Best-in-Class Workforce Management Software from Industry Experts
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Economists and armchair pundits alike declared that the last recession was the worst since the depression of the thirties. And, while there are sighs of relief in some industries, others still struggle to gain a foothold. The employment numbers are, at best, anemic and have not made any significant gains as indicative of the number of people who are still out of work. That said, the North American Auto sector which was one of the hardest hit appears on the rebound.

A recent report by the U.S. Federal Reserve reads in part, “The output of business equipment gained 0.5 percent in March and moved up at an annual rate of

4.2 percent in the first quarter. The production of transit equipment rose 1.0 percent in March, and the production of information processing equipment advanced 1.2 percent, its largest increase since September 2013. The index for industrial and other equipment was unchanged in March, but it rose at an annual rate of 7.9 percent in the first quarter.”

In Canada, the manufacturing sector has also seen some growth albeit slowly. And, in the midst of all this good news, companies will be looking to implement or update their current time tracking solution to keep up with the demands. As manufacturers turn their attention to servicing their customers, they are beginning to realize the value a time and attendance solution can have on their business.

Today’s manufacturers understand the benefit in having the right tools to compete globally, and these companies, waste no time deploying robust workforce management solutions. As technology continues to advance and penetrate the manufacturing industry, the companies who automate with data collection tools will improve productivity, outpace their competitors and see profits increase.

To learn more about ATS go to our website.

Is Manufacturing Crawling Back From Its Supposed Ashes?

At ATS, we have worked with numerous companies in industries that include: retail, hospitality, manufacturing & distribution, healthcare, construction and government. Based on our experience, when deploying a new time and attendance system, its best to forget the constant references of “how the old system worked” and focus on how the new solution can meet your current business requirements. Naturally, it is expected there will be a couple of reports or features that worked well in the old system. However, one of the reasons for evaluating a new solution is because the old one could not meet all your needs.

In no particular order, here is a list of some common mistakes to avoid when searching for a new time and attendance software:

“I want a new system that works like our current one”
Sometimes this just means it’s hard to accept the change. Some people get comfortable with their current system works (warts and all) and can be unwilling to learn a new system.

“I do not know what I want but will when I see it”
Not knowing what you want and just going about inviting vendors to give software demonstrations can create challenges. We suggest companies prepare a list of their business requirements including some “must haves” and/or “showstoppers” if applicable. This list should also include realistic goals, i.e implementation timeline, training etc. This will make the selection a bit easier.

The beauty contest
It’s very easy to get bamboozled by bells and whistles. Try to look beyond the glitz and choose a solution that is robust its calculation of your company’s pay and work rules. Ten different software demonstrations can get confusing and at a certain point, they all start to look the same. Try to keep it to a minimum of three vendors and a maximum of five.

“Here is how we do it in our current system”
This represents the importance of creating a list of requirements. While you may not find all the features of the old system in your new time and attendance, certain things like specific reports can be created if known in advance.

“We want the best price”
While we are not suggesting you “mortgage the farm” to obtain a functional system, purchasing a time and attendance solely based on price is a sign that your company’s requirements could be taking a back seat. In fact, if the solution can meet you organizational requirements, then the next steps should be ensuring the price is within your budgetary expectations.

To download a complete guide on “how to choose a time and attendance solution” go to our website. To join our group discussion, go to our LinkedIn and Twitter page.

 Evaluating a new time and attendance solution? Try to avoid these common mistakes

Some technology pundits have rightly lamented that tap and pay with credit cards never gained widespread adoption, so why does the industry want to institute the same with the smart phones? There have been many articles written about the success of this venture in some jurisdictions. However, the missing element in all of this is a simple set of instructions that shows how this works. For example, would the general public be open to the technology if they knew answers to the following?

  • Exactly how does tap and pay work on a smartphone?
  • What are the advantages of using my phone to pay for items?
  • Does one have to download an app for this to work?
  • After the app is downloaded, what are the next steps in this process?
  • Is the app the same for all smart phones?
  • Do I need to contact my bank before or after I download the app?
  • Is this method faster than swiping with my credit card?

Now these might sound like mundane questions but they are the type of questions consumers will need answers to. This technology will be quickly adopted by the tech savvy minded consumers albeit, with some questions. The other side of that equation will be the types of consumers that have questions like: security, ease-of use and will be very slow to use the product unless, their concerns are addressed.

In an article titled  Tap-and-Pay Phone Tech Isn’t Worth the Hassle by Mark Hachman on CIO.com the author cites some of the challenges that the industry is facing with user adoption. Does this mean that smart phone tap and pay will never gain widespread adoption? No, it just means the industry has to do a much better job at using a simplistic approach to sell a service that has the appearance of being too complex.

As purveyors of technology in the time and attendance solution space, ATS understands that having state of the art software means nothing, if it’s not easy to use.

To learn more about ATS call us at 1.866.294.2467. You can also view our workforce management software on our website or join the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.

 

Is Absenteeism Making a Dent in Your Company’s Profits?

October 15th, 2013 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Payroll | Time and Attendance Blog | Time Management Solutions | TimeWork | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Is Absenteeism Making a Dent in Your Company’s Profits?)

A recent article by the Conference Board of Canada on the cost of absenteeism to companies, reads in part, “The average Canadian worker was absent the equivalent of almost two full work weeks in 2011.”  The article also goes on to say that “the direct annual cost of absenteeism is based on survey data provided by organizations to the Conference Board. Organizations estimated that the direct cost of absenteeism averaged 2.4 per cent of gross annual payroll – which translated to a loss of $16.6 billion in 2012.”

These numbers are staggering and beg the question, if absenteeism is such a problem in the workforce, why do some companies choose not to embrace advantages of a time and attendance system? The answer may lie not fully understanding its benefits.

Here are 5 ways your company can derive the benefits of an ATS time management solution:

Streamline Manual Time Tracking Processes and Increase Productivity
ATS workforce management software integrates all your payroll calculations and business processes within a single integrated database system. The application simplifies overtime, vacation tracking and other pay codes. All users share a common reference system and application interface, reducing the learning curve and enabling users to easily switch roles or take over functions without additional training. Once data in entered into the ATS time and attendance system, produces real time data analytics wherever it is needed throughout your company.  With ATS time and attendance solution, your company will achieve a consistent flow of information from data capture, payroll and human resources to business intelligence, employee scheduling and benefit accruals.

Activate Modules as you Expand
ATS TimeWork time and attendance evolves with your enterprise. Easily activate new functions when you need them, connect additional users to the system or quickly bring new sites on board without the need for custom interfaces. Keep your system constantly up to date with simple, secure update procedures; ATS time attendance ensures the distribution of modifications across all connected workstations.

Eliminate Costly Server Installations
ATS hosted time and attendance minimizes both costs and installation time eradicating the need to install software on servers or workstations. Avoid the cost of a large in-house IT team; the robust, intuitive design of ATS TimeWork ensures consistent, reliable day-to-day operations.

Combine Best-Of-Breed Functionality and Low Cost of Ownership
Provide your company with the best functionality in your industry while dramatically reducing your time tracking costs. Mid-size companies face the same issues as larger enterprises in managing complex, industry-specific processes and servicing their customers. ATS time and attendance provides comprehensive, integrated workforce management system without the need for costly custom developments and months of professional services. Industry-specific and scalable, ATS TimeWork is the best employee time management application aimed to meet your most elaborate business processes, while minimizing any associated costs of installing, operating, maintaining and growing the system.

Business Analytics for Informed Decision Making
Get the most value from your ATS time management solution with the least amount of effort. ATS TimeWork business analytics provides regular updates to relevant information to give you real-time visibility across your organization. The ATS TimeWork business analytics is a powerful, easy-to-use business tool that drives smarter decisions in every departmental area of your organization.

To learn how your company can track absenteeism and increase productivity download a whitepaper or an online demo.

 Is Absenteeism Making a Dent in your Company's Productivity?

Why is Workforce Management Software Implementation so Critical?

September 17th, 2013 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Time and Attendance | Employee Time Tracking Software | Time and Attendance On-Demand | TimeWork | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Why is Workforce Management Software Implementation so Critical?)

Sometimes the answer lies in the structure of organizations.  The software project starts out being well scoped for contingency with well laid plans for its completion. However, the process of getting these projects signed off by decision makers, gets derailed due to competing resources. By the time an agreement has been reached, a set of unrealistic expectations have been set all around by third parties and other stakeholders. At this point the combination of unrealistic expectations and insufficient resources to complete the project means that failure is all but inevitable.

When properly implemented, a workforce management solution can help to alleviate many problems that plague businesses. A properly implemented workforce management solution pulls data from different sources, facilitates better decision making and communication between departmental managers.

Some of the most common reasons given for failure of a workforce management software implementation includes: An insufficient scope of the project, unrealistic budget expectations and poor planning.  The poor project planning at the outset leads directly to a lack of realism when budgets and timescales are being discussed.

ATS Implementation Methodology provides a framework that helps you keep your business software current in a coherent way. Under the direction of our implementation experts and project managers, our proven methodology enables you to implement your new ATS TimeWork time and attendance solution quickly- and achieve measurable success. We make every project phase fully transparent and provide complete cost and schedule control. ATS unique methodology ensures you a worry free experience.

The ATS Implementation Methodology is based on years of experience in refining and improving the phases and procedures which constitute implementation best practices, and Project Management standards. In addition to pre-implementation and post-implementation procedures, it consists of five phases that are repeatable from customer to customer: initiate, design, build, deploy, and closure. ATS professional implementation personnel guide the entire process-from project kick-off, to creating a solution concept, to building the actual components, to production cut-over and go-live, and finally to formal handover of the solution. As a result, every implementation is completed on time and on budget.

To learn more, go to our website. You can also follow us through GooglePlus, LinkedIn or Twitter.

 Workforce Management Software Implementation Methodology

Today the words “austerity measures” have become ubiquitious with most economists and it appears the words are becoming part of their vernacular when trying to explain how theUSand other world economies have gotten themselves in financial trouble. Automatic spending cuts and tax increases (which is essentially the basis of the “austerity measures”) have become the norm for governments around the world. Some have blamed this approach on the “recession of 2008”. Whether you are for or against government spending cuts and taxes increases, one thing is clear, since 2008, the world has changed and so, has the way in which businesses compete for customers.

For many of today’s companies, reducing costs is paramount and they see value in adopting a time management solution that can help them to achieve that goal. On the other hand, a small minority of businesses continue to hang on to the old way of tracking employee time manually. Competitive businesses know that to compete in today’s global economy they must adopt a time and attendance solution that improves productivity and increase profits, while maintaining customer satisfaction.

Most companies strive to find a balance between risk reduction and accessibility of information. Implementing an ATS time and attendance solution can manage risk and replace outdated manual systems, making employee data transfer and access to information easier.

Many of ATS’s customers use our employee payroll time tracking software to solve the day to day challenges of departmental managers, HR and payroll personnel. For example, employees can access their schedules through the online portal to add vacation blocks, check their overtime hour status and update benefit accruals. With the use of our time and labour solution, business executives can take comfort in the knowledge that ATS time and attendance system can help their company find a rapid return on investment and increase profits.

To learn more or to download one of our time and attendance brochures, go to our website.

Managing, tracking and paying overtime is a challenge for some companies. That’s in part, because these companies do not have the right tools to help them with this issue. Overtime has presented itself as a “hot potato” when not applied accurately. Case in point, litigation in recent years has made many companies take note of the rules governing overtime payments.

Canada’s labour code on hours of work and pay states, in part:
“The standard hours of work are eight hours in a day and 40 hours in a week. The maximum number of hours of work for a week is 48 hours. Certain provisions permit flexibility in applying these standards. As well, special regulations cover certain classes of workers in specific industries such as city and highway transport drivers. However, the Code makes no distinction between full-time, part-time or casual workers.”The quote goes on to say:

“The maximum time a worker may work each week can be exceeded for exceptional circumstances such as emergency work or averaging of hours. However, hours of work provisions in the Code do not apply to those who have management functions, or to members of specific groups such as the engineering and medical professions.”

The above guideline by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is a good measuring stick that can be used by payroll professionals when determining overtime pay for employees. In addition to this guideline, organizations need to factor in collective bargaining agreements (if applicable), industry type and labour codes unique to the jurisdiction/s in which they operate.

For organizations with several locations in different provinces and/or states, attempting to calculate overtime through an antiquated system can present a herculean challenge. ATS time attendance, and labour management solutions help you increase the speed and accuracy of payroll preparation, improve wage compliance, and optimize a rapid return on your investment.

The ATS time and labour solution shows hours worked in real-time and helps determine when an employee is approaching overtime so you can ensure your company has the right amount of coverage, helping you reduce the costs associated with overstaffing.

3 ways to streamline labour costs and take control of overtime:

Reduce Labour Costs: Control overtime hours while improving efficiencies with employee time capture to reduce manual errors.

Eliminate Technology Costs: With an ATS (SaaS) software-as-a-service time and attendance solution, customers can access the software 24/7 365 days a year through any web browser. Hassles of upgrading software become a thing of the past.

Notifications: The ATS time and attendance solution triggers notifications (including e-mail notifications) in real- time to alert managers of issues requiring immediate attention.

To learn more about our time and attendance solutions including automated overtime tracking methodologies, go to our website.

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, retailers are both hopeful and excited. Most retail operations increase their staffing levels in anticipation of business volume. The ATS time and attendance solution helps retail operations keep track of employee attendance, absenteeism and monitors productivity for optimal profitability.

This robust time and attendance solution supports an unlimited number of schedules, as well as, fixed, open and flexible shifts. Employee tracking options include: Online Time Sheets, Web-Time Clocks, Biometric Terminals, Barcode Time Clocks, Magnetic Swipe Clocks, Smart Phones and Tablet PCs which monitor employee time and compile a range of labour analytics reports. Retail operations utilizing the ATS time and attendance solution will easily avoid payroll errors and the inflationary costs associated with mistakes made through manual processes.

Solution Benefits:

Employee Scheduling

ATS integrated time and attendance scheduling application ensures your levels are aligned to business volume. The software helps supervisors schedule the right people in the right place at the right time. The application allows supervisors to schedule by: seniority, skills, certifications, preferences and availability. 

 Budgeting

The budgeting module provides supervisors with the tools to review projected vs. actual labour expenses in each department. A variety of intuitive reports help supervisors adjust staffing to align with budgeted hours.

 Forecasting

The ATS forecasting module helps retailers track the history of business volume and produce accurate forecasts of future business cycles while simultaneously providing detailed calculations of workforce management requirements. Departments can track data by defining forecast drivers to achieve a set of requirements specifically to that department. The ATS forecasting module provides businesses with technology to develop work schedules that meet business demands.

The ATS integrated time and attendance scheduling application can be set up in less than a week depending on the complexity of the business requirements. The solution is web-based and does not require a company to buy licenses and install software. Instead, companies pay an “as-needed” subscription fee and then access the software from a computer using any web browser.

To learn more, go to our website or REGISTER on to join our weekly time and attendance user group.

In previous time and attendance blogs, we talked about the importance of companies having an employee time tracking system. On the odd occasion, we have spoken to a company or two who have developed their own time and attendance system. When asked why, the reasons range from, “Someone in our IT department said it was a very easy program to create” so they did it, to “We downloaded a free program online that walked us through the process of tracking our employee time and attendance”. Now, do clothing designers try to make cars as well? If they do, we have not heard of them. In today’s economy, companies are focused on cost containment, employee productivity and profit margins. Deploying a time and attendance system from experts in the field saves money in the short and long term.

The ATS employee time and attendance solution can save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Even for small companies, time and attendance systems pay for themselves after the first few months. Our time and attendance systems reduce time sheet auditing and eliminate employee overpayment because employees will not be paid when they take a long break or show-up late to work.

To speak to someone about our time and attendance system go to our website or click here to see a live demonstration.