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Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Time and Attendance System

September 28th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Business Intelligence | Employee Scheduling | Employee Self Service | ERP | Forecasting | Labour Costs | Payroll - (Comments Off on Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Time and Attendance System)

As hard as you try, it’s taking longer and longer to process employee time-sheets at the end of the week. Tabulation of employee hours are based on guesswork instead of solid figures and your CFO is having a hard trying to figure out the company’s actual payroll cost, that’s somewhere within the many spreadsheets you provide each week. If this sounds like your business—or close to it—then it may be time to consider a modern time and attendance solution.

Based on our years of experience, we have come to realize that the companies who benefit most from a time and attendances system usually face problems that are similar in nature. If your organization is experiencing the issues mentioned above, then read on, here are the top five signs that you need a new time and attendance system.

Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Time and Attendance System

1. You Have a Time and Attendance and you are also using manual time sheets
Spend a few minutes thinking about how your employees record their attendance. For example, if you have a time and attendance and employees are also using time-sheets you should get rid of the system. If you are using an effective time and attendance system there shouldn’t be a need for manual time sheets. Next, figure out how long does it takes payroll and HR staff to process employee hours and then manually key them into your accounting software.

ATS time and attendance integrates into a various system including; ERP, payroll and HR providing your organization with a single point of entry one that contains accurate, up-to-the-minute business intelligence data. ATS time and attendance helps staff make better decisions more quickly and frees up their time to work on more high-value exercises like increasing workforce production.

2. The Difficulty in using multiple systems
One of the biggest challenges with using multiple systems to track employee attendance is the amount of time it takes. Conversely using an ATS cloud-based time and attendance, managers and employee alike, have access to real-time information on any workstation or mobile platform in real-time. For example, employee can see their schedules, hours of work and also request time-off. Supervisors get an email alert when a vacation request is submitted and can respond in real-time.

3. You have limited access to information about your organization
Do you know how your company is performing against budget? For example, do you how many employees that should be on the work schedule today or even next week based on business demand? Without solid key performance indicators (KPI’s) in place, some companies rely on spreadsheets that need to be constantly updated and reconciled manually.

4. Payroll processing is taking too long
Sometime the first signs that your company needs a time and attendance solution will come from the payroll department. When employees record their time on manual time-sheets or antiquated punch clocks—after that, a supervisor goes over the records to make sure it’s accurate. Afterwards, this information is sent to the payroll department, who spends hours on a weekly basis, calculating and then manually entering the data into different systems.
5. Your business is growing
No business executive wants their company to remain stagnant so why use a system that’s not growing with you? And, it is safe to assume that if your company has a time and attendance in place, then your business has probably matured a bit since that system was installed. As the business has matured, the time and attendance system has probably been added to and cobbled together with other components to help with the changes in process and direction. Spreadsheets don’t cut it and most antiquated time and attendance systems don’t have the capabilities to support today’s growing businesses. An ATS cloud-based time and attendance has a plethora of analytics to help you see the big picture, will enhance workforce productivity and provide you with greater financial visibility and insight.

In conclusion

Replacing your time and attendance system has a number of benefits, from better workflow and mobile technology interface to increased efficiency and real-time reporting. So what’s holding your company back from ditching that antiquated system?

To learn more register for one of our monthly webinars, find us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest. To reach us by phone call (866) 294.2467.

Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room

May 26th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Business Software Automation | Cloud Time and Attendance | Employee Time Tracking Software - (Comments Off on Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room)

A successful time and attendance implementation is at the heart of a good customer and vendor relationship yet, the opposite happen sometimes. Why? Because it is possible that one or both parties, ignored the “elephant in the room” which is; go over the business requirements and make sure both understand it and set expectations accordingly. And, when this happens, pointing fingers at each other simply exacerbates the situation.

Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room

So, what causes these misunderstandings? There are many and some may include:

The Customer- Perhaps the customer felt that the vendor should understand their time and attendance requirements because said vendor have experience working with other companies in the same industry. It is also possible that the customer might omit some business requirements fearing the solution would cost more that their budget will allow.

The Vendor- Eager to make the sale and acquire a customer, the vendor might have their blinders on and, instead of asking the right questions to understand the business fundamentals-chooses to engage the customer knowing there could be roadblocks ahead.

The End-Result-Sooner or later, whether it’s prior to or during the implementation phase the actual requirements that we left out during prior discussions by one or both parties will rear its ugly head. How it’s handled, once revealed, will determine the success or lack thereof of your time and attendance implementation. It is also possible that some of the requirements were missed during lengthy phone conversations and/or e-mails. As long as both parties agree to work to resolve it, a possible sticky situation can turn into a positive for both the vendor and customer and could potentially lead to long and rewarding relationship.

AT ATS we use a time-tested and unique methodology to uncover true business requirements. And if we find out that there are areas that are pertinent to an organization, that were not discussed, during the software demonstration -which could jeopardize a successful deployment, we will discuss those with you. The ATS implementation team will also work with you, on your journey, from the planning and design stages to implementation to managing your time and attendance system going forward.

To learn more download a demonstration, brochures or contact us 1.866.294.2467.

Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room

Our sales reps have to answer this question often enough that they have the answer at the tip of their tongue. It’s always a resounding yes followed up with examples of how other companies are using the technology. However, the question remains, why would any company deny itself the use of cloud-based time and attendance solution to increase business processes when it has so many benefits?

An article titled “Convincing Skeptical Employees to Adopt New Technology” written by Rebecca Knight for Harvard Business Review, reads in part; “Bringing new technology and tools into your organization can increase productivity, boost sales, and help you make better, faster decisions. But getting every employee on board is often a challenge. What can you do to increase early and rapid adoption?”

The article espouses the virtue of technology with a fresh look on the best ways to get colleagues and employees alike to buy-in. We selected three paragraphs from the article and in no particular order, they are:

State your casePersuading your team to adopt a new technology requires putting forth a valid effort. For example, if using CRM, will it enable salespeople to meet their quotas faster — which gives them the opportunity to make more money? Or increase productivity in a way that reduces weekend work?

Customize training
“Show that you are investing time in learning the new system. Some employees might prefer an online training session; others might need a bit more handholding and support in the form of a personal coach.”

Make it routine
If, for instance, you’ve recently introduced a new sales-tracking technology, start asking for weekly updates on the numbers. Of course, employees could still use provide the information without using the new system, but it would be more cumbersome and time-consuming.

The bottom-line, the use of technology and its adoption, in large part, have to do with how the benefits are explained to employees. If, as the article suggests, employees are told at the outset “what’s in it for them, there is a greater likelihood of them using the system. What will also be more impactful, is if employees are trained properly and then given reminded about using the system on a daily basis. Change takes time and since we are all wired not to accept change, it’s best to use the “carrot” approach instead of the “stick” when adopting new technology such as cloud-based time and attendance solution.

To learn more about ATS time and attendance system and training methodology, go to our website. You can also register for one of our monthly product demonstrations and to speak to an account executive, call us at 866.294.2467.

Will This System Really Help Our Organization?

With the type of weather we have been experiencing lately, it will be hard to convince even the most optimistic, amongst us, that spring has arrived. The Weather Network Spring Outlook for 2014 will probably drive more of us into hibernation.  But with the arrival of spring and inevitable sunny days ahead, isn’t time to take a long look at your current business process and make the change to a more effective way of data gathering?

Here are three data gathering business practices that could be hindering the growth of your company:

Employee Time Capture
Employees are required to fill out daily time sheets with information that include; their in and out times, breaks, overtime, vacation and other leave requests. This document might also require the signature of their reporting manager at the end of the work week.

Tracking Projects
It’s very common for companies within the manufacturing sector to track projects in order, to gain an understanding of their true costs. Asking employees to write job numbers on a crowded time sheet that has already includes; breaks, overtime and other attendance information can lead to errors and confusion for everyone.

Payroll Processing
Once a week or bi-weekly you spend a day or two reading, calculating and then keying information from the time card into an excel spreadsheet. If the information is incorrect, you are left chasing supervisors around to verify the actual start and end time on a time card from two weeks ago. Why bother when you can the entire process can be automated.

So, if you have been sitting on the fence wondering whether the benefits of automating outweigh the cost, well it does.  When you consider the painful process of collecting all that data manually-it just means a lost in profits and productivity. Now, just image all of the above mentioned, being done seamlessly and in a fraction of the time through automation.

Here are three benefits to automation:

Streamline Business Process
By automating data collection companies increase efficiency and productivity: An automated time and attendance system will lead to more than 5 percent increase in productivity. When employees are productive-that goes to the bottom line.  There is nothing more satisfying to shareholders, CEOs and senior managers when their P&L statement shows an increase in profits.

Decision-Based Analysis
Even something as simple as a tool to view budget vs. actual can have a profound impact on the operations of an organization. Closing month-end with the right financial and analytic reporting tools at their fingertips is the dream of every CFO or financial controller. An integrated workforce management solution complete with standardized reporting and analysis can eliminate unwanted surprise. That means that managers will spend less time figuring which set of numbers to use and more time on analysis, decision-making, and planning.

Attendance On-Demand
Can you image being able to see employee attendance at a glance and on-demand, instead of a paper-based, time consuming process? Just ask an HR or Payroll Manager and you are sure to get a resounding agreement in the form of a high five. You can further boost productivity by giving employees the tools to view their schedules and request time off from their smart phones or tablets. The manager self-service portal sends an instant alert e-mail alert informing them of a pending leave or schedule request.

So, put a spring in your company’s steps by dusting off that time and attendance project you have been yearning to deploy and your business will be all the better for it.  To learn more about ATS business automating process, go to our website. You can also join the conversation with our LinkedIn group or better yet, sign up for one of our webinars.

Should Employees Use Up Their Vacation Time During The Calendar Year?

March 20th, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Absence Management | Benefit Accruals | Time and Attendance System - (Comments Off on Should Employees Use Up Their Vacation Time During The Calendar Year?)

This issue largely depends on the company and its work-rule policies. Some of ATS’s larger customers have set policies in place that deals with vacation time and these policies clearly articulates what happens if and when benefit accruals  are carried over to the next year. On the other hand, small and mid-size companies, may have a verbal have understanding with their workforce regarding vacation and other leave requests.

An article written by Katie Johnson of The Boston Globe based on a recent survey states the following:

“A growing number of North American workers do not take all of their annual allotted days off, companies report. Although some of those days can be rolled over into the next year, workplace analysts estimate that more than half of employees lose at least some vacation every year.

With staffs reduced and workloads increased since the last recession, employees find it harder to get away. Technology has added to the expectation that employees are supposed to be on all the time — working evenings and weekends, checking in even when they finally do use some vacation time.”

Susan Krauss Whitbourne, PhD penned an article for Psychology Today that says, in part, “chronic stress takes its toll in part on our body’s ability to resist infection, maintain vital functions, and even ability to avoid injury. When you’re stressed out and tired, you are more likely to become ill, your arteries take a beating, and you’re more likely to have an accident. Your sleep will suffer, you won’t digest your food as well, and even the genetic material in the cells of your body may start to become altered in a bad way. Mentally, not only do you become more irritable, depressed, and anxious, but your memory will become worse and you’ll make poorer decisions. You’ll also be less fun to be with, causing you to become more isolated, lonely, and depressed.

It’s important for employees to stay on top of their allotted time-off and make the time to use them. An effective time and attendance system can help companies track vacation balances on-the-fly.  Studies show that when employees are well rested, they are productive and that in turn, can boost a company’s bottom-line.

 Should Employees Use Up Their Vacation Time During The Calendar Year

Online Webinar On How To: Improve Efficiency by Streamlining the Payroll Process

February 10th, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in HRIS | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance System | Time Card Editing | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Online Webinar On How To: Improve Efficiency by Streamlining the Payroll Process)

Participants will learn how to reduce costs, boost productivity, and gain valuable insight into your business with ATS time and attendance system. This live webcast provides an overview of our easy-to-use navigation, workforce management software with built-in reporting tools. This affordable solution provides accurate, real-time employee data to help you make critical business decisions.

You will learn how to:

  • Track and manage employee time through a variety of time clock options
  • Reduce payroll costs with flexible work rule configurations
  • Manage exceptions with easy time card editing
  • Track employee time and reduced absenteeism
  • Comply with regulatory payroll and workforce compliance

Who Should Participate
CFOs, VP of Finance, Financial Controllers, HR and Payroll Managers

What is Required to Attend
Participants in the live webcast will need access to a computer connected to the Internet. ATS recommends you test your computer in advance of the webcasts.

Webinar Details:  Thursday, February 20, 2014 10:00 AM EST – 11:00 AM EST
Online

To register for the webinar, go to our website.

 

When planned properly, a well implemented time and attendance can yield significant benefits for all stakeholders. Using ATS project methodology, it can be applied to large and medium-sized implementations. Depending on the size of the project, flowchart diagrams will point you to tools and templates that can be used at different phases and will help guide the roles that are required to perform activities. They all help to increase the consistency, timeframes, quality and success of your company’s time and attendance system.

Depending on the project size and scope ATS uses different deployment methodolies. Here are 5 steps that will benefit any organization considering deploying ATS time and attendance system:

Planning-Your company’s project manager and that of the vendor should work together to form the implementation team, and plan the project based on a methodology, including the scope of the project and available resources. A kickoff meeting should include all stakeholders with the purposing of reviewing the project plan and communicate the company objectives for the project.

System Configuration- The ATS Implementation Analyst provides the knowledge to implementation team in the design and database configuration. This will include, work-rule policies, collective bargaining agreements (CBA), and setting up the time and attendance system.

Harmonization-This phase involves integrating ATS Time and Attendance and Business Analytical Applications with the customer’s information needs and addresses customization requirements.

Training- ATS implementation team trains the Project Manager, HR, Payroll and other functional users on the new employee time management system.

Go-Live Support- ATS implementation team supports the customer in the use of the new time and attendance system. The implementation team provides real time support.

While this is not a comprehensive list, it provides a benchmark of what our customers can expect when deploying a time and attendance solutions with ATS.

To download a comprehensive implementation methodology, go to our website or call us at 1(866) 294.2467.

 

 

So your company has decided that it needs to automate its business management process. Everyone is excited that finally, the manual tasks will be gone. So, a steering committee is selected and someone out of that group is given the task of being the project leader.

Next you jot down your list of requirements and go about contacting vendors to provide a demonstration. Your list of requirements includes things like:

  • Automate the vacation request of employees throughout the organization
  • Employee biometric time clocks for all locations
  • Real-time business intelligence data gathering
  • Data integration to your current; talent management, customer relationship management (CRM), human resources software (HR), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and payroll software
  • Track and manage overtime, premium hours and statutory holidays
  • Job costing and labour allocation functionality
  • Ease-of-use for functional users

After several weeks of viewing products by various vendors, the flashy presentations are the ones that remain on everyone’s mind and at this stage, you are all excited.  But wait! Is your company enraptured by the sizzle or the steak? Try to look past the glitz and bargain basement prices offered. A good time and attendance system should be accompanied by a team of diligent system analysts (depending on the size of the project) and a thorough implementation plan.

Selecting a time and attendance vendor to work with becomes more than just the price of the system. It is not uncommon for an ATS account executive to hear “we want the cheapest solution” only to get a call from the same company 6 months later after the “cheap solution” did not meet their needs.

Your potential vendor should also have a thorough understanding of your company’s business requirements during the demonstration and display it through words and actions. You should also make it your business to find out about the training methodology. If your company has 10 or more users for your new system, online training should not be an option.  In addition, the training should be backed by a team of experienced systems analysts who can match the time and attendance system functionalities with your company’s business needs. Even better, some of your company’s core business requirements should be part of the product already—straight out of the box.

A vendor, in many respects, should be willing to commit to the success of its customers. Selecting which time and attendance vendor to work with becomes about more than just the software. When the focus remains on the sizzle, and the price the customer ends up with a system that is simply not meeting their needs.

To download a demonstration of the ATS TimeWork workforce management software, go to our website.

All Sizzle, the best prices and no steak

While some of today’s time-tracking software applications have similar functions, there are significant differences between various products. To some degree many organizations have their own idiosyncrasies and what works well for one company might not fare as well for another company. At times there is too much emphasis on the up-front price which can derail the benefit of getting a good return on your investment.  Companies would be wise to choose a solution that can handle their specific challenges with the right labour analytics to support the software.

Taking the time to select a time and attendance solution that best fits a company’s particular requirements will go a long way in avoiding problems. With a slow rebounding economy, some companies are so eager to cut costs they end up selecting the cheapest solution based on the assumption that all software is created equal. When this happens, a company can end up with a time management system that does not have the capability to meet their requirements.

A time and attendance solution for a company with one location will be different from a company with a head office in Vancouver and multiple sites across Canada and the United States.ATS TimeWork can be deployed in companies with 50 employees and scaled to organizations with thousands employees while meeting the needs of divergent business models.

A thorough analysis of you company’s business practices will uncover areas for improvement and will also help in selecting the right employee time management system the first time. One of the best ways for a company to select the right solution is to define its requirements and create an implementation strategy.

To view a demonstration of ATS time and attendance system, go to our website. You can also follow up on Twitter or join the conversation on LinkedIn.

You might also like:
Will our Cloud Time Management Solution Show an ROI?
Avoid Fruits from the Low Hanging Tree When Making Your Selection
Do You Know What You Are Buying?

All Time and Attendance Systems are not Created Equal

 

Today’s companies face significant challenges in implementing a software solution that meets their current needs and is able to adapt to future requirements. In trying to find the right solution, business executives typically ask those vendors to produce a measureable ROI that is aligned with expectations.

We suggest companies look for a time and attendance solution that adds value to your business processes and is able to integrate to: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Payroll Software, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Resources Management System (HRMS) and other third party applications. A truly integrated time management application enables companies to extrapolate up-to-minute business analytics that helps in the day to day decision-making.

Here are three things companies need to look for:

Web-capability- If you are not able to access the time and attendance system through any web-browser, look elsewhere.  If you need to use complex applications in order to extract important business data-that’s likely not the system for you. In our digital age, business need to remain competitive and if you are using old applications chances are your competition is miles ahead of you.  

Scalability-Your time and attendance solution should respond to your business needs and not the other way around. You should deploy a time and attendance system that is highly configurable, easy to use and is scalable.

Easy-To-Configure- We often hear from prospective customers that they are looking for a system that is easy to use. If you have to go through several screens get an overtime report, you are probably using the wrong time and attendance application. Instead, companies should look for a feature rich time tracking solution with advanced capabilities. Today’s companies need a time and attendance software that moves beyond processing employee hours to instant data metrics, to business intelligence to actionable data and workflow.

ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance is highly configurable, easy-to-use and provides a quick return on investment. To learn more or to view a demo, contact us. You can also join us via Pinterest, LinkedIn or GooglePlus.