Managing rosters, hours worked, staff time-off and payroll has long been a headache for many workforce managers. It is tricky to ensure you have the right people rostered on and then accurately record hours worked and ensure they receive the correct pay.
To manage time and attendance in the most effective way possible, you need more than traditional timesheets; you need modern alternatives that streamline business operations, enhance employee experience initiatives and make life easier for your HR and payroll teams.
Here are five ways that employee time and attendance software can help you get the most from your business:
Improve accuracy by automating data capture
Paper-based processes make it difficult to track time and attendance data accurately. It is hard to keep track of paperwork, and data can become easily lost or misplaced. Paper timesheets might have data filled out incorrectly, resulting in inaccurate data and manual corrections.
Even if you leverage digital processes, if your team still has to complete the work manually, you could lose a lot of productivity and efficiency. By automating the process, your team spends less time on manual data entry and more time focusing on other aspects of the business. An automated system also eliminates the need for manual payroll calculations, reducing human error and non-compliance with Australian labour laws.
Automated time and attendance eliminates the need for manual tracking of employee hours, minimises labour costs associated with manual data entry, and keeps employees accountable for their work hours. Additionally, automated solutions for clocking on, such as facial recognition and biometric devices, have greater accuracy than manual methods, reducing the risk of errors and practices like time theft or buddy punching and clocking through a mobile app can be cost-effective and improve employee communications and experience.
Make data-driven decisions based on real-time data
Data is the lifeblood of the modern workplace. It fuels key business decisions by providing informed estimates and ensures you can effectively develop strategies to respond to events as they happen. Yet, too many of us rely on outdated reports about things that have already happened.
Effective time and attendance solutions deliver a real-time view of your workforce and its activities for valuable insights to drive effective strategies and promptly deliver tangible outcomes to your bottom line. With real-time data, you have access to an up-to-date snapshot of employee hours, attendance and absences so you can make informed staffing decisions, identify trends and keep an eye on labour costs.
Award interpretation to maintain compliance
Award interpretation includes applying modern awards, enterprise agreements, and other workplace legislation to ensure compliance with state and federal laws. It involves conditions such as overtime rates, meal breaks, leave entitlements, shift allowances, etc.
‘Getting it right’ when it comes to payments and entitlements is a lot more than mere efficiency. The costs of breaching Australia’s complex compliance regulations can add up for even the biggest businesses. No organisation can afford not to take accuracy and compliance very seriously.
Your time and attendance solution should include award interpretation to ensure that you maintain compliance with Australia’s labour laws. Having a time and attendance solution that offers comprehensive and flexible award interpretation capabilities ensures that you are up-to-date and compliant with the latest workplace regulations.
Integration with your payroll solution
Managing employee costs is a universal challenge for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Ensuring you pay employees accurately and consistently while abiding by the ever-evolving rules around employee benefits and compliance is essential. A poor employee experience with payroll can hamper morale, loyalty and your ability to attract and hire employees in the future.
Employee time and attendance software helps you strategically manage costs by streamlining the tracking of employee hours. Automated time and attendance software makes it easy to monitor the hours each employee works and keep track of absences, overtime, holidays, shift changes, etc.
Also, you can leverage the data to determine when and where additional staff are needed to meet demand or when you need to reduce staffing due to a lack of workload. Time and attendance solutions also provide accurate records for payroll processing and labour cost analysis. Having access to up-to-date information about employee hours helps you make better decisions about scheduling and labour costs, enabling you to manage your workforce strategically.
Boost the employee experience
Good time and attendance software can make a huge difference in the employee experience. Employees do not have to worry about manually clocking in and out by punching in their ID numbers. Instead, they can do so via a simple swipe of their ID or biometric scan. Clocking via mobile app is also an option that can improve the employee experience, encourage engagement and focus staff attention to an app that can offer benefits like filling empty rosters, last-minute overtime and publishing optional requests.
Advanced reporting tools identify areas where staffing or training needs improvement. Accurate data allows you to easily review and adjust schedules to ensure the best customer service. This makes it easier for employees to plan their work lives and ask for time off when needed, enabling them to manage a healthy work-life balance.
Tambla’s Time & Attendance solution can support your workforce
The right time and attendance platform can boost manager and employee morale and allow you to focus on more important work. This means you can optimise business growth and plan for success today, tomorrow and in the future.
With so many time and attendance solutions out there, it can be hard to know which one will best suit your business. Tambla has years of experience delivering time and attendance systems in Australia to serve our clients’ unique needs. Visit our Time & Attendance page for more on our capabilities.