Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

7 Tips For Managing Employee Time And Attendance

Is the practice of manually tracking employee time driving you up the walls? Labour costs is one of the biggest concern for many small businesses owners—and, when regulations for overtime, meal breaks and other pay-rules change, spreadsheets can only go so far.

7 Tips For Managing Employee Time And Attendance

Here are 7 tips to make your employee time tracking easier:

(1) Submitting employee hours to your payroll bureau-Dealing with payroll submission deadlines will be less stressful if you have an automated time and attendance system that tabulates employee hours and sends the totals to your payroll software at the click of a mouse. No more, spreadsheets and no need to use calculators anymore. It’s that simple.

(2) Invest in a reliable system- An ATS time and attendance solution automates the entire ‘punch to paycheque’ process and will provide you with alerts and data, that includes; employees who are approaching overtime, up-to-minute reporting, and will keeping you up date with the latest legislation.

(3) Unrivalled support- Whether you are using our cloud computing application ATS TimeWorkOnDemand or the client server version, you can be rest assured, we’ve got your back. Our support reps are available; online, via phone or through onsite visits, depending on your customer care support package.

(4) Details matter-Take the time to set up the employee details correctly in your time and attendance system such as: start dates, phone numbers, up to date addresses etc. And if your company has a large contingent of employees, the ATS time and attendance also has an embedded synchronization interface that can extract data from, your ERP, HR, or payroll application.

(5) After-sales training is beneficial- ATS time and attendance implementation includes a training course will help you save time and be more efficient. ATS runs flexible training, including onsite and online courses aimed at helping you get the most out of your time and attendance solution.

(6) It’s important to remain compliant with legislative changes-One of the advantages of using a system like ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, is that, it’s designed to keep pace with changes in work place legislation.

(7) There’s no need to keep doing what’s not working-Managing employee time with spreadsheets, is a tedious task and, is likely giving you more headaches that you can handle.

What to know more? Download a demo or register for one of our upcoming webinars from our website. To speak to an account executive, call: 866.294.2467.

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, ERP, HR, Overtime, Time and Attendance

If You Are An HR Manager Add This Solution To Your Hiring Tool Kit

Speak to any HR manager about the list of challenges they face each day and, hiring and retaining talent is likely to top that list. As an HR manager, have you thought of about introducing fingerprint technology as a tool to help with the recruiting process?

If your organization is interested in deploying a fingerprint solution to streamline the process of hiring, here are some suggestions from an article titled New Fingerprinting Tech Gives Hiring a Hand by Meghan M. Biro of Talent Culture:

“Check the requirements for your field. Depending on industry and state, you may be required to fingerprint your new hires. This includes a number of licenses, public, and private agencies.

For instance, fingerprints are required for those working with pari-mutuel betting and racing. Indian tribal governments may require fingerprinting for anyone who is going to have regular contact or control over Indian children. Private security officers, criminal transporters, adoption or foster-parent evaluators, and school employees may all be subject to fingerprinting. (Fingerprints are processed for a reduced fee for a number of organizations or firms whose employees will work with children.) Other common industries that may require fingerprinting include healthcare, insurance and financial services. Other dependencies include whether or not applicants are located in or out of state.

Don’t expect fingerprinting to do all the heavy lifting. If you think one fingerprint can magically produce everything you need to know about an applicant, think again. For example, a fingerprint may disclose an arrest record, but not a conviction. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it’s ill-advised to deny someone a position solely on the grounds of an arrest record. A summary of the EEOC’s guidance with regard to conviction record screening policies is provided in HireRight’s white paper, Checking in on Employment Background Checks: Are You in Compliance with the EEOC, FCRA, Federal and Local Requirements?

Keep in mind, the FBI database may not receive a record of all outcomes of all arrests, and in some cases, a state may have chosen not to fingerprint. Certain issues may not even appear on the database, which could cause problems later — including possible litigation.

Use fingerprinting to confirm the identity of your hire. Fingerprinting is the best way to confirm identity. It’s been called the gold standard of identity confirmation — and for a background check, this is the straight line between your potential hire and the FBI database. In terms of employee experience, there are plenty of complications involved in the hiring process already. You can eliminate one by making sure your new hires understand the purpose of fingerprinting. Now that identity confirmation is becoming a new normal, and technologies like biometrics are commonplace, you may be pleasantly surprised by younger generations who are comfortable with fingerprinting — many already protect their smartphones with their fingerprints, for example.”

Fingerprint technologies have been around for a while and are used across many industries to track and report on employee time and attendance. That being said, no two fingerprint technologies are the same-for example, biometric fingerprint technology used to track employee time is different from the ones used by law enforcement.

If you decide you want to use fingerprint technology for hiring employees, make sure you are using a reputable company. And, if your company is unionized, also be prepared to get challenged by either your shop steward or the local President of the union. When selecting a vendor, make sure you choose one that has deep industry expertise, and who is able to clearly espouse the virtues of fingerprint technology, discuss the pros and cons and ally the fears of all stakeholders.

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Biometrics, Employee Time and Attendance, Fingerprint, HR, Talent Culture

Is It Time To Abolish Daylight Savings Time?

Finding any benefit to daylight savings time is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The growing body of evidence that highlights its detrimental effects on human beings and their productivity far outweighs the incoherent argument for those who are in favour of keeping this ineffective ritual.

Is It Time To Abolish Daylight Savings Time?

An article written by Erik Sherman (which cites various studies) for Fortune, titled ‘How Daylight Saving Time Affects Your Health and Productivity’ reads in part;

“There is a productivity loss, according to David Wagner and Christopher Barnes, professors of management at the University of Oregon and University of Washington. Their studies found “workers tend to ‘cyberloaf,'” using computers for non-work purposes, on Mondays after a shift to Daylight Saving. One study, sponsored by a foam and cushion manufacturer, estimated a national productivity loss of nearly $434 million — about $1.65 per person. Wagner and Barnes say we don’t regain lost productivity in the fall when time shifts back. It takes up to 3 weeks for some to hit a normal rhythm, according to a study in the journal Sleep Medicine.”

Getting the general public to embrace and reap the benefits of the digital era and cloud computing was hard but, not as hard as trying to convince those still clinging to the outdated practice of daylight savings time. Change after all, is hard for some but given the fact that the data consistently points to an increase in; car accidents, strokes and loss of productivity-after switching the clocks for daylight savings time — it is only a matter of time before the general public, start to apply pressure to policy makers to eradicate this bi-annual tradition.

So, on Monday morning, if you feel grumpy, groggy and tired, (and with good reason) blame daylight savings time for your woes and take solace in the fact that you are not alone.

Cloud Computing, Daylight Savings Time, Productivity

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

Analytics, Employee Time Clocks, Payroll, Retail, Time and Attendance, Workforce Management Software, Workforce Planning

How To leverage Your Time and Attendance Solution To Improve Efficiency

There is no question that having the right time and attendance software and hardware and using it to its full advantage- can put your company on the path to eliminating inefficiencies while improving business productivity. It’s not an understatement to say that some companies underutilize their time and attendance solution and balk at the time it takes to achieve ROI.

Do you have a time and attendance solution in place and if so, are you getting the most out of it? If not, here are some ways to ensure you achieve that rapid ROI that you hoped for when you made your selection.

Vendor Selection-some companies get seduced by vendors who boast about being in business for 100 plus years. And, that’s fine, but make sure there is more substance to the solution offering other than being around a long time. The number of years in business does not always translate to getting the solution that meets your requirements. And, if things should falter-you want to make sure the vendor is not going to vanish but rather, help you navigate through difficult stretches of the implementation. If you shortlisted your vendor of choice, request from them a list of companies who is currently using the system you are about to deploy. And, while it’s tempting to ask for a list of companies that’s only in your industry, that’s playing it safe. playing it safe. While there is nothing wrong in asking for references of companies within your industry, you want to make sure the vendor has a breadth of experience in a variety of industries. In the final analysis, what should consume you during the process is, whether the vendor, you select truly understands your company’s business requirements.

Value VS Price Conundrum-Some companies are so enraptured by the price that nothing else matters until the system in installed. And often times, you do get what you pay for. If you are going to install a time and attendance solution in the hope of it being in place for several years, the lowest price will not cut it. Again, focus on your business requirements-because if a vendor understands your needs, then you should keep an open mind to spending in a little bit more to get what you want. You will achieve two things with that approach; one you will get a company that will implement the type of solution you want and second, your business will achieve operational excellence through the use of a robust business management solution.

Research Using The Right People-At the core of a time and attendance solution are; work and pay policies, employee time capture, employee scheduling, job costing, vacation and other personal time-off requests to name a few. And who knows your company’s pay policies inside out? Payroll and HR administrators! It is amazing how many companies have an IT person heading the search for a time and attendance solution with little or no input from the very people who will be using the system on a daily basis. IT can play an important role in your search but, if the people, who knows your company’s business requirements is not involved in your search, you are already headed down the wrong path.

In conclusion, if your company embraces the concept of the time and attendance solution that you deployed, and is using it in the manner it intended, you will be begin to see the savings. To obtain the white paper on “How To leverage Your Time and Attendance Solution To Improve Efficiency” in its entirety go to our website.

To reach us by phone to discuss your time and attendance business requirements, call 1.866.294.2467.

How To leverage Your Time and Attendance Solution To Improve Efficiency

Human Resources, Payroll, Return on Investment, Time and Attendance, Vacation

Get Growing – With ATS Scalable Business Software

ATS Time and Attendance solution is packaged with easy-to-use functionality that readily addressed the business challenges of today’s diverse industries. ATS TimeWork On-Demand requires limited IT resources and shorter implementation time-line. For growing and established businesses, that means a rapid return on investment (ROI), and lower total cost of ownership. ATS TimeWork robust employee scheduling capabilities provide the latest in on demand data, but enabling you to achieve operational excellence and maximum profitability.

ATS TimeWork helps you improve the process of payroll and, at the same time and meet customer demand more quickly. ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance enables you to:

Generate employee schedules quickly and efficiently, including manual calculation of breaks dynamically controlled through work and payroll policies.
View in real-time how much time an employees spend on particular task and obtain up-to-the-minute access to pay adjustments and time edit card approvals.
Grant employees access to check their hours, schedules, request time-off and view accrual balances through our employee self-service dashboard.
Utilize geolocation functionality module for remote employees and contractors through the ATS time and attendance. Through the use of our geofencing capability organization can reduce and eliminate potential time and attendance theft by their mobile employees.
Real-time data helps managers make informed decisions by identifying attendance patterns to effect on-the-spot decisions. ATS time and attendance helps you to drill down into workforce data to identify and solve problems.

ATS TimeWork is available as Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted and subscription models. This provides businesses with the choice on how deploy and manage ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance. With ATS cloud-based solution, organizations gain access to the same functionality available in an on-premises software, with the flexibility of on-demand access from one of North America’s leading workforce management companies.

In conclusion, ATS TimeWork On-Demand is flexible enough to let you shape your workforce management solution experience. You gain a best-in-class solution with powerful analytics and easy-to-use solution that works the way you do.

To learn more, download a demonstration. You can also contact us at 1.866.294.2467.

Get Growing – With ATS Scalable Business Software

Employee Scheduling, Employee Self Service, Software-as-a-Service

Accurate Information Is Better Than Relying On Guesswork

When it comes to paying employees accurately anything short of automation can lead to undesirable results. ATS time and attendance gives you complete control of your employee work hours for accurate analysis, whether it’s for budgeting; employee attendance, scheduling or forecasting future business trends. ATS time and attendance system will propel your organization with up-to-minute data for accurate decision-making, versus guesswork.

ATS time and attendance helps mid-size, large companies and multi-nationals empower their workforce to succeed by automating time tracking processes into real-time data. ATS TimeWork is built on a robust, data configuration architecture with a set of best-in-class workforce management software practices and functionality -that is aligned to increase productivity, accelerate business growth and lower the costs of ownership.

Why ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance?
ATS is a well trusted, easy-to-use time and attendance solution used by companies across North America, Latin America and Europe. ATS TimeWork adopts the latest technology and best practices to assist our customers to achieve the best results. The sheer flexibility and scalability of the applications provides users with unlimited options, through user-friendly dashboards.

By using ATS TimeWork you take the guesswork out of the equation and are left with:

Workforce Management Reporting-Up to-the-minute workforce analytics that will help with compliance reporting and everyday time tracking. Through the use of ATS TimeWork business intelligence tools you harness the power of predictive analytics for better decision-making and increased employee productivity.

Flexible Leave Management-ATS Leave Management provides all the necessary functions required by today’s progressive companies and government organizations. The product is intuitive with embedded self-service functionality that allows employees to track and manger their leave management from any workstation or mobile device with Internet access. Your HR department can focus on other important initiatives within your organization as employees are introduced to cool to user-friendly views to request time off, monitor the status of requests, check leave balances, and respond to overtime offers.

Accurate Recording of Attendance- ATS TimeWork helps companies reduce labour costs and improve productivity- TimeWork automatically creates a history of employee attendance, including early and/or late arrivals with reason codes for daily, weekly or monthly time tracking reports.

If your company is still using intuition to figure out employee attendance, there is a better way. To learn more go to our website and download a personalize demonstration. You can also contact us at 1-866-294-2467.

Business Analytics, Employee Time Tracking, Labour Costs, Leave Management, Workforce Management Software

Should Your Company Have A Policy For BYOD?

The debate about how should companies deal with employees that bring their own device to work is ongoing. With the explosion of mobile devices in the last several years, this was bound to happen. Depending on the industry, some companies are lenient towards it and in some cases, see as a way for them to save money, by not having to hand our smart phones to every employee. Meanwhile, other companies have a set policy in place that does not allow for employees to use their personal phone for company business.

A recent study by Forrester states in part, “More than half of North American and European companies are developing BYOD programs in response to workforce demand. While enabling employees to use their own mobile devices and computers for work presents challenges in terms of security, risk, infrastructure, and operations, the potential upside is impressive. A successful program can increase overall revenue by boosting IT and help desk productivity, improving line-of-business process efficiencies, reducing expenses for corporate-liable device and data services, facilitating employee collaboration, and enhancing customer support. BYOD programs that successfully address security concerns can unlock competitive advantage and build a solid base for future business tech innovation.” Forrester has host of studies on this very topic that includes many industries in several countries around the world.

So, will Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) work for every company? Every organization is different and has a corporate culture that’s distinctive to their way of operating. For example, some of ATS account executives use their own smart phones, while others use company-issued ones. As mobile technology began to transform both lifestyles and work styles, ATS executives wanted to increase workplace use of mobile devices to improve business productivity-hence; the desire to offer employees a choice.

BYOD, Forrester, North America

Want To See Shareholders Tickled Pink?

July 8th, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Time Attendance | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off)

Just tell them that the stock market has just spiked upwards which is what happened with the recent news that the Dow Jones industrial hit 17,000 points. This got shareholders and investors in various industry sectors figuratively, doing back flips and some probably, doing their version of a happy dance.

The Dow Jones rally was encouraged by the June economic report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics that states, in part, “The unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 6.1 percent. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 325,000 to 9.5 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons have declined by 1.4 percentage points and 2.3 million, respectively.”

While this is good news for some companies, the manufacturing sector which suffered the brunt of the 2008 recession, is trying to reclaim its foothold in a tenuous economy that’s fraught with outsourcing and persistent high unemployment. And meanwhile, senior executives are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that their companies do not overspend on capital projects and at the same time, find efficiencies where necessary.

The deployment of an ATS time and attendance solution can helps the cost-minded executives achieve profitability and increase productivity. ATS TimeWork increases functionality and usability specifically for the manufacturing industry. The solution is robust and proven through decades of use by thousands of customers across Canada and other parts of North America.

ATS time and attendance minimizes costly customizations and lets you work smarter and faster and its ease-of-use and affordability will have your investors and shareholders tickled pink. To learn more, join our workforce management software business group on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus or download a brochure from our website.

Want To See Shareholders Tickled Pink?

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Dow Jones, Time and Attendance

Does Your Corporate Culture Hinder Efforts To Optimize Workforce Management?

March 13th, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Time Attendance | Payroll | Workforce Management Solutions - (Comments Off)

Whether you’re a CEO, VP of Finance, VP of Operations, VP of HR or Director of Payroll Operations you are measured, in large part, by the effect the operational effectiveness of your department and the people who report to you, has on the bottom line. It is important, that senior executives and managers alike, figure out how the effectiveness and a variety of areas up to and including; technology change, business process change and/or employee culture change can impact their operations. Management should prepare by arming themselves with tools that will help their companies grow in an ever increasing global and competitive market.

ATS workforce management solution can help companies sustain continual business improvement, while increasing productivity gains. If your company has not taken advantage of the benefits of a workforce management solution, it’s not too late to assess its potential. ATS workforce management solution has a decisive and positive impact on the long term viability of an organization

ATS workforce management solution addresses critical business requirements by aligning HR and payroll related activities to organizational business goals.

Businesses using ATS employee time and attendance solution can gain strategic insight into the strength of the workforce anomalies, to determine where change is needed, which positively impacts the bottom line. The ability to track employee attendance in real-time get up-to-the-minute labour analytics to support strategic initiatives is the key to business success.

To learn more, join one of our monthly webinars go to our website. You can also view a demonstration or download a product brochure.

Employee Time and Attendance, Payroll, Workforce Management Solution

7 Tips For Managing Employee Time And Attendance

If You Are An HR Manager Add This Solution To Your Hiring Tool Kit

ATS Workforce Management Software Helps Retailers Maintain A Competitive Edge

How To leverage Your Time and Attendance Solution To Improve Efficiency

Get Growing – With ATS Scalable Business Software

Accurate Information Is Better Than Relying On Guesswork

Should Your Company Have A Policy For BYOD?

Want To See Shareholders Tickled Pink?

Does Your Corporate Culture Hinder Efforts To Optimize Workforce Management?

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