Time Management – Page 8 – Time and Attendance

Remote workers – New EU ruling – the Effects

According to the new EU Ruling, an out of office employee’s working time will now include the hours that person spends travelling to and from their first and last appointments each day. This new development means businesses will now need to implement a system which can accurately track their employees working hours. This will ensure that they are correctly paid and will also help the company to avoid breaking the EU Working Directive.

The European court of justice ruled last week that the time spent travelling to and from appointments, at the start and end of the working day should now be counted as working time. This new ruling applies to workers who have no fixed place of work, for example care workers or sales consultants who travel from home or work in order to attend appointments on behalf of a company.

How does this affect your business?

It is imperative that employees and companies – affected by this ruling – keep accurate information on the time spent travelling each day – to and from their first and last appointments. This will ensure that employees are correctly paid and that legislations such as EU Working Directive is not broken. Businesses, with out-of-office workers, will now need to implement a mechanism which keeps track of the times being worked and the impact of these hours on pay.

Ceequel® clock app

Here at Elf Productivity we understand that this can be a complicated and time consuming task for any organisation. Our time and attendance software is designed to not only simplify the process but revolutionise the way you work. The software can be accessed from any device with data connection meaning your employees can have remote access through a smartphone or tablet. All they need is the Ceequel® clock app available on both Apple and Android devices. The app enables your employees to clock in and out when they leave and arrive home. At the point of clocking, the app not only captures the date and time but also both the longitude and latitude of the device – and records this information real-time within Ceequel® Time & Attendance.

Companies can also request employees to clock-in/out of each appointment or customer site throughout the day accurately collating time spent at each location.

Implementing this system will provide you with a cost effective and simplistic way to keep track of your employee’s hour’s correctly calculating pay and all without putting unnecessary stress on your human resources and payroll teams.

For more information on how Elf Productivity can enhance your business processes, contact us today!

Why Shop Floor Data Capture Is A Necessity For Your Business

Keeping a record of your shop floor production numbers should be a crucial task for all manufacturing organisations. Organisations who don’t have a shop floor data capture system in place risk losing money. This is because these businesses are unable to monitor and identify the weakest points within their production process.

Time is money in the world of business, and that is particularly true when it comes to production on the shop floor. If you have a machine that isn’t producing the numbers you need, then every tick of the clock is taking money out of your pocket. That’s why businesses who are keeping an eye on efficiency make sure that they have a shop floor data capture programme in place.

What is Shop Floor Data Capture?

If you were running a website, you would have some sort of analytics program in place that fed you updates on your numbers: you would know which pages were getting the most views, how long visitors were staying on average, and you’d be able to get instant updates on how your traffic looked. Shop floor data capture performs a similar function, but it captures the numbers on production.

Shop floor data capture is a network of sensors which watch your production values, and which notify you of changes immediately. If, for example, you have a machine that should bottle 60 gallons of milk a minute, but that number drops to 50 per minute, those numbers will immediately be shot to your smartphone or work terminal. Once you know there’s a slow-down, you can track it to see if it’s holding steady, or if it’s getting worse. You can also compare the actual numbers to what you have to produce in order to determine whether the machine needs to be fixed immediately, or if you can wait until the production day is over.

Without shop floor data capture, these warnings often come far too late. With no electronic sensors keeping an eye on the shop floor, you might not know there’s an issue until you’re 200 bottles of milk short, or until there’s a backup in the machinery that leads to a serious problem that can be more expensive to fix. Shop floor data capture is an early warning system, numbers tracker, and data mine all in one, which is why these systems are becoming more popular every day.

For more information on what shop floor data capture can do for your business, simply contact us today!

The Latest Advancement in Keeping Time and Attendance

For many years Employers have been trying to find a way in which they can accurately record and track their employees time and attendance data. Old fashion methods such as mechanical punch cards were often time consuming and resulted in the loss of money for many organisations. Modern day technology has revitalised the way in which companies can now track and record their employees time and attendance data.

Ever since hourly wage was invented, employers have been looking for a reliable, tamper-free way to keep track of what hours each employee worked. Originally, there were simple write-in time cards, and in time those were replaced by mechanical punch cards. These cards made it impossible to simply alter your time, but they also take valuable minutes off of workers’ productivity as one shift lines up to clock out, and the other lines up to clock in. The bigger the crowd, the more minutes are wasted on time clock rigmarole. While technology has advanced, and many businesses have adopted ID cards with swipe-in features, those cards are little more than a computerised version of the punch clock.

Elf Productivity Ltd. has decided to offer businesses a different option, one that’s simple, effective, and which eliminates the shift change bottleneck that older methods create.

Time and Attendance Software

The way our time and attendance software works is that employees log in to your business’ network, and sign in from their own devices. This means that any connection capable device, from a workstation to a smartphone, will allow an employee to clock in. There’s no wasted time standing around a clock, and even better, there’s no need to buy a peripheral device for employees to “clock in” with at all. Not only that, but this software makes it possible for employees to work from home or in the field without losing track of how many hours they’ve been on the clock.

It’s simple, straightforward, and best of all, it’s only one of dozens of features that will help streamline your business’ network. If you’d like to know more about the features we offer, simply contact us today!

Accurate Time and Attendance: Never Experience A Problem Again

Recording your individual employees accurate working hours on a day to day basis is often a difficult task. The information recorded has to be precise in order to avoid paying your employees the wrong amount. A simplistic way to record this data is through the implementation of a time and attendance system.

Paying workers for their time on the clock is a tradition that’s gone on for generations. While the system is fine in theory, there have always been problems presented by the time clock. Perhaps the biggest is creating a simple system that everyone can use, and which doesn’t take five minutes for the previous shift to clock out, and another five minutes for the next shift to clock in.

In order to make sure every worker gets paid for their time accurately, Elf Productivity Ltd. created a better system.

The Future of Time and Attendance

What Elf Productivity Ltd. did was create a digital time clock that every employee can access with ease from any device that’s signed into your company’s network. There’s no need to stand in a back hallway in a single file line, because everyone can sign in using their employee identification numbers and passwords. Everyone can do it at 9 on the dot if that’s when the shift starts, and work can get started immediately.

Even better, if there are mistakes in the amount of time someone worked (say that they forgot to clock out, or had computer issues and couldn’t clock in), then those mistakes can be fixed with a few strokes of a keyboard. There’s no need to get a new paper time card and re-punch it, or to make a mark with a pen showing the time you really clocked in or out. As far as your business is concerned actual, physical time cards should be as relevant to your day-to-day operations as stone tablets thanks to Elf Productivity Ltd.

For more information on how our fully integrated software suite can help make your business more efficient, simply contact us today!

3 Tips for a Successful Time and Attendance Policy

Creating a successful time and attendance policy is crucial for any organisation. Without having one in place employees are able to do as they please. As a business it is important to know if any of your employees are breaching your company policies. A simplistic way of doing this is by implementing a system which will record each of your employees time and attendance data.

Reliability and timeliness is one of the most important qualities that can make up any employee. Employers need to know that the employees who are running their business plan to show up on time and are ready to work when they arrive. For this reason, setting up a Time and Attendance policy is crucial. Here are three tips that will help any business create the best policy possible.

Expectations

The best thing that you can do when you are setting up guidelines for your employees is to communicate with them. For example, if you need to be certain that your staff will be in the office for a particular period of time each day, communicate this information with them. To determine this, look at the culture of your field of business. Seeing how other businesses in your field operate can help you determine what is acceptable.

Discipline: Stick With It

When you are creating your company handbook, the discipline policy will need to be included. This will ensure that employees are aware of the rules. You will also need to explain what the disciplinary procedures are if these rules are violated. Also, discipline should be consistent when the policy is broken.

Set an Example

Employees are more likely to follow a policy when they see the leaders in the company following the same policy. This means that leaders should always follow the same rules that they have in place for their employees in regards to time and attendance.

Setting up a system for your time and attendance policy is also an important process. Ensure that employees are able to clock in and out with ease by selecting a reliable system. Contact us to learn more about the benefits that we offer for your time and attendance needs.

How Human Resources can motivate Employees (without salary increases!)

Finding ways in which to motivate your employees can be a challenging task for many companies. Traditional methods such as raises and bonuses often put a strain on company budgets, meaning many organisations are now opting to use the numerous free methods available.

In this time of tight budgets, human resources can no longer simply give raises or bonuses to employees in exchange for excellent service. Luckily, motivating employees isn’t limited to monetary rewards, and some motivational techniques are free.

Thanking Employees

Everyone wants to know that their hard work is appreciated. A simple heartfelt thank you costs nothing, but instills a sense of purpose in an employee.

Public Recognition

From a simple email announcement to an employee of the month award, public recognition lets an employee know that they are valued and gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment. Most employees will want their co-workers aware of their hard work and there is no better way to show off an employees talents than publicly awarding them.

More Responsibility

Excellent employees want challenges and outstanding employees want to advance their careers. Putting an employee in charge of a project gives them managerial experience that they can point to when applying for managerial positions.

Professional Development

Allowing an employee to attend a professional development seminar benefits the employee and your organisation. The employee gets to network and list the training on their CV (therefore helping their career) while your company benefits from the cutting edge techniques your employee learns at the event.

Flexible Work Schedule

No one likes getting up early, getting dressed, and making a long commute to work. If you have an outstanding employee that can work independently, allowing them to work from home (at least part of the time) is a great incentive, plus, skipping commutes increases employee heath and satisfaction, creating a happier and more productive worker.

For more information about human resources, contact us.

Time and Attendance: Elf Productivity Ltd offers the Time Clock of the Future!

Both businesses and employees recognise the benefits of having an accurate clocking system in place. Without one, employees are at risk of being incorrectly paid and employers can fall victim to time theft. Our time and attendance solution keeps track of every minute your workers spend on the clock each day.

For the hourly employee there is nothing more important than the time clock, because without it he or she doesn’t get paid. From the company’s perspective there’s nothing more important than an accurate time clock, so that there’s no time theft going on and employees can be paid for the work they performed. Technology has come a long way since the days of punch cards though, and today employers have access to a much more powerful solution for keeping track of every minute workers spend on the clock.

Time and Attendance Solutions With Elf Productivity Ltd.

Elf Productivity Ltd. knows full well how difficult it can be to keep track of all the details when you’re running a business. That’s why it sat down to design a software suite that operates like a Swiss army knife. On the one hand it provides access control so that a business can make sure important information is kept locked away where only those with the right clearance can find it. It also provides human resources access, allowing average workers the ability to modify their information so that HR doesn’t have to waste time processing simple name and address changes. This software suite is also a portable time clock. No matter what work station someone is at, whether it’s in the building or on the other side of the world, all they need to do is log in and get to work. It’s simple, easy, and there’s no leisurely walk from the time clock out onto the shop floor. Just sign in, put in your time, and sign out.

For more information about how Elf Productivity Ltd. can help your business be more efficient, simply contact us today!

Capture of Data from the Shop Floor

Our Ceequel system works as one big database which monitors your employees performances by using information collected straight from the shop floor through the shop floor data capture system. Information about each individual employee’s time spent on each task is transferred in real time between both employee and manager.

The Ceequel system is a big data solution to the monitoring of employee performance using data captured directly from the shop floor. The system shares information about the time spent in each shop floor station between central management and each employee. The overview screen locates each employee’s current position in real-time and accumulates the data so that the sum of each employee’s activities can be plotted over time. All the information gathered is kept out of the influence of the employees and the managers. It is an all secure accounting record that will always reflect exact times and durations that have legal standing.

The software is based on Microsoft’s SQL Server technology, integrated with existing systems running in Windows. It can display a roster of information such as skills availability and manning levels summated in real-time for making shift change and absence planning decisions. This is a state-of-the-art development in the science of industrial management.

Exact performance information that feeds back directly to the employee has always been at the core of employee supervision. Many performance and absentee issues have always stemmed from what employees perceive as bias or inaccurate feedback from supervisors.

Surveys show that the vast majority (88%) of employee turnover issues stem from disagreements with supervisors or other matters of the work environment or culture. Nearly half (43%) of employees do not feel valued by their employers and most (71%) of employees describe themselves as “not engaged” or “disengaged” from their jobs.

Employees often cannot visualise their individual contributions to the goals of the company. Active real-time feedback can help employees confirm their contributions while giving supervisors more precise information about the effectiveness of each employee. Exact information can help managers make needed supervisory or training decisions. Big data solutions applied to employee record-keeping on the shop floor have vastly improved industrial processes in a wide range of applications.

Elf Productivity Limited owns and develops the Ceequel system code. We can help you by customising a system for your settings. Please contact us for more information.

Benefits to Time and Attendance Software

Managing employee time and attendance data is a hard job for any human resource department. Calculating payroll and holiday time as well as generating reports can take hours, costing your business money. Implementing an easy to use time and attendance system will reduce the number of hours spent on these kind of tasks as well as benefiting your business in numerous other ways.

Managing employees’ time and attendance sounds like hard work for any Human Resources department, even the smallest of companies spend an inordinate amount of time with reports, payroll, and holiday time calculations, the list can seem endless at times.

Many are unaware of the tremendous benefits afforded through the use of Time and Attendance software. Here are just a few:

The Time is Up for Clocks and Cards

If your company is still using a time clock, you are hemorrhaging a great deal of money out of your payroll department. On average, dispensing, collecting, calculating, and purchasing time cards costs roughly eighteen minutes per employee, per week. That’s around fifteen hours for each employee annually. Everyone knows, in business, time is money!

Help Those Who Help Themselves

Although it is simply “part of their job”, Payroll and HR collectively, or separately, spend hours over the course of a year looking up data for employees: vacation time due, verifying days or hours worked, scheduling questions, and many more inquires. Time and Attendance software allows employees to find this information out for themselves.

Absenteeism Adds Up

While some employers may feel that an absent employee is reducing payroll, it is actually costing companies more. According to CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) research, 90% of businesses say that absenteeism is “a significant cost” for their company. Sickness generally accounts for eight lost working days per year for every staff member or around 3.5% of working time annually.

To save your company valuable time, money, and resources, please contact us to learn more about our Time and Attendance software today.

Shop Floor Data Capture Saves You Time And Money!

Modern day technology now makes it possible for businesses to record and transmit employee data in real time making it easier for managers to make accurate decisions quickly. A shop floor data system has the ability to do the above and much more.

One of the most important things business owners can have is information, and the fresher that information is, the better. Thanks to modern information technology it’s possible to record and transmit business data in real-time, which means that it’s possible for businesses to make decisions more quickly and accurately than they could before. This process is often referred to as shop floor data capture.

What Is Shop Floor Data Capture?

Shop floor data capture is, in short, the process of capturing data as projects and events are unfolding in real-time. Whether it’s recording the hours that employees spend on certain tasks, or compiling the number of units produced by a given machine, all of that information is recorded and transmitted instantly. It allows business owners to get a good look at what’s happening on the floor, and they can make decisions and implement policies quickly to make sure problems are swiftly corrected.

Examples often work best to explain how this process works, so let’s take a hypothetical situation: there’s a manufacturer with five machines that all make wire ties. In the past the numbers would be tallied at the end of the day, compiled in a computer, and then printed out at the end of the week. So if there was an error in the third machine that was subtle, and which could only be detected in its slightly reduced output (which has become a largely reduced output by the end of a week) then it will take up to seven days to notice it. A shop floor data capture program would point out those numbers quickly though, and the problem could be brought to management’s attention by the end of the first day. This saves time, and more importantly money that would have been lost due to wasted energy and a depleted product.

Just One More Feature Elf Productivity Ltd. Offers

At Elf Productivity Ltd. it’s out goal to give businesses the best possible tools to get the job done. Our software suites are designed to be simple, organic, easy-to-learn, and to provide clients with all of the features they need to keep productivity up, waste down, and to serve their customers better. We offer shop floor data capture, but we also provide features like employee self-service, automated time clocks, and dozens of other helpful tools that will make sure your business never misses a step.

For more information about how Elf Productivity Ltd. software can help your business simply contact us today!