting enough sleep can result in shortened attention spans, memory lapses, and irrational decision-making. According to sleep experts, other sleep-related problems are diminished psychomotor skills, slower reaction times, poor communication, and periods of micro-sleeping.”

You can read the entire article by going to Industry Week web page. Unless you are working for a company like Google and others of its kind, who provides nap rooms for employees who work long hours each week, your productivity will go down, if you continue working extended hours each day.

Another article you might find useful on this topic is called; “Whatever happened to 9 to 5? “ by Rex Huppke for the Chicago Tribune.

To learn more about ATS and how our time and attendance solutions can help your company manage pay policies and overtime hours, go to our website or call; (866) 294.2467.

Working Long Hours, Does It Improve Or Hinder Productivity?

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