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Whether you are in retail, hospitality, healthcare or an industry, generating a weekly or bi-schedule with Excel spreadsheets, it can be time consuming. This becomes even more difficult when it comes to tracking employee hours, including overtime. And, while Excel spreadsheets can be useful in some areas of business, using it for the purpose of scheduling employees especially in companies with complex and rotation shifts can be headache for supervisors.

Scheduling With Spreadsheets, Really? Who Does That Anymore?

One of the better investments an organization can make is to deploy an ATS Workforce Scheduling Solution that will help with better workforce planning, and improve overall employee productivity, and satisfaction.

ATS Workforce Scheduling Solution is purpose-built for the managers and supervisors alike, and utilizes employee working patterns and shift preferences —as a best fit, with statutory holidays and absences automatically applied. The manager is immediately notified through an alert, of schedule gaps caused by absences, holidays or workload demand, so that the appropriate action can be taken.

ATS Workforce Scheduling Solution benefits include:

  • Minimize compliance risk with consistent rules and policies
  • Accurately anticipate demand to help reduce under-staffing
  • Employees are allocated to a shift based on preference and seniority
  • Statutory holidays and absences are automatically applied
  • Actual vs. budget schedule report can be generated thus, reducing the possibility of over-staffing
  • Minimize compliance risks, while adhering to local, regional and cross continental rules and policies
  • Accurately anticipate demand based on forecast, to help reduce under-staffing

Now, can your Excel spreadsheet do all that?  Trying to guess the right number of employees you need to cover a shift or the best worker to fill an open one, commonly causes errors and complications. With Workforce Scheduling the guesswork and manual scheduling is taken out of the equation.

To download a copy of ATS Workforce Scheduling Solution or to register for one of our bi-weekly webinars, go to our website. And, to speak to an account executive, call: 866.294.2467.

 

Every business wants to achieve maximum productivity, streamline cost and improve its bottom-line. If your business is not using the right time and attendance solution, that can not only prevent it from achieving its operational goals, but lead to frustration by the people who are using the system.

Here are five signs that points to the frustration your company has with its current time and attendance system and some tools to help you figure out how to obtain the right system for your business:

5 Signs You Are Frustrated With Your Current Time And Attendance

 

  1. Real-Time Data

If you are pulling employee information from paper time sheets or an antiquated punch clock that resides on a wall, there is nothing real about this. It simply means, you are getting the information after it happens. What you need is a system that shows employee information as soon as they occur- in other words, a system that can provide you with real time analytics as you need it.

  1. Your System Lacks Integration Capabilities

This is tops the list of frustration for many companies. If your company’s current time and attendance system does not have the ability to interface to your other applications you need to rethink your strategy. No company should be stuck using outdated applications, the sole reason for deploying an automated time and attendance is to make your life easier.

  1. Basic Features Should be Included

Calculation of overtime and statutory holidays across various jurisdictions should be part of the everyday basic functions of the system.  If these necessary features for your company’s day-to-day life do not exist, you are using the wrong system and filled with frustration.

  1. Streamline Costs and Improve Productivity

If your company wishes to improve efficiency, you need a time and attendance solution that has this embedded into it-otherwise, the frustration of your HR or payroll practitioner will continue.

  1. Point the Blame at the Software

If your business executives are getting inaccurate data, it’s clear you have the wrong solution. And, if your employees pay are missing hours they worked, because the software cannot adjust to your business requirements, you should starting exploring for better option.

Bottom-Line: instead of asking your current provider to make customization changes that would simply add to the complexity—of an already ineffective solution, make the switch to an ATS time attendance solution. With ATS TimeWork OnDemand 21st century cloud computing technology gives you the agility to respond to changing business needs rapidly, improve productivity, streamline payroll costs and can adjust to the ebbs and flows of an organization.

To download a demonstration or attend one of our bi-weekly webinars go to our website. To speak to an account representative call: 866.294.2467.

 

 

Automating the tracking of employee time should, be a fundamental process within any business. Yet many companies do not track time and instead rely on outdated time tracking methodologies and/or self-reporting to capture time and attendance details. And, since, assumptions and reality do not correlate organizations, that rely on manual time tracking or self-reporting lose significant value by paying employees for time that they didn’t actually work.

Let’s take a look at three reasons to ditch paper time cards:

Lost Time-Some companies refer to lost time as sick days, employee vacations, planned or unplanned absences. However, the occasional 5-10 minutes that an employee either arrives early or leaves late are small increments that can add up significantly throughout the year. Take for example, an employee who comes in 10-15 minutes before her start time and records this on the paper time card or the employee who is habitually late yet jots down that he arrived on time. In both scenarios, you are paying these employees for time that they were not actually working.

Ditch the Manual Time Tracking-If your company is using an automated time and attendance yet, have spreadsheets or another manual time tracking system, you are likely using the wrong solution and are missing out on significant benefits. The right time and attendance system should capture; employee vacations, statutory holidays, overtime, it should be scalable and eradicate all manner of manual time tracking.

Here Are Some Additional Reasons Why You Should Ditch Paper Time Cards

Data Integration-In addition to the other benefits, the ability to send employee hours seamlessly to your payroll software should be one major factor in migrating to an automated time and attendance. It is next to impossible to continually use manual time tracking and come up with accurate results. An automated time and attendance solution removes the arduous tasks of having to count employee hours each week and then key them into spreadsheets, thus, your company will benefit because it’s now paying for time worked, which can translate into higher revenues and profits.

Not sure if there is value to automating your manual time tracking methods?  Download our Return on Investment (ROI) calculating or a demonstration. Both can help build a solid business case.

 

A recent article about a time-card fraud investigation by UMass resulted, in some employees resigning, and others being placed on administrative leave. At ATS, our solution engineers are often asked to explain the benefits of a time and attendance solution to corporate managers, who, at times, do not fully understand how such a system, can increase productivity and eliminate time-card fraud.

An effective time and attendance takes the guess-work out of calculating employee hours, vacation, premium pay, statutory holidays and overtime. In fact, just about every study that has been conducted about the benefits of a time and attendance solution– all arrived at the same conclusion, and that is –companies using an automated time and attendance solution, on average, save 3-5% on payroll costs. For most senior executives, these are the kind of numbers that will make them take notice and, most likely, immediate action.

An Effective Time And Attendance System Will Stamp Out Time-Card Fraud

ATS Time and Attendance Solution will help your company to:

Get Rid of the Chaos
ATS Time and Attendance captures employee hours in real-time –into clear, and actionable information. In the world of paper-based time sheets, manually counting employee hours is simply a time-wasting exercise.

Gain Access to ATS Time and Attendance Anywhere, Anytime
ATS TimeWork OnDemand is easy to get up and running, easy-to-use, and is scalable with your business. There are no barriers, no fuss – just one complete, cost-effective cloud-based workforce management solution designed to deliver up-to-minute analytic results, streamline payroll costs and increase employee productivity.

Enjoy Painless Integration
You can go ahead and do your “happy dance” or do some back-flips, if you feel so inclined.  ATS TimeWork OnDemand is an open database designed to integrate with a range of other payroll, HR, ERP and other systems in a seamless fashion. That’s right, those countless hours spent keying data manually into spreadsheets and other software programs is now a thing of the past, once ATS TimeWork OnDemand is deployed.

ATS TimeWork OnDemand is trusted thousands of customers, in a wide range of industries and supports business processes in many locations and across many regions, including; Canada, United States, Europe and South America. ATS TimeWork OnDemand has a proven track record of driving competitiveness and streamlining business processes.

To learn more, call 866.297.2467 or download a demonstration from our website.

An Effective Time And Attendance System Will Stamp Out Time-Card Fraud

 

The 12 Days of Christmas: The Perfect Gift For Every CFO, HR And Payroll Manager

December 21st, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on The 12 Days of Christmas: The Perfect Gift For Every CFO, HR And Payroll Manager)

The state of the economy has, at times, served as an indicator that businesses fed with their current time tracking solution, will either upgrade or implement a new time and attendance solution. And, while this year have been no exception, waiting on the economy to improve- while still using manual time sheets is probably costing you more in both time and resources to maintain the system that’s not going to help you improve operational profits.

With the Christmas holidays upon us, new projects for 2016 are likely being discussed including which ones should take precedence. And, in those discussions, it’s also likely several departmental managers are hoping to make sure their capital projects tops the list and gets approval for 2016. If you are a CFO, HR or payroll manager use the 12 gift ideas below to your benefit and you are sure to get your time and attendance project approved.

1. Select the right time and attendance and vendor
Glossy demonstrations are just that. Glossy! Evaluating vendors is somewhat of an art form. Navigating through several options can take a toll and the plethora of options can make it confusing. Take your time and resist the urge to buy the cheapest option. Price should always be a factor but, if you are looking for a time and attendance to last 10 year or beyond, that cheap stuff you saw on the Internet a week ago with a “Do It Your Self Brochure” won’t cut it.

2. Assign the right person to the ATS time and attendance implementation
This should probably head the list and it’s as important as selecting the right solution. If you are using a project manager within your organization, make sure that person is not bogged down by other projects otherwise; your time and attendance implementation will take a back seat. A middle manager who has an understanding of the company’s strategic goals is a solid fit for users. They must however, be empowered to facilitate C-level buy-in and support because they will be responsible for choosing how the application is used and how to construct business process flows.

3. A realistic implementation plan
There are no magic bullets with a time and attendance deployment, regardless of their size or scope hence, the need for a realistic plan. Moreover, it’s only natural to experience a series of ebbs and flows during an implementation. Some of the best project plans do not address key critical success factors, such as time for data integration, organizational change management, business processes and workflow design and user acceptance. In order for your implementation to get off on the right foot, you should consider bench-marking your plan against best-in-class and time and attendance solution. Put another way, talk to references and ask them about the challenges they went through during the implementation. The notion that every implementation went smoothly and without a hitch, is a fallacy.

4. Get buy-in
You would not buy a house for you and your fiancée to live in without letting them know so, why would you purchase a time and attendance and not get buy-in from other departments who will have to use the solution and will be impacted by it? The chances of success increases exponentially, when you get your colleagues and other employees understand the benefits of such a system.

5. Keep it simple
If you are having a time and attendance installed for the first time, stick to the basics; tracking employee punches, overtime, paying statutory holidays, and shift premiums. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by adding every conceivable feature and attempting to use it all at once and end up being frustrated. In order to avoid this, take a more gradual approach by seeing if certain new functionalities create too much of a burden. Sometimes it’s better to go-live with the basics and to schedule add-ons later, when you are ready for them.

6. Start over if you have to
If you find that you are spinning your wheels and getting nowhere it’s probably best to start over. Take a closer look at your plan; is it realistic? Do you have the right project manager and/or is he/she consumed with other projects within your company while also trying to manage the implementation? There is nothing wrong in taking a step back and between you and your vendor redoing the plan and adding realistic milestones to complete the project.

7. ROI and business benefits
The senior team within your organization is not going to be happy with your implementation unless it delivering tangible business benefits that they can see. Merely implementing the time and attendance solution is not going to deliver business benefits unless; your senior management team can see it. However you can use the ATS “realization framework” that translates some of the expected business benefits into measurable metrics that can be used throughout the organization. Your executive team will be doing back flips over this.

8. Corporate culture
Be mindful of your company’s corporate culture ahead of deploying the solution. Some people will be completely resistant to change. If they are using an automated time and attendance solution for the first time, they will have their own set of ideas that may be solely based on their old system’s functionality, yes even if it’s paper time sheets. People, who are reluctant to move away from their antiquated systems, will focus on the software and not the business functions driving the company. Therefore, it’s important to seek the advice of your vendor to help them understand which processes are necessary and when to revamp it entirely.

9. Make sure you understand why you are implementing a time and attendance solution
This is arguably one of the most important ones. By clearly understanding your business objectives and what you’re trying to accomplish with an ATS time and attendance system, you will be able to make a more appropriate decision on which route to take.

10. Bring in additional resources if you have to
Some companies are notorious for implementing (or trying to implement) with inadequate internal and external resources. No matter how talented your internal team is, chances are that they are not experienced enough to implement without outside the deep expertise of an ATS implement consulting team that can bring expertise and business methodologies to help your team implement faster and more inexpensively than they would otherwise.

11. Bypassing the milestones and rushing to the finish line
One of the major problems with time and attendance projects is that they are treated like sprints to a go-live finish line, when they should instead be treated like a marathon of continuous improvements and adjustments to account for business and technology changes over time. ATS organizational readiness assessments help customers see the areas of resistance and organizational risk that need to be addressed as part of an effective organizational change management plan.

12. A successful time and attendance implementation
A new time and attendance solution is a unique opportunity to improve your data model and improve inefficient business processes. Unfortunately, some executives go into time and attendance implementations with the low expectation of simply not failing. The good news is that ATS have proven with several customers that time and attendance implementations can be a resounding success, and using our proven methodology – they offer relatively smooth go-lives, more efficient business processes that deliver tangible business results.

ATS is happy to help you provide any one or more of these gifts for your senior management team. To learn more about ATS go to our website as you plan for your time and attendance project for the New Year.

From all of us at ATS, we say Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year to you and your team.

The 12 Days of Christmas: The Perfect Gift For Every CFO, HR And Payroll Manager

Armchair pundits and analysts alike have had a great deal to say about BlackBerry’s recent smart-phone, the XZ10. Some have predicted its demise due in part, to the amount of time it took to bring out a device comparable to the iPhone, Android, Samsung Galaxy and many others on the market. In the end, the success of Blackberry lies with consumers liking and purchasing its products, not the views of analysts.

Some years ago when BlackBerry launched its smart-phone, the device gave users the ability to send and receive e-mails through the device at a time when this was viewed as revolutionary. At that time, it catered mostly to corporate executives and government users. As time went on, Apple, Google and other companies launched their own smart-phones. Apple was the first to launch its iPhone with great fanfare using ads featuring hip youngsters showing off their phones. In addition to e-mails and texting, you could also browse the web at lightning speed, view various features and download many software applications that BlackBerry phones could not do. All of a sudden the public started taking notice and the line ups to get an iPhone stretched for several blocks. These new smart-phones were now accessible to everyone, not just corporate executives. Some have argued, BlackBerry came across as stuffy and refused to include the younger generation in its ads and that is one of the many reasons it has struggled to gain new users.

BlackBerry has its diehard fans and some have argued that the Z10 is the start of great things to come. Many BlackBerry users also say that they love the product because of its built-in encryption which makes it a better-managed platform than its competitors. Whether you are a BlackBerry fan or not, the consumer always wins when there is competition.

The history of Apple chronicles that it, too, went through a rough patch many years ago, but most its loyal fans stuck with it. Most companies go through a period when they have to find out what made them successful and be able to change with the times. 

Companies using a BlackBerry Z10, Ipad, Windows Mobile or other smart-phone device can access the ATS web-based time and attendance software from anywhere.  ATS TimeWork time and attendance software features include; tracking of benefit accruals, pay policies, employee shifts; overtime and premium pay codes, statutory holiday tracking, employee self service, job costing and labour analytics. ATS time and attendance is an integrated and scalable application that is designed to meet the most challenging the timekeeping and workforce management needs of any organization.

Kudos to BlackBerry on the launch of its Z10! Their success or lack thereof will be determined by the consumers. That said we wish them continued success.

To learn more, go to our website and download a white paper on the benefits of an automated time and attendance solution.