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    Payroll Blog

    S. Thannickal

July 25, 2017

Case Study: Staffing Agency

temp staffing contractor scheduling system South Jordan

Today’s post describes a business that, by its very nature, demands a robust Workforce Management system. As more and more businesses hire temporary contractors as part of their business strategy (as opposed to an occasional stopgap fix during a staffing emergency), savvy temp agencies can seize the opportunity and expand and diversify.

Consider the unique logistics of our example organization. While some staffing services specialize in just one industry—such as health care—this 12-year old agency has entered new markets steadily for the past few years. They currently place administrative assistants, computer programmers, call center staff, assembly line workers, machinists, child care providers, and substitute teachers.

With a continual turnover of contract workers and offsite punch ins as the norm, this agency couldn’t cope with their timekeeping and scheduling system. Though it was partially automated, the technology was 10 years old and it couldn’t provide the number of job codes they required. The mobile app malfunctioned frequently and didn’t support the latest time clocks.

A staffing office simultaneously serves two classes of clients; the temp workers they place and the businesses who use the workers. Each of the players depend on the office for accuracy. The don’t want to overpay the temps, and the hourly contractors are, understandably, especially sensitive to timekeeping accuracy.

Solution – Workforce Management Suite

The Workforce Management Suite time and attendance tool, TimeWorksPlus, quickly solved a multitude of problems. The Workforce Management Suite mobile app allows contract workers to punch in on their cell phone wherever they are. Because the PunchLogic function has virtually done away with missed and duplicate punches, timekeeping accuracy has improved dramatically.

Scheduling Made Easy With Workforce Management Suite

Temp worker hours are controlled with customizable system warnings and there are nine pay-rate fields and employee groups/sorting/filtering for easy organization and oversight.

TimeWorksPlus is customizable for the copious lunch and break policies of the businesses they serve. The agency personnel can see what’s going on with all of their temp workers in real time on any given day.

With the recent rise in ransomware hackings and other data security threats, the agency puts a premium on data security and appreciates the peace of mind provided by Workforce Management Suite.

Workforce Management Suite is the ultimate Workforce Management system for staffing agencies. With Workforce Management under control, now they can concentrate on serving even more markets while keeping current clients satisfied.

July 18, 2017

Case Study: Patient Care Staff Scheduling and PBJ

healthcare employee scheduling system South Jordan

SwipeClock helps assisted living facility do away with scheduling conflicts, cover gaps, and improve quality while raising staff member morale.

Suncrest Assisted Living management was worrying about maintaining quality resident care because they had to address a frequent cascade of scheduling changes. Every schedule change resulted in a stream of inefficient emails, texts, and phone calls that wasted time, confused staff members, and curtailed productivity for days at a time.

Frustrated Employees

Suncrest Assisted Living has a labor force of 23 including on-site nurses and caretakers, aides, administrative staff, and housekeeping workers. A small on-site workforce means schedules aren’t very flexible and have little room to absorb change, which happens regularly.

Unplanned schedule changes launched a time-consuming process of sending emails and texts to all qualified team members to find a replacement. Managers were often required to coordinate fractional shift changes to adapt to overlapping availabilities. The result was a domino effect that caused unanticipated consequences including costly overtime and coverage gaps. The extra burden, added confusion, and personal disruption was taking a toll.

SwipeClock Workforce Management Offers Relief

healthcare employee scheduling system South JordanSearching for a solution, Suncrest turned to Workforce Management Suite. Workforce Management Suite delivers simplified scheduling with TimeSimplicity in a powerful suite of integrated cloud-based tools that include time and attendance tracking (TimeWorksPlus), with mobile capability for 24/7 anywhere access.

SOLUTION — Workforce Management Suite

• TimeSimplicity for expedited assisted living staff scheduling and mobile coordination.
• TimeWorksPlus for integrated time and attendance tracking.
• Mobile access delivers employee access and management control.

Suncrest needed a quick solution that supervisors and other team members could use without the need for a lot of additional training. TimeSimplicity provided exactly that, with the additional power of drag-and-drop scheduling, simple schedule change management, and employee self-help tools that empower staff members to solve scheduling snags with ease.

With Workforce Management Suite, Suncrest was able to set up their scheduling in about fifteen minutes by logging each employee name, job code, and availability. Once that was done, formulating employee schedules became a straightforward matter of drag-and-drop. Scheduling conflicts, last-minute overtime, and adequate shift coverage are no longer a problem with built-in alerts that warn managers before a problem takes place.

When it comes to finding help due to schedule changes, the Suncrest team no longer goes into panic mode; associates can enter their availability to pick up hours, and switching shifts between team members is as simple as trading cards. Managers only need to confirm swaps for stress-free schedule adjustments.

One of the most popular features for Suncrest is the ability to empower team members with mobile access. With the Employee Self Service (ESS) portal, team members are able to view their schedule, request time off, monitor accruals, and review their time cards. They no longer need to call a manager for basic information and time card accuracy has improved significantly. This is a perfect solution for a community of staff members working all hours of the day and a real timesaver for supervisors.

PBJ Made Easy

All long-term care facilities are now subject to the Payroll Based Journaling (PBJ) regulations. Employers are required to track daily employee shift hours by job description and site as well as staff tenure and turnover. Suncrest uses the built-in Payroll Based Journaling (PBJ) tools in Workforce Management Suite to easily track the data and prepare accurate reports. Suncrest managers are sleeping better at night knowing that PBJ compliance is automated with SwipeClock Workforce Management Suite.

Cost Savings, Improved Performance, and Boosted Morale

Managers using Workforce Management Suite for scheduling will tell you that the savings in time alone makes the upgrade worth it. In addition, Suncrest Assisted Living will go one further and tell you that staff member empowerment and the end of panicked scheduling emergencies have gone a long way toward increasing employee morale. Contented employees leads to better care for residents, improved productivity, and a healthier bottom line.

Call us today for more info!

July 18, 2017

Case Study: Restaurant Schedule Management

restaurant employee scheduling system

SwipeClock helps restaurant transform schedule management, control expenses, and maintain a dedicated workforce.

Coat and Thai is a contemporary Thai restaurant whose owners are planning to open a second location with hopes of franchising in the future. It struggles with the challenges common to the restaurant industry; service peaks, specialized staff, and high employee turnover.

Overwhelming Workforce Management Challenges

Coat and Thai’s sole manager was the only one doing the hiring, scheduling, and time tracking, creating a bottleneck that soon became an unmanageable burden. She was handling employee time, attendance, and scheduling with a 90’s era punch clock, Excel spreadsheets, and a small dry erase board hung in the kitchen. The business has staff members working from 5:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m., seven days a week, further complicating the logistics of scheduling.

Additional complications included maintaining adequate staffing for every shift, adapting schedules to sudden surges in business, managing schedule requests, tracking employee meal breaks, and keeping skilled chefs and experienced servers from jumping ship to newer restaurants opening in the neighborhood; a sour prospect for any business.

Workforce Management Suite Sweetens the Sour

Coat and Thai concluded that the first order of business was automating employee time and attendance. TimeWorksPlus allows employees to clock in/out from their mobile devices, eliminating the need to crowd the kitchen during critical shift changes, and allowing staff members to merge in and out of shifts with increased efficiency.

Patrons are appreciating better service, and Coat and Thai has put an end to costly guesswork and back-dating when congestion forced staff members to skip clocking in. Mobile clock also permits their head chef to clock in off site when acquiring produce at local farmer’s markets, saving time and reducing time card errors, something both management and employees appreciate.

Reduced Labor Costs

Coat and Thai has seen a decrease in labor costs as a result of incorporating integrated clock in/out features for unpaid meal times and breaks. Before Workforce Management Suite, employees often punched out for a meal and forgot to punch back in, creating problematic back-filling and costly guesswork. With Workforce Management Suite PunchLogic, busy employees are only given logical options when accessing the clock in system to reduce mistakes, gather better records, and expedite payroll.

healthcare employee scheduling system South JordanFilling holes in the schedule has become much easier with the TimeSimplicity Virtual Trade Board. Previously, the manager would circulate shift change requests to the staff, and then re-circulate when options were proposed. Now, employees simply enter requests on the Virtual Trade Board. Managers can rapidly view, monitor and confirm shift request changes online. Once a shift trade is authorized, TimeSimplicity automatically alerts the appropriate associates. Since the transition, the restaurant has rarely been caught shorthanded. Job codes and pre-set requirements make scheduling easy so classifications such as the age requirement to serve alcohol don’t get missed during shift swaps or replacements.

SOLUTION — Workforce Management Suite

  • TimeSimplicity for automated restaurant scheduling and mobile coordination.
  • TimeWorksPlus for integrated time and attendance tracking.
  • Mobile access provides employee access and management control.

The team members love the Virtual Trade Board because it has significantly reduced the time it takes to manage work schedules and submit time cards. Many team members are college students whose schedules change each semester. Configuring schedules to better offer staff flexibility has dramatically improved worker morale and curtailed turnover.

Ready for Expansion

The owners of Coat and Thai are better prepared for projected expansion into new venues and franchising. With a handle on the complexities of crew scheduling, and seamless integration with payroll, owners and management can now focus on service and growth. Custom templates make schedule replication quick and easy, and centralized reporting permits the organization to monitor and adjust to changes while decreasing costly overtime, scheduling conflicts, and peak service emergencies.

Most importantly; associates are happy to participate in the growth of the organization and share their enthusiasm with their increasingly satisfied diners.

July 18, 2017

Case Study: Hotel Shift Management

hotel employee scheduling system review

Smart Scheduling for Hotel and Hospitality

SwipeClock helps hotel elevate their bottom line with simplified scheduling and more efficient time and attendance tracking.

The Bayside Hotel and Resort is a 135-room, 5-story complex which includes a hotel, two restaurants, and a small business center. There is no “typical” day for The Bayside Hotel, and they rely on a diverse workforce to handle a wide range of guest requests at every hour of the day.

To keep an otherwise chaotic operation running smoothly, Bayside faces staff challenges that range from last-minute sick leave to schedule changes to last-minute overtime. With their reputation resting squarely on their capacity to serve patrons with personal attention, workforce management is a main concern at Bayside. Their ultimate goal; increase customer service without increasing labor costs.

Overwhelming Workforce Management Challenges

The management staff had been struggling to find an employee timekeeping and scheduling system that prevented understaffing, could be adapted on the fly, kept all parties notified about scheduling changes, tracked data for DOL compliance, and guaranteed that time cards were turned in on time to the payroll service. For Bayside, this was no easy task with so many diverse departments including hospitality, housekeeping, maintenance, and operations. In every department, supervisors needed accurate data to design scheduling strategies that eliminated waste while maintaining a distinctive standard of service for their patrons.

Bayside needed a hotel employee scheduling solution that would meet scheduling targets while providing greater flexibility for staff members and less busy work for supervisors.

Time and Attendance Made Easy With SwipeClock

hotel employee scheduling system review The Workforce Management Suite time tracking tool, TimeWorksPlus, started delivering benefits during the very first pay cycle. With mobile access built in, TimeWorksPlus allows employees to clock in/out on their mobile device wherever they are—whether they work in housekeeping, guest services, security, or maintenance. Because the PunchLogic feature dramatically reduces missed and duplicate punches, time card accuracy has improved substantially.

TimeSimplicity Cleans up the Scheduling Mess

TimeSimplicity has dramatically improved the scheduling process for Bayside managers and employees. It offers managers smart tools for manageable, hassle-free scheduling and allows staff members to take over many tasks previously done by supervisors. Bayside managers are amazed at how simple it is to design, save, and adjust recurring schedules.

SOLUTION — Workforce Management Suite

  • TimeSimplicity for streamlined scheduling and mobile coordination.
  • TimeWorksPlus for integrated time and attendance tracking.
  • Mobile access delivers employee access and management control.

Employees and management enjoy the automation and centralization of scheduling operations. Employees enter schedule requests to the Virtual Trade Board and view which additional shifts they may pick up. Once a supervisor has authorized a schedule change, TimeSimplicity informs the worker; eliminating endless phone calls, texts, and emails.

TimeSimplicity has reduced under-staffing which has accelerated room turn-around, shortened front desk guest wait times, and increased staff efficiency.

Employee hours are controlled with customized system alerts and there are nine pay-rate fields and employee groups/sorting/filtering functions to give every department supervisor scheduling precision.

Workforce Management Suite is the same system used by Hilton, Embassy Suites, Ramada, Sheraton, Holiday Inn and Marriott to save time, limit labor costs, and maintain regulatory compliance.

Call us to day to show you how to integrate this with your payroll!

July 18, 2017

No More Missed Punches

Biometric Time Clock Paired With Employee Timekeeping System

Our timekeeping solutions combine the latest in time clock technology with industry-proven, cloud-based time and attendance services.

Company-Wide Benefits
HR and Payroll managers won’t have to research and correct missed and unmatched punches and system is synced to payroll system. It provides supervisors with supreme visibility and tools for absence and overtime management, leave planning, compliance, notices, and time card approvals. Employees appreciate simplified, accurate punch in/out, convenient notifications, and 24/7 time card visibility.

Here are the specs:
Interactive Prompt

Real-time verification for employee work status and applied job codes.

Data Input
Enter tips, codes, or responses.

Employee Status Awareness
System tracks employee state (clocked in or out, on break, current job code). Eliminates missed punches and enables extensive timekeeping records and analytics.

Fingerprint Enrollment
Supervisors can swiftly enter employee fingerprints at the clock.

Fingerprint Validation
Employee identification/validation with fast biometric fingerprint reader.

Wi-Fi Enabled

Allows placement on manufacturing floors or in sites where network wires are not possible.

Ethernet Connection
Wired connection to networks.

Battery Backup
Supports continued functioning for up to three hours (depending on use) in the event of lost power.

Offline Mode
Punches are saved if network connectivity is lost and submitted when connection is restored.

Multiple ID Form Factor Support
Recognize employees with PIN, proximity cards, or fingerprints—all supported within the same site.

Remote Update
Clock receives latest software updates without user action.

7” Color Screen
High contrast, large area screen for punches, notices, and data input.

User Capacity
Up to 6000 fingerprints/timecards.

Contact Paragon Payroll & HR today for more info!

 

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