Category: Absence Management

4 Measurable Benefits of Absence Management Technology

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December 14th, 2020

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HR needs modern solutions to improve the accuracy of attendance tracking. Upgrading outmoded systems such as manual record-keeping or physical timecards saves money and improves productivity. Antiquated legacy systems for attendance will always fail to meet expectations. Businesses that invest in modern attendance software can reap the following benefits:

  1. Improve accuracy and compliance. The risk of clerical errors is high for manual or low-tech attendance systems. Even a small margin of error can result in significant fiscal mistakes. Overpaying or underpaying employees hurts the organization’s bottom line and can lead to compliance issues. Investing in absence management software can eliminate clerical errors for accurate timekeeping, payroll, and complying with Department of Labor regulations.
  2. Curtail time theft. Time theft is one of the biggest knocks against manual timekeeping systems. Employees can alter their hours worked to conceal if they arrive to work late or leave early. These outdated systems also allow for buddy punching, which occurs when one employee clocks another in or out to hide attendance infractions. While 10 minutes here or there may not seem like much, the American Payroll Association reported that buddy punching costs organizations $373 million every year. Efficient time tracking software can help curtail these issues.
  3. Improve productivity. Robust attendance tracking systems do more than simple attendance keeping. Many include features like submitting PTO requests so employees can request time off without a convoluted chain of emails. This reduces the amount of time managers spend on HR tasks, which allows them to focus on more relevant projects.
  4. Actionable insights. Absence management software provides businesses with attendance data and trends. This information can pinpoint departments with chronic tardiness or isolate individual employees trending toward absenteeism. Knowing where to focus improvement efforts yields better results than issuing a company-wide generic message about attendance.

Antiquated absence tracking methods can hurt profits, cause compliance headaches, and lack data to identify attendance problems. Actec’s absence tracking mobile app is a self-service tool that captures all your employees’ absence data, ensures compliance with labor laws, and more. Contact us to learn more about modernizing your absence management system

HR 101 for Small Businesses

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December 7th, 2020

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Many startups and several small businesses often rely on a single individual to manage human resources tasks. Some business owners make this decision due to the small nature of the company and perceived lighter workload. However, even the smallest of businesses have to comply with labor laws and other work regulations.

When a single employee manages HR, that individual has to balance compliance with administrative tasks and ensuring all employees receive accurate and prompt paychecks. Their busy workload often means they have little if any time for other HR tasks like recruiting, onboarding, and scheduling.

Investing in HR software can help small businesses reduce manual tasks and master the following essentials:

  1. Compliance. Federal labor laws are complex and constantly evolving. HR ensures the company complies with these laws and handles all required forms such as I-9s, W-2s, W-4s, etc.
  2. Payroll. HR ensures employees receive their paychecks on time without errors. Payroll is a complex task involving collecting timesheets, calculating pay, and accounting for taxes and withholdings. This process is prone to human error when done by hand, which can result in costly compliance fines.
  3. Recruiting. Finding the best person for an open position is a significant challenge. HR employees have to publish job listings, filter candidates, and perform background checks. Poor talent acquisition standards can result in high turnover and poor job performance, which has long term consequences for the company’s success.
  4. Onboarding. HR has more work to do once recruiting candidates for open positions. New employees have to fill out several forms, learn company policies and procedures, and meet their team. Onboarding is critical to help employees find their groove and understand their role within the organization. Without it, they may flounder, make avoidable mistakes, or struggle to engage with their team.
  5. Attendance management. HR manages employees’ schedules and leave requests to ensure the company has the appropriate staffing. This includes paid time off, sick leave, overtime, and more to comply with labor laws. They are also responsible for other areas of attendance, including tardiness and absences.

Without absence management software, it’s difficult to track attendance. Managers from different departments may provide sick leave requests at different hours of the day, and late arrivals may go unnoticed if it’s less than five minutes. While five minutes may not seem significant, it adds up over time—especially if the employee skims five minutes off the end of the workday and extends their lunch break as well.

Robust absence management technology allows companies to track attendance with much greater accuracy. It also allows employers to notice trends and identify attendance issues that can hurt workplace morale, productivity, and profits. To learn how mobile absence tracking software can help your business, contact the experts at Actec.

Absence Management Mistakes Costing Your Business Money

Posted on

November 2nd, 2020

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A talented team isn’t enough to ensure a company’s success. Projects will suffer if critical members duck out early, show up late, or fail to show up at all. This puts extra stress on punctual employees who have to pick up the slack, but this approach isn’t sustainable for long. Eventually, those employees will burnout, and productivity will tank across the board. If you start missing deadlines, clients and stakeholders will lose faith.

Remote employees add a layer of complexity to absence management. Many employers have a hard enough time keeping track of who arrived and at what time at their brick and mortar offices. Remote teams are even more difficult to keep tabs on due to the virtual nature of their work. For businesses that suspect or know they have an attendance problem, the following mistakes could be the cause:

  1. Insufficient attendance tracking. If a company doesn’t have a robust system for tracking tardiness, early departures, and absences, they aren’t going to know where to start to fix the problem. By collecting attendance data, businesses can see if the problem is company-wide, specific to a department or team, or an individual. This gives them a good idea of where to focus their attendance improvement efforts.
  2. Ambiguous attendance policies. Some businesses have a strict arrival time for employees while others focus more on when employees begin working for the day. If a company allows for flexible scheduling, this can make matters murky for employees. It also makes it more difficult to track without an absence management system. If employees come and go at different times, managers may not be able to keep track of who is trimming their work hours. Eliminating gray areas in attendance policies can cut down on employee confusion.
  3. Focusing on the negative. While businesses need to take action against attendance issues, they shouldn’t only focus on the disciplinary elements. Highlighting employees with perfect attendance improves morale and provides a model for other employees to emulate. Offering small incentives such as a free lunch for any employee with perfect attendance for the month can help reduce absenteeism as well.
  4. Not listening to the data. Even the best absence management software isn’t useful if businesses don’t look at the data. This information can help companies identify attendance trends before they become a widespread problem. Knowing where to start investigating saves time and money by homing in on the root of the issue.

Manual methods of attendance tracking are outmoded and don’t help businesses identify attendance trends in time to correct them. Actec developed an absence tracking mobile app to help businesses overcome this hurdle. Our absence management solutions provide several channels for communication including telephonic, text/chat, within the app itself, or the web. Employees can report in for the day from the convenience of their smartphones or devices. This is tremendously helpful for remote teams or teams working out of numerous locations. Contact the experts at Actec to learn more about absence management.

Signs Your Company Needs a Better Attendance System

Posted on

October 19th, 2020

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Keeping track of employee attendance should be a straightforward process. However, without a cohesive attendance management system, several issues can occur. Managers may report absences at different times of the day using a variety of communication methods. With HR receiving emails, texts, memos, or in-person visits on an unpredictable schedule, errors are likely to occur. However, implementing an electronic attendance system can reduce the tedium and frustrations of absence management.

Antiquated absence management processes cost time and money. Upgrading to an electronic absence reporting system can reap several benefits. The following are some key indicators that your attendance system needs an update:

  1. Frequent errors or inaccuracies. Manual timesheets or uncoordinated absence reporting channels are prone to error. Managers may not understand the various types of leave and misreport their employees’ absences as a result. For example, an employee may request leave that qualifies for Family Medical Leave, but the manager may report it as sick leave. Having a streamlined electronic system can eliminate these kinds of record-keeping errors.
  2. Productivity issues in the HR department. If HR employees are spending several hours combing through various emails, notes, and voicemails to try and track employee attendance, they’re losing valuable time. The HR department manages several essential functions that keep the business going, such as employee benefits, employee training, job design and analysis, and recruiting. Having an electronic absence reporting system can free up their time to focus on these other critical tasks.
  3. Employee performance is lagging. Unchecked attendance issues often result in productivity problems. Employees who arrive late, duck out early, or don’t show up put projects behind schedule. They also cause stress for their coworkers as many have to pick up the slack. Having an electronic system sends all attendance records to a centralized location, which allows HR to take note of negative attendance trends. With this data, managers can take steps to identify the cause of the absence issues as well as take steps to rectify them.
  4. Morale is low. Attendance can affect employee morale in several ways. They may harbor resentments toward coworkers who abuse their paid time off without repercussions. A confusing or poorly enforced system can also leave employees feeling powerless. Either way, poor absence management can result in employee disengagement. Electronic attendance software with self-service features gives employees a sense of agency and control.

If your absence management system is creating more problems than it’s solving, Actec can help. Contact us to learn about our absence tracking mobile app as well as our other absence reporting solutions.

How to Track Excessive Absences in the Workplace

Posted on

September 21st, 2020

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Businesses can’t function much less turn a profit if the employees don’t show up to do the work. When absences begin piling up, it has a domino effect on the rest of the company. Projects may fall behind schedule if a key employee is regularly missing. This bleeds into other projects as well as team members may need to stop what they’re doing to catch up on the absent employee’s work. This effects workplace morale as well, causing a company-wide productivity problem.

Identifying Absenteeism

Without adequate absence management software, managers will struggle to keep track of which employees have impeccable attendance, spotty attendance, or rampant absenteeism. Before taking any action, however, managers need to determine the cause of the absence as many are legitimate. Some common examples include:

  1. Calling out sick
  2. Doctor’s appointments
  3. Paid time off (PTO) such as vacation days
  4. Maternity/Paternity leave and other leave protected by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  5. Religious holidays
  6. Unpaid, approved leave
  7. Jury duty

Whether the absence is valid or not, employees should give notice before the day itself with the exception of requesting sick leave. Having an absence management system in place allows managers to keep track of excused and unexcused absences.

The Benefits of an Absence Management System

Absence management systems keep all attendance data in a centralized location. This allows managers to simplify tracking attendance, tardiness, leave requests, and absenteeism. It also lets managers identify trends such as an individual employee that frequently arrives late or calls out of work without notice. With that information, managers can make data-driven decisions and changes to reduce attendance issues, address work-related problems contributing to absenteeism, and improve productivity.

Mobile Absence Tracking

With COVID-19 forcing many businesses to shift to a remote workforce, tracking attendance is more challenging than ever. Having a mobile app to manage leave requests and track absences reduces confusion and simplifies absence management. Actec’s absence tracking mobile app provides employees with several channels for submitting leave requests including telephonic, text/chat, and directly through the mobile app itself. This allows employees to choose the method they’re most comfortable with, which is vital to ensure employees follow attendance policies and procedures. To learn more about mobile absence tracking, contact the experts at Actec.

4 Benefits of Mobile Absence Management Technology

Posted on

September 7th, 2020

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Keeping track of employee’s attendance is vital to the success of any business. Attendance is a significant indicator of the overall health of any company. Whether employees are consistently tardy, call out often without notice, or work well after closing time, they can cause a chain of events that derail the company’s goals. For example, employees that have frequent, unplanned absences affect workflow and can delay projects. Conversely, employees that clock 60-hour work weeks on a regular basis run the risk of burnout, which stymies productivity.

Tracking employee attendance is also vital for several other office functions including timely payroll, accurate enforcement of attendance and leave policies, and ensuring compliance with labor and leave laws. Implementing a mobile absence management solution can help improve attendance tracking in the following ways:

  1. Streamlines leave requests. Antiquated systems that require employees to contact their direct supervisor when they need to call out of work or submit leave requests are slow and faulty. This requires the manager to route the request to HR, which can rapidly become hectic and confusing with multiple departments to handle. With a mobile application, employees can log their unplanned leave when they’re sick or submit vacation requests all in one location. This simplifies the process, eliminates delays, and allows HR to see all relevant data in one convenient location.
  2. Reduces paperwork. Eliminating the paperwork element of submitting a leave request has several benefits. It saves time for employees and management as it reduces the need to print a document, fill it out by hand, walk it over to management for approval, etc. Submitting electronic requests removes this time-consuming process.
  3. Saves money. Reducing paperwork doesn’t only save time, it saves money as well. Employees and managers gain back the time they would have otherwise spent submitting and processing leave requests to focus on their main tasks instead. Mobile absence tracking can also identify trends like departments with frequent tardiness or an employee with questionable attendance. Pinpointing these issues allows employers to take action before these unwanted behaviors begin affecting employee morale, productivity, and profits.
  4. Simplifies scheduling. Managing leave requests for multiple departments, particularly when the requests come through several channels and sources, is a major challenge for HR and company management. Managers may approve leave requests based on incomplete calendars, which can cause issues for time-sensitive projects. By centralizing attendance, absences, and leave requests in one location, companies can reduce scheduling chaos and miscommunication.

With all the new challenges COVID-19 has created for businesses, tracking absences shouldn’t be one of them. Contact the experts at Actec to learn more about how our absence tracking mobile app can help your company.

Steps to Manage Employee Absenteeism During COVID-19

Posted on

August 3rd, 2020

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When a significant number of employees begin to call out of work or a single employee incurs an abnormal number of unscheduled absences, most businesses know their first step to rectifying the issue is to identify the cause. Stress outside of the workplace, unpleasant managers, and more can contribute to employee absenteeism. However, with COVID-19, businesses already know the why. The pandemic has changed everything about “business as usual” and absence management is no exception.

Companies can take the following actions to manage COVID-related absences in a compassionate, reasonable way:

  1. Update attendance policies. Businesses will need to create new guidelines that are fair to the staff as well as the company. Pre-COVID policies will fall short of reality and create confusion for employees. Most policies will likely require increased flexibility to allow employees to comply with self-quarantine guidelines should they fall ill or experience COVID-19 symptoms.
  2. Plan for absences. Unlike other forms of absenteeism, companies know with a reliable degree of certainty that COVID-19 will cause significant absences in the coming months. Staggering office workers’ schedules or cycling employees in rotating groups can help stop the spread of workplace illnesses. Hiring temporary workers can also help bridge the gap while employees stay home until they’re healthy.
  3. Consider long-term remote options. Several states began phased reopening procedures, which included bringing many employees back into an office setting. However, while some jobs can’t happen in a remote environment, many employees can remain productive from home. Businesses also need to consider that many employees are afraid of falling ill by returning to the office. Many others have children at home with no childcare options or high-risk family members living with them. For a variety of reasons, many employees may want and need the option to continue working from home.
  4. Track absences accurately. COVID-19 added a new layer of difficulty when it comes to keeping track of leave requests. With many employees still working either entirely or partially from home, keeping track of who is absent, tardy, or requesting paid leave is more challenging than ever. Investing in an absence management mobile app can give businesses the flexibility they need to keep absenteeism in check during these unusual times.

Actec understands the difficulties businesses are encountering due to COVID-19. Our absence tracking mobile app allows companies to capture all attendance data, receive absence notifications, and identify attendance trends. Contact us to learn how we can help your business manage employee absences through the pandemic and beyond.

5 Best Apps to Help Employees Manage Stress During COVID-19

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June 29th, 2020

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For many employees, the COVID-19 pandemic has reached a turning point. As many states scale back their stay at home orders, certain employees will return to the workplace while others may remain remote depending on the situation. Regardless, it represents yet another change in an already turbulent time. With so much uncertainty, it’s highly likely that the majority of employees are struggling with stress. High levels of tension can tank productivity and morale as well as lead to problems with attendance.

The following apps can help employees manage their stress and anxiety as they enter into a new phase of working during the pandemic:

  1. Stop Panic & Anxiety Self-Help. This self-help app is useful for reminding employees of their strength and ability to overcome panic. It includes a diary to help employees identify and challenge thought patterns that precede panic or anxiety attacks. The app includes reading and audio resources as well to cope with panic as it occurs. Employees can download this app free of charge; however, it’s only available on Android devices.
  2. Headspace. This free app focuses on improving sleep, mood, productivity, and mindfulness through targeted meditation. The app aims to enhance focus, reduce stress, and recognize stress trigger to limit their control over the user’s reactions and emotions. It’s available for Android and iOS users.
  3. Rootd. Similar to Headspace, this app introduces exercises to improve mindfulness as well as tactics to help reduce stress and anxiety. The app also incorporates a handy feature that allows users to call a confidant or emergency service with the press of a button if they’re in distress. This app is free for individuals to download on Android or iOS devices as well.
  4. MyLife (formerly known as Stop, Breathe, & Think). This mindfulness app differs from the above by tracking the user’s mood and making recommendations to help them at that moment. Once the user checks in with how they’re feeling, the app may recommend specific relaxation exercises, meditation, and more to help achieve a more positive frame of mind. This app is free for Android and iOS users.
  5. Dare—Break Free From Anxiety. Avoiding stress and anxiety often makes the situation worse. This app helps employees to exist alongside their stressors, worries, and fears without being consumed by them. Employees can follow along with guided content as they face their stress head-on.

Managing employee stress will be vital to resuming business operations, sustaining productivity, and keeping absenteeism in check. To learn more about absence management, contact the experts at Actec.

Absence Reporting During and Beyond the Pandemic

Posted on

June 22nd, 2020

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COVID-19 has created new challenges for businesses in several areas, one of which is absence management. As many businesses begin a phased return to the office while others are maintaining their remote staff, keeping track of absences and leave requests can quickly become confusing. Prior to COVID-19, it was common practice to urge sick employees to stay home. Now, it’s less a matter of should symptomatic employees stay home and more an issue of when it’s safe for them to return to the workplace and how that affects leave and absence policies.

Federally Protected Leave and Emerging Programs

Federally protected leave programs like FMLA, disability leave, and so on still apply during COVID-19. However, the U.S. Department of Labor issued two new forms of leave to address the challenges created by the pandemic: the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act.

Both fall under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which grants up to 80 hours of paid sick leave to employees who have to quarantine due to a government order or at the recommendation of their physician. Employees experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking treatment also qualify for this kind of leave.

FFCRA also offers up to 80 hours of paid sick leave at two-thirds of employees’ regular income if they are unable to work because they have to care for a quarantined individual or child due to school and childcare closures. Employees can seek an additional 10 weeks of paid leave at two-thirds of their regular income if their child’s school/care facilities remain closed due to COVID-19 so long as they have been employed for at least 30 days. FFCRA is available through the end of the 2020 calendar year and employers can acquire a payroll tax credit for 100% of the amount.

Tracking Employee Leave Requests

Tracking leave requests, remaining compliant with shifting Federal and state employee leave laws, all while keeping the workforce healthy will quickly overwhelm HR departments. Actec developed the app Absence 365 to meet businesses’ absence management needs during these stressful times. This customizable app allows employees to submit leave requests and centralizes all absence notifications in one location. In addition to remaining compliant, the app can also help employers recognize trends to enact effective change within their company. Contact us to learn how we can help meet your business’ absence management needs.

Managing Absences through COVID-19: New Mobile App

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June 8th, 2020

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Absence reporting and absence management have become increasingly complex during the COVID-19 pandemic. How has your organization been adapting? In the past, getting a complete picture of your absence data required phone calls to various managers. Most companies had little idea which employees showed up to work on a given day.

By customizing a mobile app to the needs of each individual organization, employees become empowered to understand and communicate the nature of their absences – a self service tool funneling all absence notifications to come to one centralized location.

With leave laws constantly changing in today’s environment, having a central reporting tool and managing those absences can prove critical to ensuring regulatory compliance. This data can even support business analytics, providing insight into the efficiency levels and workplace dynamics of offices around the globe.

Want to know more about absence reporting mobile apps? Contact us to discuss how they can support and enhance your organization.