Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

Removing The Complications Out Of Employee Time Tracking

We at ATS continually espouse the benefits of an automated time and attendance, but we have also stressed that it does not have to be a complicated process. And, while it’s true that an organization with multiple locations, different collective bargaining agreements, and its adherence to regional and federal work rules can increase the complexity and amount of time it takes to install such a system, sticking starting with the basics can make a world of difference.

Here three simple rules to follow once you have decided to deploy a time and attendance:

Reports
Find out which reports are most important to you. For example, if you need a report that shows which or how many hours employees worked on a; daily, weekly and monthly basis, this should suffice as a starting point. Other simple reports may include; exceptions, overtime, daily time in and out and, a few payroll reports to ensure you have the proper information before exporting employee hours to your payroll, CRM, ERP, HR or talent management software. This, however, is not to suggest, you should not explore the full library of reports within a time and attendance system, or look for a solution that has the capability to provide analytics and Big Data tools to support your organizational growth.

Employee Time Clock
When deciding which time clock to use, think about your organizational philosophy and, more importantly, your actual work environment. Would biometric face recognition be better suited or would or a proximity or magnetic time clock avail itself as the better option? These are considerations that should be given once you decide which time and attendance to deploy.

Project Manager
Traditionally this role has fallen to the IT manager or consultant. But, in actuality, HR and/or the payroll practitioner and to some extent, finance personnel are responsible for the management of employee time tracking. So, would it not make sense that such a project be headed by one of these individuals? That’s not to say the role of IT is less important, it just means that the very people who manage the daily tracking of employee hours would know more, than anyone else, about your company’s time and attendance requirements. And, so, it stands to reason, that their role when choosing a solution should be elevated- in short, they are the ones that should be your project managers, with the understanding that they seek assistance and/or guidance from other departments including; IT and other operational managers.

Whether you are moving from paper time sheets to an automated time and attendance solution or merely upgrading to a new solution, removing the complications will help the deployment go a bit smoother.

To learn more about ATS Time and Attendance solutions, go to our website. And to register for one of our weekly webinars, contact us.

Analytics, Big Data, Biometrics, CRM, ERP, HR, Payroll, Time and Attendance, Time Clock

Paper-Based Time Tracking Persists Despite Cost Savings Through Automation

It has been said that small and mid-size businesses are the lifeblood of North America, because they keep the economy humming by creating jobs. However, a despite the advantages to automation, some of these companies still use paper-based and other forms of manual methods to manage their business.

A recent article by Tom Starner, contributing editor for HRDive titled “Employers using paper-based benefits administration strategy see money fly out the window” provides a business case for why manual systems are hampering the productivity of small and mid-size businesses. It reads in parts:

“It may be hard to believe, but some HR departments (mainly smaller businesses) are still processing the benefits enrollment process using paper — much to their financial detriment, according to an expert writing at Employee Benefits News.

Andrew Brickman, director of Benefits Administration at Corporate Synergies, an employee benefits and insurance broker, says employers still relying on paper, rather than automating the process, should understand that they are letting dollars slip out the door.

Apart from potentially missing valuable data, storing paper documents also is very expensive (filing cabinets, paper, printer ink and maintenance costs). Instead, Brickman writes that a far better option is moving to a benefits administration platform for automating the process, ensuring both time and money savings.”

Paper-Based Time Tracking Persists Despite Cost Savings Through Automation

Many of today’s small and mid-size businesses have endured through economic slow downs and remain focused on their operations and profitability, but need 21^st century tools to help them keep their competitive advantage, and remain lean while increasing productivity.

If your small or mid-size business happens to be one of those that have been contemplating automating your time tracking process, it’s not too late. ATS TimeWork On Demand for small and mid-size businesses helps your entire operation, by giving you interconnection between all locations and departments of all processes. ATS TimeWork OnDemand is easy to use and includes workflows with intuitive user dashboards, real-time reporting analytics and adapts to workforce and regulatory compliance rules.

Want to get rid of your paper-based time tracking system? Download a demonstration or attend one of our weekly webinars on how ATS cloud solution has helped a small to mid-size business like yours.

To arrange an onsite visit in your region, call us at 866.294.2467.

Analytics, Benefits Administration, Cloud Time and Attendance, HR, Time Tracking

Ye Shall Practice And Embrace Lean Manufacturing

The term “Lean” is well known in manufacturing circles and has been adopted across various disciplines including; Lean Healthcare and Lean Accounting to name a couple. A brief description of lean principles in Wikipedia states in part;

“Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply “lean”, is a systematic method for the elimination of waste (“Muda”) within a manufacturing system. Lean also takes into account waste created through overburden (“Muri”) and waste created through unevenness in work loads (“Mura”). Working from the perspective of the client who consumes a product or service, “value” is any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Essentially, lean is centered on making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as “lean” only in the 1990s. TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world’s largest automaker, has focused attention on how it has achieved this success.”

Ye Shall Practice Lean Manufacturing

Today, several organizations have formal Continuous Improvement methods that leverage the “lean” process –but may leave others to chance or perhaps feel it’s not as important. ATS Cloud Workforce Management for Manufacturing was developed with lean thinking from its original inception and as such has many built-in capabilities to support your lean initiatives. “You can’t improve what you don’t track or measure.” This in and of itself is one of the tenets that have shaped the ATS Workforce Management for Manufacturing with a robust database, embedded with sophisticated user dashboards, and business analytics.

For example, users can extrapolate reports in real-time to measure payroll costs, through a set of forecasting tool and workflows–and compare key performance indicators (KPIs) against goals to clearly measure on-going improvements. Now, that’s taking the holistic approach to “Lean Manufacturing.”

To learn more about ATS Cloud Workforce Management for Lean Manufacturing go to our website and download a demonstration. And to reach us by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

Ye Shall Practice Lean Manufacturing

Analytics, Forecasting, Key Performance Indicators, Lean Manufacturing, Payroll, Toyota, Workforce Management

When Used Properly, Analytics Can Help Businesses Streamline Payroll Costs

It’s no secret that attitudes toward cloud technology are rapidly changing, and discussions about the potential downsides of cloud deployment are quickly evolving into valid, evaluations of the risks associated with not making the move. Perhaps, it’s a combination of sober thought and some companies witnessing their counterparts in the same or different industries deploy cloud computing technologies, with success hence; the adoption of it. And, with the emergence of cloud-based technology, the use of analytics have also increased. In an op-ed by Rodger Howell, principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers for CFO magazine, he writes;

“Today’s technology, cloud, and IoT-driven world is continually generating a wealth of data, creating both opportunity and challenge for those tasked with deciphering and analyzing it. CFOs in particular are now facing increased pressure to connect the dots between multiple data streams to identify patterns that will optimize a company’s growth and align its costs with its strategy.”

Now, that a statement that packs a powerful punch and is noteworthy, if your company remains unconvinced about the rapid acceptance of cloud technology, and its plethora of advantages it can bring to your business.

Rodger Howell’s article provides a blue print for companies to follow when considering, cloud computing software solutions and analytics. In no particular order, it reads in part:

“Setting Goals and Objectives: CFOs should first identify the organization’s short and long-term objectives, developing key performance indicators to track progress. Consider this step the impetus that will motivate business leaders to introduce data analytics to their day-to-day operations and to assess their impact on business goals.

Proposing Pilot Projects: Once CFOs have buy-in from key players within the organization, they should use this support to introduce pilot projects rooted in data analytics. CFOs can start small by proposing new operations and always being sure to encourage participation from other members of the organization.

Seeking Feedback: CFOs must realize that ongoing feedback from other members of the organization, including its leadership, is necessary after introducing new data analytics platforms, and processes.”

Cloud computing and analytics is an increasing priority for companies of all industries especially, for business executives who want to streamline payroll and overtime costs and other related business expenditure.

When Used Properly, Analytics Can Help Businesses Streamline Payroll Costs

ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance is the industry’s most flexible and wholly integrated solution. It’s accompanied by best-in-class services across software as a service (SaaS), platform. ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance helps organizations drive innovation and business transformation by increasing business agility, lowering payroll costs, and reducing IT complexity.

To learn about ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance solutions, go to our website. You can also download a demonstration or register for one of our weekly webinars.

Analytics, CFO, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Overtime, Payroll, PricewaterhouseCoopers

An Effective Time And Attendance System Will Stamp Out Time-Card Fraud

A recent article about a time-card fraud investigation by UMass resulted, in some employees resigning, and others being placed on administrative leave. At ATS, our solution engineers are often asked to explain the benefits of a time and attendance solution to corporate managers, who, at times, do not fully understand how such a system, can increase productivity and eliminate time-card fraud.

An effective time and attendance takes the guess-work out of calculating employee hours, vacation, premium pay, statutory holidays and overtime. In fact, just about every study that has been conducted about the benefits of a time and attendance solution– all arrived at the same conclusion, and that is –companies using an automated time and attendance solution, on average, save 3-5% on payroll costs. For most senior executives, these are the kind of numbers that will make them take notice and, most likely, immediate action.

An Effective Time And Attendance System Will Stamp Out Time-Card Fraud

ATS Time and Attendance Solution will help your company to:

Get Rid of the Chaos
ATS Time and Attendance captures employee hours in real-time –into clear, and actionable information. In the world of paper-based time sheets, manually counting employee hours is simply a time-wasting exercise.

Gain Access to ATS Time and Attendance Anywhere, Anytime
ATS TimeWork OnDemand is easy to get up and running, easy-to-use, and is scalable with your business. There are no barriers, no fuss – just one complete, cost-effective cloud-based workforce management solution designed to deliver up-to-minute analytic results, streamline payroll costs and increase employee productivity.

Enjoy Painless Integration
You can go ahead and do your “happy dance” or do some back-flips, if you feel so inclined. ATS TimeWork OnDemand is an open database designed to integrate with a range of other payroll, HR, ERP and other systems in a seamless fashion. That’s right, those countless hours spent keying data manually into spreadsheets and other software programs is now a thing of the past, once ATS TimeWork OnDemand is deployed.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand is trusted thousands of customers, in a wide range of industries and supports business processes in many locations and across many regions, including; Canada, United States, Europe and South America. ATS TimeWork OnDemand has a proven track record of driving competitiveness and streamlining business processes.

To learn more, call 866.297.2467 or download a demonstration from our website.

An Effective Time And Attendance System Will Stamp Out Time-Card Fraud

Analytics, Overtime, Payroll, Premium Pay, Statutory Holidays, Time and Attendance

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

Analytics, Cloud Based Time and Attendance, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Capital Management, IDC, Microsoft

ATS Modern-Day Cloud helps the Public Sector to Increase Productivity and Streamline Costs

Today’s public sector is faced with shrinking budgets, aging populations, and are under pressure, to streamline payroll costs and improve operational effectiveness. So, how do these public agencies and governments guard the public purse, share information, integrate business processes and, at the same time, reduce costs? The answer for many of them has been to embrace the cloud and the many benefits that come with it.

ATS cloud-based time and attendance is truly unique and helps public sector agencies address pressing issues that include: proper application of overtime, adherence of collective bargaining agreement work-rules, pay compliance and daily time and attendance business operations. ATS cloud-based time and attendance is compliant with Canadian and US; provincial, federal and state regulations.

ATS Modern-Day Cloud helps the Public Sector to Increase Productivity and Streamline Costs

Benefits to government agencies using ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance include:

Work and pay rules enforcement
ATS time and attendance data flows to multiple databases including; HR, ERP and payroll thus, reducing manual effort and ensuring that work hour policies and pay rules are correctly applied. ATS time and attendance provides instant exception alerts to users, based on government agency-specific rules, empowering managers to catch and correct errors at the source.

Employee Scheduling
You can give employees access to view their shifts and schedules. They can also define their availability and collaborate time-off requests through the intuitive cloud-based interface. With ATS employee scheduling, you can eliminate costs, time, and errors from budgeting and planning, integrate forecasting activities, and automate the planning cycle.

Choose your deployment
With a complete range of flexible deployment options, including cloud, and hybrid configurations, ATS offers rapid implementation to get your agency up and running fast. ATS cloud-based time and attendance helps the public sector eliminate license-based maintenance costs, manage payroll costs, while enhancing workforce productivity— in a cost-effective manner that delivers flexibility, security, reliability, compliance and efficiency.

The powerful and robust ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance database allows public sector agencies to replace outdated time tracking methodologies, with —a modern-day platform, that enforces standard public sector-specific policies and regulations.

Want to know if ATS operates in your region or province and can meet the business requirements of your public sector? Contact us by phone at 866.294.2467. You can also go to our website and download brochures, join in a weekly webinar or download a demonstration and view the product at your leisure.

ATS Modern-Day Cloud helps the Public Sector to Increase Productivity and Streamline Costs

Analytics, Canadian, Cloud Based Time and Attendance, Employee Scheduling, Payroll, Public Sector, United States

On-Demand Webcast: How Businesses Can Use Analytics To Achieve Profitability

Today, leveraging analytics is an absolute must for most industries and it has become more feasible as economic approaches have emerged to cultivate the velocity and variability of data, formerly too massive for traditional time and attendance database systems to process. ATS Software Engineers will give an overview of our workforce planning and analytics module built within ATS cloud-based time and attendance and address its challenges for today’s growing industries.

In this webinar you will learn how you can have a real-time view of your business and events as they occur. You will also learn how other companies are utilizing analytics to give them a competitive edge in shop floor data collection, financial data, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), up-to-the minute data metrics and more.

Webinar details: Friday, October 9, 2105 at 1:00pm Eastern. To register for this webinar go to our website. To reach us by phone call: 866.294.2467.

On-Demand Webcast: How Businesses Can Use Analytics To Achieve Profitability

Analytics, Attendance OnDemand, Cloud Based Time and Attendance, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Webinar, Workforce Planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In conclusion

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

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

Analytics, Mobile Technology, Payroll, Spreadsheets, Time and Attendance System

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

Removing The Complications Out Of Employee Time Tracking

Ye Shall Practice And Embrace Lean Manufacturing

An Effective Time And Attendance System Will Stamp Out Time-Card Fraud

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

ATS Workforce Management Software Helps Retailers Maintain A Competitive Edge

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