How beneficial are Time and Attendance Programs?
Time and Attendance Programs
It’s a question that is often asked. “How really beneficial are Time and Attendance Programs?” Many companies invest hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands into time and attendance programs but do they really benefit from that investment? All companies want to measure their ROI (return on investment, in case you don’t know) on any software and hardware purchase. Measuring the benefits of a time and attendance system is no different. Let’s look into the topic.
The purchase of time and attendance programs involves many aspects and a considerable amount of staff time during the review, selection, implementation and training phases. The project has two sides as there is both hardware and software involved in the purchase. Systems in small companies are far less complicated as they generally only involve a time clock of some variation and some basic time and attendance software. In my opinion, these systems are a no-brainer for their ROI. The benefits of streamlining staff time, monitoring the comings and goings of full or part time staff far outway the costs involved.
I believe that any company with about 10 or more employees should have some level of a time and attendance system. Streamlining the management of both time worked and time away from the office is important. The TimeandAttendance system will monitor the activity and can pass the results on to the payroll system. This streamlining is very important and should almost be made mandatory for all businesses of this size and greater.
As the size of the company increases the need for Time and Attendance system does increase but not evenly. The difference will come from the type of business being considered. Companies with a high ratio of full-time staff may not have much of an increased need for a time and attendance system. As this ratio changes and the number of part-time employees increases, the need for a time and attendance system also increases and, in my experience, so can the benefits and ROI from investing in them.
The reasons that Time and Attendance programs can be beneficial are simple. They bring efficiencies in staff time, improvements in information, reduction in time improperly accounted for and reduction in buddy punching losses. While the dollar investment will increase as the size of the time and attendance system increases in accordance with the company size so potentially can the benefits. In general terms the relative savings from a time and attendance system will be about the same whether in a small business, a medium company or a large organization. It means a small company will save a noticeable amount of money while a properly selected and implemented time and attendance system can save millions of dollars annually in a large company. Companies will also benefit even more if they implement any of the additional areas such as staff scheduling systems, job costing controls, labor budgeting, labor planning and KPI into the attendance software products. Of course these additional items are related to the company size. Having these areas linked together can give a tremendous amount of cost insight and control to a company and ensure that they are getting the maximum dollar value from their employees. These additional areas can also give greater employee satisfaction as well because the employees can see their contribution to the company as well as benefit directly through such features as having their work availability preferences built into the scheduling system.
In summary, whether the time attendance software investment is under $1,000, in the tens of thousands or in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the benefits are there and real when purchasing time and attendance programs.
