Best-in-Class Workforce Management Software from Industry Experts
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In the last several years, businesses and the IT world in general, has seen the increasing popularity of cloud computing, easily becoming the 21st century most talked about business application solution.

Cloud services that include; software and hardware have different options and pricing models, which in past, may have caused a few IT managers to be sceptical, about the technology and how it would affect their businesses. And, as a result, this may have also given rise to misconceptions about the realities of cloud computing and the many benefits it offers, including; business agility and cost reductions.

In this blog, we will debunk 5 myths about cloud computing:

Myth#1: All Cloud Software Solutions are the same
Different organizations have different needs and the best HCM cloud applications support those unique characteristics. For example, a food manufacturing company that creates products in small batches have different needs from a similar type of that manufactures the same product over and over.

Yet some businesses still believe that all cloud HCM solutions are the same and none of them are unique enough to suit their specific needs. Manufacturers with little knowledge of modern cloud computing solutions can sometimes get dazzled by buzzwords and perceived complexity. However, the cloud is not a platform that delivers a one-size-fits-all solution. The best cloud HCM providers offer flexibility, a wide variety of cloud-computing based functionality— and are designed by experts, with deep industry knowledge— who would not sell an application that’s loaded with bells and whistles that companies don’t need or would not use.

Myth# 2 – A Cloud Solution is too Expensive
We have heard this before, when in actuality, it will save you money in the long run. With ATS HCM cloud application, companies spend less on IT. Over a three- to five-year period, consider the hardware, software, implementation, customization, training, support and maintenance costs required for on-premise HCM application. It is easier to implement ATS HCM cloud, which doesn’t need large computers or onsite staff to maintain them.

Moving to the cloud means freeing up the extensive IT resources dedicated to the never-ending challenge of keeping the lights on in the server room. The burden of deploying, running, and upgrading systems shifts to ATS. This allows IT managers to become strategic shareholders, while driving innovation.

Myth#3 –It will be harder to Integrate to Third-Party Applications
Some companies still believe the myth that cloud HCM software is difficult to integrate with their existing systems. In fact, integration is much easier than you think. Third-party apps like, ERP, Payroll, Talent Management that is native to the same platform are easy to manage and integrate. They provide end-users with a consistent interface and experience. ATS makes use of the most updated API integration, and so your organization will have relevant, accurate operational data all in one place—in real time.

Myth#4 – An on-premise solution is better and is more secure
ATS Cloud offers the most powerful tools to help ensure top performance for your business. ATS HCM Cloud regularly updates its software to the latest and greatest without interruption to your business. Customers get the most up-to-date software delivered automatically. And all of this comes without having to put your IT staff through time-consuming updates and upgrades. ATS HCM monitors cloud performance 24×7 and scales to address demand.

One of the greatest benefits of using ATS HCM cloud is that your business always runs the latest version of the software. With ATS HCM cloud, you get the earliest access to new features, industry best practices, and competitive innovations. Not only does this keep you on the forefront of your industry, but it also sends security patches that effortlessly keep your system locked down.

Myth# 5 – Cloud Computing Applications are not as Secure
This is a persistent myth about the cloud that it is not secure. The early iteration of the cloud came with some concerns and rightly so. However, these concerns have dissipated with the way cloud applications system are hosted today, some of which includes firewalls, two-factor authentication, advanced encryption, frequent security updates, and detection. Data loss with an on-premise system can be permanent when a system fails. Cloud backup procedures ensures that downtime is not only rare but also temporary. Your data is protected and constantly backed up on the cloud.

Bottom Line:
As more companies deploy cloud applications, and continue to reap the benefits of increased efficiencies, improved productivity and increased profits, perhaps we may finally see some of these myths disappear.

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.

If your company is growing, this probably means that you a need workforce management solution that is flexible in its support, of your organizational structures. In other words, this software solution should be able to take advantage of your company’s automation needs now and, in the future— and with ability to seamlessly connect HR, finance and employee information in real-time.

To address these challenges, growing organizations are turning to ATS unified Workforce Management solution for their HR, payroll and finance needs. In doing so they can automate more HR-to-finance and payroll processes, gain valuable insights into employee productivity in a single view — and spend less time preparing compliance reports and for audits.

ATS brings HR and payroll together in an all-in-one Workforce Management Solution. HR related information is built-in into the fabric of ATS Workforce Management Solution, by providing, payroll, HR and departmental managers access to the same set of real-time data to improve communications and accelerate decision making. For example, processes like online time sheets (for remote workforce) overtime equalization, ERP and payroll integration are fully automated, removing the need for staff to manually enter information in multiple places.

With ATS Workforce Management Solution less time is needed to prepare compliance or audit reports, because effective dates are used throughout one system. Employees and managers enjoy secure, self-service capabilities, improving HR service and reducing administrative tasks for the HR team.

The robust and unified data model of ATS Workforce Management Solution provides your organization with a complete view of labour performance key performance indicators (KPI’s) without the need for spreadsheets or manual data imports.

 To download a demonstration of ATS Workforce Management Solution, go to our website. To reach an account executive, call 866.294.2467

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt by companies, of all sizes around the world. Today, many of these companies have pivoted to remote work, while we, all wait to see what will happen with the pandemic as time goes on. If your company, was using a physical time clock before COVID-19 where employees punched in/out at the start and end of their shift, and your workforce is now remote, don’t be disheartened. ATS has a range of solutions, that include; employee self-service, online timesheets and contactless time clocks that are designed for the remote workforce.

Here are excerpts from article by Elizabeth Arnold and Chester Hanvey titled Mitigating the Compliance Risks of a Remote Workforce . The excerpts espouse a list of solutions that companies can adopt as some of their employees are now working remotely.

  1. Provide Clear Guidance to Employees: Supervisors play a critical role in guiding and enforcing employee time-management policies. The presence of sound internal policies can play an important role, as well. However, organizational researchers have found that policies alone are often insufficient mechanisms to ensure compliance. Direct involvement by supervisors can help achieve the organization’s compliance goals.
  2. Explore Technological Solutions: A variety of tech options are available to help promote accurate time reporting. For example, you may want to create a mechanism that allows employees to quickly and easily record time spent on compensable activities outside of the work shift. The greater amount of effort required for employees to report time in these situations will likely contribute to employees underreporting time.
    Another approach to maximize accuracy in tracking work time is to implement software that has a “timer function.” Employees can activate and stop the timer as they perform different activities. To increase detail and efficiency, “activity codes” can be created to reflect the activity the employee is performing. Tracking work at this level of detail and frequency can improve the accuracy of information recorded. 
  3. Scheduling Employees: Another strategy for driving compliance in some contexts is to create detailed schedules with specific time segments allocated to different activities, including meal and rest breaks. Schedules can be distributed through a shared calendar program, such as Outlook or Google, and can help to eliminate ambiguity about expectations concerning remote work.
  4. Conduct Audits of Reported Time: Perhaps the best way to ensure that an employee is reporting time accurately is to perform an audit. Organizational researchers have concluded that monitoring of employees and administering visible consequences for noncompliance are often necessary for policies to be effective. Auditing time records provides a mechanism to evaluate compliance directly. It allows you to make corrections to reported time, which not only ensures that you pay employees properly for their work but also minimizes your organization’s legal exposure. 
  5. Driving Compliance Proactively: The rapid increase in the size of a remote workforce creates challenges related to compliance with labor laws. A variety of approaches exist to ensure that all work time is compensated for hourly employees and that the nature of the work is appropriate for exempt employees. The most effective strategy will depend on a number of factors, but you should be mindful and proactive about driving compliance. 

While no one knows with absolute certainty what tomorrow might bring, we do know that change is sure to come. In order to truly pivot to a more digital organization, companies must be ready to adopt agile solutions that can easily shift gears, while adapting to new technology, and take on what’s yet to come.

You can explore ATS range of modern HCM solutions that include: ATSTimeWorkOnDemand, Payroll, HR, Employee Self-Service, Online Timesheets, ERP and analytics to help you drive productivity now and into the future.

To reach an account executive by phone; call 866.294.2467. You can also download a demonstration or a pre-recorded webinar from our website.

Enhancing the profitability of your organizational challenges gets more difficult every year—thanks in part to aging legacy applications and manual time tracking solutions that can’t keep up with today’s technology. Case in point, disconnected systems can hinder decision-making and lead to wasted resources and high payroll costs.

ATSTimeWorkOnDemand automates time tracking for hourly and salaried workforce and provides senior management with on-the-spot analytic reporting. With ATSTimeWorkOnDemand you can run your entire business in a single system of record, including: Talent Management, Time and Attendance, Payroll, ERP and HR and— receive updates on, production control, supply chain management, and more so you can be more competitive, efficient, and responsive to your customers’ needs.

Here are 5 reasons to deploy ATSTimeWorkOnDemand:

Scalable- Your organization will not have to worry again about database capacity, user license needs, adding another location, or how much storage or computing power you will need as your employee capacity and/or the size of your company increases. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand Cloud Computing application is infinitely scalable — expanding as needed.

Cost-ATSTimeWorkOnDemand lowers your cost of installing, maintaining and supporting your Human Capital Management (HCM) system – year after year. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand significantly cuts the cost of installing, maintaining, supporting and upgrading your system not just in year one, but throughout the lifetime of your relationship with ATS.

Secure-With ATSTimeWorkOnDemand, you get enterprise-class security at a low, predictable cost. You can trust that your data is safe—from ironclad firewalls and automated security sniffers to concrete walls and biometric control systems, ATSTimeWorkOnDemand solution is designed to provide the highest level of security.

State-Of-The-Art Technology-ATSTimeWorkOnDemand is built from the ground up with HR, finance and payroll practitioners in mind, and takes maximum advantage of cloud computing.  ATSTimeWorkOnDemand is designed for a “single instance, multi-tenant” implementation or across multiple sites across Canada, the US, Latin America or Europe. And, while the platform is shared among users and sites, security controls provide each tenant with sole access to its own data, in real-time, as well as full control over user and security administration.

Always-On-ATSTimeWorkOnDemand is available 24/7, 365 days a year— and promises to exceed the service levels and response time. Afterall, today’s businesses, simply cannot afford unscheduled downtime.

Tired of struggling with outdated and disparate software solutions?  Discover the many benefits of ATSTimeWorkOnDemand by downloading a demonstration of the application and you can see how this cloud application delivers a single solution that streamlines payroll costs, improve productivity and efficiently runs your business.

To learn more, you can contact us by phone at 866.294.2467 and/or also register for one of our bi-monthly webinars.

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.

By 2025 consumer attitudes towards retail will have dramatically changed. The rapid growth of robotics, cloud and artificial intelligence will permeate the retail and hospitality experience for both consumer and stakeholders. Anticipating consumer trends and deploying innovations that enhance employee and consumer experience and, simplify business operations will be vital to the long-term health and sustainability of retail and hospitality.

ATS Workforce Management for Retail & Hospitality provides these industries with an open, integrated, and best-of-breed application in the cloud, with state-of-art data collectors engineered to empower commerce. With ATS Workforce Management, organizations can streamline payroll costs and increase productivity, such as with a best-of-breed time and attendance, that’s demand-driven scheduling, and absence management software tools. Grocery operations, pharmaceutical, hospitality chains and retailers use ATS Workforce Management solutions to anticipate market changes, simplify businesses operations, and boost their bottom-line.

ATS Workforce Management Solution Helps the Retail and Hospitality Industry Thrive

Solution Benefits Include:

Employee Scheduling- ATS Workforce Scheduling, allows managers to easily leverage workforce data through an intuitive cloud-based interface, thus streamlining the scheduling process of their employees with roles-based self-service tools.

Workforce Analytics and Business Intelligence- ATS Intelligence (BI) analysis covers the macro picture down to the operating, financial and valuation information-and provides in-depth and economic factors that can impact decision-making.

Digital API Platform and Data Integration- ATS data integration tool, enables users to transfer data from one data source (such as text file, API, CSV or other data files) to an output destination. That output destination can be a text file, database, XML document, or another suite application. The key component of ATS Integration Manager is the interface that contains a set of steps, for the data transfer. By utilizing ATS data integration platform, companies can integrate to existing, ERP, Talent Management, HR, Payroll and CRM applications.

Budgeting and Forecasting- ATS Workforce Management for Retail and Hospitality, helps you eliminate costs, time, and errors with proper budgeting and forecasting on both short and long-term projections. The budgeting and forecasting module, allow you to integrate annual and periodic forecasting with weekly workforce management execution.

Next-Generation Data Collection- With ATS Workforce Management for Retail and Hospitality, you automate employee time and attendance processes to reduce payroll costs, comply with collective bargaining agreements and adhered to regulatory compliance. Some of ATS employee data collection include: face recognition time clocks, biometric hand punch, proximity and barcode time clocks and computer-based time clocks. ATS Workforce Management validates the collection of employee data, with up-to-the-minute reporting, to reduce overpayments.

ATS Workforce Management Solution Helps the Retail and Hospitality Industry Thrive

 

Keep current with ATS:

To learn more, register for one of our weekly webinars, or download brochures or a pre-recorded demonstration. And, to speak to a representative, call; 866.294.2468.

 

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

7 Tips For Managing Employee Time And Attendance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today, on your mobile device, you can order food, pay for movie or concert tickets and even change the temperature on your house thermostat. And, if your phone has the right application installed, you can ask business related questions, specific, to your company, and have the system understand your requests and anticipate your questions based on self-learning. When morphed together, that’s machine learning and analytics, at its core and, that in and of itself, is part of the future.

Machine Learning and Analytics Applications Can Accelerate Your Business

 

Modern and data-savvy business executives with their eye on achieving operational excellence want, up to the minute information and, also want to ensure that their departmental managers are not tethered to rigid applications. And, with a fully embedded cloud analytic application, like ATS TimeWork OnDemand, your business can achieve these objectives and more, including:

  • Increase Workforce Productivity: so users can do their job more efficiently
  • Streamline Labour Costs: ATS TimeWork OnDemand advanced analytics, helps you gain access to real-time information
  • Open Data Integration Capabilities: This powerful application optimizes and integrates to any business application, whether its; ERP, HR, Talent Management, CRM or payroll insight to inform every decision, when and where it matters, and in context.

In the world of cloud analytics and time and attendance, not all applications, while similar in nature, are designed to accomplish the same objectives.

To learn more, go to our website, where you can also download a demonstration or register for one of our bi-monthly webinars. And to reach an account executive, call; 866.294.2467

 

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.

The right workforce management technology will streamline HR and payroll processes and, as result, this will improve operational goals. Yet, despite the availability of Workforce Management Cloud solutions, many businesses have not made the move to adopt them or are unaware of the benefits to their business.  For some organizations, the incentive to make changes is simply not part of their corporate policy, unless their current legacy dies- and for others, they do not feel it is worth the time and effort to implement a new system. Before deciding against a cloud-based workforce management solution, it is helpful to be aware of some of the benefits and significant return on investment (ROI) that comes with implementing such a system.

5 Reasons To Use Workforce Management Technology

Here are 5 reasons to use Workforce Management Technology:

Workforce Management technology is Cost-Effective
ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud reduces the need for IT support, Server upgrades or the purchase of software licenses, while providing access from any location, with any device 24/7. ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud allows multiple users to access the same application simultaneously.

Decreased Learning Curve for Managers and Employees
Navigating through ATS easy-to-use, Workforce Management in the Cloud dashboards consolidates numerous tasks, leaving more time to focus on vital HR and other business-related issues.  With ATS Workforce Management in the cloud, employees can access personal data to review; benefits information, requests time-off, review hours worked, thereby relieving HR from time-consuming data management.

Increased Performance
The intuitiveness, performance and flexibility of ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud is a vital tool for HR and payroll managers. Accessing the ATS cloud infrastructure allows each user to have the flexibility to work from any smart-phone, tablet or workstation.

Flexible Data Integration and Compatibility
ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud offers the ability to integrate different applications seamlessly and with minimal effort, which can save both time and money. And, whether its; payroll, ERP, or HRIS this compatibility allows the two systems to integrate with small increments, so users can use the new system without being overloaded with entirely new information.

Automatic Upgrades
With ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud, upgrades happen automatically. There are no additional costs associated with the upgrades, thus there is minimal employee involvement as upgrades or updates become available. ATS cloud architecture assures you of always working with the latest version. No more down time while updates are processing.

Switching to ATS Workforce Management in the cloud immediately will transform and increase the operational efficiency of the HR department of any organization. ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud allows your organization to streamline payroll costs, while improving workforce productivity.

To learn about ATS Workforce Management 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.