Time and attendance systems

August 18, 2008

HR professionals are constantly being asked to produce more detailed and in depth management information, which more often than not includes data on attendance, sickness and timekeeping. In addition to this, many companies are introducing more flexible working options which include schemes such as flexitime, which is undoubtedly an attractive option for most employees, but can be a nightmare to monitor.

A lot of companies now use the latest technologies available to handle these complex processes effectively. Time and attendance software is available from a range of providers, a lot of which is now web based, and you can choose from either an off the shelf package (normally a bit cheaper and good for smaller companies), or a bespoke system designed especially for the needs of one company (obviously tailored to your exact needs but normally expensive and requires a lot of time to work out the details of your system).

Using time and attendance software has a number of advantages:

Can reduce the amount of administration required to work out hours worked, overtime payments, flexitime accrual etc. Is particularly useful with complex contracts such as annualised hours contracts
It’s a more accurate and effective method of annual leave management, as well as recording sickness absence and other forms of leave. Many HR people will be used to laborious paper based systems for staff booking annual leave. In my previous role each employee had a holiday card they completed but invariably lost, and so the cards had to be constantly re-printed and days already taken were noted. I’m sure this often meant that the odd day here and there was not recorded, and some staff therefore had more days off than others!
Many systems will link to your HR software and to payroll systems (most are sage-compliant).
Helps to make sure the company is compliant with working time legislation, this is especially useful for shift work where weekly hours changes each week.
Lots of organisations, such as engineering consultancies, need to cost consultant time to projects in order to charge the client effectively or ensure the project is on budget. Many time and attendance systems allow employees to do this. Some of them also allow employees to add expenses to the project costs as well as their time.
Probably most importantly for HR, these sorts of systems allow the user to generate a huge variety of reports for a number of purposes. This obviously helps HR to be more proactive as a function and provide a more strategic level of service to the business. Producing all the information needed on a periodic basis can be a massively time consuming and difficult process without a system that generates a report or summary easily. Having used spreadsheets for HR management information for a long time, I have experienced how frustrating this can be.

So, there are loads of reasons that a HR team should invest in a time and attendance system, especially when working for a company with complex procedures, shift patterns or working practices. But there are many considerations when choosing the right system, and as the company is making a fairly sizeable investment, it is not a decision to be made hastily. In my next article I’ll look at the things to think about when sourcing a provider of time and attendance software.

Things to consider:
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Posted by hrgirl | Filed Under News/General, Policies and Procedures