Periodical upgrades of business software are necessary in order to stay in touch with current trends and ensure that workers have appropriate means at their disposal to fulfill their duties. Business owners in Canada have by now mostly accepted to foot the bill for the latest software package when it comes to core activities, but they often see HR software as auxiliary and therefore unworthy of expenses needed for a new version. This logic is fundamentally flawed, since time and attendance software is an essential asset that can be translated into tangible financial benefits in skilled hands. It could be argued that time and attendance software creates more value than any other system, since workforce management directly affects primary production and sales.
Instead of debating which software tools are more important, we’ll simply list the most benefits brought about by implementation of last-generation time and attendance solutions and let you decide whether it’s time for an upgrade:
Compliance with national standards
Canada is quickly moving towards comprehensive automation of workforce management, and access to accurate data about absences and overtime engagements is more important than ever. In addition to this tech-intensive trend, the government is increasingly requiring employers to be transparent and fair – for example, Ontario’s new labour laws raise the standards in several areas, including equal pay for men and women. In order to stay compliant with the reporting regulations, companies need to track contributions of each employee much more precisely. HR departments have a lot more work to do now, and they need the best software tools they can get in order to keep pace with all the legislative changes.
Better workforce control
Global competition is shrinking the profit margins in many industries, and employers are looking to eliminate unnecessary expenses where they can. Consequently, businesses are expecting their workers to do more in less time, in many cases implementing tighter controls regarding presence in the office. Long lunch or coffee breaks are largely a thing of the past, since every minute counts in the race to outperform the competitors. Advanced time and attendance solutions allow for easy overview and flexible deployment of the available human resources, so that even employees working in the field can easily check in through a mobile device and report on their activities in real time.
Higher productivity without major expenses
There is a growing realization that well-organized and well-managed teams can achieve more than large but poorly coordinated groups. In recent years, companies are prioritizing optimal utilization of existing resources over massive expansion, largely by use of advanced software suites that improve productivity. Data-driven workforce management emphasizes efficiency and quickly identifies underperforming units where changes are needed. Procurement and installation of the latest time and attendance package is not a huge investment as there is little need for new hardware, but its impact on company output can be tremendously valuable.
Objective framework for promotion
It can be difficult for top managers to objectively assess how individual workers are contributing to company fortunes. In a large system with specialized roles, finding the right set of parameters that can be used to determine pay ranks and identify the right candidates for promotion can be a big challenge. Accurate calculation of work hours is just the beginning, as smart companies want to know how those hours were spent and how the individual affected the output of his entire team. New software solutions allow employers to store a lot of data that can be pulled at any time to evaluate employee performance and choose the most deserving people to assume more responsible positions.
