| Tracking time and attendance for your workforce
can be a difficult and tedious task, especially if you
have not yet upgraded to an automated time and attendance
system. Automated Time and Attendance systems produce
real-time performance data by orchestrating people,
processes and technology. Implementing a Time and Attendance
system will typically yield an 80% reduction in manual
effort, a 3% savings in total payroll (labor cost) and
the visibility to make better workforce management decisions.
When discussing a time and attendance system, "time"
is referring to the collection, calculation, reporting
and integration of all information necessary for employee
compensation while "attendance" references
the tracking of infractions and leave in order to provide
a fair, unbiased and uniform application of your attendance
policy. The following terms are defined below to give
you a better understanding of what "Time and Attendance"
is and how using an automated system can save your company
time and money.
A quality Time and Attendance solution will provide
depth, flexibility and utility in the following areas:
1. Data Collection - The ability to directly interact
with the employee to gather raw time, leave and labor
data through the use of any data collection method that
is appropriate for your employees. Data collection methods
include biometrics, web, badge readers, telephone (IVR),
and PC. These methods will report information directly
to your time and attendance software. By recording the
time and attendance data correctly from the beginning,
your organization will see an improvement and cost savings
in downstream processes.
2. Exempt Time Collection - Provides a solution for
the non-hourly employees and allows for a different
method of time accounting for the salaried employees.
Examples of other time accounting methods include Honor
Time Reporting which records only the hours that the
employee does not work, or Positive Time Recording which
records time for project management purposes.
3. Time Accounting - Calculates time by applying your
rules to the raw data collected-including overtime,
premiums, rounding and labor distribution. Robust time
and attendance systems will have the ability to customize
the system as necessary in order to handle more complicated
pay rules.
4. Labor Distribution - Accounts for time worked by
location, department, branch, cost center, job, position,
project, or any other names you may need. Most time
and attendance applications are unable to calculate
complex rules such as the handling of an employee who
is working on two projects simultaneously because they
only have one simple formula to calculate hours for
a single cost center.
5. Scheduling - Provides a user friendly method to
schedule both work time and time off. Group schedules,
individual schedules, rotation schedules and demand
based schedules should all be a part of the solution.
Your bottom line depends on your employees' schedules
being aligned with organizational goals and your time
and attendance system can help maximize this labor potential.
6. Reporting - Generates accurate, real-time data to
the appropriate decision makers. Few time and attendance
systems have the ability to utilize Push Technology;
a capability that ensures specified reports are automatically
emailed to your in-box. Additionally, you will want
the ability to customize standard reports to your own
specifications.
7. Leave Tracking - Calculate, display, and track sick,
vacation, PTO, FMLA and all other types of leave. Leave
tracking should integrate with the employee schedule,
the timecard and your current Human Resources or Payroll
application. Leave tracking is an important part of
an employee self service system in which the employee
is able to submit the request directly to management
for approval.
8. Attendance Tracking - Maintains an attendance calendar
for each employee with multiple years of data, and eliminates
favoritism by enforcing the organizations attendance
policy in a fair, non-biased manner. Attendance tracking,
also known as Exception Reporting, tracks such infractions
as absenteeism, tardiness, early arrival, late departure,
long breaks, meals, or other attendance events that
might be important to your organization. Plus, this
information can be automatically archived in order to
help with compliance issues related to increasingly
stringent regulations.
9. Interfacing - Using XML, ASCII files or database
integration, Time and Attendance should fluently communicate
with applications including Payroll, ERP and HRIS.
10. Workflow - Uses your approval structure to provide
logical event routing and notifications via e-mail or
other messages. Automated time and attendance systems
can eliminate the paper chase, compress pending approval
times and streamline the entire workflow process.
11. Hosting - This method, also known as SaaS (Software
as a Service, an upgrade from the commonly known ASP
hosting), provides all the benefits of a time and attendance
system without the IT requirements for the database,
server hardware, operating system, data backups, security
management, system management, service packs and patches.
In fact, an advanced time and attendance system can
be setup without ever having to install any software
on your employee workstations or network.
Time and attendance systems have the potential to truly
improve your workforce productivity and increase your
profitability. Researching the best system for your
companies needs will take time, but knowing what features
are out there will help you make the right decision.
Legiant is a leading provider of web-based time and
attendance and time accounting systems for payroll,
attendance, productivity, leave and project tracking.
Flexible productivity time tracking solutions help Legiant's
enterprise customers maximize the profitability and
productivity of their workforce. Legiant solutions can
be customized to meet the unique needs of any organization
including mobile workforce tracking, payroll automation
or automated time and attendance and workforce productivity
reporting. Legiant integrates software, hardware, and
professional services to create a comprehensive accounting
solution, easy-to-use and accessible from anywhere through
a Web-based interface.
For more information, visit http://www.legiant.com
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