Time Management

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!

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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Do You Have a Time and Attendance Problem?

Is your business struggling with poor attendance? would you like a quick and easy solution?. If your answer is yes, then consider the Ceequel time and attendance system your knight in shining armour. Many attendance monitoring systems are inefficient and inaccurate but not elf’s our system records accurate attendance data in real time.

Do you have an attendance problem? If your answer is yes, then at least you have acknowledged that there is a problem, and all you need now is a solution. If your answer was no, however, you might want to examine how you are keeping track of employee Time and Attendance a little more closely. Many business owners don’t realise they have an attendance problem because the same faulty system that is creating it is also shielding it from view; your records are only as good as they system generating them.

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How much time do you waste at work?

Check out this infographic we created on how much of your time your employees could be wasting on pointless tasks such as unneeded emails, internet browsing and work meetings.

Here we have an infographic we created to show you how much time your employees could be wasting at work. The infographic is broken down into 3 main sections including work meetings, pointless emails and internet usage.

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Time and Attendance is as Important as Your Company

In order to run a successful company you need to have a fully functioning time and attendance system in place. The data collected by this software can be used to help your business save the right amount of time and money in order to improve business processes in other departments. Check out these points below regarding keeping track of your employees time and attendance.

Time and Attendance is as Important as Your Company

When it comes to your Time and Attendance policies, having software that actually works is somewhat imperative if you want to run a successful company. Using this software helps save the right amount of money to put in all the right places. Here are some points and some info in regards to keeping track of time and attendance from your employees.

The older method of using pen and ink to keep track of employee attendance went out of style some hundred or so years ago, and has been replaced with a few other methods. This method of using software makes it much easier to keep track of who missed which day and how late so and so was on that day.

When people don’t keep a close enough eye on the amount of absences and lates that their employees have gotten, their business is the one that suffers. The more you use time and attendance software, the easier you find it to be to keep your employees in line and your business on schedule with your long term and short term plans.

With this software, your employees can clock in and out, and you can enter a different number into the system if there was a mistake like the employee forgetting to clock out on a previous day, and getting paid extra for time they spent at home instead of at work.

You can even keep track of the exact time that an employee has earned vacation and sick days for, as well as the amount of hours they have already taken off. This saves so much time and effort, and makes it a more convenient way to reward your faithful employees, and keep an eye on the ones that don’t seem to view their job as a priority.

For more information, please feel free to contact us

Using Software to Solve Common Problems with Shop Floor Data Capture

Having the ability to switch between tasks can often be a huge headache within manufacturing companies as it makes it almost impossible for the employer to track which of their employees is doing what task and for how long. Implementing a shop floor data capture system will allow you to track what your employees are up to at all times as well as help to solve the common problems that appear when workers often switch between tasks.

Technological advances and shifting market demands have made flexibility more important than ever before for manufacturers. Your employees’ ability to switch quickly from one task to another is an incredibly valuable feature of your company. However, this flexibility can be a double-edged sword. Keeping track of which employees are working on what projects, and for how long, can be a nightmarish task in the modern manufacturing shop. Fortunately, the right Shop Floor Data Capture technology can make it easy for you to solve a few of the most common problems that arise when employees must frequently switch tasks

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Elf Productivity. A Ceequel Overview

Managing your employees time and attendance is crucial when it comes to the making or breaking of your businesses. Time and attendance systems allow you to monitor your employees total hours worked or number of hours worked on a single project. These hours can then be compared against standard hours and if employees have worked over their contracted hours bonuses can be calculated easily.

Time management is a key area of any business and can make or break a new or developing organization. Time and Attendance systems are there to assist the monitoring of employees time, this can be as simple as calculating the total amount of hours worked or actually calculating the number of hours worked on a particular project, job or activity. These hours could then be compared to a standard and potentially a performance and bonus could also be calculated.

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Web Based Time and Attendance

Over time every day business process have changed this is due to the evolution of technology. Modern technology now makes it easier than ever for business to not only track their employees time and attendance but also record this data within a system. Having a time and attendance system in place is vital to companies who wish to evaluate their employees work activities.

Things have moved on since the days of clocking into work with a time card or using paper based time sheets. Modern technology now makes it easier for companies to keep track of employee’s time and attendance and to keep accurate records through web based time and attendance.

Why is monitoring time and attendance so important?

Keeping track of employee’s time and attendance is vital so companies can evaluate the work activities of their employees. Companies legally need to give staff holiday time and attendance systems allow companies to monitor how much holiday staff have taken. If a member of staff has multiple sickness days then these can be recorded and passed on to an occupational health specialist or the HR department if a serious problem arises. Making sure employees attend work on time is also important as companies can lose a great deal of money if people are repeatedly late. Monitoring the time people leave work means that companies can award overtime accurately and also see who has been going above and beyond for the company by working extra hours.

Why use web based time and attendance?

Making sure time and attendance records are accurate is important so that employees receive the correct salary payments and are awarded for overtime or reprimanded for persistent lateness. Electronic web based time and attendance ensures that there are minimum discrepancies in recording hours at work. If employees work flexitime than web based time and attendance software can keep accurate records of what hours they’ve worked and if they’re owed any lieu time.

How does web based time and attendance work?

Web based time and attendance can make records easily accessible on any computer with Internet access. The systems generally work through a real-time networked data capture device where employees can use a multitude of media options including proximity, barcode or magnetic stripe cards, alternatively biometric fingerprint and hand recognition devices are available. The data capture device then sends real time information to an Internet server which records the time an employee has been at work. A password is needed to log on to the system and check the information. Different parameters can be set up to incorporate flexitime, attendance requirements, national holidays and specifics which are relevant to individual companies. Employees can also view their attendance so they can quickly find out how many lieu hours they’re owed or how many holiday days they have remaining.

What are the benefits of using web based time and attendance?

The main benefit of web based time and attendance is that it keeps an accurate record and can’t be tampered with or tweaked to benefit individual employees. It also saves on paperwork as all the information is electronic. The number of hours that human resources or line managers spend on working out attendance will also be reduced as web based time and attendance software automates the process. The software is generally easy to run and install, all that is needed is a computer with Internet access. Web based time and attendance can also assist with creating rotas and shift patterns.

Who uses web based time and attendance?

Any business can use web based time and attendance as all you need is a computer with Internet connection. Small and larger businesses can both benefit as it helps to keep time consuming parts of the payroll process automatic.