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Articles and resources covering work management, employee time and attendance, absence management and more.

Author: Sherman Morrison

If there’s one inescapable fact about being in business in the 21st century it is this: It’s an increasingly digital world. Small and medium-sized enterprises that are holding out from fully embracing the digital tools now available at reasonable prices through many web-based SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications are falling further and further behind. Take a look around your workplace – how many filing cabinets do you have devoted to storing and organizing your paper human resources documents and files? This is something your company can and should change immediately. The good news is that it’s an easy fix with better workforce management HR documentation in the cloud.

Save Time and Money with Better Workforce Management HR Documentation

 

Secure Cloud Storage for Better Workforce Management HR Documentation

One of the primary rationalizations for not embracing the paperless office is security. After all, HR documents contain highly sensitive personal information about your employees. This reason for resisting digital solutions simply no longer applies. Any web-based cloud solution for better workforce management HR documentation should include professional-grade security and compliance with any number of schemes such as HIPPA, SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley), FERPA and more. In fact, the level of security offered by most solutions is going to be significantly better than keeping paper files in filing cabinets. And you’ll be able to access your company’s files anytime, anywhere, on any device with an Internet connection and web browser, even when you’re on the go.

 

Saving Time and Money with Better Workforce Management HR Documentation

Time is money in the business world, and a good HR documentation management system will save your company plenty of both. How does it do this? With the following kinds of features:

 

  • Document Workflow. If you have documents that need to pass through multiple authors, reviewers, and approvers, a good HR document management solution automates this workflow once you’ve set it up for different types of documents. This greatly speeds up the process from start to finish because you won’t be relying on physical pieces of paper being passed around and marked up by hand, or confusing email threads where it’s not clear who has done what to any given document.
  • Version Control. Keeping everyone on the same page is easy with the kind of version control offered in a good HR document management system, preventing accidental deletions and overwrites.
  • Custom Security. Besides keeping your company information secure from outside hackers, the right HR documentation management system also allows you to set controls and permissions for the people who do have access to the system, both in terms of viewing and editing capabilities.
  • Powerful Search. The ease with which you can search and find any document in seconds is reason enough to make the switch to a digital HR document management system. The days of rifling through filing cabinets and endless manila folders will soon be a distant, unpleasant memory.
  • eSignatures. This is another point of resistance for many organizations who want to see real signatures on pieces of paper. But highly-secure digital signature technologies are available that render this an entirely misplaced rationale.

 

Additional Benefits of Better Workforce Management HR Documentation

Imagine the physical space that will be freed up in your workplace when you go digital with your HR documentation. How many work-stations could you set up in that now-empty space? And you can pay for additional help with the money you’ll be saving with a digital solution. It’s a win-win all the way around.

 

There’s also the environmental responsibility angle to consider. Most companies are pretty good about recycling paper, but more eco-friendly choice is to not use paper to begin with, which is only possible with a digital document management system. If reducing negative environmental impacts is important to your company, this is a great way to show the world you’re walking the talk.

 

Companies that adopt a good system for better workforce management HR documentation can often see positive return on investment (ROI) in a matter of weeks. Is that something your company can afford to ignore? If the time has come for your company to go digital with its HR documentation, take a closer look at CaptureWork, a web-based workforce management solution that also include leave tracking, employee scheduling, time clock functionality, and a learning management system for training. Don’t let another year of 21st century workforce management solutions pass you by!

 

One of the most overlooked areas of workforce management among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with 500 or fewer employees is training and learning. Too many companies only go through the most rudimentary of compliance trainings delivered using outdated, inefficient methods such as the traditional instructor-led classroom that leaves many workers bored and disengaged. Better workforce management training and learning can easily be achieved if your company uses the right web-based learning management system (LMS).

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If your business is one that benefits from having workers record and submit their hours, it’s essential that this occurs in a way that is seamless for the benefits of the employees while at the same time accurate feeds data into the larger business management system. The question then becomes this: What’s the most effective and efficient way to achieve better workforce management time clock functionality?

 

Time Clock Functionality by the Numbers

Here are the results of a survey of nearly 1,000 employees who are required to track their hours. It’s very revealing in terms of how time clock functionality is being achieved today:

 

  • 38% are still either filling out paper timesheets or using a physical punch clock.
  • 25% use some kind of time tracking application
  • 14% use a touch screen or kiosk
  • 7% use some kind of biometric scanning
  • 7% use a point of sale system
  • 3% just email or text their hours

 

Assuming the time tracking apps, touch screens/kiosks, biometric scanning and point of sale system automatically feed the data they collect into a centralized human resources software platform of some kind, this means the data submitted by more than 40% of employees through paper timesheets, punch-clocks, emails and texts would still need to be manually entered into the company’s human resources or payroll software. This is not the most effective or efficient way to manage time tracking! In the digital era of the 21st century, those companies using outdated methods of time tracking stand to make major gains in operational efficiency when they take the time to transition to a web-based solution for better workforce management time clock functionality. As a side note, it’s also interesting to note that while 66% of those who have to track their time are hourly employees, at least 16% are salaried workers.

 

Streamlined Tracking for Better Workforce Management Time Clock Functionality

There is more to time tracking than just making it easier and automating the data feed into HR systems. If your company does time clock management manually, then you lack the kind of real-time visibility into one of the most essential aspects of managing your business from moment to moment. When you don’t immediately know who is missing, who is late or who has left early, you can’t take immediate action to mitigate the resulting loss in productivity.

 

For example, many of the best time clock apps can be set up so that the right manager is notified by text or email when an employee punches in late or punches out early, giving the manager a heads up to make whatever adjustments might be needed with other workers to cover the lost productivity. This kind of granular, real-time detail simply isn’t available with manual systems, and yet it is exactly what is needed for business success in the 21st century.

 

Flexibility in Better Workforce Management Time Clock Functionality

A good web-based time clock solution will include all kinds of features that save time in ways impossible to achieve with a paper-based or punch-clock system. Define a grace period in minutes within which employees won’t be considered a late punch-in or early punch-out. Set up the automatic deduction of allowable meal times in minutes to avoid multiple punch-in and punch-outs during a shift. Restrict which IP addresses can be used for punching in and out to avoid remote abuses of the system. Set up automatic rounding to the nearest time unit you define, such to the nearest five-minute interval. These points of flexibility quickly prove themselves to be invaluable in your efforts to achieve better workforce management time clock functionality.

 

Make no mistake, the companies that grow and thrive in digital era of the 21st century will be those that leverage the power of web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to achieve greater operational efficiency. If it’s time for your company to find better workforce management time clock functionality, sign up for a free trial of CaptureWork, an affordable solution that also includes leaving tracking, employee scheduling, training, and HR document management.

Your company’s business success depends at least in part on having its workers on-site when you need them. Employee scheduling is one of those tasks that every company has to do, but one that also results in more wasted time than anyone would care to admit. Scheduling can be made so much easier when you have the right web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool at your disposal. Making the transition to better workforce management employee scheduling could be one of the most important decisions you make to achieve greater operational efficiency for your business.

 

Fewer Headaches and Hassles with Better Workforce Management Employee Scheduling

Small businesses with only a handful of employees don’t tend to need a software solution for employee scheduling. A physical paper calendar or whiteboard can often serve the purpose just fine. The problem that all too often occurs, however, is when the business grows. If the growth is rapid, it can easily outpace your capacity to step back and look at the management systems you should be putting in place to keep up with the growth. Before you know it, your thriving company is being held back as it continues to handle important tasks like employee scheduling with outdated and inefficient methods and systems. Employee scheduling that was previously simple when the company was small has suddenly become a frustrating and tedious task taking up hours and hours every week.

 

The Rationale for Better Workforce Management Employee Scheduling

There are two significant learning points here. One is that since there are lots of web-based solutions available, many of which are extremely affordable even for the smallest of companies, it makes sense to start using one while your business is still small. Most of them will easily scale up as your company grows. The second learning point is that even if your company didn’t adopt one while it was small, you must not continue making the mistake of waiting any longer to put one in place. The majority of solutions available today can be set up and ready to roll in a matter of minutes or hours – a very small amount of time to put into something that will save many hours each week and avoid the hassles and headaches of your inefficient system. Imagine doing in minutes what is currently sucking up hours every week. Can you afford not to put some time into adopting the right solution for better workforce management employee scheduling?

 

Another point of resistance, of course, is the additional task of identifying the right solution for your company. When you go online and discover there are nearly 200 different web-based workforce management systems that include employee scheduling, it’s enough to make your head spin and give up. Just remember to keep your eye on the prize of saving significant amounts of time and money currently being wasted on inefficient employee scheduling. It’s worth the effort to find and adopt a good solution.

 

Employee scheduling often feels like a mundane task to be suffered through, but that’s the wrong way to view it. View it instead as an opportunity to give your company an edge over your competitors by achieving greater operational efficiency. With this frame of mind, it becomes clear that modernizing your methods with better workforce management employee scheduling is a vital step to take on the road to business growth and success. As you begin sifting through the many options available, take a closer look at CaptureWork, and affordable, web-based SaaS workforce management solutions with five critical modules, including leave tracking, employee scheduling, time clock management, training, and HR document handling.

The benefits of better workforce management leave tracking seem obvious to the companies who have adopted a good web-based SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution. It’s hard for them to even remember how they used to handle employee leave management through paper forms and spreadsheets. It may have only been in the last several years that they made the transition to a digital solution, but they already can’t imagine doing it any other way. If your company has not yet modernized its leave management practices with better tools, then it’s time to take a deeper dive into many advantages of better workforce management leave tracking.

 

Reduce Wasted Time with Better Workforce Management Leave Tracking

Everyone knows that employees waste time at work. In many cases, the distractions of mobile devices, social media and the Internet are the main culprits, as noted by Forbes back in 2015. An employee leave management system won’t help you address that kind of wasted time, but it can reduce the amount of time wasted on inefficient methods of tracking and managing employee leave. Do your company’s workers have to fill out paper forms to put in a request for time off? Filling out and processing time off requests manually should be a thing of the past because it wastes valuable time that could be saved when it is easily done online.

 

Business success in the 21st century is much easier when you have vital data at your fingertips. How easy would it be for you to put together a report showing the impact of each kind of employee leave on your company’s bottom line? If you haven’t transitioned to a web-based leaving management system, you could be looking at a whole day or more of work just to assemble a report to present the data in a way that can inform business decision-making. Does that sound like the way a business can succeed in the modern digital age? Of course not! You need essential data available as close to real-time as possible in order to be both agile and nimble in managing your company. This is exactly what the right web-based leave tracking system brings to the table.

 

Accomplish More with Better Workforce Management Leave Tracking

Now think about what can be accomplished by freeing up the time currently wasted through an outdated leave management system. You can probably think of at least a dozen different initiatives and projects that are have been waiting in the wings to get started. With more efficient leave tracking, you can start moving those projects to the front burner instead of letting them languish on the back burner where they’ve been for who knows how long. The people who are charged with managing employee leave time will be forever grateful for the opportunity to focus on more substantive tasks that make a real difference to the company. All that just from the simple adoption of the right web-based leave management system – it’s a no-brainer step towards operational efficiency your company should take sooner than later.

 

Why Companies Resist Better Workforce Management Leave Tracking

Most companies don’t actively resist the transition to a better leave management system. It’s more of a passive neglect than anything else. Inertia sets in for any number of reasons. Even though a company’s leave management methods may be woefully outdated and inefficient, there is a familiarity with the way things have always been done that can be difficult to overcome in spite of the clear benefits of a more modern system. In addition, when you go online and see that there are dozens of options, the task of finding the right one can seem daunting, and therefore is easily ignored. The problem with this rationalization is that there are step-by-step guides for how to go about identifying and choosing good software solutions. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to improving your company’s operational efficiency.

 

Without Better Workforce Management Leave Tracking, Absenteeism is Costly

Unexpected absences will always be an issue in terms of the bottom-line impacts of lost productivity and stalled projects. But what if there are patterns of absenteeism you aren’t catching because you don’t have the right data in the right format at your fingertips? If your leave management system is outdated and inefficient, you’re missing out on the opportunity to get actionable insights for better workforce management. Imagine your company proactively addressing absenteeism issues instead of just putting out fires when a crisis occurs. The right leave management system can do that for you.

 

If your company is ready for better workforce management leave tracking, then it’s time to take a close look at CaptureWork. Employee leave management is just one of its five main feature areas. Also included are employee scheduling, time clock management, training, and HR document handling. CaptureWork is your ticket to workforce management made easy!

What does it take to succeed in business in the digital ager of the 21st century? If you’ve been in a leadership position in a business for more than a few years, you probably have a good idea how to answer that question. One of the biggest challenges for SMEs (small-to-medium-sized enterprises with 500 and fewer employees) is achieving operational efficiency as the company grows. Operational efficiency is about working smarter, not harder. One advantage any company has in the 21st century is the incredible array of tools available through the web-based SaaS (software as a service) model. These tools are the key to achieving operational efficiency. The area too many SMEs have overlooked is effectively managing their workers. There is no better time than now to take full advantage of workforce management made easy.

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