Office duties that were once performed by hand now can be accomplished by computer, including tracking when your employees are on the job. With so many time and attendance software packages on the market, it's important to take some time to ensure that a program attends to your particular needs.
Evaluating attendance software
While checking out different software packages, keep the following factors in mind:
Ease of use: Attendance software should be relatively straightforward and easy for both the human resources department and your employees to use. The program should be functional and flexible: lots of "bells and whistles" can make it too difficult or impractical for daily use.
Integration/compatibility: Ideally, a program that tracks employee attendance will integrate smoothly into your existing HR system. It should be compatible with your existing payroll processing software and allow you to transfer employee data between programs.
Upgrades: The laws governing human resource management are always changing, so it's important that the attendance software manufacturer provides regular updates to your system.
Training: If you choose a particular software package, will you need to train the HR staff to use it? Does the software manufacturer offer training? At the very least, the program should include an easy-to-follow help menu.
ID badges: If your company already uses access control badges or cards, the attendance software should be able to interface with the access control system to track employee attendance. This will give you a more accurate record of when staff members are in and out of the building.
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Features to look for
Some of the essential features of attendance software include the following:
Adding/removing employees: Staff turnover always is a consideration when looking at attendance software. Your HR staff should be able to easily and quickly add a new employee or remove someone who has left the company.
Vacation/PTO: The attendance software needs to calculate an employee's accrued vacation time and how much paid time off (PTO) they have used.
Report Generation: After gathering information on employee attendance, the package must generate reports that show individual attendance, PTO and other essential data needed by human resources. These reports also can indicate if an employee is chronically tardy or absent.
Scheduling: The program should allow you to schedule employees for a project or product development effort to make sure it is fully staffed.
Cost Accounting: An effective piece of tracking software will calculate the true human resource cost of a particular project.
Find the right time and attendance software package for your business: try our free price quote request service. It's fast and easy – we'll connect you to multiple attendance software providers based on your exact needs.
