Workforce Management Blog

You’ve adapted and evolved your business on multiple levels as technology changes and opportunities have presented themselves to increase workforce productivity, but your employees are still punching in on time cards. It’s time to realize that time cards are a thing of the past. Sure, they worked well for tracking time and attendance before, but while they prove to manage time, they require unnecessary resources and produce avoidable errors costing your organization time and money on a daily basis. Upgrading your payroll system to an automated time and attendance software can eliminate these problems, while saving you 2-5% of your payroll costs annually.

Punch Cards Cost Money

Punch cards require multiple steps. Employees take time to punch in, punch out, the HR department then have to calculate the hours each employee has worked and equate the other factors such as vacation pay, into the process to determine the accurate amount due to the employee.

As well, buddy punching is very common. Buddy punching is when an employee punches the time clock on behalf of another employee, who is leaving early, arriving late, absent from work or not scheduled for work that day. This is a time and attendance issue that allows employees to get paid for time in which they are not on the job, and is the basis for payroll fraud or time theft. Studies show that buddy punching can account for up to 5% of total payroll costs, which can costs companies thousands or even millions of lost dollars per year.
Time and Attendance Software Systems Save Money

An automated time and attendance systems reduces human errors and tracks employees’ attendance by using advanced methods such as biometrics. Upgrading to an automated time and attendance system can not only save you money, but increase your productivity through a variety of workforce management solutions such as activity costing, labour forecasting and absentee management.

There are multiple benefits and uses associated with a time and attendance software system. To learn more about how these can benefit your organization, click here.

Synerion North America Inc. acquires ITR Systems Division

Synerion becomes the largest Canadian mid-market provider of WFM solutions following the acquisition of ITR Systems Division.

Dec 15^th, 2011, Mississauga, ON – A veteran in the WFM industry, Synerion announced this week their acquisition of the assets of the  ITR Systems Division.  Combined, the merger will create a company with more than 65 years’ experience and 20,000 customers worldwide, in a wide array of industries. The merger of the ITR division with Synerion means more effective, efficient and superior solutions for Synerion’s and ITR’s clients.

About Synerion

Tracking more than four million employees in various industries, Synerion provides comprehensive Workforce Management (WFM) software solutions and services that enable organizations to effectively optimize their most valuable asset – human resources. Using cutting edge technology and industry best practices, Synerion’s WFM Suite offers organizations a set of integrated tools for the measurable management of workforce performance. The solutions help companies meet organizational goals and maximize business performance.

About ITR

Established in 1965, ITR is the largest privately owned Canadian provider of workforce management systems, with more than 45 years of experience. With offices across Canada, ITR delivers exceptional, scalable solutions and responsive customer service. ITR’s Systems Division develops, implements and supports innovative software that helps organizations of any size and in any industry manage all aspects of their workforce including: time and attendance; employee and job scheduling; accruals; labour allocation; and time and labour reporting.  Tracy Parzych CEO of ITR believes that Synerion will be able to nurture and grow the ITR System Division.  She added, “The merger will enable the software to become even stronger and bring new opportunities to the employees”.

Ernie Pozzobon, President and CEO of Synerion North America, says this merger will provide expanded capabilities, and better levels of customer support.

“Synerion is excited about the possibilities and opportunities that will stem from the acquisition of ITR’s division and looks forward to creating many new and innovative releases in the human resources software arena in the future.”

“Moreover,” Pozzobon said, “the products and consulting services that Synerion delivers, combined with the complimentary products with which the company integrates, will create synergistic value. Customers will feel this synergy and ultimately receive a higher return on their investment.”

To learn more about Synerion, visit www.synerionwfm.com.

Calculating an organization’s payroll may seem like a relatively simple task:

-  Take each employee, identify the number of hours worked in a pay period, multiply by the hourly wage and then pay that amount.

This would be correct in an ideal world however in the real world things are a lot more complicated and so a lot of errors are made in determining payroll. In addition to identifying the specific wage each employee makes and identifying the number of hours worked for each employee, organizations must also take into account:

-          Sick days

-          Vacation days

-          Overtime

-          Statutory holidays

-          Provincial/State tax deductions

-          Federal tax deductions

-          Benefits

-          Retirement Plans

-          Unemployment insurance

-          Etc

Statistics have shown that 33% of employers have made payroll errors which have a variety of impacts such as legal implications, unhappy employees, lost revenue, etc. Studies have also shown that many organizations overpay employees as a result of human calculation errors. Even if organizations discover this overpayment recouping the payment can become a long process which will negatively impact morale in the company.

What can you do to avoid payroll errors?

A great solution to avoiding payroll errors and the negative impacts associated with them would be to automate your organization’s time and attendance using workforce management software. In an automated system, employees can sign in and out of work using a time clock which lets employers know exactly when their employees came into work and when they left. The time clocks in combination with the software calculates the exact amount to pay an employee based on their hours worked, wage and the various other considerations mentioned above (taxes, benefits, etc).

For more information on payroll and workforce management please visit our website

What is a workforce management system?

A workforce management system is a comprehensive tool which seeks to automate, regulate and centralize the process of workforce management. Scheduling, time and attendance, managing employee requests and absence management all represent different aspects of workforce management.  Clearly managing a workforce without an actual workforce management system would be a highly involved task that would eat up a lot of resources.

Why invest in a workforce management system?

-          Saves Money

• A workforce management system has been proven to save organizations of all different sizes money in a variety of ways. For example a WFM system automatically calculates the exact amount to be paid to employees based on the number of hours worked. The alternative to a WFM system is manual payroll calculation which is prone to human calculation errors.

-          Improves morale in the company

• Occasionally employees will have their friends punch them in for work if they are running late or punch them out on time if they leave early. This process is known as “buddy punching”.  Buddy punching hurts the morale of the employees who work their entire scheduled shift because they are being paid the exact same amount as those employees who are showing up late or leaving early. As a result more and more employees will begin to engage in this behavior creating a toxic environment.

-          Improves productivity

• Managers often spend a great amount of time dealing with administrative tasks such as approving employee absence request, creating schedules, generating workforce reports, etc. However workforce management solutions automate all of these processes resulting in more available time for managers to focus on other tasks.

-          Optimizes your workforce

• Workforce management systems have built in tools which allow managers to develop schedules based on reoccurring patterns to meet the needs of their clients while also taking into account labor laws, union rules, vacation days and sick days of employees.

To get more information on workforce management and to see how a workforce management system could benefit your company please visit our website.

No matter what industry you are in, companies know that every dollar counts. So why wouldn’t you want a solution that can help save your organization money while improving operational efficiency?

By implementing an automated time and attendance system, you can save your company 2-5% of your annual payroll expenses. This could amount to thousands or even millions of dollars a year. With time and attendance systems, companies of all sizes are able to realize a significant return on investment.

How does automating your time and attendance save you money?

-Decrease in payroll errors

-Decreasing total payroll processing time

-Decreasing unauthorized leave time

-Improving labor reporting

-Eliminating costs associated with paper timecards

-Eliminating the risks of employee buddy punching or time fraud

-And much more…

What should you consider when choosing a time and attendance system vendor?

-Have a few companies present their solution so you can get a complete picture of what a time and attendance              solution can do for your organization

-Consider the level of support you will be receiving from the vendor if any issues arise with the system

-Speak to the company’s current customers to see if they are happy with the solution, the support, etc

-Do not focus too much on the price tag as a low cost solution may not have the capabilities that your organization will require to get a significant return on investment

For more information on Time and Attendance along with Workforce Management visit our website