Workforce Management Blog

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.

In recent years, enhanced by the economic crisis, we have seen a growing awareness of the need to better manage labor costs, and in service oriented industries improve customer service, as a mean to expand organizational profitability. Time and Attendance solutions represent one way of addressing the concerns of the organization about the productivity and efficiency of their workforce. Automating workforce management represents the leap that organizations are required to make to gain more control over their labor costs.

Benefits of an automated solution:

Reduce payroll error rate and processing time

Automated data collection and processes, interfacing to other software packages such as ERP and Pay systems, reduces the need to establish and maintain employee information within different organizational systems. As a result the amount of human error that can increase payroll costs is eliminated. With the elimination of manual intervention, organizations can move towards more an administrator-rule environment to create consistency between union agreements, as well as federal, provincial/state, and local regulations and different types of payment for employee work categories. Data automated transfer between employees, managers and payroll administrators increase accuracy, reduces re-work and reduces payroll overpayments.

Reduced overtime
Minimizing overtime is crucial to controlling work costs, which must be taken into consideration when allocating work or shift time to an employee. With reporting capabilities of automated time and attendance, solution managers are able to assign work more cost-effectively, based on who is least likely to incur overtime rates. A rules-based solution governing work agreements and regulations assures that payments will be made according to employee schedules, preventing unnecessary payments of overtime due to unauthorized early arrivals and late departures.

Eliminate costs of time sheet and time cards:

Savings are gained in any organization based on paper elimination by reducing storing, archiving and restoring of time sheets and time cards. Significant savings occur in organizations with more than once-a-month pay periods.  Gartner offers a calculation of $0.03 savings per time sheet, multiplied by the number of employees and pay periods. There is also less of an opportunity for these records to be lost, damaged or destroyed.

For more information on workforce management please visit our website

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.

Anyone running a company in today’s business world can confidently say that making money is their ultimate goal – after all, how will an organization stay in the market without revenue?

What managers seem to forget though, is that without a strong workforce, achieving this goal is close to impossible. To ensure success, companies need to optimize on their most valuable resource – people.

Over the years, Human Resource Management has endured quite an evolution.  What began as a traditional system that encouraged close employee monitoring has now turned into more of a “talent management” system. The formation of unions, legislation about employee rights as well as an increased general appreciation for staff has led to more a hands-off management approach. Micromanaging is becoming a thing of the past; the focus is instead on empowering individuals to work productively.

In order to fully appreciate how much employees contribute to their company, organizations should intertwine employee satisfaction into their core objectives. Managers should provide encouragement and praise to workers, and maintain strong relationships between levels of the company.

Furthermore, steps should be taken by managers to accurately monitor and analyze the workforce. Implementing a workforce management solution will grant companies these analysis capabilities in a number of ways. Employee time and attendance can be tracked (through biometric terminals or self-service online portals), schedules can automatically be produced, and trends in human resources can be examined using business intelligence capabilities.

Generally speaking, using WFM solutions allows managers to:

• Ensure clear communication between employees and management
• Empower employees with self-service capabilities
• Gain a clear view of human resource performance by tracking changes and trends

Visit our website to find out more about implementing a customized workforce management solution for your organization.

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