Tag: Ceequel

Keeping Track of Time and Attendance Minimises On-The-Clock Problems

Time clocks are often the biggest loopholes within a business as they can often be subjected to abuse by employees who choose to fraud time in order to be paid more money by their employers. False attendances are sometimes a problem within organisations as employees choose to clock in as another employee despite them not being in attendance.

Paying employees by the hour is common practice in many fields, and it’s one of the most common methods of compensating workers. That said, a time clock is subject to abuse and problems if there are loopholes in how it works.

What Sort of Problems Must A Time and Attendance Program Overcome?

There are numerous issues that a time and attendance record-keeping program needs to overcome. Perhaps the most common is time theft, which is where workers will punch in a few minutes early or out a few minutes late, adding an extra hour or two to the clock by the time pay day rolls around. Another issue is false attendance, where someone else clocks in an employee even though he or she isn’t currently on the floor. There are numerous other issues, but they all stem from the abuse of the time clock.

A smart time and attendance program will overcome these issues, which is where Elf Productivity Ltd. comes into the picture.

How Our Time And Attendance Program Is Different

Rather than just being a time clock, our software creates a tool that is easy to use properly and difficult to use improperly. It’s simple to log yourself in, and easy to log yourself out. In fact putting in corrections to your hours is also so simple it doesn’t even require involving human resources.

In addition to being a powerful hours tracking suite though, the software also provides rigid access control. So while it’s easy to use in the ways it was intended to be used, this software cuts down on a lot of issues like those mentioned above. No one wants the time clock to be gamed, since it makes the employees look bad and it costs the management money, time, and effort to police. So instead of looking over every individual employee’s shoulder, why not simply upgrade to a system that takes care of security for you every time someone clocks in to work?

For more information on how our software can help your business operate more smoothly and with fewer time clock related issues simply contact us today!

Making The Human Resource Department’s Job Easier

A HR departments job can range from the collection of employee data to maintaining hiring and firing systems. All together these jobs make for a tough day to day job. Businesses are often looking for ways in which they can simplify their human resource departments job. A simplistic way in which they can do so is by implementing an easy to use time and attendance suite.

Human resources is a necessity for a huge variety of companies. Not only does HR keep track of workers’ information, maintain a system of hiring, firing, raises, and requests from the workforce, but it also takes care of training, and acts as a liaison with external agencies on behalf of a business.

That’s a lot of duties, and a lot of work. That’s why it’s important to make Human Resources’ job as easy as humanly possible.

The Right Software Makes A Big Difference To Human Resources

The right tools can make a job significantly easier, and they can make sure that work gets done much faster. For example, it’s perfectly possible to build a house with nothing but hand tools powered by human muscle. That said, the home will get built in a small fraction of the time if the worker is using power tools.

That’s a lot like how Elf Productivity Ltd.’s Time and Attendance software works.

Traditional systems used by many HR departments still require a lot of supervision from human eyes. Not only that, but all the software suites do different jobs, which means there’s a lot of closing one software and opening another. Elf Productivity Ltd. realised this, and when they designed their software one of the key concerns was efficiency. A computer is much more than just an electronic typewriter, and as such, this software allows for a major reduction in time and energy on the part of HR, while still allowing representatives to do their jobs quickly and effectively.

What Does It Allow?

This software suite provides power, flexibility, Access Control, and something called Employee Self Service. This means that human resources has software that will take care of simple tasks on its own, which can handle multiple needs, and which will make sure only certain employees can access certain features. Employee Self Service, a fairly unique feature, means that certain changes (name, address, etc.) can simply be entered by employees without having to notify HR, fill out forms, and take up time that could be more effectively spent on bigger tasks.

For more information on how Elf Productivity Ltd. can help your HR department achieve optimum efficiency, contact us today!

Tips to Improve Productivity!

Improving employee productivity is important for many organisations as hard working employees earn the company more money. Finding ways in which to do so however can be a difficult task. Take a look at these four suggestions below on possible ways in which to improve productivity.

A recent article gives some great insight on how you can improve your employee productivity:

  • Track your employees’ workday with more detail. The article gives the example of one 8-hour worker who spends all 8 hours working in R&D, versus a 10-hour employee who spends 3 hours doing administrative tasks, socializing, and taking breaks. You may think the 8-hour employee is more productive, but without more detailed information, you couldn’t know for sure.
    • Elf Productivity LTD offers innovative employee tracking software which allows you to record your employees’ daily activity. Our software automatically creates trending charts so you can see any changes in employee productivity.
  • Analyse your data. The article states that when “…analyzing data across departments, roles and skill sets may highlight issues with the structure of your business or identify areas of improvement such as training requirements.”
    • Our software allows you to annotate each employee’s file with detailed role and functions. It’s not just a blank box where you place their rudimentary job title – it allows you to specify what the employee’s actual function is. For analysis purposes, if an employee leaves your company, you’ll understand which overall functions your company will be lacking. The software also gives you the ability to visualise your employees’ functions and skills via visual graphs, charts, and trends, so you can determine if you have an excess or lack of a certain function or skill.

Best of all, our software allows your employees to utilise it from anywhere – even outside your company’s physical building. Thus they can check-in from anywhere in the world which gives them the versatility of working globally without restriction. If you’d like more information concerning our human resource software, contact us today!

Fully Customised Access Controls to meet your Unique Security Needs

Acess control is a lot more then just the locking of restricted doors. It has now developed into a full customised system that can log clocking times and employee details in order to be analysed at a later date as well as providing limited access to sensitive data.

Access Control is about more than automatically locking doors, and magnetic strip cards for your employees. Could you ever imagine that a fully customised access control system could be used to clock in and out, to record traffic patterns, programmed to change after scheduled shifts, allow limited access to sensitive data, and more?

Other options that are available in the rapidly advancing technology of access control is the type of control used – we are way past lanyards and turnstiles, here. Infrared, biometrics, microchips and barcodes can be utilised in a variety of ways depending on your unique security needs.

With all the versatility, how do you choose the right access control solution for your company?

Sensitivity

The first thing to consider is the level of sensitivity that you require. How sensitive is the data or material that you manufacture, house or transport? Attach a meaningful value to what you do, and that will immediately rule out at least half of the options. Cards with magnetic strips that can be easily lost, stolen, or illegally transferred are out of the question. High priority security settings use advanced code locks, scheduled changing of authorised entrance permissions, and ways to closely monitor the traffic in sensitive areas, including fingerprint scans and infrared controls.

Traffic volume and flow

Security is primary, flow is secondary. Measure the volume of traffic that your business experiences on a daily basis and divide the results into two primary types of traffic: first, how many individuals come and go from outside the premises? Second, how many individuals transit between rooms, floors, and wings within the premises? If most of your traffic is internal, consider a micro-chip card that comes with multiple functions: like cashless transactions (for visiting vending machines and in-house lunch-rooms), authorising and limiting copying, printing and scanning privileges, and clocking in and out.

The possibilities are nearly endless with Ceequel® Access Control, ensuring your premise is safe and secure. Contact us to get a fully customised access control solution today!

Performance-Based Incentives need Hard Data to Work

Paying employees bonuses for hard work is a system that has come under scrutiny for many years now. People believe that if employees are aware that they will be getting paid more money if they work harder, then they are more likely to do so. However the truth behind this is much more complex as there are many potential issues with performance based pay.

Performance-based pay has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years. There appears to be a basic logic in tying pay or incentives to performance – if you promise rewards for hard work, people will work harder – the truth is much more complex.

The Real Story Behind Performance-Based Pay

There are many potential issues with performance-based pay. True high-achievers are often driven by motivations other than money, and offering money for achievement can actually decrease a person’s internal motivation to work hard and well. But on the other hand, good employees expect to be paid fairly for their work, and rewarding employees with raises or bonuses is a common way to acknowledge and show appreciation for them.

Given these contradictory facts, is there a right way to use performance-based pay?

Performance-Based Pay That Matters

A key to creating a performance-based pay system that actually works is to make sure that the system for giving rewards is fair and transparent. Many employees have become disgruntled by a perception (true or otherwise) that one employee is rewarded because he or she is liked better by management, not because of actual performance. Other employees become unmotivated because management sets production goals that are out of touch with reality.

In order to work, performance-based pay systems need to be absolutely fair and administered according to clear guidelines: here’s where using hard data on performance can help.

Shop Floor Data Reveals True Performance

Our Shop Floor Data Capture system can provide the data needed to make a performance-based pay system work. Data captured by the system doesn’t depend on a manager’s perceptions of employee performance. It provides a true picture of productivity. This makes assigning performance-based raises or bonuses more fair and transparent.

Also, capturing shop floor data gives management a clear picture of what is actually being produced in a given time period. Setting a realistic goal with a clear reward for meeting it is a proven way to increase motivation for both individuals and teams. Using real shop floor data can help management set realistic goals based on past performance.

If your organisation uses performance-based pay and incentives, you need to have hard data backing up your rewards, or your incentive system could do more harm than good. For more information about the benefits of shop floor data capture, please contact us.

Internal Skill Matching can save Hiring Costs (and Risks)

In the unfortunate event of having to let an employee go from within your business where do you look when it comes to hiring a new one. Do you choose to contact a recruitment company or do you prefer to promote from within your existing employee base. According to a study done by Wharton school of the University of Pennsylvania, hiring from within can provide added benefits to your organisation.

When you next need to fill an open position in your company, will you focus on outside candidates, or look for an existing employee to promote? A study from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania uncovers some unexpected benefits of “hiring” from within.

Comparing External and Internal Job Candidates

The study found that people promoted from inside the company show a significantly higher level of short-term productivity and success than external candidates. It can take up to two years for an external hire to come up to the level of an internal promotion, measured by comparing employee reviews. But external hires are given starting salaries averaging 18% more than internal promotions, and are far more likely to leave within two years, meaning they never reach a true level of proficiency in their job before they’re gone. Given the cost in both time and money of identifying and interviewing external candidates, this picture makes hiring from outside look like a very risky undertaking.

Getting Behind the Data

There are good reasons for this picture of internal vs. external candidate success. Part of learning a new job is learning about the people and culture of an organisation, and this can be a much bigger task than simply getting to grips with basic job responsibilities. Someone who is promoted from inside has a huge head start in this area over someone who is brand new to the company.

On the other hand, there are good reasons for hiring external candidates in some cases. Bringing in someone new may be necessary to bridge a gap in experience or education, and it can also bring fresh new ideas which will help the company thrive. The data also shows that when external candidates remain on the job for longer than two years, they tend to be promoted faster and show high levels of success.

So there are strong arguments to be made on either side. Choosing the right option when there’s an open position can help a company save time and costs while getting the best people to move the organisation forward.

The Benefits of Skill Matching

This is where great HR software can help. Ceequel®’s Human Resource management module includes a skill matching function which can assist you in both analysing upcoming staffing needs and identifying existing employees who have the right skills and experience to move up into an open position.

Providing opportunities for employees to develop their skills and take on new challenges is key to employee satisfaction and retention. It can also help HR departments remove some of the burden of the hiring process, enabling HR staff to focus on filling positions which truly do need a new face and voice from outside the company.

For more information about Ceequel®’s Human Resource benefits, including skill matching, please contact us!

Access Control is not just for Employees

Access control within a business goes way beyond your employees. Everyone who enters your company’s office needs to be accounted for and some may even need access to different parts of your facility. Our Ceequel Access Control system can handle all of this with ease maintaining complete security, whilst making sure all personnel within your building are safe.

If you are considering Access Control for your facilities, you’ll need to think about more than your own employees. Everyone who enters your building for any reason will need to be accounted for in your access system, especially contractors, such as: cleaning and maintenance staff, outside IT support professionals, people who provide food services, and so on. Authorised visitors and guests will also need access to the parts of your facility they are permitted to enter.

Ceequel® Access Control will handle all of these cases with ease, maintaining complete security for your facility. It will also help to protect all personnel who work in your building, whether or not they are your direct employees.

Right Access, Right Time

Some people, for example cleaning and maintenance staff, will enter your building for regular and predictable shifts. Ceequel’s® access tables can permit these individuals to enter at certain times on specific days, giving them the ability to do their jobs, but limiting their access outside of their regular work hours.

There may be cases where outside contractors need to have a special period of access, for example if HVAC or plumbing repairs are needed, or if outside IT specialists are installing new servers or other equipment. These work periods can be entered in Ceequel® ahead of time to give those contractors access to all required areas while excluding access to the rest of your facility. Their access can also be pre-limited to the period of time in which they are working.

Finally, any authorised visitors can be handled with the same ease and flexibility, giving them the ability to move freely about in areas they are authorised to access, but only within those areas.

Protection For Everyone

Disasters never happen on schedule. Fires, accidents, and natural disasters happen on any day, round the clock. If something happens outside of normal working hours, but during the time when cleaning or maintenance contractors are present, including them in your access controls means you can pull a fire register and make sure that everyone is safe and accounted for, the same as for your regular employees.

With Ceequel’s® Access Control program, everyone who enters your building can be granted the access needed for the time period needed, and accounted for in the case of an emergency. For more information about how Ceequel® can help you keep your facilities secure, contact us.

Increase your Employee Overall Productivity!

Providing your employees with more control will increase their productivity according to a recent article done by Forbes. Statistics show that employees who feel ignored within the work place are actually less productive than ones who have been given more control.

In this day and age where everything is increasingly becoming digitalised, it is no wonder that more and more businesses are shifting toward digital alternatives for their organisational management practices.

A recent Forbes article reveals statistics that show that giving employees more control, or the impression of control will increase their productivity. Conversely, employees who feel disregarded, ignored, and unrecognised are statistically less productive.

Even more surprising, a recent study by Stanford University shows that productivity can also be increased by allowing your employees to work outside of the workplace. The study involved a company having its employees work from home for an experimental period of time, the result was a 25% increase in productivity and an annual saving of $2,000, per employee, for that company.

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ELF Productivity, Ltd. offers you a new way to digitalise your employee management: through our Employee Self Service system. Our self-service system allows your employees to access their own records via the Internet. Each employee has their very own secured user ID and password, ensuring that no one else can access their records except you.

Employees can view their precise clock-in times for the week, vacation days (remaining, and unused), any absences, and much more. Employees can clock-in from virtually anywhere, using this self-service system. They can also request vacation days, and add reasons for their requests as well as add reasons for their other absences as well! They can even message other users using this system – allowing for an in-house closed messaging system.

Incorporating our Employee Self Service system into your Human Resources department will allow your employees to clock-in from anywhere, making it possible for them to work outside of the workplace. The in-house messaging system will cultivate increased efficiency by allowing your employees to collaborate with ease and speed. These new versatilities will surely increase your employees’ productivity, as now they will feel they have more control over their employment and are free to work from anywhere! Contact us today to learn more!

Avoid Productivity “Speed Bumps” with Employee Self Service Software

When it comes to increasing employee productivity there are a number of things to consider. Do you increase your employees working hours or perhaps even provide them with more tasks, or do you simply motivate them to use their working hours in a better way. Removing distractions from human resources is one of the simplest ways in which you can improve your employees productivity levels.

What factors are involved in increasing productivity? The number of hours an employee works is a factor, but the way those hours are used is a bigger one. Distractions from getting the job done cause productivity speed bumps, and sometimes those distractions come in the form of completely ordinary, completely necessary, administrative tasks.

Common Speed Bumps

Many ordinary employee requests or needs require a brief conversation with a manager or HR person. If the employee can connect with the right person quickly, there is minimal impact to the workday. But sometimes a busy manager is hard to connect with. Many workers have had the experience of checking in at someone’s office several times during the day before they finally make that connection; constantly trying and failing to find someone creates a productivity speed bump.

Email is a more efficient way to handle some issues, but it doesn’t solve all problems. A misunderstanding in email can take several back-and-forth messages to sort out, worse, the volume of email some workers receive makes it too easy for an email to slip through the cracks.

Speed Bumps Send Productivity Off Track

Small speed bumps can turn into big problems. Imagine an employee needs to update their employment record because they have a new mobile phone number, they give the number to their supervisor or an HR person, but the note or email goes astray. The employee doesn’t think to check back with their supervisor to make sure their record is updated. A few weeks later, there’s an urgent need for someone to fill in a shift. The supervisor tries to contact the employee, but is unable to reach them because of their outdated employment record, all of a sudden, a minor oversight in record-keeping has become a big problem: not only is the company short-staffed for that shift, but the supervisor must spend more time trying to find someone to fill in. Future shifts may also be affected because of a backlog of work. The supervisor may need to postpone important tasks in order to handle the staffing issue.

Smooth the Way With Employee Self Service Software

HR software with an Employee Self Service component can eliminate many speed bumps. Requests for holidays or time off can be submitted via the system without needing to personally contact a manager. There is no chance of email or other messages being lost or misfiled. When an employee needs to update a piece of personal information, they are able to do it directly and immediately, which means employee data is always kept up to date.

Preventing speed bumps makes a big difference to productivity in the long term. Contact us today for more information about how our software can remove speed bumps for your business.

Time and Motion Studies for the 21st Century

Originally, time and motion studies were carried out by an observer who would watch someone complete their work whilst timing the process and making notes. However, as you can imagine not many people like being watched as it often leads to serious stress and tension between management and staff. Unions are also often likely to pressure monitors into changing their data, meaning the accuracy of the study is poor.

Traditional time and motion studies were greatly beneficial to streamline manufacturing across many industries. The methods by which such time and motion studies are conducted have inherent problems, however, which modern technology can help to alleviate.

Costly Procedures

The original method of conducting a time and motion study was dictated by the technology available at the time. An observer watches someone do their work, timing their actions with a stopwatch, and making notes.

With a careful observer and a well-designed study, accurate data capture is possible with this system. Even so, the potential problems are not difficult to identify. Few people enjoy being watched closely on the job, and this can have a real impact on performance. Having monitors on the shop floor with stopwatches and clipboards can lead to serious tensions between workers and management. Influence from unions can pressure monitors to change their data, reducing the overall accuracy of the study.

Even in instances where a traditional time and motion study doesn’t result in extra tensions on the shop floor, it still requires personnel to observe and measure actions, personnel who need to be paid for their efforts. The study must also be designed in advance so the monitors know what to watch. The high cost of such a study can push companies away from engaging in them, which means inefficiencies in the manufacturing process go undiscovered. Also, a badly-designed study can waste large amounts of time, effort, and resources.

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