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Some Tips On How To Avoid Going Bonkers While Working From Home

June 9th, 2020 | Posted by ATS in Absence Management | Benefit Accruals | HR | Telecommuting Employees | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Toronto - (Comments Off on Some Tips On How To Avoid Going Bonkers While Working From Home)

This current pandemic has forced many employees to work from home. And, for those employees who are not used to working from home, they could get easily get distracted, feel lonely and unproductive. Moreover, this might be especially true for employees who crave the social interaction of their colleagues and also feel exiled from the office environment.

If you happen to be one of these employees who, like many of us, are having a hard time juggling working from home and managing house-hold chores while helping your school-age kids with online learning, here are few tips from an article titled, Four Self-Care Practices You Can Do at Your Desk by Mandy Gilbert for Inc.com

Wind down with a five-minute meditation: I probably don’t have to remind you of all the studies that have been done that link daily meditation to improved mental and physical health. We all know meditation is good for us. However, finding the ability to pull away from your pressing tasks and give into a quick mindfulness session can seem downright selfish when dealing with all the urgent matters stacking up on your plate. 

Turn off your digital devices and focus on the tangible: Screen fatigue is a huge problem and can become a very real hindrance on your mental health. As many of us transition to working from home, the problem is only becoming amplified. I know, personally, I cringe a little every time I hear the ping of my weekly screen report. 

Practice workplace gratitude and celebrate your accomplishments: Tell me if this sounds familiar to you. You’re working away on a big project, caught up in the day-to-day hustle, when a colleague congratulates you on a recent achievement that you almost entirely forgot about. 

Throw out the rules and text your family and friends: Our family and friends are our greatest support systems, so it can be hard keeping them at arm’s length throughout the day when you are going through a particularly difficult time. 

That’s why it’s time to throw away the rule made up in the boardrooms of yesteryear that you shouldn’t be on your personal phone during work hours. Speaking from firsthand experience, it can be so rejuvenating to take a moment and check in with your loved ones once or twice a day. It lifts your spirits, satisfies your need for socialization, and can even make you more productive. 

Bottomline: No one knows with absolute certainty, when many employees might return to offices. However, several tech companies including Salesforce, Twitter, IBM, Oracle and Google to name a few, has already said employees can work at home for the rest of the year, even after they have reopened their offices.

To learn more about ATS you can register for our next webinar Embracing The Future of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. To download a demo of our time and attendance app or reach us by phone call; 866.294.2467.

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Are There Actual Dos And Don’ts When Giving Gifts At Work During The Holiday?

December 13th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Absence Management | Leave Management | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Are There Actual Dos And Don’ts When Giving Gifts At Work During The Holiday?)

Yes, there really are Christmas holiday gifts that you can give and ones you should definitely avoid giving to your colleagues. There is nothing worse than giving a gift to a colleague at work, only to be met, with complete silence or a bewildered look on their face.

Are There Actual Dos And Don’ts When Giving Gifts At Work During The Holiday?

Here is a list of Dos and Don’ts extrapolated from an article titled Holiday Office Gift Giving Do’s and Don’ts: A Guide for Workers to Surviving the Season by Dr. Randall S. Hansen, founder of Quintessential Careers. And, if you are participating in your company’s annual Secret Santa gift giving these tips will help get you on the right track.

Some of the Don’ts include:
“Don’t assume the people in your office share your tastes.
Don’t feel pressure to run out and buy a gift for the boss if he or she gives you one. But do send a thank-you note acknowledging the gift and expressing your gratitude.
Don’t assume the people in your office share your tastes”.

And some Do’s:
“Do spend time and effort to choose thoughtful gifts for each on your office list. And it’s best to stick to people’s hobbies or favorite activities when thinking of gifts. Another safe category would be a gift for the office, such as a gadget, paperweight, calendar, picture frame, pen and pencil set, etc. A last resort would be a gift card to a favorite retailer.

Do examine the company’s corporate culture for the types of gifts that might be acceptable. A gift for a co-worker at Google may not be the same thing you get for a co-worker at IBM. Rule of thumb: the more relaxed the corporate culture, the wider latitude you have in gift choices.

Do stay within your (and the office) budget for the gifts, and don’t go overboard on the gifts, especially for the boss”.

Unless you are working for a new start-up chances are you probably don’t know everyone in your company; especially those who are in different departments. Even at work, purchasing a gift is a personal gesture.  For example, don’t feel obligated to buy the female sales rep whose name you barely know a holiday gift.

Most of this information is just common sense. If you happen to be a new employee ask your colleagues who have been at the company longer than you have. They will likely steer you in the right direction.

Happy Holidays!

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The Ongoing Debate About Working Remotely Rears It’s Head Again

May 30th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Cloud Computing | Productivity | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on The Ongoing Debate About Working Remotely Rears It’s Head Again)

The debate about employees working remotely won’t stop anytime soon. The most famous debate was back in 2013, when incoming CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, informed employees that the practice of working from home would no longer be an option.

Fast forward to 2017 when it was revealed that IBM, purveyor of its employees working remotely, plans to follow in the footsteps of Yahoo’s! work from home policy. An excerpt from an article ‘So Much for IBM’s Bright Idea on Working Remotely’ reads, in part;

The Ongoing Debate About Working Remotely Rears It’s Head Again

“Tech companies are supposed to be the leaders. So it’s surprising that two of the largest, IBM and Apple, are moving backward, preparing for office life in the decades ahead to look a lot like 2005. They are likely to be wrong.

IBM is ending its liberal policy that encouraged remote work, now forcing employees back into offices to facilitate collaboration. Meanwhile, Apple is preparing to open its vast new $5 billion corporate campus in Silicon Valley.

For midlife millennials, flexible work arrangements and remote work — the kinds of work IBM is abandoning — are what workers will want. And rather than being a desirable attraction, Apple’s shiny new headquarters located in a region with million-dollar home prices may be an albatross for the company, if even well-paid workers cannot afford to live near the office”.

Only time will tell if this is a PR stunt designed to boost productivity or if it is something else entirely. Either way, romanticizing about a by-gone era will be seen for what it is, just an attempt to embrace the traditional way of going to work, that is no longer relevant in world of Cloud Computing, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT) and advance technology.

To learn more of our blogs go to our website where you can also demonstration of ATS time and attendance solution. And to reach us by phone call; 866.294.2467.

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Feeling Left Behind Because Your Are Using Old Technology?

April 28th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Based Time Management Solution | Labour Costs | Software-as-a-Service (saas) Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Workforce Analytics | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Feeling Left Behind Because Your Are Using Old Technology?)

To suggest human beings do not like change or are fearful of the unknown is an understatement. Can you image a business in 2016 handing out Index Cards to its sales reps, (who all travel to the office daily) to make cold calls instead of using a customer relationship management (CRM) software. Sales reps driving to an office to make cold calls in a world with advanced technology? If this sounds like a movie in the era of the 80s, it probably is. Fortunately, a large percentage of businesses are fully aware that cold calling is quickly becoming a thing of the past, and to that end, have deployed technology to help them increase their sales.

Feeling Left Behind Becuase You Are Using Old Technology?

An article commissioned by IBM and featured on Fast Company, titled “Agility and Security without the risk, states in part; “Across countless industries, the race to the cloud is on. Forrester Research recently predicted that the “hypergrowth” cloud market—including applications, platforms, and business services—will reach $191 billion by 2020, an astonishing 20% increase over Forrester’s previous prediction, just three years before. For companies of virtually any size, the promise of a dynamically scalable environment, the ability to deliver services at lower cost, and the agility to develop new apps in hours rather than weeks makes game-changing business sense.”

Cutting costs, increasing productivity might sound like buzz words to some, but for many businesses and their shareholders, its music to their ears. After all, are companies are constructed to make profits. Think about this; the traditional way of accessing business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

The advancement of cloud computing which also encompasses time and attendance is designed to help today’s companies manage cost, remain lean and increase profits. For example, with a cloud-based time and attendance, you eliminate the headaches of having to manage hardware and software—and leave that responsibility to a team with deep industry expertise at Apex Time Solutions. With ATS cloud-based time and attendance: You only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy and, the best part, is that you won’t be left behind the technology curve.

To learn more, go to our website and register for one of ATS weekly webinars. And, get access to its latest cloud-computing technology solutions, you can download a demonstration.

Feeling Left Behind Becasue You Are Using Old Technology?

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Does Your Company Have A Flexible Work Policy?

February 11th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Based Time Management Solution | Hosted Time and Attendance Solution | Labour Analytics | Payroll | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Does Your Company Have A Flexible Work Policy?)

In 2013 when a leaked memo surfaced that Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer had directed one of the company’s HR executive to initiate a ban on the ‘work from home’ policy, the tech world went berserk. Several people within the tech industry are used to the flexible policy of working from home and so, it came as no surprise that the news was met with a heavy dose of resentment and bloggers galore took to social media and posted blogs all venting their disagreement with Yahoo’s policy. Whether your company is for or against the working from home policy this practice is not going away, in fact, it is increasing in numbers by some well established companies.

An article titled Office ‘Hoteling’: ‘Some Companies Offer Reservations, but Some Workers Have Reservations’ by Amy Whyte for workforce.com it states in part;

“Though hoteling has been around for some time — Crain’s Chicago Business reported on IBM’s switch to a desk reservation system in 1994 — the trend has recently picked up steam. “Big Four” accounting firms Deloitte and EY, formerly Ernst & Young, are among companies that have adopted office hoteling in the past year. Instead of assigned desks, companies like American Express Co. are offering employees storage lockers to hold their files and supplies. Rather than being tethered to landlines, employees at GlaxoSmithKline carry laptops equipped with Internet phones.

Even the federal government has gotten in on the trend with the U.S. General Services Administration using hoteling as part of its efforts to reduce federal office space and increase efficiency and collaboration. Charles Hardy, the GSA’s chief workplace officer, said the hoteling model has enabled it to assign 3,400 people to its headquarters, a building that previously only housed 2,200.”

A flexible work policy that includes employees working from home is not for every company. Just imagine an outside sales rep that is required to drive 2 hours or more each day, 5 days a week to sit at a desk and make cold calls to prospective customers. A company may have valid reasons for having this rep drive in to work each day. Perhaps the sales rep is below her quota and, so by closely managing this person, she might yield the desired result. With the advancement of internet phones, a cloud-based customer relationship management software (CRM) for a rep to add his notes and communicating by e-mails his superior and colleagues all day long, why would any company ask a sale rep to drive in each day to make phone calls?

In conclusion, companies who, for various reasons believe employees are better managed in an office will most likely frown upon a flexible work from home policy. In contrast, other companies who do not want to be burdened with bricks and mortar costs and see the value in such a policy will embrace this modern way of working, albeit with employees who do not need to be tethered to a desk. If you happen to work for a company that do not believe in a flexible work from home policy and you decide to approach your superior about it, make sure you have all the facts to back up the reasons why you should work at home. Change takes time.

To learn more about ATS go to our website. You can download product brochures and also register for one of our upcoming webinars.

Does Your Company Have A Flexible Work Policy?

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Sales In The 21st Century

February 19th, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Sales In The 21st Century)

One of our account executives brought to our attention an article written by Dave Kurlan, titled “Is It Time for a Sales Reinvention?” The author provides insight into the changing world of sales. There have been other articles written about the changing landscape of sales. However, some companies still cling to the old way of doing things-the way of selling in and of itself, appears to be at the top of the list of things that will not change anytime soon with these companies.

Here is an excerpt of the article:
“Companies reinvent themselves all the time. You don’t have to look much further than AT&T, IBM, and NCR to recognize that none of these companies make and sell anything resembling what they made and sold just 40 years ago.

People reinvent themselves too. Just review some of the profiles in your LinkedIn network, and you’re certain to see people doing something completely different from what they were doing 10 years ago.

For some reason, sales forces tend to fall behind in the reinvention department. There are so many experts producing so much content: blogs, videos, newsletters, and e-books. Yet most sales leaders, sales managers, and salespeople are often the last to know that things have changed. Despite the fact that the sales profession has changed significantly in just the last six years, I’m still seeing sales forces selling as if they were stuck in a time warp hardwired to 1975.

Sales transformation does not require a complete sales-force makeover. In most cases, only a few changes may be needed to achieve greater effort, efficiency, effectiveness, and results.”

So, is your company’s marketing initiatives geared solely towards phone prospecting? ATS embraces the new way of selling and yes, we do prospecting by phone also but it’s 1% of our overall marketing strategy. At a recent tradeshow, one prominent marketing expert put it quite succinctly “making several phone calls to companies, on a daily basis, in the hope of selling your product is a methodology of 20 years ago, that simply does not work anymore”.

 Sales in the 21st century

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