Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

Small Businesses Can Reap The Rewards Of The Cloud

The results are in and it’s predicted that by 2020, 78% of small businesses are expected to host their IT environments in the cloud. Is that a staggering? Yes, it is! When you consider that only a few short years ago, many feared anything cloud (and some still do) and likened it to tech boom of the early 2000s.

Gartner estimates states, in part, that by 2020, the “cloud shift,” or for example, moving from the traditional method of installing software on a Server to opting for cloud-enabled solutions, will have a direct and indirect impact on more than $1 trillion in IT spending. And, according to Ed Anderson, Gartner research VP “Cloud-first strategies are the foundation for staying relevant in a fast-paced world,” another quote from his statement, reads “The market for cloud services has grown to such an extent that it is now a notable percentage of total IT spending, helping to create a new generation of start-ups and ‘born in the cloud’ providers.”

Small Businesses Can Reap The Rewards Of The Cloud

So, what kind of benefits can your small business expect to see by adopting a cloud computing solution like ATS TimeWork OnDemand?

Flexibility
One of the better benefits of the cloud is the ability to access employee data files and reports from any workstation or mobile device from any place at any time. Heck! Who wants to do remote desktop or VPN transactions to access a file that’s stuck on Server?

Lower Operational Costs
One of the most obvious benefits of moving adopting a time and attendance that’s in the cloud, is that it provides significant savings. Case in point, with ATS TimeWork OnDemand, you only pay for the services that you use. And, here is the best part you no longer have to pay fees for yearly maintenance of hardware and licenses.

Team Collaboration
Whether you are a CEO, CFO, HR or Payroll executive, can see the same set of reports at the same time, thus, making collaboration easy through the cloud. The ability to review employee information, extrapolated from your data collector, allows departmental managers to make edits and communicate with each other through the intuitive dashboards. Now, that’s what we call efficiency!

So, if your small business wants to take advantage of the many benefits, that the cloud has to offer, go to our website to download a white paper. You can also register online to attend a bi-weekly webinar with topics ranging from, time and attendance, payroll, human capital management, talent management, human resources management and more.

Cloud Computing, Human Capital Management, Human Resources Management, Payroll, Talent Management, Time and Attendance

Here Is Another Reason Why You Should Dump Your Antiquated Solution

In the world of business, increasing employee productivity tops the lists along with sales and return on investment. But how can an organization increase its workforce productivity, when its technology is outdated?

An article by Chris Stokel-Walker for Bloomberg based on a study of companies using older computers and outdated software solutions revealed that; Slow, outdated computers and intermittent internet connections demoralize workers, a survey of 6,000 European workers said. Half of U.K. employees said creaking computers were “restrictive and limiting,” and 38 percent said modern technology would make them more motivated, according to the survey, commissioned by electronics company Sharp.

Clinging on to old technology that’s aging towards obsolescence cannot be good for any business, regardless of its size or stature. If the argument is that you are still running important applications on older servers with old operating systems because “it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, that will work for a short period. The continued use of outdated technology, especially, can have a negative long term effect on workforce productivity. For example, if your employees are spending too much time with a faulty network connection, or your HR manager is spending an inordinate amount of time manually counting hours from a time sheet, then your technology is inflicting pain on labour costs and productivity.

Here is one of the most poignant piece of the article, and it reads in part; Saurav Dutt, 35, was a member of a London-based IT firm that provides services to law firms. He was making a presentation to potential customers at an exhibition in Manchester. His speaking slot came right after a Google marketing executive—a prime opportunity, he thought. But the system ground to a half—due, Dutt said, to the outdated computers his company was using for its live demonstration.

Here Is Another Reason Why You Should Dump Your Antiquated Solution

In closing, the continued use of an outdated technology will, eventually, get the best of you since it’s difficult to reverse the long-term damage caused by using it.

To learn about ATS cloud computing workforce management solutions, or to download a demonstration, or attend a bi-weekly webinar go to our website. And to reach an account executive call; 866.294.2467.

Bloomberg, Cloud Computing, Google, HR, Workforce Productivity

Are Employees Happier After A Meal Or Rest Break?

April 20th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Career | Employee Productivity | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off)

The easy answer to this question is a resounding yes! Which company in their right mind would deny its employees a meal and break and expect them to be productive, let alone happy? If there are companies out there that exhibit this pattern of behaviour, they are likely in the minority however, sooner or later, they will be found out. Most smart business leaders know that corporate profits will not increase with a tired and unproductive workforce.

Below is a list of 5 good reasons why meal and rest breaks help employees. It can also be applied, to the do-gooder of an employee who refuses to take breaks and have to be nagged by their manager to do so.

This list of reasons to take a lunch break is from an article, published by Belle Beth Cooper, co-founder of Exist for the online magazine Fast Company. We have rearranged their order of appearance:

Spend time in nature to refresh your attention span
To come back refreshed after a lunch break, spend some time in nature. Studies have shown that a walk in a quiet park is sufficient to refresh our attention spans so we can return to work with renewed focus. (A walk down a city street, on the other hand, was found to require so much attention to complete that it didn’t let the brain relax fully.)

Take a real break for greater concentration
Of all the ways to use your lunch break to set yourself up for a great afternoon, the most important might be, well, actually taking a break. In many industries, lunch breaks are getting shorter and shorter, or even nonexistent. These days, only one in five office workers reports taking an actual lunch break away from their desk, according to a survey by workplace consulting group Right Management.

Move to a café after lunch for improved creativity
There are a couple of reasons working from a café could be a good change for your afternoon work period. Firstly, the ambient sound of a café has been shown to be the most beneficial sound level for creativity. Moderate noise levels, unlike silence or a noisy environment, increase processing difficulty just enough to push us out of our comfort zones and into more creative thinking.

Eat! (The right foods for better brain function)
OK, this one might seem obvious. But even if you’re trying to lose weight or run errands on your lunch break, don’t skip on eating a midday meal, or at least a snack. Your nutrition–particularly your glucose intake–will decide your productivity for the rest of the day.

Work out–the afternoon is the best time for exercise
Another thing determined by our body clocks is the best time to work out. You’ll want a late lunch break to fit this one in as well: physical performance is generally highest, and the risk of injury lowest, from 3-6 p.m. Plus, from 2-6 p.m., muscle strength is at its peak, and even your lungs perform better in the late afternoon than at midday.

Are Employees Happier After A Meal Or Rest Break?

As illustrated by the above mentioned reasons, the benefits of taking meal breaks are both healthy and productive. In fact, studies show that just getting away from the desk and hanging out with coworkers during your lunch break can boost your mood.

ATS Time and Attendance solutions are designed around the unique operational needs of different industries and are available in the cloud, hosted, or on premises. Customers can better manage complexity and focus on core growth activities.

To learn more call; 866.294.2467 or go to our website to download a demonstration of ATS TimeWork OnDemand.

Employees, Meal Break, Productive

Can You Keep Your Sanity In A Toxic Work Environment?

Who wants to be part of a work environment that has bad managers, unhappy workers, and is rife with gossip and innuendo on a daily basis? Hopefully, very few people if any at all. In his article, 6 toxic work habits that will kill your office culture Marcel Schwantes describes some of the reasons that can make some work cultures unbearable. We selected three out of the six reasons, in this article, which are signals that you should start looking for another job when you notice these dysfunctional patterns in your workplace.

Can You Keep Your Sanity In A Toxic Work Environment?

“Negative cliques and gossipers
One clear sign of a toxic work environment is a group of disgruntled employees actively acting out their unhappiness. It’s easy to spot them–they’ll congregate in hush-hush circles around cubicles after meetings to put a negative spin on what just transpired.

They are quick to gossip, and even quicker to crucify leadership and company direction. They’re basically corporate teenagers whose time with the company is about to expire, and who now rely on each other for strength and safety. Keep a close eye out for their whereabouts; they may go out of their way to befriend new hires to vilify someone or something and spread their cancer.

Dictator Managers
The feeling of watching your back (for your manager’s whereabouts) is never a pleasant one. It means you either fear or loathe your manager, and facing him or her during the day probably means bad news because the exchange is never positive. This type of manager will create a toxic culture of distrust where it’s not safe to disclose information, offer input, or work in close collaboration. Job survival under a dictatorship is day-to-day, due to the unpredictability of the environment you’re in. Everybody is on his or her own. Trusting your peers is risky–they may really be your enemies. Trusting your manager is just corporate suicide. Consider updating your resume.

Sabotage
This example is quite astonishing if you find yourself sharing space with this toxic co-worker. They will go way out of their way to sabotage anything you’re trying to get done, putting obstacles in your way, and spreading rumors (see “Negative cliques and gossipers,” above). There’s usually a personal vendetta at work here. Perhaps you’re up for a promotion and your co-worker, who thinks he is more deserving, is not. Now he’s out to make your life miserable, and trying to spin a negative campaign against you. Now you’re left with covering your bases to protect yourself — writing more detailed emails than usual, CC’ing and BCC’ing more people than normal, documenting everything, and making backup copies of stuff in the event a false accusation comes your way.”

You can read the rest of the article on Inc.com. Basically, if you decide to continuing working for a company that has many of the toxic habits described above, you should take advantage the benefit plan-especially, if it includes therapy. The alternatives, are of course, to go about your work and ignore the dysfunction happening (might be difficult to do) around you, or to start actively looking for a new job to regain your sanity and well being.

ATS is Canada’s foremost time and attendance company and offers a broad of comprehensive business management software solutions that streamlines the collection, calculation, and reporting of employee hours for workforce management and eliminates the manual tasks of payroll preparation, increasing efficiency and reducing errors in corporate payroll departments.

To learn more, or to download a demonstration or attend a bi-weekly webinar go to our website.

Benefit Plan, Manager, Work

Complex Online Recruitment Applications Can Yield Dismal Results

April 11th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Business Software Automation | HRIS | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off)

A senior HR executive of a leading hotel chain, with locations across North America who also happens to be a customer of ATS, told one of our account executives, during a recent conversation, that the “Application Tracking System is one of the best business management software that has ever been created.” She went on to say “it took us a while to get the system to work according to our needs, along with help from our vendor. However, in the initial setup the system, it had too many questions and potential candidates would start the process of the online job application but halfway through just abandon it altogether.”

Let’s fast-forward to a recent survey by CareerBuilder which is referenced in an article, by Dave Zielinski, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) titled Most Job Seekers Abandon Online Job Applications. Some of reasons citied for candidates abandoning an online applications reads, in part; “The fallout for organizations from this persistent issue is the loss of top talent, poor word-of-mouth from candidates frustrated with the process and the higher costs associated with abandonment in cost-per-click recruiting models.”

Complex Online Recruitment Applications Can Yield Dismal Results

The article goes on to say “Traditional thinking holds that lengthy applications will screen out apathetic candidates and good talent will be dedicated enough to fill out more information.” Unless a candidate is applying for a job with NASA or some other high profile job like the CEO of a public company, there is likely no need to have 50 or more questions on an online job application.

At some point it might be best to remove some of the generic and mundane questions that are not germane to online application, including decreasing the number of screens applicants have to go through. And, yes, you also need to make sure that the questions on the application are relevant to the job. However, —if these questions are causing candidates to exit out of the application process before its completed at an alarming rate—it might be time to review your application tracking system, with your provider, and come up with a process that’s inline with your corporate philosophy—while taking into account the changing attitudes and expectations of today’s job candidates.

To learn about ATS time and attendance solution TimeWork OnDemand or, to register for one of our bi-monthly webinars go to our website. And, to reach an account representative, call: 866.294.2467.

Application Tracking System, CareerBuilder, HR, North America, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM)

Not A Fan Of Cloud Computing? Here Are 7 Reasons To Reconsider

If your organization is a believer in having business management software installed on its network as opposed utilizing the cloud, you are not alone. Some companies, for various reasons, like the idea having their software in-house. And, if your company, falls into that category, be assured that ATS offers, a robust, on premise workforce management solution—that’s used by small, mid and fortune500 companies—across every industry.

If, however, you are still wondering what this cloud fuss is all about, here are 7 reasons why you might want to take a peek at some of the benefits:

Not A Fan Of Cloud Computing? Here Are 7 Reasons To Reconsider

Better performance
Because ATS cloud reduces the need for you to install a multitude of unnecessary features, your computer has more free memory to work faster at other things.

You will always have the latest version
By virtue of accessing your own secure ATS time and attendance, company specific app or URL, the latest version of your time and attendance application will always be readily available. And, those updates come without disruption to your business operations.

Flexible costs
ATS cloud computing solution is more flexible than traditional methods. Organizations utilize our subscription-based services – and pay for – server and infrastructure capacity as/when it is needed.

Total and complete independence
Your company can access the ATS time and attendance application from any Smartphone, tablet or computer that’s connected to the Internet 24/7. This means, you are no longer tied to your computer to get what you need.

Sharing with others is now easier
Sharing work, sending reports to other managers or your direct supervisor is so much easier, including the ability to work on an employee online time card at the same time and, see updates and revisions in real-time.

Hardware costs is significantly reduced
When installing software on a company’s server, you have to factor in the cost of maintaining that Server including updates. Software hosted in the cloud does not require that kind of costs-in fact, all you need is a computer with reasonable Internet speed.

Data backup
Because your data are stored securely in the cloud, if you spill coffee on your laptop or lose your smart phone while taking the train to work, your data is still safe.

ATS cloud time and attendance offers your business a degree of agility and path to rapid growth that was simply unattainable in the past. ATS Cloud gives customers a complete, end-to-end cloud solution—a rich and comprehensive platform to—ensure their businesses get the best value for their investment.

Need more reasons to reconsider an ATS cloud solution? Go to our website and you can download the demonstration or register for one for a bi-weekly webinar.

ATS Time and Attendance, Cloud Computing, Smartphone

Breaking Up With Outdated Technology Is Hard To Do

April 4th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Business Software Automation | Cloud Computing | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off)

There is no denying it, breaking up with a solution that you have become use to is hard to do. You may have spent years working with it and although, you know that it’s not working, you keep using it while clinging on to the old adage “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. As technology continues to evolve so should businesses especially if new tools can help improve productivity of your staff.

So, whether you are tracking employee time, providing service to your customers or purchasing a product, using an outdated system experience, especially, when you know there is a faster-better-easier way.

Breaking Up With Outdated Technology Is Hard To Do

An article written by Marc Posser for Small Biz Technology titled ‘5 Outdated Office Supplies and Their Alternatives’ can be used as a guide for some businesses who still cling to old technology for dear life, hoping, they will prevail in the world of IoT, cloud computing and the digital wave that has sidelined video rental companies, CD music stores and dial up Internet to name a few.

The list of office supplies in the article include:

Fax Machines

“Ever heard of emails? Sending files nowadays is ideally done virtually. Not only are emails more reliable, you are also able to retain the quality of the files that you are sending. However, some clients still prefer to receive documents through a fax machine. If you need to do so, you might want to consider using fax cover sheet templates to make your document more presentable and send it through an online fax service instead so you won’t need to use an actual machine.

CDS and USBs
Apart from occupying physical space and having a high chance of getting lost in your sea of other CDs and USBs, these two storage devices are not the most reliable when it comes to storing large files for a long period of time. Ever opened your USB after a long time and found out that it is corrupted with no way of retrieving your important files? Nowadays, there’s a lot of storage solutions available online such as Google Drive and Dropbox – and they provide a pretty large virtual space, too! The next time you want to store something or share files with someone else, try uploading your files online and just send the link to your colleague. It makes retrieving your files in the future easier as well.

Post-its
Still using actual post-its for reminders and task lists? Why not try online sticky notes that you can access online anytime, anywhere? You can easily cross out tasks done after accomplishing them even when you are using a different computer or device. The best thing? You’ll help save a lot of trees in the process!

Landlines
In today’s evolving business landscape, accomplishing daily tasks sometimes require you to pick up the phone and get in touch with someone from the other side of the globe. While you can still do this using old school landlines, it is sometimes unreliable and can cost you a lot of money.

Manual Clock-In Machine
Do you still use manual clock-in attendance machines that require your employees to put in an actual time card for it to stamp their time-in and time-out? We hope not. This is a tedious method of taking note of your employees’ attendance records as you have to go through each attendance card one by one at the end of each month. As an alternative, you can use time and attendance software which can give you better insight into your team and help you track the days and hours they are working.”

In conclusion;
Many companies have updated parts of their business to the cloud and/or are using cutting-end technologies to help them streamline payroll costs and improve workforce productivity. If you are part of the small minority that likes to hang on to old technology look around and you might be pleasantly surprise to find out that many of your competitors have already upgraded to more advanced technology platforms to help them increase business performance.

Cloud Computing, Dropbox, Google, Internet of Things (IoT), Time and Attendance

Are Employees Happier After A Meal Or Rest Break?

Can You Keep Your Sanity In A Toxic Work Environment?

Complex Online Recruitment Applications Can Yield Dismal Results

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