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.

Go Green, Increase Productivity – Workforce Management Software
With Earth Day just passing, many people are asking themselves what they can do to help preserve the environment for future generations. This isn’t just a personal matter however, more and more organizations are asking themselves the same question.

Adopting an effective employee management system will enable your company to cut labour costs and increase productivity, but it is also a greener alternative to a manual HR process. In particular, organizations within the healthcare industry readily realize the multiple streams of benefits of utilizing a time and attendance system.

Recruitment has always been a challenge for those in healthcare. In order to keep the highest of standards for providing superior healthcare services, the industry needs to find skilled professionals quickly due to shortages, but then have to endure long training periods. These challenges require a lot of time and money in order to achieve superior performance levels in your workforce. Healthcare industries should not just provide services that improve the lives of its patients, but it should also utilize solutions that align with all other aspects of the organization.

As well, traditional methods of workforce management, such as timesheets, have a detrimental effect on the environment, contributing a high level of paper waste annually. Green technologies do exist that can replace these old methods.

Workforce management solutions include time and attendance software that uses automated data collection methods that do not include paper nor plastic disposables- biometrics, the internet, voice recognition, mobile phones, all of which are extremely accurate methods in tracking employee behavior.

Not only do these technologies have a more positive effect on the environment, but also they are more accurate, efficient and effective in meeting organizational goals.  It is a win-win solution for all.

There are multiple benefits of adopting a WCM solution for your organization. To learn more about what WCM can do for you, visit our website.

What is E-Recruitment and why is it needed?

Recruitment involves advertising a position, attracting candidates to apply for the position, screening the candidates and ultimately selecting one of the screened candidates to fulfill the position. Organizations may choose to utilize recruiters in-house, have an external agency do their recruiting or take a hybrid approach where an external agency will send pre-screened applicants to an in-house recruiter. The decision of how an organization would conduct its recruitment process would be based on a number of factors such as:

-       Financial Resources

-       Time constraints

-       Number of positions which need to be filled

-       Number of applicants that apply for a position

-       Seniority of the position

Although recruitment is integral to the success of a corporation, traditional recruitment was prone to a variety of issues which included:

-       Escalating costs of advertising job positions

-       Difficulties in screening out unqualified candidates

-       Having enough qualified candidates apply for positions

However once again technology intervened and has helped make the recruitment process much easier to manage thanks to E-recruitment. E-recruitment is similar to traditional recruiting as the goals are still to advertise a need in an organization, attract candidates, screen them and then select the appropriate candidate(s). The difference is that with E-recruiting this process takes place online. E-recruitment has evolved to the point where employers are now advertising jobs, accepting resumes, using tools to screen resumes and even conducting interviews completely online. The benefits of E-recruitment include:

-       Costs: Many websites will allow organizations to post job listings online for free

-       Attracting more applicants: Organizations can leverage online tools such as LinkedIn to attract more candidates

-       Screening Employees: Recruitment software allows organizations to capture incoming resumes and match them against pre-defined criteria so that HR professionals do not have to spend their time reading unqualified resumes

-       Interviewing: Using webcams and the internet organizations can easily meet with candidates that may be located in another geographical region at minimal cost

1)    Price: This is always a consideration when a company or organization makes a purchase. However it is not always in the best interest of the organization to go with the lowest price. E-recruitment software is an investment and the return on investment may be much higher with a premium software package. Alternatively a low cost solution may not fulfill your organization’s requirements and any price paid will not be worth it.

2)    Support: Analyze the level of support your organization will receive from the seller. Do they have a support team that you can easily get in touch with? Do they have dedicated individuals on the support team that will be able to follow up with you for ongoing issues? What is the cost of getting support for your software? Is support built into the contract?

3)    Expertise: It is important to purchase your product from a company that has a solid and well established reputation in the software industry. Recruitment software is a sizable investment and your company should do their due diligence when selecting a vendor. Getting references from a potential seller is something that should always be done. Ask the references questions not just about the software but about the implementation and support process to get a full picture of your potential business partner.

4)    Features: E-recruitment software comes with a variety of features and each software solution can be vastly different from the next. For example some newer recruitment software solutions have the ability to leverage social media to hire candidates, while others can parse different portions of candidate’s resumes and provide a more holistic view of the candidate’s total experience. Therefore when considering a recruitment software solution you should have detailed demons done and ask as many questions as you can think of so you know exactly what you are investing in.

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.