Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

AI Is A Powerful Tool That Has Changed The Working Landscape: Here’s How

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.

Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, HR, Time and Attendance

Vacation Shaming Employees: Really? Who Does That In The 21st Century?

‘Vacation shaming’ is nothing new. In fact, some company leaders make it a practise of not taking time-off and work long hours as a way of hinting that employees should do the same.

Encouraging workers to take time-off to reset, especially vacation, is a good way to make sure time off is used—and this, will bode well for the company’s bottom line. But frankly, any employer that expects you to work on your vacation or worst, not take vacation, isn’t one worth working for.

‘Vacation Shaming’ employees can have a negative impact on productivity, and also make it hard to retain talent. Paul Michael’s article 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t “Vacation Shame” Your Coworkers sums up why it’s bad to engage in this practice.

We selected find 5 of these ‘Vacation Shaming’ reasons from the article. They include:

1.Vacation is vital for good health: You wouldn’t want to make your coworkers physically ill, but by guilting them out of their vacation time, you could be contributing to some very serious health risks. The Framingham Heart Study, the world’s longest running study of heart disease, has some frightening statistics on vacation and health. The biggest — that men who failed to take a vacation for two years or more were 30 percent more likely to experience a heart attack than peers who took regular time off.

2. Vacation refreshes the mind and body: Research has proved it; when you take a vacation, you are improving your mind and your overall health. And if you work with people who need to be great at their jobs in order to make you and the company thrive, then you should encourage vacation time.

3. Vacation keeps good employees at the company: An unhappy employee is one that is looking for another job. A 2015 Talent Trends survey found that one out of every three employees is actively looking for a new job. That’s almost a third of the people at your company, right now, that wants out.

4. Vacation boosts organizational morale: Who wants to work in a company filled with miserable, exhausted, irritable employees? That’s what you get if you work in an environment that vacation-shames people.

5. Vacation leads to better performance reviews and higher salaries: Put this in the “strange but true” category if you like, but a 2006 study by Ernst & Young found that each additional 10 hours of vacation an employee took led to performance reviews that were 8 percent higher the following year. And, of course, higher performance reviews lead to increased salary bumps, promotions, and greater opportunities within the company.

Bottomline: We live in an always-on era and while it may be hard to unplug, it’s precisely the reason, employers should encourage their employees to take their vacation without making them feeling guilty.

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.

To download a demonstration, go to our website. And to a speak to an account representative, call; 866.294.2467.

Cloud Computing, Employee Time-Off Requests, Payroll, Vacation Shaming

What Can ATS TimeWorkOn Demand Analytics Do For Your HR Department?

Accurate HR data delivered with up-to-the-minute analytics is vital to the success of an organization. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand cloud computing analytics application can help you make the right business decisions by providing a invaluable information and deep insights, using intuitive tools like automated real-time reports and easy to configure dashboards.

Here are 3 reasons why HR managers love ATS TimeWorkOnDemand:

Intuitive Dashboards

Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for the entire workforce through a set of intuitive dashboards
Create, update, and print reports in various formats and through the dashboards
Keep the executive suite and departmental managers informed across the organization, with scheduled up-to-the-minute reports and dashboards

Real-Time Insights

Enable rapid identification of trends using graphics with easy-to-use data visualization tools
Gain up to the minute management insights of workforce through comprehensive analytics. Drill down for more detail and utilize what-if analysis
Spot potential business problems before they occur, by gaining instant visibility with early warning systems reporting-so you can make better, informed people decisions.

Payroll and HR Compliance

Supports Canadian and US compliance and regulatory payroll, HR and collective bargaining reporting requirements.
Permission-based features designed to enable executives, managers, supervisors and employees to support both themselves and their teams, through self-service portals while ensuring that sensitive HR data is visible only to those who need to see it
Integrate HR, CRM, talent management, ERP and payroll applications with ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, giving one source of truth for your people data. Use on demand reports, dashboards and analytics to keep track of all payroll, compensation and employee benefits data

To view a demonstration of ATS TimeWorkOnDemand analytics, go to our website. And to reach an account executive by phone, call 866.294.2467.

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, Canadian, Cloud Computing, CRM, Employee Benefits, ERP, HR, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Talent Management

Not Sure If You Work In A Toxic Environment? Here are 7 Signs

A toxic work environment cannot be created, unless, it’s tolerated by the company’s leaders and is allowed to continue.

In addition to recruiting, retaining talent, managing business management software, and mirage of other duties, HR also has to be vigilant and look for instances of hostile leadership styles, retaliation and bullying in the workplace. When a toxic environment is left unchecked, it can lead to employee stress (physical and mental), and high turnover. And, the era of social media, word will spread fast, about the working conditions of a particular company who allow toxic people to remain, while wreaking havoc on the rest of the team.

Not sure if you are working in a toxic environment? In his article, 7 Sure Signs Your Workplace Is Toxic, Marcel Schwantes lays out the signals one should look for. They are as follows:

“1. All sticks and no carrots-Management focuses solely on what employees are doing wrong or correcting problems, and rarely give positive feedback for what is going right. Or mostly carrots for the best performers, sticks for the rest.

2. The creeping bureaucracy-There are too many levels of approval and management to get things done and a singular focus on micromanaging employees.

3. The gigantic bottom line-Profits, beating the competition, and cost cutting are solely focused on without consideration of other bottom lines.

4. Bullies rule the roost-Management bullies employees, or tolerates bullying when it occurs among employees.

5. Loss of the human touch-People are considered to be objects or expenses rather than assets, and there is little concern for their happiness or well-being. There’s also little evidence of leaders’ compassion and empathy for employees. As a result, you’ll encounter high levels of stress, turnover, absenteeism, and burnout.

6. Internal Competition-Employees must compete internally, which is enforced by a performance assessment system that focuses on individual performance rather than team performance.

7. Little or no concern for work-life balance-People’s personal or family lives must be sacrificed for the job; overwork or workaholism is commonly evidenced by 50-hour-plus workweeks, little or no vacation time, and 24/7 availability for work communication. There is little or no commitment to making contributions to the community, worthy causes, or making the world a better place”.

Bottomline: If those 7 signs are not a wake-up call to the leaders of an organization, that’s likely the problem. In addition, to these signs are many other telltale signs of a toxic work environment, including ones that see new recruits leave after a very short time with an organization.

About ATS

To download a demonstration of ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, or to register for a bi-monthly webinar, go to our website. And, to reach a sales rep, call; 866.294.2467.

Business Management Software, Cloud Computing, HR, Payroll, Time and Attendance, Vacation, Work-Life Balance, Workforce Planning

Webinar: Streamlining Canadian Healthcare Operations

Many healthcare organizations are growing rapidly, against a backdrop of exceptional regulatory changes. As your organization tries to achieve scale, it’s challenging to monitor performance and control costs and, at the same time keep processes running smoothly—especially across multiple locations. ATS Workforce Management for Healthcare enables you to automate with greater efficiency, and provides the visibility you need to make operational improvements, now and for the foreseeable future.

ATS Workforce Management for Healthcare will help you build integrate and manage all your healthcare data cloud applications more efficiently with a comprehensive, standards-based combination of ATS open source technologies.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

Improve workforce planning, forecasting and budgeting.
Improve Payroll and HR processes.
Save time, improve accuracy, and achieve operation excellence.

You can register here for this webinar. To download a demonstration of ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, go to our website. And, to reach an account executive by phone, call 866.294.2467.

ATS Workforce Management, Cloud Computing, Healthcare, HR, Payroll

5 Ways To Rock Your HR Department

You want to make your HR department more meaningful, with automation but lack the necessary tools. So, how do you replace outdated methods like spreadsheets and paper time cards? You can start by exploring ATS TimeWorkOnDemand cloud-computing HCM software that encompasses, AI and time and attendance dashboards all designed, to help you reduce costs, boosts HR productivity and propel business growth.

Here are 5 ways to rock your HR department with ATS TimeWorkOnDemand:

1.Replace Spreadsheets and Paper-Based Time Cards: ATS TimeWorkOnDemand combines all your HR essentials together into one modern system. Through intuitive dashboards, you can find and edit employee records, review and authorize employee time-off requests, track attendance, store and visualize all your employee information in one system. A standard, user friendly layout means it’s easy to find information at a glance.

2.Real-Time Analytics: Accurate HR data is vital to an organization’s success. With ATS TimeWorkOnDemand You can use these impressive reports to highlight areas of focus for business growth, or even for demonstrating the year-on-year improvements you’re making for your company.

3.Bring more meaning to HR: ATS TimeWorkOnDemand will help transform HR business practices with a comprehensive set of processes that covers the end-to-end time and attendance, talent management and payroll journey. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand offers a rapid deployment through simple data configuration, is easy-to-use and – delivers quick adoption and quick ROI.

4.Make Life Easier, by Automating Mundane Tasks: Do you really want to perform repetitive manual processes? We think not. You can energize your team and other managers with intuitive dashboards and give them access to their own set of workflows.

5.Build a Great Workforce Experience and Improve Performance: With a single click you can increase team efficiency and productivity through automation, and get visibility of your workforce with ATS TimeWorkOnDemand robust performance metrics system designed around techniques proven to boost employee performance.

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand modern cloud HCM solution helps accelerate innovation, improve the user experience, and lower IT costs —while also getting you ready for tomorrow’s business challenges.

If you are ready to explore all that ATS TimeWorkOnDemand has to offer, you can register for one of our bi-monthly webinars, download a demonstration or contact us at 866.294.2467 to discuss your business requirements.

Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, Cloud Computing, HCM, HR, Payroll

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

Cloud Deployment:Perception Vs Reality

The shift to the cloud is here and there’s not stopping it. In fact, the perception of cloud computing applications has changed dramatically over the last several years. In short order, most of our software applications in the foreseeable future, will accessed only through the cloud.

However, solely relying on the technology to facilitate better day to day operations for your business might not yield the results you are expecting. There are, however, several factors involved in the deployment of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications—that are sometimes overlooked, yet they play a vital role in the overall success within an organization.

There are numerous ways to improve the effectiveness of your cloud deployment. Here are three tips that will help you match your company’s reality vs perception.

Plan Accordingly-The amount of time it takes your workforce to adapt to the new solution might be longer than you think, so provide them with ample notice and do not expect a quick user adoption. Human beings, by nature, do not like change. Changing the habits of people, is no small undertaking. A well thought-out and executed project plan will minimize the change management hiccups, and help you maximize end-user adoption.

Let the Experts Guide You-Successful time and attendance cloud deployment and training covers not only system-related topics, but also best-practices and business processes. It takes into consideration each function’s unique organization structure processes and training needs. ATS deep industry expertise guides employees and users alike — at all levels of the organization — through new functions and processes.

Software Deployment is a Journey -ATS TimeWorkOnDemand is a journey, not a destination. Your organization will evolve as you begin to understand the product, and your processes should evolve along with it. On-going and post-live support is critical to your company’s enduring success, and accordingly, you should plan on spending several months fine-tuning your application with incremental changes. Having the resources to make small changes quickly helps drive faster end user adoption and will help to accelerate your return-on-investment (ROI).

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand is the leading cloud-based time and attendance application that’s used by mid and large enterprises across Canada, the US and other parts of central and south America. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand helps businesses streamline payroll and increase workforce productivity.

ATS provides organizations a complete Workforce Management, HCM Cloud Computing Solution —that drives digital transformation and, improves business agility while meeting both current and future business requirements.

To learn more about ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, go to our website. You can also register for one of our bi-weekly webinars or download a demonstration. And to reach an account executive, call: 866.294.2467.

Canada, Cloud Computing, HCM, Payroll, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Time and Attendance, U.S., Workforce Management Software

ATS HCM Implementation Process. What Is It Exactly?

ATS HCM Solution Implementation is a multi-step process. Many of the steps may vary depending on the size of the organization, type of business, hosted versus on-premise to name a few. It does, in general, involves installing the software, moving your existing data such as employee names, departments and/or some HR related information, over to the new system, to ensure the software fits your unique business needs, and then training managers and supervisors alike on the ATS HCM application.

When organizations attempt an HCM implementation on their own, and even with the best of intentions, the project can be rife with problems. It’s important that organizations maintain clear communication and follow best-practices throughout the implementation, while at the same time, still find time to perform their daily task. They must also satisfy both functional and technical requirements. In short, this is a tall order that many companies struggle to meet, resulting in budget overrun and delays and overworked resources. ATS Implementation Analysts helps mitigate the risk throughout the deployment process and help you reap a rapid return on your investment.

Curious? Here is how we do it:

Project Methodology: ATS Solution Process is our proven methodology for HCM Workforce Management projects. This methodology is designed to adhere to best-practices and uphold communication throughout every step of your implementation.
Business Process Modeling: We take aligning ATSTimeWorkOnDemand with your business requirements very seriously. Thus, we go through a rigorous scoping and process modeling, with the intent of uncovering any current obstacles and determining how to use the applications to increase workforce productivity and streamline business operations.
Training: Based on our experience some managers might not be so open to change, especially when we are installing our cloud computing application ATSTimeWorkOnDemand. And, so that’s why we provide comprehensive across the board, to help you achieve widespread user adoption.
Ongoing Support: Even after the go-live date, our Implementation Analyst will continue to follow-up thus, protecting your investment. We aim to work with you and, any third-party application providers of; Talent Management, Payroll, HRIS and CRM as needed, for software integration and provide support to help your business thrive.

Bottom-line

There is a clear and concise method to implementing ATS HCM application and its complementary cloud computing solutions. To take a test drive go to our website. You can also register one of our bi-weekly webinars or call an account executive at 866.294.2467.

Cloud Computing, HCM, HRIS, Payroll, Talent Management

Sustain a Thriving Business with ATS Cloud Computing Analytics

In today’s dynamic business environments, you need robust time and attendance solution that can help you improve business performance and drive operational excellence across the organization. The right time and attendance solution, will eradicate manual tasks so you can focus on the strategic initiatives that will move your business forward. And, at the same time, allow you to leverage real-time data for predictive insights to improve your decision-making and performance management.

So, what time of time and attendance solution can help your company achieve those objectives and, at the same time, improve workforce productivity? Hint, ATS TimeWorkOnDemand. This award-winning solution is used by fortune500 companies across North, South, central America and Europe.

Features and Benefits include:

Gain 360-Degree Business Insights

Analyze finance, HR, and payroll information. With ATS TimeWorkOnDemand you drive operational efficiencies and power intelligent business processes through industry proven human capital management (HCM) best practices, intuitive dashboards, reports, and metrics.

Automate and Optimize

Automate and process data at unparallel speed. Optimize on the modern best practices built into ATS cloud computing, making your business leaner, more efficient, and more cost-effective than your competitors.

Future-Ready HCM Workforce Management Solution

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand revolutionizes payroll processes, utilizing new technologies and powerful predictive analytics to control costs and risks, manage increasingly complex transactions, and make better business decisions.

Innovate Today, Predict Tomorrow

With ATS innovative time and attendance, built from-the-ground up cloud solution your company has now found the perfect solution, for its growing needs. You can harness game-changing technologies to standardize processes, automate the mundane, and elevate the quality of key decisions to move past every growth plateau.

Invest in Operational Agility

Planning to enter new markets, including; acquiring or merging companies across Canada, the US or Europe? ATS Cloud Computing TimeWorkOnDemand is the robust and sought-after product on the market. Whether you need to streamline payroll and finance processes, or undertake a company-wide transformation, the complete capabilities of ATS Cloud Computing TimeWorkOnDemand are there when you need them. You subscribe to the cloud services that are vital to your business today and tomorrow. In short, you invest in scalable and operational agility.

Today’s successful business executives know their growth strategies must consider environmental impact, and cloud-based software deployment is no exception.

Because of the scale involved, cloud computing is now considered one of the most environmentally responsible IT decisions. And, since ATS supports customer across several geographical areas with multiple users on shared infrastructure, we can match server capacity to ongoing demand and utilize servers more efficiently—thus saving energy.

Of course, taking full advantage of that connectivity means retiring ad-hoc workflows that impede growth. Move beyond email and spreadsheets with a cloud strategy. Leverage more powerful analytics, handheld technologies, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and much more with ATS Cloud Computing TimeWorkOnDemand system.

Whether you are cloud now, cloud next, or cloud future, you can view a demo of our innovation solution on our website. Your business is free to embrace innovation at your pace by registering for one of our bi-monthly webinars. And, to chat with an account representative, call us at 866.294.2467.

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand, Cloud Computing, Human Capital Management (HCM), Internet of Things (IoT)

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta