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Thinking About Deploying A Time and Attendance Solution? Decision Makers Should Be Involved

November 21st, 2013 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Time and Attendance | SmartPhones | Tablet PC | Time and Attendance System | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Thinking About Deploying A Time and Attendance Solution? Decision Makers Should Be Involved)

The goal of purchasing an employee time management solution should focus on a return on investment (ROI) and its tools in streamlining manual business processes. When these projects involve multiple sites and in excess of 25 managers who will require training, key decision makers should make every effort be front and centre of the process. Why? Because these large projects require the attention of stakeholders in the early stages to augment misunderstandings that may occur as the process unfolds. The reason for decision makers to be present during the early stages, is to address the strategic objectives of the company as it relates to a workforce management solution.

Here are three questions that should be addressed:

What are the business challenges?
Some companies miss this point and instead focus on the price of the solution. Of course price is important. However, by focusing on a variety of quotes from several vendors, while choosing to ignore how the product will meet your organizational requirements is a red flag for disaster. In short, one of the most important questions an organization should ask itself is, will the product  we are considering which has the best price match our requirements? If you cannot answer this question, then go back and make sure match your requirements against the functionality of the product.

Is the solution easy to use?
While there are some similarities in the way time and attendance systems, calculate employee time  they do not operate the same. Time and attendance systems will work better at certain companies depending how the organization plans to use the solution. If producing a simple report yields endless pages of paper, chances are departmental managers will get frustrated and won’t use the system. Before purchasing any employee time management solution, make sure you get a flavour of the application through a demonstration. The focus of the demonstration should highlight the vendors’ understanding of your company’s requirements and how said system, will improve your business process and is easy for all users to master.

Will the solution grow with your business?
If the solution you are about to purchase is not scalable it’s likely not the right solution for your company. For example, can the solution work on smartphones and tablet PCs and can it be accessed from anywhere and at anytime? When choosing your solution, find out if it will support changing platforms for the next 5-7 years and beyond, otherwise you are likely throwing money out the window.

Conclusion: your time and attendance system should be viewed as a long term investment and companies, should do all they can, to ensure that the solution matches their requirements.

To download a demonstration or to learn more, go to our website.

Thinking about deploying a time and attendance solution-Decisoin makers should be involved

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Productivity Gains can be achieved by using an Automated Time Tracking Solution

April 11th, 2013 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Scheduling | Employee Self Service | ERP | HRIS | Payroll | Talent Management | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Solution | TimeWork - (0 Comments)

Espousing the virtues an employee time tracking solution is one thing. Seeing it in action is another. Companies should use benchmarks to determine the value of an employee attendance solution versus the use of their hand written time sheets. Those benchmarks should include: return on investment (ROI), employee performance, labour costs and total cost of ownership (TCO) to name a few.

To say that streamlining payroll costs is of great concern to most companies is an understatement. ATS time and attendance provides up to minute, real-time visibility to key metrics such as efficiency and productivity throughout an organization. ATS TimeWork is an easy to use, robust and powerful time and attendance application.

One of the many ways that organizations can leverage the benefits of ATS TimeWork Time and Labour application is through its data integration with other applications. The application integrates to: HRIS, Talent Management, Payroll, Smart-Phones, tablets and ERP solutions. The intuitive dashboards allow mangers to quickly analyze data relevant to their departments.  .

ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance solution provides organizations with labour analytics to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) that are impacted by time-related data. Its powerful rules engine enables you to manage rules for reporting, managing or processing time through local, regional or global locations.

Why ATS TimeWork?

Enforces consistent application of your company’s policies, government regulations, and union rules
Reduces time by automating the process of generating payroll
Reports choose from a variety of labour analytic data or create your own
Employee Self-Service gives employee access to review their hours, request time off or bid on vacation blocks
Real-time employee data collection through various data collectors
Pay code policies uses flexible pay codes based on company specific business policies at
Employee scheduling- simplifies the assignment and editing of fixed schedules to large groups of people. Repetitive or cyclical schedules may be created by an employee or by defined ‘schedule group’ for an indefinite period of time

ATS employee time and attendance helps companies with workload demand including; hours, absences, adherence to payroll rules and labour laws.

To learn more join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn. To view a demo go to our website.

 

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How to Choose a Time and Attendance Solution

April 9th, 2013 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Biometric Time Clocks | Smartphone | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Solution | Time and Attendance System - (0 Comments)

Choosing a time and attendance solution is at best, a strategic decision for most businesses. Questions to consider include: can this system grow with our company? Should we start with the basics and add modules as we need them? Will the implementation fit within our timeframe? How robust is this application? Should we go for all the features of the system? All of these questions are normal when deciding which software application will best suit your organizational needs.

The true value of an employee time and attendance system lies in its integration across a company and the data gathered when using it. So why not start with a modern software solution that is able to meet your functional needs? It is a natural to want every conceivable feature and module when in actuality most companies only use a small percentage of the available features. Companies adopting a time and attendance for the first time would be wise to “crawl before you can walk”. If the right vendor is chosen, adding modules should be an easy process.

Here are the 5 strategies to use for getting the right system for your organization:

Stated Objectives- Companies should conduct an internal audit of all processes and policies before choosing a time and attendance system. If your company is small, this can be done by the project manager. For larger organizations, the steering committee can draft a plan.

Project Manager-The implementation of an employee time and attendance solution is as important as choosing the right solution and vendor. The importance of having someone within your organization spearhead the project should not be overlooked. If your company’s objectives are clear and all stakeholders are in agreement, the implementation will yield positive results.

Choosing the Data Collector-The common complaint we hear from some prospective customers, is that their time clock has never worked properly since it was installed.  Some companies are so dazzled by the latest features of a software application that they fail to ask the most basic question of a vendor; will this employee time clock work for us? Today, capturing employees’ data has expanded to include: smart-phones, tablets, biometric time clocks and swipe card technology to name a few. Consider your environment and whether your employees will use the technology before choosing an employee time clock.

Informing stakeholders- Some employees view the deployment of a time management system as intrusive. This is particularly true if a company has long tenured employees who might struggle to understand why their hours are being tracked all of sudden. This can be diffused quickly by letting them know the reasons and the enhanced benefits of the system.

Choosing a Vendor-You should have a separate list that contains the criteria your company will use to select a provider. While a vendor who has been around for 100 years sounds nice, that in and of itself, should not be the only criteria by which you choose a vendor. Request the names of at least three companies who you can contact to discuss the product’s functionality and challenges. And if all that matters to you is the cheapest solution, be prepared to deal with software inefficiencies, a lack luster implementation and inadequate after sales support.

Choosing a time and attendance software should be an important decision for your company. Go about the process by “starting small” with a standard software solution the meets your organizational goals. As time progresses and your supervisors get used to the software, add modules to complement your growing needs.

To download the full 13 steps to choosing a time and attendance go to our website. Join the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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