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Many of us worry about artificial intelligence (AI) taking our jobs and basically, turning the world upside down. And, while there are some legitimate worries about its use, there are a lot of positives with the use of AI.

HRD recently published an article, titled Five ways artificial intelligence changed the workplace in 2019. And, they include:

1. Facial recognition and AI in video interviews: A number of video interview platforms available on the market today focus on scheduling a Q&A with a candidate, recording a clip of the exchange, and forwarding it to the HR team for assessment.

The software behind the platform purportedly relies on 25,000 data points taken from the facial expressions, movements and tone of voice of past successful candidates then uses them as a benchmark for screening new applicants. These subtle clues from their interaction with the AI reportedly help determine their suitability to the role.

2. Reducing unconscious bias in candidate interviews: Unlike human recruiters, the robot skips the small talk and goes through the questions in the same manner, tone and order. The developers hope this approach leads to a fairer recruitment process.

3. AI and ‘smartphone psychiatry’: Can AI and analytics detect burnout among employees? This is the question behavioral and I/O psychologists are trying to answer with a new wave of AI-powered apps.

Installed in wristbands, badges and mobile phones, these tools are designed to pick up signals or biomarkers such as a person’s heart rate, breathing pattern and – in the case of mobile phone users – typing speed to assess their likelihood of experiencing burnout and other mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

4. AI and decision making: HR leaders who want to take a pulse of employee sentiment typically rely on surveys with a quick Yes or No question. But what happens when the questions revolve around complex issues such as workplace policy?

5. AI-powered robots that ‘learn’ from mistakes: Workplace robots are built to perform the same tasks over and over. But throw them into a new – and more challenging – situation and they might not always know which direction to take. Unless they’re built to learn from every mistake, of course.

This is the premise behind a new robot being developed at the University of Leeds. It uses AI to map out its surroundings then remembers a specific path or course of action it has taken each time it maneuvers its way and completes a task successfully.

Bottomline: There are benefits to AI if and when it is used as it was intended, which was for good. For example, ATS time and attendance is a cloud computing solution that lays the foundation for fast, modular use, and will grow with your business. As a best-of-breed cloud application solution, ATS Time and Attendance, streamlines end-to-end workflows with a single software solution for business intelligence and workforce planning.

To learn more about ATS Time and Attendance cloud computing AI solution, go to our website and register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. You can also download a demo to see this revolutionary application in action. And, to reach us by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables a system to learn from data rather than through explicit programming. Artificial intelligence is a broad term that refers to systems or machines that mimic human intelligence. Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are often discussed and used interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. An important distinction is that although all machine learning is AI, not all AI is machine learning.

Today, machine learning is at work all around us. When we bank and shop online, or use social media platforms, the algorithms of machine learning comes into play to make the user experience efficient, seamless and secure. Machine learning and the technology around it are developing rapidly, and thus, we are only beginning to scratch the surface of its broad-based capabilities.

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite is robust, intuitive and built with future-forward simplicity of machine learning, allowing your organization to work smarter and work seamlessly in the modern cloud. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite experience empowers your employees to perform at their full potential and work inspired, helping them accomplish daily tasks — anything from requesting time-off and benefits enrollment to scheduling and managing time and attendance. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand machine learning capabilities, employs rich analytics to predict what will happen — to help organizations make forward-looking, proactive decisions instead of relying on past data.

Here are 3 ways ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM technology suite can help your business thrive:

Work in today’s modern cloud
With ATS TimeWorkOnDemand you can automate the employee life cycle and streamline workforce compliance including collective bargaining agreements (CBA) so your people can focus on strategic initiatives that support business goals.

Streamline payroll and other operational costs
ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite allows your company to streamline tasks and empower your people to get things done in the fewest steps possible — from any place and on any device 24/7, 365 days a year. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite automates, employee self-service, time and attendance, benefit accruals, employee scheduling and integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resources information system (HRIS), payroll and talent management.

Instant data-driven insights
Gather key metrics, visualize insights, and predict workforce trends with HR-based people analytics embedded right into your ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite experience.

To learn more, about ATS TimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite go to our website and download a demonstration. To reach an account executive, you can request more information by going online or contact us by phone at 866.294.2467.

Do’s And Don’ts Of Office Email

July 31st, 2018 | Posted by ATS in Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Workforce Analytics - (Comments Off on Do’s And Don’ts Of Office Email)

Texting has become the preferred method of correspondence with friends and family, over emails. And why not, texting is quicker. Email, however, still reigns supreme in the corporate world so make sure you reserve those quirky jokes and smiley faces for the people with whom you have personal relationships with, like friends and family. Your work colleagues and especially, your boss might not take kindly to the same writing style you use in your personal texts when you are communicating with them.

Do’s And Don’ts Of Office Email

Here are a few email tips from Dawn Rosenberg McKay from an article titled 6 Rules for Email Etiquette in the Workplace:

  1. Mind Your Manners

Even in a world where we are rushing to get things done as quickly as possible in order to move on to the next task, take the time to use good manners in your email. Don’t neglect to say “please” and “thank you.”

  1. Watch Your Tone

Tone is how you, as a writer, can express your attitude in an email message. It influences how it is received. You usually want to make sure to come across to the recipient as respectful, friendly, and approachable. You don’t want to sound curt or demanding. Reread your message several times before hitting send.

When writing to someone with whom you’ve communicated before, begin by saying something friendly like “I hope you are well.” While emojis may help you convey tone more easily, refrain from using them in professional email unless you are writing to someone with whom you have a very informal relationship. Never use them when writing to a prospective employer.

  1. Be Concise

Busy people have neither the time nor inclination, to spend more than a minute reading an individual email. If you want to allow your recipient to read your message quickly, and still understand it, you must keep it brief.

Don’t leave out pertinent details, however. Make sure your message clearly conveys your reason for writing it in the first place. Nobody saves time if you end up having a back and forth while you try to explain the details you omitted.

  1. Avoid Using Texting Abbreviations

Even though you want to save time, you shouldn’t use texting abbreviations in your professional email. If you text a lot, as many people do, you may be accustomed to using a sort of shorthand to speak to your friends. For example, you may use “u,” “ur,” and “plz” instead of “you,” “your,” and “please.” These abbreviations have no place in business correspondence, unless the recipient is someone with whom you have a casual relationship.

  1. Use a Professional Email Address

For messages related to your current job, always use the email address your employer assigned to you. However, you should never use it to send messages that are unrelated to your job, for example, if you are looking for a new one. Use a personal email account instead.

  1. Don’t Forget Spelling and Grammar Count

It is imperative that you proofread your email carefully. Never neglect this critical step, no matter how busy you are. The things you want to be attentive to are correct spelling and proper grammar. In addition to spelling common words correctly, you also want to spell people’s names right, including that of your recipient and the name of his or her company.

Bottom line
In the era of the Internet, artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, cool automated business software and access to a dizzying array of mobile apps, the corporate world is conservative, and, how you communicate in that setting has to remain professional, because you never know who may intercept your mail. After all, when your work emails are professional, it’s less likely to put your company at risk.

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Today, companies face rapid and unprecedented technological changes whose velocity and breadth will impact every area of their business. And, emerging technologies, like machine learning and artificial intelligence, means even your customers, are more connected than ever before- thus, staying with the status quo is no longer an option.

5 Tips For Launching ATS Time And Attendance

The cost of a poor time and attendance implementation isn’t just about underutilized investments and missed business goals. It’s about not being able to access meaningful data when you need it and figuring out if your people are being utilized properly. So, what are the ramifications of not having a successful implementation? Here are 5 tips:

Plan: Set out a reasonable implementation timeline and scope. Do you have a project leader? If not, assign one and give the person the requisite amount of time to see the project through completion. If, on the other hand, the project is another task on the ‘to do’ list, competing with other priorities, expect that your implementation may take more time. Make good use of the ATS Implementation Steps which encompasses; process – plan, education, testing, validate, deploy. Don’t underestimate the time and resources it will take to complete the project successfully.

Obtain Management Project Support: Identify an executive within your management ranks who can meets regularly with your internal project team. What are the team challenges? Your management executive may not need to know every minute detail, but they need to be aware of the challenges (if there are any) that are causing unnecessary delays to the project, and they need to help prioritize competing tasks.

Accurate Data: Are you coming from old data gathering processes? For example: spreadsheets, an antiquated punch clock and/or manual time sheets? If so, you may need to clean up your data and understand the importance of setup in your new system with your implementation analyst. Your time and attendance system is only as good as the data in it. Use this opportunity to decide what data conversions or interfaces you will need: ERP, CRM, HRIS, Payroll or two-way interfaces.

Customize Only If It’s Required: Customizations equates to higher costs. ATS TimeWork OnDemand contains a plethora of analytic reporting and business intelligence tools, and in most cases, does not require customizations. If you feel that you need the system to be customized, just remember that it needs to be scoped and tested prior to implementation.

Validate And Go-Live: Upon completing your validation and testing, you should conduct a ‘User Acceptance Test’ of the data configuration. Users (HR, Payroll and Operational Managers) should be able to demonstrate their system knowledge prior to system implementation. As soon as you go live, allow time for the system to ‘settle out,’ then tackle the important items that surface to continue your business process improvements.

At the beginning of every ATS time and attendance implementation, organizations typically start with a vision of how they see their organization utilizing ATS TimeWork OnDemand to its fullest potential. The vision is often focused on streamlining processes, ease of use and providing strategic value to increase employee engagement. During a time and attendance implementation, it is important to remain focused on the vision; however, many other key factors contribute to a successful implementation.

To learn more about ATS Time and Attendance, or to download a demonstration or attend a bi-monthly webinar, go to our website. To reach an account executive, call; 866.294.2467.

Here is an example of the how the future of work has changed. Cold calling used to be the way to reach new customers. Try that in 2018 and you are likely to get lots of voice mails. In fact, cold calling has been dead for many years and some companies have acknowledged this and made changes in how their reps reach new customers. There are however, a small minority of companies, who refuse to accept this practice is passé and so, they stubbornly ask their sales people to dialing those numbers in the hope that they might reach some customers, who are waiting by their phone to get a call from a sales rep. Change, sometimes has to be disruptive, for it to be accepted and the use of robotics and the pace of automation will continue to increase, despite resistance to it, by those in the minority who hang on to past practices.

Are You Ready For The Future Of Work?

Christy Petty’s article for Gartner 6 Future Work Trends sheds some light on the how the way in which we approach work has and will continue to change

Some of these work trends include:

“Digital dexterity is monitored and measured: The growing recognition of the importance of digital dexterity creates a demand for measurement, which aligns with analytics becoming more pervasive in the enterprise. f Social science-based surveys and observations are increasingly accepted to collect relevant digital dexterity data, which can be combined with machine-generated IT, HR and business data to measure workforce digital dexterity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will prevail: The conversion of rich input patterns into data that can be readily processed by conventional software is at the heart of today’s AI hype. AI will have a profound impact on how work is assigned, completed and evaluated. Cain suggests that although AI will provide a number of workplace trends in the coming years, workers are experiencing the impact of robobosses and smart workplaces right now.

Robobosses on the rise: While employees will not report to an AI construct, the implementation of robobosses will lead to more automated management duties and more online worker activities. There is opportunity for greater tracking of worker activities and performance. This data can be run against a series of algorithms that can programmatically offer assistance in improving performance or meeting goals.

The gig economy will thrive: Organizations will increasingly learn and borrow from freelance management and gig economy platforms, which dynamically match short-term work requirements directly with workers who have the relevant knowledge, experience, skills, competencies and availability. This will mean moving away from traditional structures to more fluid arrangements.

Employees get work through employment marketplaces: Freelancer marketplaces make it easier for employers to tap into a set of contractors for short-term work commitments. In parallel, professional social networking platforms and recruiting technology providers have been investing heavily in matching algorithms to pair up talent supply and demand.

Jobs get deconstructed: Traditionally, organizations have invested in mapping out clear career paths for employees. While workers need a purpose-focused direction, a portfolio of experiences builds knowledge and skills and allows for the practice and improvement of competencies. Employees will increasingly find the accumulation of experiences to be more realistic than a carefully plotted-out career path”.

Some things were somewhat predictable like cloud computing as it slowly began to edge onsite Server installed applications. But who could predict Apple’s dominance in mobility computing or Google’s search engine literally taking over the world, leaving competitors in its dust? The future of work and its trends will not affect all organizations equally, so it’s important for senior executives to understand where their organization is right now, where it’s going, and how they plan to embrace change as it happens.

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Change is never easy, especially when it comes to embracing and adopting cloud-based enterprise applications. But today’s executives (including many CIOs) understand that moving to the cloud offers efficiency, speed, and significant savings.

But what really makes cloud-based applications so different than those built and designed to work on traditional Servers with embedded legacy-type architecture?

ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud is the most powerful, unified solution available today. It redefines how you modernize, collect employee data, innovate, and compete in a face-pace digital world, delivering comprehensive and integrated cloud services that allow your users to cost-effectively build, deploy, and manage workloads seamlessly and—in the cloud.

Adopting A Corporate Cloud Mindset

Here is why companies rely on ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud:

Complete and Integrated Platform- Businesses need complete technology solutions that reduce complexity. They want robust time and attendance applications that can fully integrate to a multitude and platforms to deliver a seamless experience.

Open Architecture-ATS gives you more options for where and how you access the cloud. You can run ATS TimeWork OnDemand workloads, and connect third-party apps with those from ATS data centre.

ATS Adaptive Choice-ATS helps you realize the value of emerging technologies, including Big Data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud helps –infuse business and IT operations with adaptive intelligence, intuitive business processes, and with lower operational cost and complexity.

Sensitive Applications and Data-ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud enables seamless path to the cloud with layers, throughout every aspect, of your cloud adoption. ATS cloud services make leading technologies available everywhere to organizations large and small.

Deployment-With ATS, deployment tool, you can manage apps through the cloud. ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud is managed by ATS, so that you can take advantage of the agility, innovation and subscription-based pricing, while meeting data-residency requirements.

ATS product developers and solution experts help you accelerate innovation and successful transition to the cloud. From project planning and deployment to connectivity, ATS— provides the support and services needed so you can maximize the value of ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud solutions for your business.

To learn about ATS Time and Attendance in the Cloud or to view a demonstration, go to our website. You can also register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. To reach us by phone, call 866.294.2467.

If You Are Job Hunting In 2018, Here Is How The Market Has Changed

February 8th, 2018 | Posted by ATS in Artificial Intelligence | Careers | HR | Recruitment | Talent Management | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on If You Are Job Hunting In 2018, Here Is How The Market Has Changed)

In today’s world of job hunting the old ways of finding a job no longer works. Of course, we are not referring to automatically getting to the front of the line and being offered a job without so much as an interview, if you know the right people.

If You Are Job Hunting In 2018, Here Is How The Market Has Changed

Whether you are tepidly testing the job market for the first time or have been actively searching for the last several months, here are 5 tips for today’s job seekers, from a blog, written by Julianna Lopez for Business News Daily magazine.

“1. AI is changing the future of work
This should come as no surprise, but AI and automation stand to make a huge impact in nearly every facet of the workforce, but most especially in human resources and finance.

  1. Mobile job applications are getting a modern overhaul
    If you’ve applied for jobs recently, then you know that most application processes and tracking systems seem like relics from the Stone Age, which often make applying for jobs from mobile devices incredibly frustrating. Mobile apply is due for a serious and complete overhaul in 2018. Unfortunately, it will probably take a while for us to see the end results.
  2. Healthcare, tech and labor-intensive roles will grow
    Job creation in 2018 is being driven not only by continuous tech innovations, which will also continue to expand into non-tech industries, but also by significant demographic shifts as well. Many traditional jobs that can’t be easily automated in the near future – such as restaurant waiters, construction workers, and truck drivers – will continue to grow and be a significant source for jobs.
  3. The application and interview process will become increasingly transparent
    While workplaces have strived to increase transparency over the last couple of years, the online job application process remains clear as mud. In 2018, job seekers can expect increased visibility in the application process with real-time application status updates.
  1. Employees will be encouraged to explore their passions through role experimentation

To help reduce turnover and better match proven talent with the most productive roles, more and more companies are looking to create ways to support employee aspirations outside vertical trajectories through role experimentation. This establishes clearer pathways for internal lateral job moves that tap into employees’ changing skills and passions”

Searching and applying for jobs is very different from even 5 years ago. The days of walking into an organization to hand in your resume, is as archaic, as using paper time sheets to track employees time. Most if not all job searches today, happens in an electronic format. If you use some of all of the 5 tips mentioned above, your chances of getting hired will increase exponentially.

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Market Intelligence leader International Data Corporation (IDC) is on the forefront of the cloud and the digital revolution and their evidence-based predictions and analytic reports are much sought-after items. Here are some predictions based on the ever increasing use of mobile devices, the cloud and the non-stop pace of the digital revolution that shaking and shaping today’s business landscape.

Growth of mobile connectivity and today’s workforce

“The U.S. mobile worker population will grow at a steady rate over the next five years, increasing from 96.2 million in 2015 to 105.4 million mobile workers in 2020. By the end of the forecast period, IDC expects mobile workers will account for nearly three quarters (72.3%) of the total U.S. workforce.

Embrace The Cloud And The Digital Revolution Or Go Home

Key drivers behind the growth in the U.S. mobile worker population include the increasing affordability of smartphones and tablets combined with the growing acceptance of corporate bring your own device (BYOD) programs. In addition, innovations in mobile technology such as biometric readers, wearables, voice control, near-field communications (NFC), and augmented reality are enabling workers in completely new ways, increasing productivity by enhancing communications and business workflows. In a recent IDC survey, 69.1% of enterprise mobility stakeholders polled saw a reduction in opex or capex costs as a result of implementing BYOD programs.”

There are many reasons why smart business leaders are adopting cloud-based solutions to propel their organizations. Many of them believe in the future of the cloud computing technology. And,the report by Eileen Smith of IDC reads, in part;

“Fueled by 3rd Platform technologies like mobile, social business, cloud, and Big Data and analytics (BDA), a new era is upon us where technologies and processes that businesses deploy are so tightly linked to their customers and markets that the boundary between the internal operations of the enterprise and its external ecosystem is rapidly disappearing. Business leaders are challenged to move their enterprises to the next level, that of digital business transformation, employing digital technologies like IoT, robotics, and artificial intelligence to create new ways of operating and growing businesses. IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide sizes the technology and business dollars related to this transformation of business processes. Delivered via IDC’s Customer Insights query tool, users can easily extract meaningful information about technology markets and industries”.

Are you still in doubt about the power of the cloud? Go to our website and download free white papers on the benefit of adopting a cloud time and attendance solution. You can also read customer testimonials on the site and, to reach an account executive by phone call; 866.294.2467.

 

Manufacturing Is Undergoing Fundamental Change

July 27th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Artificial Intelligence | Business Intelligence - (Comments Off on Manufacturing Is Undergoing Fundamental Change)

The manufacturing industry has gone through challenging times in the last decade: due in part, to the recession of 2008 and the evolution of artificial intelligence, robotics, and cloud computing to name, but just a few. The manufacturing sector is however, not monolithic, some segments are service based, while others are process including; food production-based, heavy printing, discrete and the list goes on.

Manufacturing Is Undergoing Fundamental Change

In her article for one of the sectors leading publication, Industry Week, titled, The Future of Manufacturing, Becky Morgan writes;

“So what does the future hold for manufacturing? That is a particularly poignant question today, with headlines dominated by protectionism, EU and Brexit, cyber criminals, and immigration and environmental debates. Moreover, the economics of the manufacturing industry are changing right now. The economic life of intellectual property is falling while the dynamism of materials science explodes. Digitization is everywhere, which enables the 3-D printer to increasingly meet the “I want it, and I want it now” aspect of demand. New distribution channels are evolving, influenced by the need for cost reduction and the expectation of immediate supply.

Remember RIM/Blackberry, which made the mistake of saying their phones were for serious business while smartphones were toys? Sony has a similar story with its once-ubiquitous Walkman. Kodak was busy hiring chemical engineers as they wasted the patent on digital photography. Now we can print small parts, production volumes of large parts, and homes with 3D printers. That evolution took over 30 years. Internet of Things is descriptive of the growing reliance on capture, movement and analysis of data to better understand customers, product performance, and equipment status. That evolution is well underway. The next evolution will soon begin.”

It’s worth noting that manufacturing has had to endure a lot of change and yet, it remains, a driving force in many advanced and developing countries.  And, in the world of continuous cloud-based applications, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and all things digital, the future looks bright for the manufacturing business leaders who willing embrace these changes.

To learn more about ATS and its Time and Attendance for Manufacturing, go to our website, where you can download a demonstration, or register for a bi-monthly webinar. To reach us by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

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Many of today’s business leaders have to cut through the noise surrounding business automation, and at times, have to rely on experts to guide them. Trouble is, some of the experts are either ill informed and/or stuck in the dark ages. And, in today’s competitive environment of; artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics and workforce analytics businesses would be wise to jump on the band wagon. The benefits to automating your business means, you will streamline payroll costs and improve workforce productivity. Which business executive is going to pass up this opportunity when it’s presented in those terms?

In his article How to Automate Your Business for Fast Growth  on Inc.com Jeff Haden lays out an 8 step guide to automation that even the most cautious, business executive will find useful. In no particular order, you will below, a list of three out of the eight business automation steps listed in the article:

  1. Start small and focus on one business function: Pick a function with a solid ROI. Then pick another function. Once you get a few wins under your belt, your employees will be asking you to automate certain functions. You won’t have to push your employees; they’ll pull you in.
  2. Automate the easiest processes first: Pick rote tasks where there is no human value-add. Automation lets you avoid human error while saving time in execution.
  3. Pick a technology partner: If you reach the point where you want to bring in a vendor, the key is to look out a few years and ensure your partner has the right level of scope, innovation, and technology, and can scale with you.

When Executed Properly, Business Automation Can Spur Growth

Business leaders are responsible for deciding how their company is run, and, by this definition are held accountable by their stakeholders. The difference, between a company that remains stagnant and one that’s enjoying improved productivity and growth, has to do with the automation of business processes.

To learn more about ATS business workforce management solution, go to our website. And, to reach an account executive, call: 866.294.2467.