Best-in-Class Workforce Management Software from Industry Experts
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There is nothing more critical to an organization’s operations than making sure employees are paid on time with 100% accuracy, however it is just as important to deliver new capabilities to support your entire workforce. With ATSTimeWorkOnDemand you have a robust solution at your fingertips, with broad-based functionality—and the ability to adapt to the requirements of your business as it evolves.

Here are 3 ways ATSTimeWorkOnDemand helps businesses:

Optimize Productivity and Reduce Payroll Errors

  • ATSTimeWorkOnDemand provides a rapid return on investment by reducing payroll processing errors and overtime costs and planning more-accurate workforce utilization.
  • Reduce your unplanned overtime costs with digital enforcement of policies and real-time notifications that alert when your employees are working outside of their scheduled hours.
  • With ATSTimeWorkOnDemand your organization will gain a competitive advantage— with complete process automation that increases output, reduces compliance risk, and maximizes business growth.

Enhance Regulatory Compliance

  • Use key compliance criteria to determine applicable rules for absences, manage cases, and improve communication to mitigate costly fines and penalties.
  • The application has built-in best-practices to adapt to collective bargaining and other pay rules and regulations.
  • Keep current with changing laws with automatic updates from the compliance portal.

Simplify Time and Attendance and Optimize Data Collection

  • Give employees access to their time sheet on any device, while reducing payroll errors in a single, cloud-based platform.
  • Your organization can track time and attendance data in real-time with; ATS line of data collectors, biometric technology or other data sources.
  • Provide self-service capabilities (with any device with Internet connection) where employees can submit time-off requests, view messages, add and edit timesheet details, and benefit accruals. With direct access to personal information, employees can easily view and confirm their pay calculations before payroll is processed

ATSTimeWorkOnDemand helps companies create employee experiences that unlock new potential for innovation, resilience, and better performance. Interested in learning how ATSTimeWorkOnDemand, can support your workforce and business in a rapidly changing world? Go to our website to download a demonstration and to reach an account executive, call: 866.294.2467.

Managing overtime is not an easy task, especially if your company is using manual time cards and spreadsheets — an archaic practice at best, although, several companies still track employee hours, overtime and leave policies using these tools

Tracking overtime does not have to be that hard, especially if you are using a modern time and attendance solutions. Here are excerpts from an article, on how to manage overtime, by Rob Press for online magazine TLNT titled; 6 Ways to Minimize the Impact of the New US Overtime Rules

Simplify complex policies: Review your overtime policy, reading it through the eyes of the employees. You may find that by simplifying your policy, you could actually minimize the amount of work that you need to do to approve each request.

Complex policies were actually at the root of a recent class action in California. At some company facilities, there was a flat “no overtime” policy. At others, the policy stated that prior approval for overtime must be given by two relevant managers; something that the employees stated was an “impossible task” when they were under pressure to get the job done. Ultimately, the company agreed to settle the case for $20 million.

This really shows just how many complex stages can often be involved in overtime policies, and begs the question: Could making policies more straightforward – and consistent — not only help businesses to achieve their goals, but also help to make HR and manager workloads more manageable?

Focus on organization: To manage overtime like a boss, we need to focus on overtime specifically, right? Well, maybe not. To properly manage overtime, it’s important to look at the bigger picture.

There was a very interesting study undertaken by the US Postal Service across the Northeastern states which found that managers who failed to effectively manage unscheduled leave ended up having to deal with more overtime. According to the report, “management did not effectively manage unscheduled leave, which contributed to overtime hours.” Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Track employee hours: It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been working in HR for years or you’re just starting out in your career, you know, or will quickly discover, that employees are bad — very bad — at tracking their time. With so many other tasks that need to be prioritized, filling in timesheets often ends up at the bottom of the list.

And the problem doesn’t end there. Even when employees do try to track their time, they’re often doing it days later, which means the hours they’re putting down probably aren’t all that accurate. According to studies of memory, people quickly forget what they learn. What did you have for lunch three days ago?

Analyze: One of the most vital aspects of good overtime management is what it can tell us about workforce practices. As an HR professional, you’re not only responsible for supporting employees, but also for supporting the business, and for raising concerns that can help it improve.

One of the other advantages that an automated tracking system offers is the ability to analyze time and attendance. You can do this with paper timesheets, but it’s much harder.

Minimize overtime: Of course, the absolute best way to manage overtime is to have less of it. Ha! Easier said than done right? Well, being able to reduce overtime isn’t something that’s guaranteed, but there are a few methods that can minimize the need for extra hours.

Although there are any number of reasons for overtime, when it becomes endemic that’s often a sign there are not enough resources to complete the necessary tasks within the time given.

Managing change: Understanding how to better manage overtime is a significant part of handling the big changes that are taking place within the HR industry right now. With HR professionals expected to receive more requests for overtime payments than ever before under the new rules, now is the perfect time to look at improving internal processes and honing management skills for efficient and effective working”.

So, to summarize; proactively managing your employees’ overtime, avoiding surprises and preparing for the future can reduce your expense, protect your organization from unwanted legal action, and improve morale across the company.

ATS TimeWorkOnDemand is a best-of-best 21st century human capital management (HCM) software provides an end-to-end employee lifecycle management solution. ATS TimeWorkOnDemand Workforce Management solutions help meet your workforce needs regardless of your industry or where you do business.

Interested in learning how you can curb overtime with ATS TimeWorkOnDemand? Go to our website and take a test drive. You can also reach an account executive at 866.294.2467.

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.

The burden of proof for hours worked by its employees is the responsibility of an employer especially in organizations that do not have an automated system. However, many companies might have employee hand books that contain language, which states, in part, that employees are required to record and report time work, and submit their time cards, to their respective supervisors for review and approval.

How Ontario’s Bill 148: Employment Standards Act Reform Could Affect Employers

 

On June 1, 2017 Bill 148, was introduced. If you operate a business in the province of Ontario, here is summary of some of the changes you should prepare for in 2018.

Benefit Accruals, Vacation, Statutory Holiday and Overtime Pay

  • Personal Emergency Leave: Rather than limiting this leave to organizations with more than 50 employees, all workers will be given 10 personal emergency leave days per year – and a minimum of two days would be paid. Further, employees will not have to provide employers with a sick leave note when requesting personal leave.
  • Overtime: The Mixed Hourly Rate (a weighted average established for employees with multiple rates) would be eliminated in favour of paying overtime at the rate of the work performed after the weekly threshold is reached
  • Vacation Entitlement Increase: Minimum vacation entitlement for workers would rise from two to three weeks per year (after five years with the same employer)
  • Public Holiday Pay: Calculation changes for public holiday pay that refer to regular wages in the pay period before the holiday divided by the days worked (rather than a four-week period of regular wages divided by 20)

Employee Workforce Scheduling

  • Three-Hour Rule: Broader application – The rule would extend to unworked on-call situations and when shifts are cancelled within 48 hours of the scheduled start time.
  • Advance notice: Employers must offer employees advance notice of 96 hours or be subject to refusal.
  • Three-Hour Rule: Removal of minimum wage component – Rather than topping up shifts less than three hours to three times the minimum wage, as proposed, eligible employees would be entitled to three times the regular rate.

The reforms to the Bill148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 will work in concert with the rise of the minimum wage that was also enacted into law as well. If your organization is still using an antiquated time tracking system or one that is no longer meeting your needs, it might be time to think about upgrading to a modern time and attendance solution- one that’s specifically, designed to comply with today’s ever changing regulatory and work-rule policies.

To learn more about ATS Time and Attendance Solution, go to our website, where you can download a pre-recorded demonstration, brochures or register for one of our upcoming live webinars.

To reach a representative, call 866.294.2467.

Where you are a CEO, HR executive or small-midsize business owner, the world of work as you know it is rapidly changing. And, if you are in a management role, you should make sure you are prepared for these changes. Here is small sample size of what’s being considered and some of them will likely come to fruition:

Minimum wage hike, addition of paid sick leave, overtime, vacation pay, minimum wage

  • Employers will be required to pay employees for sick days taken
  • Overtime pay will kick in at 40 hours, from the current 44 hours.
  • Paid vacation will change to three weeks per year from the current two weeks
  • Employers will be required to pay their part-time workers the same as full-time workers, doing jobs that are similar in nature
  • Student and people under 18 who server alcohol will no longer be subjected to the lower minimum wage

While these changes are in Ontario, virtually every province and territory of Canada and across several US states, have changes that are similar in nature are going to be enacted by policy makers. And, the regions who have not updated their workplace laws recently, will be using Ontario as a case study. If you are still using paper time sheets to handle current work rule policies, it might be time to starting thinking about implementing a time and attendance solution to help you handle and adapt to these new laws.

The World Of Work Is Changing: Is Your Company Prepared?

In this blog,  7 Smart Reasons for Your Payroll Clients to Use Time Clocks authored by Louie Calvin for Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting, a clear case is made for deploying a time clock solution:

“Collect employee data faster — There’s nothing more frustrating to a payroll preparer than waiting for, or chasing down, clients to get what’s needed to process payroll. Time clock applications manage employee changes and hours/time data throughout the pay period in electronic format — much easier than fielding phone calls or emails.

Correct and accurate payroll calculation and reporting — Anytime your team can reduce human error, you’ll spend less time correcting or delaying payroll. Time clocks today are smart devices — they can automatically log out or deduct for meal periods for people who forget to punch in or out, — and technology like data-sharing and use of APIs eliminates double data entry. An automated time system also makes recording hours easier for remote workers, or when employees travel. Depending on the system, reports upload directly into your payroll software, reducing the need for manual entries. The payroll preparer has the benefit of documented client sign-off on the data they submit, and direct import into your payroll application. This eliminates manual data entry and payroll checks are automatically ready for your review.

Ensure employees are accurately reporting time — With a time clock system, you can set up security parameters to make sure the employee is the one reporting their own hours — and that they’re reporting them accurately. You also have the ability to monitor time in and out, meals, breaks and more. Remember, wages that are overpaid or underpaid can result in liabilities that put your business clients at risk for fraud, with the statute of limitations up to three years.”

The proposed employment laws have not taken effect yet, but soon they will and you want to make sure you are prepared.

To learn about ATS time and attendance solution or to register for a bi-monthly webinar, go to our website. To speak to an account executive; call; 866.294.2467.

Here is the drill: Daylight saving time (DST) ended on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017 at 2 a.m. ET. Most north Americans would have set their clocks back an hour. This makes for darker days, and for some people, it will take a few days to get used to, while for some others, it might take them a week or two to adjust to the time change.

The spring brings the arrival of daylight saving time in March 2018 and requires clocks to be moved forward one hour at 2 a.m. Employees who are shift workers and who are on duty at that time and who normally work an eight-hour shift will actually work only seven hours, unless of course, your company is using an automated time and attendance system that automatically adjusts with daylights savings time.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand Is Designed To Handle Daylight Savings Time

A blog titled As the clocks turn back this weekend, don’t forget FLSA rules authored by Pamela Deloacth for HRDive offers the following advice for companies:

“That extra hour of work can present several unanticipated challenges, in addition to an unpaid hour:

Overtime: If that additional hour puts an employee at more than 40 hours during that workweek, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires the employee be paid overtime. Employees who fall under the “8 and 80” system — or in states that require daily overtime — may be eligible for overtime for that day.

Collective Bargaining Agreements: Employers should ensure that they are following any provisions in a collective bargaining agreement that addresses wage and hour provisions for time change”.

If your company has in excess of 30 employees handling daylight savings time (DST) manually can be a challenge. Automating your time tracking system, instead of doing it manually, will make your payroll and HR managers happy and more productive, especially if they have to deal with sleep deprived employees, still adjusting to the daylight savings time.  ATS TimeWork OnDemand is a cloud-based time and attendance designed for; Payroll, Accrual Benefits, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Talent Management, and Analytics integration. ATS TimeWork OnDemand provides organizations with access to real-time data of Workforce Management (WFM) capabilities, across all domains.

To learn more about ATS TimeWork OnDemand or to attend a bi-monthly webinar, go to our website where you  can also download a demonstration from our website or contact us by phone at: 866.294.2467 to discuss your business requirements.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand is a best-of-breed time and attendance solution that helps small, mid-size and large enterprises streamline payroll costs, tackle complex workforce challenges and improve compliance.

Tracking And Managing Workforce Compliance Is Easier Than You Think

A recent article by Kate Tornone for HRDive titled Docking pay for bathroom breaks exceeding 90 seconds ‘absolutely contrary’ to FLSA states in part;

  • Employers must pay workers for breaks lasting 20 minutes or less, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled (Secretary United States Department of Labor v. American Future Systems, Inc., No. 16-2685 (3rd Cir., Oct. 13, 2017)). The opinion came in a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) suit filed by sales representatives at American Future Systems, doing business as Progressive Business Publications (PBP). The reps were paid only for time spent logged into their computers; any time away that lasted longer than 90 seconds became unpaid.
  • Federal regulations say that breaks of 20 minutes or less are compensable (see 29 CFR 785.18) but PBP argued that it didn’t provide “breaks;” rather, it maintained an arrangement called “flex time” that allowed workers to go off the clock whenever they wanted, for any reason. The court, however, was not persuaded; that’s an arrangement that “forces employees to choose between such basic necessities as going to the bathroom or getting paid unless the employee can sprint from computer to bathroom, relieve him or herself while there, and then sprint back to his or her computer in less than ninety seconds.” Docking the pay of employees who can’t manage to do that is “absolutely contrary to the FLSA,” the court said.
  • Ruling in the employees’ favor, the 3rd Circuit upheld a lower court’s summary judgment for them. That court had previously found the employer liable for least $1.75 million in back wages and damages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The ruling applies in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.

There is likely more than meets the eye to this issue which prompted the DOL to intervene, if you are using the honour system and/or some paper-based time sheets to track employee time.

Managing employee schedules, overtime and work hours should not be a complex issue, if you using a solution like ATS TimeWork OnDemand.

Some of the benefits include:

  • The automation of time tracking and reporting capabilities, while giving employees self-service access to Internet-enabled devices like smartphones and tables.
  • Transforming human resources tasks from an administrative function to a strategic asset with powerful integration tools to; HRIS, Payroll and ERP.
  • Improved accrual benefits management- this embedded module gives you the tools to track and monitor employee vacation and other absences, thus eliminating the types of errors that occur in a manual-based environment.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand application is designed to help you grow your business by automating routine tasks and providing power analytic tools to better manage your workforce.

To learn more about ATS TimeWork OnDemand, go to our website. You can also register for a bi-weekly webinar or download a demonstration. To reach an account representative by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

The rise of the minimum wage, new employment laws and predictive scheduling are just a few of the most recent workplace compliance that many of today’s organizations are struggling to manage. An effective time and attendance solution can be significant a time saver, while also allowing operational managers to access data in

real-time—thus, providing them with a complete picture of employee overtime and hours worked at their fingertips. Here is a quick synopsis of what you can expect from an ATS Time and Attendance solution.

How Can A Time And Attendance Solution Help Your Company With Employment Laws?

Robust and Purpose-Built
At the core of ATS Time and Attendance is a database engine that designed to handle the business requirements of every industry. With ATS time and attendance solution, employee can perform different job tasks, review overtime and shifts from by accessing the employee self-service or through one of the ATS data collectors. The Workforce Analytics dashboard is a treasure trove of data that — when mined carefully — reveals important information on forecasting and actual versus hours scheduled. It’s the difference between making decisions on gut feeling and making them based on facts.

Improved Productivity
scheduling and personal time-off requests are an important part of retaining a productive workforce. The companies that offer employees flexible work hours and also accommodate time-off requests for personal and professional needs are generally desired companies to work for.

Workforce Compliance
Does your company or industry have to deal with collective bargaining agreements, have different locations across several jurisdictions with separate labour laws? For example, unionized employees may have a maximum number of hours that they are allowed work per week or month. In other cases, corporate policy may dictate that employees cannot work more than a maximum number of hours per pay period. Whatever exceptions that are unique to your organization, ATS time and attendance solution can be configured to meet those requirements and ensure that you are in compliance. The system will accurately calculate premium hours, statutory holidays and job tracking and manage overtime.

If you are looking for ways to improve productivity in the face of rising labour costs, tight margins and competition, tracking employee time and attendance by paper, will drive costs up, not the other way around.

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

 

 

Whether you run a small, midsize or large organization, chances are, you will be impacted by the proposed minimum wage hike in Ontario and several other jurisdictions across Canada. And, similarly, US businesses are grappling with the same challenges.

How To Prepare Your Company For The Minimum Wage Hike

As an organization, you have several options at your disposal, and as such, get to decide how to handle a wage hike. For the purpose of this blog, we will discuss two options:

  1. Decrease your workforce: As a company, you might decide that in order to remain viable the simplest solution is to decrease your number of employees. Another possibility is to simply hire employees on a part-time basis, in the hopes that this will help you decrease payroll costs.
  2. Raise prices: When payroll and other operational expenses go up, businesses can choose to pass them onto their customers. And, depending on the market and product offered, this can sometimes be a tough pill for customers to swallow, and some of them may end up speaking with their dollars by going elsewhere.

What if instead of loosing sleep (and with good reason) over the wage hike, your company automates manual business processes, thus, enabling employees to work smarter and more efficiently, while keeping your profits intact?

ATS Workforce Management HCM Solution can streamline payroll costs and improve workforce productivity. Some of these solutions include:

ATS Workforce Scheduling for retail, hospitality and healthcare is a robust and powerful solution designed specifically for organizations with hourly paid employees across multiple jurisdictions. ATS Workforce Scheduling uses data from your core business to create real-time analytic reporting and on demand-based schedules avoiding any over or under-staffing.

With ATS Scheduling you can:

  • Accurately report key performance indicators (KPIs) such as labour costs, employee attendance and absences, and workforce compliance.
  • Align employee schedules to financial budgets, payroll and labour to-sales ratios and the allocation of hours for a single entity or across the organization.
  • Improve employee productivity through optimized resourcing, employee and supervisor self-service. Managers can create schedules and send it to employees through interactive dashboards and workflows.

ATS Time and Attendance simplifies the tedious tasks involved with monitoring employee time and attendance, labour tracking, and data collection. That means, if you are using paper timesheets, outdated tracking and spreadsheets, you will likely not save much money unless your time tracking is fully automated. ATS Time and Attendance System — works in tandem with our best-in-class time clock/data collection devices — to help your organization control labour costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity.

Manage overtime costs ATS Time and Attendance helps you account for hours accurately, and minimize overtime to protect your bottom-line. You will have immediate access to employee attendance and get reports, in real-time on overtime trends, tools to manage overtime requests and approvals, and time card review. In other words, this means less administrative burden and fewer errors.

Bottom-line:

The wage hike is coming and will be felt by organizations and employees alike. If you are looking to improve your employee efficiency, streamline payroll costs, and make better business decisions, ATS Time and Attendance could be the right tool for your organization.

To download a demonstration or learn more, go to our website. And to attend bi-weekly webinar or speak to time and attendance consultant, call 866.294.2467.

Simply put “Cloud” simply means that your software/application, or data, (as it is commonly referred to) is hosted remotely via the Internet, by ATS Team. ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud helps lowers payroll and operational costs, while remaining seamlessly scalable. In other words, your organization only pays for what it needs, and can expand or change services based on business demand—with no capital outlay.

ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud is a robust, best-of-breed time and attendance application, with a 99.9% service level that ensures best-in-class uptime— that’s readily to your business anytime and anywhere you need it.

The benefit to your organization when you deploy ATS Workforce Management in the Cloud includes; control labour costs, reduction of  manual processes, and simplify compliance for all of your employees, locally, regionally and globally.

Here are some additional benefits to deploying this solution for your business:

Capture Employee’s Time
ATS Workforce Management In The cloud will capture the time in/out of employees: Flex-time, full-time, non-exempt, and part-time as well.

Easy to Use
Payroll, HR and operational managers will love the modern, intuitive user interface, accessible from any workstation or mobile device that’s connected to the Internet.

How Can ATS Workforce Management In The Cloud Help Our Business?

Always Current Cloud Application
Your company can take advantage of advanced technology—as they become available. Think about this, you never have to go through a tedious and disruptive process in order to get an upgrade to your system.

Manage Employee Time and Hours by Exception
Instead of going through each employee time card, your users can manage by exception. For example, who is approaching overtime, scheduled to receive a premium or stat holiday pay.

Easily Adhere to Payroll Compliance Rules
ATS Workforce Management In The Cloud can be easily configured to adhere to collective bargaining agreements, and will support the needs of local and global workforce rules.

ATS Workforce Management In The Cloud purpose-built for your industry to help drive business outcomes by engaging your employees, streamlining payroll costs, increasing productivity, and minimizing compliance risk. You can manage your workforce with this powerful and a proven cloud platform that is secure, scalable, and mobile — allowing you to do business when or where you choose to access its power.

To learn more, you can download the app, or demonstration. And, to connect with ATS, you can find us on Twitter, Pinterest or Google+