Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

HR Task: Ensure A Safe Return To Work In The New Normal

COVID-19 has taught the business world, that business strategies and plans should not be set in stone and instead they should adopt agility as the preferred business model. This means, HR professionals, in addition to their current workload, have to ensure the wellbeing of their workforce during the pandemic and help navigate the new normal.

As your employees return to work, companies must prioritize their well-being while adopting strategies— to meet the needs of the current working environment to keep operations running smoothly. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand Workforce Management Suite helps you create, and embody, a culture of caring while increasing productivity.

And, regardless of what your company’s “new normal” looks like, a safe and productive return to work—that includes pre-and-post-shift screenings, contactless time and attendance, and contact tracing—can safeguard your employees and give you the best opportunity to thrive in these unprecedented times.

ATSTimeWorkforce Management Suite will help you with:

Optimize Scheduling and Manage Absenteeism
Create a few what-if scenarios to determine when to re-open based on social distancing guidelines, and demand requirements.

Make use of updated federal, provincial and local payroll and labour compliance— within ATSTimeWorkOnDemand to give employees the freedom to manage personal responsibilities— while meeting their work obligations, through leave management.

Contactless Data Capture
To minimize risks associated with shared data collectors, ATSTimeWorkOnDemand Suite supports multiple contactless time clocks clocking, including; proximity, face and IRIS Scan and mobile technology.

Managing Remote Work
The current pandemic has forced many employees to work from home and companies across the world have transitioned their employees to work virtually to support physical distancing efforts. With ATS Employee Self-Service options, employees can request time-off and punch in/out from a mobile device or PC.

The world has changed, with the current pandemic and it’s going to keep changing. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand helps your workforce adapt, evolve, and win by working more effectively within it. Spend less time focused on tasks and more time focused on strategy. Turn data into smarter decision making, and use modern technology to create experiences your employees will love.

About ATS
ATS offers a broad portfolio of time and attendance 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.

Thousands of organizations across North, Central and South America and Europe- including more than half of the Fortune 500 – use ATS TimeWork OnDemand, Workforce Planning, Employee Scheduling HR and payroll solutions to manage their workforce.

In addition, ATS provides modular analytic solutions that includes; workforce planning, benefits management, employee self-service, business intelligence, human resources, payroll, and advanced analytics based on a robust cloud computing platform for information and data needs. It also offers design, rapid deployment, support services, software updates, and enhancements; and consulting and training services.

ATSTimeWorkOnDemand, Contactless Time Clocks, Employee Self-Service, HR, IRIS Scan, Payroll, Social Distancing

Annual Performance Reviews Are Outdated, But Are Old-Fashioned Companies Listening?

Paying attention to change is a mindset. Some companies adapt, while others simply can’t let go of the past, even if their inaction to change is causing disruption in their organization. We have written about the annual performance review, in the past, and its relevance or lack thereof, in today’s rapidly change workforce that encompasses; cloud computing, AI, Robotics, and a Millennial and GenZ workforce. In particular, this cohort of Millennial and GenZ employees, simply have no patience, for year-end reviews with their managers, and would instead, prefer daily or weekly feedback.

In an article, written by Valerie-Bolden Barrett for HR Dive, titled Workers overwhelmingly prefer regular check-ins to yearlies, based on a study, it revealed the following:

“An overwhelming number of employees (84%) said regular check-ins with their managers are important to them, according to a poll of 1,000 workers from Appraisd, a U.K.-based performance management software company. The percentage of employees favoring check-ins was even greater among younger age groups; 90% of Gen Zers said regular face-to-face meetings with their manager are important and 40% described them as very important.

Workers reported different check-in frequencies with their managers. One-third of respondents meet with their manager once a month; 12% meet every two weeks; another 12% never meet with their managers at all; and 8% meet fewer than every six months. Large organizations were more likely to have regular check-ins than midsize or small companies, and the number of employees that never had check-ins increased to 17% in small companies, Appraisd said.

According to Appraisd, the annual review is still used in 36% of the respondents’ workplaces. Four percent reported that reviews are conducted less than once a year and 8% said that they’ve never had a review with their current employer”.

Bottomline: The annual performance review is on life support and will eventually become a thing of the past. Millennials and GenZ, will slowly seal its fate.

To learn about ATS and its suite of workforce management solutions, go to our website. You can download a demo or register for one of our bi-weekly webinars. To reach an account executive by phone call, 866.294.2467.

AI, Cloud Computing, GenZ, Millennials, Robotics

Healthcare Practitioners Embrace The Many Benefits Of The Cloud

Cloud computing solutions like ATS TimeWork OnDemand, is changing the way healthcare entities including; hospitals, life sciences, clinics, biotechnology manufacturers and the pharmaceutical industry deliver quality, affordable services to their patients. And, by embracing ATS TimeWork OnDemand, the healthcare industry can improve operational efficiency, increase employee productivity, and respond to market demands with agility.

Healthcare Practitioners Embrace The Many Benefits Of The Cloud

Here are three reasons why healthcare providers are ditching paper, and instead are moving, to a cloud computing solution like ATS TimeWork OnDemand:

ATS TimeWork OnDemand set of cloud-based workforce management software solutions replaces complex paper-based processes, and systems with best-of-breed, yet intuitive technology, empowering payroll and HR professionals alike, to deliver streamlined workforce processes and remarkable experiences.

Moving to the cloud, allows healthcare entities to spend more time with patients and less time on infrastructure-related activities, laying the foundation to perform workforce management and human capital management (HCM) functions more effectively and efficiently.

Healthcare Practitioners Embrace The Many Benefits Of The Cloud

Simplifying the data integration landscape-with third-party Payroll, HR, Talent Management, CRM and ERP all using ATS integrated purpose-built middleware solution tool to send data to each other in a cohesive manner and achieve unparalleled end-to-end efficiency. With ATS TimeWork OnDemand, the result is a connected, application that automates, anticipates, and unifies your business processes together.

To learn more about ATS TimeWork OnDemand for healthcare, or to attend one of our weekly webinars, go to our website. To speak to a representative, call 866.294.2467.

Cloud Computing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Healthcare, HR, Human Capital Management (HCM), Payroll, Talent Management, Workforce Management Solution

Here Are Three Ways To Keep Your Remote Workers Engaged

The traditional way of work is on its way out and is not coming back, much to angst of some. Many North Americans, in particular, millennials are ditching the traditional approach to work which usually involves driving one or two hours to an office. Today’s workers and are instead looking for companies that offer flexible work options and if yours does not, good luck in attracting a range of talent.

Here Are Three Ways To Keep Your Remote Workers Engaged

If your company has embraced the new way of work and has a remote workforce, you probably know it can sometimes be hard to make sure they feel part of the team. Here are three ways to keep your remote workforce engaged:

Consistently Communicate

A consistent line of communication between you and your remote team members is vital to ensuring workers are engaged, getting the work done are motivated. Occasionally e-mail your remote workers during the day or schedule one or two phone call during the course of the day. Not only does this help them to feel part of the team, it also means you are always accessible and this can help to avoid problems.

Made Good Use of Technology

The latest workforce management solutions and HR applications can help with remote employee engagement. In addition, cloud-based tools like Skype can provide your company and its remote workers to access a variety of presentations, or obtain important HR and data related information-thus, ensuring team members can remain up to date with the latest and most critical information wherever they are.

Share Feedback

Include your remote workers in important decisions that are part of your company’s overall strategy and/or growth plans. When remote workers are not included in the decisions then can quickly become disengage, and begin to can feel unsupported and unsure of how much their efforts are appreciated by the company. As an organization, you should have faith that your remote staff can work independently and meet operational objectives.

If you work in the white-collar world, you will undoubtedly end up working with or supervising a telecommuting workforce at some point. How you handle remote workers will vary according to whether they work from home in the suburbs a dozen miles away, a few provinces or states away, or in another country.

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HR, Millennials, North America, Telecommuting, Workforce Management Solution

Technology Has Become A Great Resource For HR Departments

Today’s HR practitioners have a symbiotic relationship with technology. And why shouldn’t they? When you consider the old ways of calculating and managing employee time and attendance was relegated to paper time sheets. In other words, a time-consuming task, that resulted in numerous errors, it’s no wonder many in HR are giving a warm embrace to technology.

Technology Has Become A Great Resource For HR Departments

A brief summary of an article titled World-class HR departments do more but spend less, thanks to technology written by Valerie Bolden-Barrett, for HR Dive reads, in part:

World-class HR organizations spend 25% less than average HR organizations and function with 30% less staff, but are more effective, according to a report from The Hackett Group. The consulting firm’s benchmark analysis also found that, should an average company with $10 billion in revenue gain world-class HR status, it could save up to $15 million a year. The Hackett Group defines world-class HR operations as those which maintain a level of performance in the top quartile in effectiveness and efficiency.
The analysis also showed that world-class HR operations spend more of their budgets on cloud-based technology and selective outsourcing compared to other HR staffs. Top-ranked departments have also reduced the amount of staff performing transactional tasks with error rates for those tasks two to fives times lower that of traditional HR operations.

The Hackett Group’s research also found that, through digital technology, HR organizations can improve their efficiency and effectiveness in delivering services, boost customer experience, place additional resources on high-value activities and use sophisticated analytics for better decision-making.

Bottom line: Technology has created remarkable new opportunities to eliminate administrative overhead and, at the same time, give HR departments access to advanced technology tools like, workforce analytics, real-time employee dashboard review, employee self-self service and hosts of other workforce management tools available 24/7 365 days a year.

Do you think your HR department will want to turn their backs on tools that helps them streamline payroll costs and improve productivity? We are guessing the answer is no.

To learn about ATS Workforce Management Solutions go to our website. You can also register for a bi-monthly webinar or call us at 866.294.2467 to arrange a demonstration.

HR, Payroll, Time and Attendance, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Management Solution

How To Prepare Your Company For The Minimum Wage Hike

Whether you run a small, midsize or large organization, chances are, you will be impacted by the proposed minimum wage hike in Ontario and several other jurisdictions across Canada. And, similarly, US businesses are grappling with the same challenges.

How To Prepare Your Company For The Minimum Wage Hike

As an organization, you have several options at your disposal, and as such, get to decide how to handle a wage hike. For the purpose of this blog, we will discuss two options:

Decrease your workforce: As a company, you might decide that in order to remain viable the simplest solution is to decrease your number of employees. Another possibility is to simply hire employees on a part-time basis, in the hopes that this will help you decrease payroll costs.
Raise prices: When payroll and other operational expenses go up, businesses can choose to pass them onto their customers. And, depending on the market and product offered, this can sometimes be a tough pill for customers to swallow, and some of them may end up speaking with their dollars by going elsewhere.

What if instead of loosing sleep (and with good reason) over the wage hike, your company automates manual business processes, thus, enabling employees to work smarter and more efficiently, while keeping your profits intact?

ATS Workforce Management HCM Solution can streamline payroll costs and improve workforce productivity. Some of these solutions include:

ATS Workforce Scheduling for retail, hospitality and healthcare is a robust and powerful solution designed specifically for organizations with hourly paid employees across multiple jurisdictions. ATS Workforce Scheduling uses data from your core business to create real-time analytic reporting and on demand-based schedules avoiding any over or under-staffing.

With ATS Scheduling you can:

Accurately report key performance indicators (KPIs) such as labour costs, employee attendance and absences, and workforce compliance.
Align employee schedules to financial budgets, payroll and labour to-sales ratios and the allocation of hours for a single entity or across the organization.
Improve employee productivity through optimized resourcing, employee and supervisor self-service. Managers can create schedules and send it to employees through interactive dashboards and workflows.

ATS Time and Attendance simplifies the tedious tasks involved with monitoring employee time and attendance, labour tracking, and data collection. That means, if you are using paper timesheets, outdated tracking and spreadsheets, you will likely not save much money unless your time tracking is fully automated. ATS Time and Attendance System — works in tandem with our best-in-class time clock/data collection devices — to help your organization control labour costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity.

Manage overtime costs ATS Time and Attendance helps you account for hours accurately, and minimize overtime to protect your bottom-line. You will have immediate access to employee attendance and get reports, in real-time on overtime trends, tools to manage overtime requests and approvals, and time card review. In other words, this means less administrative burden and fewer errors.

Bottom-line:

The wage hike is coming and will be felt by organizations and employees alike. If you are looking to improve your employee efficiency, streamline payroll costs, and make better business decisions, ATS Time and Attendance could be the right tool for your organization.

To download a demonstration or learn more, go to our website. And to attend bi-weekly webinar or speak to time and attendance consultant, call 866.294.2467.

Analytics, Employee Scheduling, Healthcare, Human Capital Management (HCM), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Overtime, Retail, Time and Attendance, Workforce Management Solution

3 Tips On How To Use Big Data Effectively

Big Data is not a “Johnny-come-lately” tool, it is in fact, it comprises of massive amounts of information that we use every day – in other words, it encompasses, vast zetabytes of data flowing from our computers, mobile devices, and machine sensors. With the right Big Data tools, your organization can store, manage, and analyze this data – and gain valuable insights that were previously unimaginable.

3 Tips On To Use Big Data Effectively

Below are 3 tips on how to use Big Data effectively from an article, by Jordan Kasteler for Inc called: Supply and Demand: The Effect of Big Data. It reads, in part:

“1. Let data make decisions for you

Before we had data at our disposal, decisions were made based on emotions or gut feelings. As a result, the rationale for each choice might now look murky in hindsight.

Nowadays, nearly every decision can be backed up with hard numbers. Managers are able to make educated judgments, and they can justify their moves with proven results–past or present.

Put your expenses under the microscope

Every organization has some form of “spend data” to analyze. “Spend” refers to operational costs across business functions such as planning and budgeting, inventory management, product development, and compliance.

For large, global enterprises, this data can run into millions of transactions. Analyzing it can help procurement managers identify spend patterns by category, vendor, region, and more. It can uncover opportunities to drive bottom-line savings and more value from their procurement spend. Data analytics can help managers analyze extremely large volumes of spend data much more efficiently and accurately.

Love your vendors, but don’t woo them

The “Age of the Customer” is here and booming. Many consumers now expect businesses to seamlessly meet every aspect of every need without hesitation.

When incorporating big data, both suppliers and procurement clientele stand to benefit. For instance, suppliers can glean valuable, data-driven insights to allocate resources more accurately and better formulate logistical strategies.”

Today’s companies are acutely aware of the potential big data can provide them. And, when they see the enormous ROI their competitors get by using big data, they make every effort to ensure the solutions that they deploy, includes Big Data.

ATS Time and Attendance has built-in, feature-rich Big Data analytics to provide deep insight across a company’s workforce management solutions requirements. The solution is embedded within ATS core solutions and can power reporting, analytics and a wide range of features, can help transform decision making and your business.

To download a brochure about ATS Time and Attendance Big Data Workforce Analytics go to our website. To reach ATS by phone call; 866.294.2467.

Big Data, Time and Attendance, Workforce Analytics

Want To Remain Nimble And Increase Profits? Cloud Is The Way To Go

Every company wants to maintain its competitive edge by making sure its payroll costs is not too high while always looking for ways to increase its profits. Sometimes, that’s easier said than done. For example, a drastic cut to a company’s workforce or outsourcing of a department, might lead to decrease customer satisfaction and low employee morale. In other words, while it’s not impossible to achieve both objectives, it is sometimes easier on paper than in reality.

If your company is using a cloud-based business management software, the possibilities are endless. Today’s workforce is different from yesteryear and successful companies regardless of size or industry, know only too well, that in order to keep their position at the top they must find ways to improve productivity and streamline payroll costs. And, with the right cloud-based time and attendance solution, companies can do a whole lot more.

Want To Remain Nimble And Increase Profits? Cloud Is The Way To Go

Here are 3 ways companies can remain nimble and increase productivity and profits:

24/7 365 Days A Year-Availability:
In today’s every increasing competitive business landscape, not having access to data whenever you need it, equals lost decreased productivity and profits. The right cloud computing application is available no matter where your finance, payroll and HR managers are. As long as their device is connected to the Internet, they can gain access to data in real-time, respond to employee vacation and other leave management requests.

Adhere to compliance needs:
Changes in compliance and other workforce regulations continues to shift and companies need to ensure they are using a software application that is update all the time and meet the complexity of these changes as they occur. In a world of Big Data, cloud computing, using an application like ATS TimeWork OnDemand you get immediate compliance updates that’s pushed out automatically to the entire organization- as soon as they’re available. In short, this simplifies the process of keeping your time and attendance solution up-to-date and it also ensures that all users has access to the most current information and tools to do their jobs effectively.

The Cloud Propels Productivity:
When IT resources are focused on maintaining and fixing old Servers with existing antiquated solutions, they are essentially always playing defense. By deploying ATS cloud-based time and attendance your IT resource can focus on spending their time on other important initiatives.

In closing, when compared to on-premise solutions, cloud computing applications like ATS TimeWork OnDemand will help to grow your business profitably, and will provide your compare with more reliable information all in -real-time, drive faster decision-making, and thus, enabling you to quickly meet changing market demands to stay ahead of all your competitors.

To learn about ATS TimeWork OnDemand, go to our website. You can also register for a bi-weekly webinar or download a demonstration.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Employee Vacation Request, HR, Leave Management, Payroll, Productivity

Is The Customer Always Right?

June 6th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in HR | Time and Attendance Toronto | Workforce Management Solutions - (Comments Off)

The topic of customer service always brings out a difference of opinions from some who believe the employees come first and then customers-and there are others who remain resolute in their belief that the customers always comes first. Whichever camp you are in, it’s clear that no business can prosper without its customers.

Here are some excerpts from Sharlyn Lauby, creator of HR Bartender, addressing the subject, of whether the customer is always right or not:

“There are times when the customer is absolutely right. The company messed up big time and they need to take responsibility for their mistake. Organizations have a huge opportunity to win a raving fan, instead of gaslighting the customer into thinking it was their own fault or simply apologizing without accepting responsibility. Organizations should invest in customer service and problem-solving training to help employees work directly with customers. I don’t believe customers expect perfection. They do expect to be treated with respect; and ignoring service challenges isn’t the way to do it.

There are also times when the customer is wrong. Often, it’s because the customer doesn’t understand the rules. Great examples are industries like health care, telecommunications, and government. They have unique regulations, lengthy contracts and forms, and it takes some time before we get the hang of working with them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing those industries. It’s who they are and, as a consumer, we need to educate ourselves on how to work with them. We have an obligation to understand what we’re buying. But at the end of the day, the customer is still the customer. And there’s not an unlimited supply of them.”

Is The Customer Always Right?

In a world of competitiveness that spans all industries, getting customers and hanging onto them is paramount. The Internet has allowed today’s customers to browse and compare before buying online for such things as; banking services, cars, hotels, time and attendance, and vacation getaways. In short, today’s customers have no patience for anything short of stellar service.

The most poignant part to that article reads in part; “At the end of the day, the customer is still the customer. And there’s not an unlimited supply of them.”

To learn more ATS time and attendance solutions, you can download a prerecorded demonstration. And, to connect with us directly call, 866.294.2467 or follow us on Twitter, Pinterest or Google+

Customer Service, HR Bartender, Time and Attendance

How Long Should Payroll And HR Practitioners Keep Attendance Records?

How long should your organization keep employee attendance records? This will depend on the province or state in which a company operates. For example, on the website of the province of Manitoba, reads in part; “Employers and employees need to keep accurate records of the hours worked and the amount paid for those hours. Employers must pay employees for all hours they work and explain how the pay was calculated. Employment Standards requires employers to keep pay records for three years”.

How Long Should Payroll And HR Practitioners Keep Attendance Records?

Here is another example from the province of Ontario website “Employee and Retention Records, must be kept for three years after the day or week of work. If an employee receives a fixed salary for each pay period and the salary does not change (except if the employee works overtime) the employer is only required to record:

The employee’s hours in excess of those hours in the employee’s regular work week

And

The number of hours in excess of eight per day (or in excess of the hours in the employee’s regular work day, if it is more than eight hours).

Employers are not required to record the hours of work for employees who are exempt from overtime pay and the provisions for maximum hours of work.”

If you are small or mid-size business with 50-200 plus employees and tracking employee time and vacation pay with spreadsheets, it will take you an awfully long time going through paper records to verify hours worked in the unlikely event, you are audited. Your HR and payroll managers are the key to helping you solve these issues and are more than likely up to date on work-rule compliance.

So, what’s the best way to solve this issue? Help your payroll and HR staff by automating employee time keeping with ATS TimeWork OnDemand, that’s fully powered by the cloud. With ATS TimeWork OnDemand, you can:

Access Employee Attendance Records Anytime, Anywhere:
With ATS TimeWork OnDemand, all you need is an internet connection, and you can access ATS cloud services using any device.

Flexibility
CIOs and IT Directors marvel at the ease of use in accessing ATS TimeWork OnDemand through the web. ATS TimeWork OnDemand is ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands.

Capital-expenditure Free
ATS TimeWork OnDemand cuts out the high cost of hardware. You simply pay as you go and enjoy a subscription-based model that’s kind to your cash flow. And best of all, you no longer have to shift through paper records to find employees record, it’s always readily available when you need it.

So, how do you get started? Simply, download a demonstration to see the solution in action for yourself-afterwards, you contact us by phone at 866.294.2467 to discuss your requirements in more detail.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand, CIO, HR, Manitoba, Ontario Employment Standards Act, Overtime, Payroll

Here Are Three Ways To Keep Your Remote Workers Engaged

Technology Has Become A Great Resource For HR Departments

How To Prepare Your Company For The Minimum Wage Hike

3 Tips On How To Use Big Data Effectively

Is The Customer Always Right?

How Long Should Payroll And HR Practitioners Keep Attendance Records?

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