The Top 5 Reasons to Buy a Time and Attendance Solution Today

GHG Employee Management Solutions

Introduction

"Our employees are our biggest assets." Most organizations have used this phrase in countless employee meetings and documents. Yet how many organizations truly leverage this asset – their employees – to the fullest?

To maximize the productivity of employees while maintaining control of labor expenses, organizations must have an accurate understanding of their workforce – where resources are allocated, how productive those resources are, whether absenteeism is too high, how much overtime is worked, and so forth.

Time and attendance software is a crucial element in managing the workforce. This paper will discuss in more detail specifically why a Time and Attendance solution may be crucial for the ongoing success of your organization.

In addition, this paper will move beyond why to invest in a Time and Attendance solution and discuss what factors to consider when evaluating the Time and Attendance solutions available to your organization.

The Top 5 Reasons to Buy a Time and Attendance Solution

The reasons to move from a manual, labor-intensive Time and Attendance process to an automated solution are numerous.  The five reasons below summarize the most important benefits to be gained from investing in an automated Time and Attendance solution.  In the final analysis, they all come back to the same fundamental value – more efficient time and labor reporting will make your organization more productive and profitable. 1.   Save on Labor Expenses Labor is one of the largest expenses – if not the single largest expense – at most companies and public entities. Clearly it is also one of the most controllable. Organizations that attempt to manage labor expenses without all of the relevant data, however, can quickly find that their decisions may negatively impact productivity without delivering upon the promised cost savings. A Time and Attendance system can help ensure that your labor decisions are the right ones. Among the ways that you can save money with such a system include:

	Ensure that you have the right headcount to handle volume in a particular department or location – not too many employees, not too few – accounting for the fact that volume may be different one month to the next, one day to the next, or even one hour to the next
	Monitor excessive overtime or leave
	Analyze the cost of labor in certain positions, ensuring that you are paying market wages and applying pay grades consistently across the organization
	Align labor allocation with strategic goals and initiatives as opposed to activities that are not producing an adequate return
	Ensure billable hours are billed to clients correctly, not to your company
	Reduce time wasted by every member of your workforce by automating the process, allowing your resources to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time being productive

2.   Improve Business Productivity and Performance

Although saving money on labor expenses is clearly a reason to purchase a Time and Attendance solution, doing so without regard for productivity and organizational performance is a recipe for disaster. Understanding your workforce can lead to an equally sizeable benefit in improved productivity. Does having one fewer customer service representative negatively affect your customer’s waiting time on the phone and therefore customer satisfaction? Can a junior, less expensive associate process transactions as quickly as a more senior, more expensive resource? Does one location manage the same revenue as another location, with 20% fewer headcount? Why do you have more resources on Project A than Project B, when Project A is significantly less important to the executive team than project B? And of course, what would be the impact of reducing the administrative hassle of timekeeping for every employee and turning those extra hours into productive time?

All of these questions – and countless others – can be answered by looking at your workforce data (in some cases combined with other company data). Labor may be your highest expense, but it is also your company’s biggest asset! Ensuring that you have allocated your scarce resources behind your organization’s strategic goals is an intangible benefit that could outweigh more tangible cost savings exponentially.

The management benefit of a Time and Attendance system is multiplied when the system can be integrated into your other business systems. Integrating with other workforce information, financial information, customer information, and sales and marketing information can allow an organization to get an even more robust picture of its business and provide insight that leads to greater efficiency and productivity.

3.   Improve Payroll Efficiency and Reduce Errors

Although there is significant cost savings to be gained by managing your labor more efficiently, there is a more immediate and direct cost savings in payroll. Replacing this often labor-intensive process with automated Time and Attendance reporting can make a drastic difference. A savings of 40 hours per pay period, for instance, may amount to as much as 2,000 hours of savings over the course of the year – a significant time and cost savings. For larger organizations, the savings may be substantially more than this conservative estimate.

In addition to the benefit gained by virtue of automating the Time and Attendance process, there is a significant time and cost savings in error reduction. How much of your payroll department’s time is spent on resolving errors that were caused by manual processes? In many instances, an inordinate amount of time is spent resolving a handful of errors…errors that would be eliminated in an automated environment.

4.   Increase Employee Satisfaction

No employee, whether the most junior member of the mail room or the Chief Executive, likes to spend time on administrative activities. Time and attendance entry is a chore in a manual environment, and one that often gets put off until the last minute…and even then, some employees don’t take the time to ensure that their

time is entered into the correct buckets.some employees don’t take the time to ensure that their time is entered into the correct buckets. Automating the process – and providing access to the time system from multiple input devices – reduces the time spent on time reporting and makes it much simpler to input time correctly. Although time entry is a concept that we can all relate to, there are more important ways in which an automated Time and Attendance system will significantly increase the satisfaction of your internal

customers (your employees). Most notably, providing managers at every level of the organization with timely reporting and analysis of their workforce allows them to do their job more efficiently and effectively. In a manual environment, creating reports with the level of detail that is needed for effective management may take days, weeks, or even months. If someone requests a small change to a report, it may go back into the queue and add further to the time before the manager gets the information that he or she needs. With automated Time and Attendance solutions, reports and analysis are available within minutes, not days or weeks. Ad hoc reports can often be created by the manager in a self-service environment, allowing him or her to get the information exactly as desired – without burdening (or waiting on!) the IT or management reporting group.

When people can do their job more effectively – without waiting on the information they need – they will be happier and more productive.

5.   Ensure Compliance

Compliance and regulation in the workplace increases regularly…it may seem as though compliance requirements multiply almost daily!  Each of these compliance regulations – including the Family Medical Leave Act, Sarbanes Oxley, and the Fair Labor Standards Act – requires timely, accurate labor reporting.  Time and attendance solutions significantly ease the burden of complying with the myriad of regulations by providing accurate, timely, and auditable Time and Attendance reporting.

The significance of better compliance with regulations does not end with better reporting, however…there is a significant financial benefit as well.  Avoiding the potential fines and excess wages paid as a result of these acts can save an organization thousands of dollars, if not more.  In addition, the effort and hours required to respond to a potential compliance issue amounts to a further waste of time and money.

The Top 5 Factors to Consider When Purchasing a Time and Attendance Solution

Clearly there are numerous compelling reasons to invest in a Time and Attendance solution.  The solution you choose, however, will have a significant impact on the extent to which you recognize the benefits that have been discussed thus far. 

	If you pay too much for a Time and Attendance solution, the cost savings you expect will be offset by the price of the solution
	If you choose a solution that is difficult to use or that lacks important capabilities, you will not recognize the value that you desire
	If you select a solution that is not configurable to your needs – or that does not integrate into your systems – your investment will not provide the return you expect
The primary considerations for purchasing a Time and Attendance solution – and maximizing the value from that purchase – are discussed below.

1.   Value

If you overpay for a Time and Attendance solution, the financial benefit that you will receive goes down dollar for dollar! In considering a solution, focus on the best combination of capabilities for the price. Does the system do all of the basic tasks that you need? Is it easy to use? Can it be configured easily to your specific organization, and integrated with your existing systems? Does the vendor from which you are purchasing offer a variety of business models to suit your needs – such as a licensed, on-site solution for larger companies or a cost-saving ASP (hosted) solution for organizations that don’t want to bother with maintaining the system?

Most importantly, are you overpaying for features and functionality that you don’t need? Assess the key requirements that you have, and then choose the solution that meets those requirements at the best cost. Don’t minimize the very financial benefit you strive to achieve by paying too much!

2.   Solution Capabilities and Ease of Use

The cost of a solution is meaningless if it fails to deliver the capabilities that your organization requires.  Your Time and Attendance solution should include the following capabilities:

	Tracking, management, and accounting of employee time on multiple projects
	Interfaces with Time Clock Hardware
	Email notifications and reminders
	Seamless interface to accounting system
	Leave balance management
	Online pay stub information
	Company-wide Bulletin Board
	Employee Scheduling
	Data export to text files, spreadsheets
	Ad hoc reporting capabilities
	Access for employees and management from any Internet enabled computer

In addition to these capabilities, the system must be easy-to-use.  A system that the user cannot figure out will be no better than a manual system, in the user’s eyes.  The user interface should be simple and graphical, and one that requires minimal to no training.

Finally, there is tremendous value if the system can interoperate with other Employee Management solutions, such as pay stub solutions and online Human Resources systems.  Choosing a vendor that offers a full suite of capabilities – even if you only need a Time and Attendance solution at the present time – could save you significant expense and lead to better productivity in the future.

3.   Flexibility and Configurability

If a system is affordable and has all the bells and whistles that you desire – but is rigid and inflexible – then it is of little value.  Organizations large and small have characteristics that are unique to them and them alone.  The Time and Attendance system you select should be configured easily to your needs, whether you are a company of 10 or 50,000 employees.  It should be flexible enough to accommodate your needs as your organization grows and changes. 

The system is not all that must be flexible, though.  The business model must also fit your needs.  Some organizations neither have nor want an IT group.  Others prefer to manage all software on-site with their own trusted resources.  Don’t be constrained by Time and Attendance solutions that don’t fit your business needs.  The vendor you select should be able to provide a system that satisfies all of your requirements – price, capabilities, customization, and on-site or hosted solution options.

4.   Fit with Existing Processes and Technologies

Time and attendance systems must also integrate seamlessly into your existing processes.  You want to adapt the Time and Attendance systems to your processes…you should not have to adapt your processes to fit the technology.  Again, finding a solution that is flexible and configurable to meet your specific processes and needs is much more valuable than a feature-rich system that expects you to change your processes to adapt to it.

Fit with existing technologies is also important, and you should think of this both in terms of existing technologies and future needs.  With respect to existing technologies, does the Time and Attendance system provide complementary data that will make management more effective?  Is there direct integration with your technology infrastructure?  As discussed previously, also think about future needs.  If you are a fast-growing organization you may well need additional workforce technologies in the future.  Selecting a vendor that offers a suite of products – even if you don’t need the other offerings yet – may lead to great efficiencies and cost savings in the future.

5.   Vendor Expertise and Customer Satisfaction

Finally, what good is a Time and Attendance solution that meets all of your needs…but for which there is terrible support and a slew of unhappy customers?  When considering a Time and Attendance solution – as with any other technology solution – you should take the time to assess the vendor’s domain knowledge and customer satisfaction.  Does the vendor salesperson understand your issues?  How knowledgeable are the support personnel?  Has the solution won any awards that indicate its quality vis a vis its competitors?

Reading case studies and checking references is another good way to understand how happy you will ultimately be with a solution.  If a vendor claims 100s of customers but cannot produce a reference, something is likely wrong.  Any research into Time and Attendance software must include this most basic of checkpoints.

Conclusion

Investing in Time and Attendance software is a critical step toward controlling labor expenses, ensuring that your workforce is aligned with your organization’s strategy, and reducing the burden of workforce compliance.  The solution you choose, however, will have an enormous impact on the success of your workforce management.  The value of a Time and Attendance solution – the amount of capabilities as a function of the solution’s cost – should be your most important consideration in selected your system.  Solution capabilities and ease of use, vendor expertise and track record, and flexibility – configuring the system to your processes, technology, and business model – will also impact your success. 

Careful consideration of your organization’s needs – coupled with rigorous investigation into which solution will provide you the most value for your money – will ensure success of your Time and Attendance solution selection.

About GHG

GHG Corporation is an established disabled veteran owned corporation of over 25 years, with corporate offices in Houston, Texas. Currently, GHG employs over 300 IT and Engineering professionals, and we have been providing automated time and attendance software for over 7 years. GHG has extensive background supporting private industry, city, county, state, and federal governments. GHG has hundreds of satisfied customers, including Lockheed Martin, The City of Houston, Texas, and Amtrak to name a few.     

GHG's eEMS software was designed using three basic principles:

	Easy Implementation
	Expected Performance
	Exceptional Value

We offer both hosted license, and purchased license solutions. This gives you the flexibility to have GHG maintain the hardware and software or load the software on your own server (internal or 3rd party). Each module (eTSS, ePSS , eHRMS , and eRSMS ) works standalone or seamlessly with each other. This gives you the flexibility to pick the module(s) that meet your current needs and easily add additional modules as needed.

GHG is proud to be an industry leader, as evidenced by our Gold Developer recognition from QuickBooks and the recent American Payroll Association Prism award won by First Coast of Florida for automation and streamlining of time and attendance and payroll.

For more information about GHG, visit www.ghg.com.