Canadian Payroll Reporter

4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 News September 2014 | CPR September 2014 | CPR ees. To better understand what is available, here is a look at the latest time and attendance trends small businesses are embracing: Trend #1: Mobility Technology and mobility are changing the way business operations are being conduct- ed. Today's workforce is used to managing many aspects of their lives on mobile devices. Many employers are finding it advantageous to extend this interest in mobility to their time and attendance processes. This can include employees using their cell phone or other mobile device to clock in or out from their worksite or elsewhere if they are work- ing offsite. While the trend toward mobile technolo- gies is certainly supported by recent innova- tions, the real drivers for small business use are employer expectations and overall user acceptance and adoption of mobile solutions. Time and attendance mobile solutions offer a cost effective approach to workforce management for small business. Payroll preparation time is greatly reduced as man- agers can easily track employee time, capture hours worked and approve timecards with one click while they are on the go, thereby avoiding the need to be tethered to a desk or to duplicate data entry on the payroll end. And, while mobile time and attendance solutions are becoming more widely used, the expectation is the mobile format be ex- tended to traditional time clock solutions in the form of tablet-based time clock devices with touch screen navigation. Tablet-based clock solutions not only fill the niche of traditional stationary clocks, many – that have Wi-Fi capabilities – can also be used as a shared mobile clocking so- lution for field and shop-floor supervisors to carry with them to multiple work areas, where employees perform their tasks. With tablet-based clock solutions, em- ployees and supervisors can have easy ac- cess to a rich set of self-service functional- ity, including the ability to view schedules, authorize time cards, manage availability or request time away from work. Of course, empowering employees with mobile time and attendance capabilities comes with special considerations for small businesses who traditionally have wanted to know not only when their employees are working, but that they are where they are supposed to be when they are on the clock. When choosing a mobile time and atten- dance solution, small businesses should look for configurable geo-validation capabilities in the solution for safeguarding against time theft (i.e. tracking lateness and extended breaks) or "buddy punching," where one em- ployee "punches" in for another. Tablet-based clock solutions can provide flexible options for capturing employee time data including: PIN, biometric, bar code, RFID, magnetic stripe, proximity card and photo-documented punch methods. All this ensures employees are not clock- ing in from a location away from their work and are being accurately paid. Trend #2: Employee and manager self-service Employee and manager self-service appli- cations are an important aspect to improv- ing small businesses' operational efficiency. They remove the burden of having one ad- ministrator or timekeeper collect, review, ap- prove and enter time for employees. Not only do self-service features help streamline business operations, they also impact employee engagement, giving em- ployees a sense of empowerment by allowing them to contribute accurate, first hand infor- mation that is needed for pay, operations and human resources. In small businesses, "payroll administra- tor" is typically just one of several hats worn by a single person in the company. Putting ac- cess to a variety of time and attendance tasks directly into the hands of employees and managers – thereby shifting the burden away from a single administrator – is a require- ment of many small businesses today. Employers who are considering self-ser- vice applications must give some thought to training requirements, both for initial rollout of the application and future requirements for new employees. Some are very adept at quickly understanding how to use new tech- nology. Others may be less comfortable with it and need more training on how to use it. Employers may want to look for applica- tions that are intuitive and offer training embedded within the application to help employees adjust to the change. Embedded videos and tutorials that allow employees to use the application as they are completing the training will prevent employers from need- ing to schedule demonstrations and training events or maintain training materials. Employers should also consider the secu- rity features that come with the application to ensure that employee privacy is protected. For example, does the application time-out if an employee forgets to log out? Trend #3: Cloud-based solutions While the historical trend with larger compa- nies has been to move from licensed software installed on their own networks to cloud- based solutions, small businesses are also going to the cloud. Many are moving directly from manual time and attendance processes. Cloud-based applications are always avail- able to businesses, their payroll department and their employees. They resonate with small businesses that typically have very small IT budgets. Cost benefits are many since there is no additional infrastructure investment re- quired with cloud-based solutions, either up- front or for ongoing maintenance. Employers considering moving to the cloud should do their homework to ensure their cloud provider makes data protection an inte- gral part of the system. Employers should also find out if their provider has a contingency plan in case there is a security breach. Trend #4: Extending capabilities as small businesses grow Many small businesses with growth strat- egies are moving to time and attendance solutions they know will grow with them without requiring them to make costly and time-intensive moves to new platforms as their needs expand. They want solutions that meet their current needs, but also have capa- bilities for a broader range of future needs for managing their workforce. Small businesses that are looking to grow should think not only about future needs to support a larger population of employees with broader time and attendance rules and capa- bilities, but also of support for full workforce management and human capital manage- ment functions beyond time and attendance. For example, a small business' longer-term growth strategies may align with a need for labour budgeting, analytics, business intelli- gence, payroll and recruiting solutions. Trend #5: Broader acceptance of technologies Employers in Canada have long been inter- ested in reader technologies on time clocks, including badge and biometric capabilities. However, employees – the actual users of these technologies – have traditionally been resistant to these particular types of innova- tions. This is starting to change as identifica- tion technologies become more ubiquitous in society. We see it in many places now, from big-box checkout lines to amusement parks. While there will always be employee pop- ulations who are opposed to technological change, many employees are beginning to ac- cept the use of this type of technology in the workplace. Small businesses are beginning to recognize that when applied to time and at- tendance, these identification solutions can help increase efficiencies and lower costs associated with time theft and error-prone manual processes. Trend #6: Consistency in managing a workforce Employees want to know they are being treated fairly and with the proper consider- ation, whether it is concerning scheduling, offering overtime equitably or adhering to labour standards laws and regulations. Em- ployers want their time and attendance solu- see CONSISTENCY on page 8 Tech changes, mobility part of new trends from ADOPTING on page 1

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