WHY AGENCIES AUTOMATE TIME AND ATTENDANCE
FROM A LEADER IN AGENCY WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS www.mitcsoftware.com
WHY AGENCIES AUTOMATE TIME AND ATTENDANCE
INTRODUCTION Agencies seeking effective ways to manage their workforce and track clients are increasingly turning to automated time and attendance solutions. Automated systems enable agencies to reduce costs related to staffing, compliance, billing, documentation, and payroll. Key differences in solution and functionality will cause benefits to vary. To maximize the benefits of an automated time and attendance solution, agencies need to consider the following:
AUTOMATION Complete automation of the workforce management process — including scheduling, timekeeping, attendance, documentation and leave management — enables agencies to increase visibility into and control of labor costs and mitigate compliance risk. MITC provides real-time validation and processing to increase accuracy and simplify work for
“Traditional systems often restrict data to different departments or programs with little or no real-time integration. This delays workforce management processes and leaves them prone to error.”
managers.
INTEGRATION
COST OF OWNERSHIP
Traditional systems often restrict data to different departments
The better the “fit” between an agency and its time and
or programs (e.g., schedules, timesheets, HR, payroll, financials
attendance system, the lower the overall cost of deploying the
or other systems) with little or no real-time integration. This
system and maintaining it over time. MITC is a flexible, modular
delays workforce management processes and leaves them
agency time and attendance solution that enables agencies
prone to error. Costly validation efforts, unmanaged employee
to keep pace with ever evolving needs. It helps to keep costs
absences, inaccurate or late payroll or billing, and a general lack
low and ensure that the workforce management process is
of management oversight and control can result.
accurate, efficient, and compliant.
These error-prone un-integrated systems lead to increased
Moving from no system to MITC, the ROI payback period can
costs, compliance issues, and the inability to respond quickly
be less than six months. MITC is designed for agencies to be
to changing conditions. Implementing an integrated MITC
easy to use, intuitive, and deployed “out of the box.” Its user-
solution can eliminate such workforce management issues to
friendly features mean that managers can be trained quickly
improve an agency’s administrative operations and its overall
and without significant investments of time or money.
performance.
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WHY AGENCIES AUTOMATE TIME AND ATTENDANCE At many agencies, if workforce management processes for
Manually entering time and attendance data for employee
scheduling, timekeeping, biling, and absence management
payroll or billing purposes is by its very nature an error-prone
exist, they are disconnected from payroll and/or HR processes.
process.
At some agencies, the payroll or HR department has primary responsibility for handling workforce management processes, often using manual, paper-based processes or legacy software.
MITC eliminates manual entry of timekeeping and billing data, as well as manual validation of entries for errors and discrepancies. It thereby eliminates errors (and the potential
MITC solutions are designed to reduce the time, effort, and costs
legal consequences associated with those errors) and improves
managers expend on the basic administration of scheduling,
productivity.
documentation and tracking employees.
MITC is designed to work with existing systems by integrating with HR, payroll, billing, finance and other applications.
“MITC is designed for agencies to be easy to use, intuitive, and deployed ‘out of the box.’”
Data collection for staff or clients can be carried out through telephone, time data terminals, PC, internet or tablet.
In a fragmented environment, a supervisor may have to collect information from multiple systems or even paper files before they can begin to address issues. When, for example, an employee arrives late, it is easiest to address the situation when it occurs and the facts are at hand (e.g., the employee’s scheduled start time, actual arrival time, and history of attendance). Lacking that information makes an already difficult discussion even harder and may result in supervisors addressing only a fraction of such situations, thus creating lower overall productivity and reducing morale among employees who arrive on time. MITC’s real-time information provides the mean to control costs and manage employees better.
INTEGRATION ACROSS PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS MITC enables automation and integration among timekeeping, biling, absence management, and scheduling/labor tracking applications, and it works with existing payroll , billing and financial systems.
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CONFIGURABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY MITC is modular and configurable. MITC can accommodate an agency’s unique and changing requirements. This can reduce training needs, support costs, and implementation headaches. MITC helps ensure consistency and ongoing support as agencyspecific upgrades are applied. MITC is highly affordable. MITC can be cost-effectively deployed at a small agency, perhaps identifying one program where problems are particularly acute and payback is most obvious. It can also be used across multiple programs and departments at a large agency to provide a completely integrated time and attendance, scheduling, work force management, HR and payroll solution. MITC helps agencies get better control of overtime. Accuracy and control are always lacking with manual processes. MITC tightens labor tracking so that agencies have better control. Paper-based systems are very inefficient. Employees often
“Manual systems are marked by inaccurate pay; inconsistent policy enforcement in areas such as pay differentials, holiday pay and PTO accruals; and an inability to identify where overtime really occurred.”
record their own hours on paper, supervisors sign the paper and hand it over to a payroll clerk who collects all such
Managers will now have much more information at their
documents and may then enter the data onto a separate
disposal. This access to information helps managers identify
timesheet or spreadsheet. Days can be spent just entering the
problems and take corrective action before they snowball
data into payroll or billing.
into larger issues such as the need to correct payroll checks.
Manual systems are marked by inaccurate pay and billing; inconsistent policy enforcement in areas such as pay differentials, holiday pay and PTO accruals; and an inability to
The information made available through MITC enables the agency to enforce many workforce rules that were not applied consistently.
identify where overtime really occurred. If a query arises, hours can be wasted recreating this same information. MITC’s automated solution can record employee attendance at multiple jobs and pay differentials. It integrates with existing systems, reducing the data entry of timecard information from days to minutes. Supervisors have immediate access to time
Managers can access MITC from anywhere, any time using any internet-enabled device, such as a smartphone. Managers can check attendance at any job, quickly bill open positions by searching the database for available and qualified employees, and more using Managers Mobile Work Center.
recording and labor tracking. Agencies can see where money is
Those managers who used to be responsible for collecting
being spent for labor and overtime, who is approving it, how it
timecards are able to spend their time on higher-level tasks.
is happening, and who is using sick and vacation time.
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WHY AGENCIES AUTOMATE TIME AND ATTENDANCE
REAL-TIME DATA COLLECTION
MITC delivers real-time voice messages and alerts to staff
Real-time data collection means immediate validation of all
communication with multiple remote locations, enhances
time entry. This can prevent problems such as unnecessary or unplanned overtime, overlapping shifts, missed billing and unauthorized attendance. Avoiding these types of problems
by telephone or PC when they clock in. This improves client care, and eliminates the need for multiple efforts by managers to communicate customer requests to staff.
dramatically reduces the need to make corrections later and
Many agencies are hampered by manual and non-integrated
helps ensure accurate payroll processing.
processes that restrict insight into workforce management. MITC
Ideally, MITC time and attendance is fully integrated into the workforce management process to enable employee selfservice. Self-service provides employees access to telephone voice messages, PC text messages and their own timesheets. It allows them to submit PTO requests and receive training and
real-time integrated automation offers a number of benefits, including more efficient processes, ease of matching labor to work to optimize use of resources, reduced human intervention to minimize errors and improve administrative productivity, and increased compliance.
other HR-related alerts. Schedule
prompting
helps
reduce
absenteeism
by
automatically reminding employees of their next shift by text or email, and can even include helpful work instructions. By enhancing visibility of data in real time, MITC enables managers to make better decisions regarding scheduling, managing absences, ensuring payroll and billing accuracy, and ultimately controlling costs. In addition, real-time processing
“Self-service provides employees access to telephone voice messages, PC text messages and their own timesheets.�
can eliminate validation efforts that are typically conducted well after the fact. If an employee fails to show up, MITC can notify management within five minutes of the shift start that an employee has not clocked in. This kind of real-time notification allows managers to take appropriate action quickly rather than react to a complaint well after the fact. In addition, check call systems can be deployed to ensure staff at 24 x 7 locations stay awake and onsite to provide client care. Using real-time data, MITC even provides advance warning of potential problems, such as an employee approaching overtime or ACA entitlement, in need of training or license renewal, and more. MITC eliminates the need to use reports, manual emails, and to-do lists. MITC scans your database in search of discrepancies and changes. When a discrepancy or change is identified, it sends an alert via text or email to the manager assigned to that employee or job.
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EASE OF USE
MITC has the following capabilities:
MITC is designed for agencies. It is easy to use and is engaging
Time and attendance applications for clients and staff that eliminate paper-based systems
for all employees, encouraging faster deployment and adoption. MITC’s intuitive user interface enables employees
Automatic application of policies regarding overtime, differentials, holidays etc
and managers to enter data and review information easily, speeding accurate data collection, facilitating employee self-
Electronic timecard edits and automatic recalculation to
service, and lightening managers’ administrative burdens.
facilitate correct payments
MITC can help agencies eliminate manual intervention, reduce
Scheduling applications
fraud, and increase payroll and billing accuracy. These issues
Automate eligibility requirements for paid and unpaid leave
typically arise when the timekeeping processes are largely manual and nonintegrated. Ultimately, such benefits result in
Manager alerts for exceptions and potential violations
bottom-line benefits to the agency, including reduced costs,
Capture billing
increased productivity, and better compliance. MITC offers an integrated solution with products for
Capture service documentation
scheduling, absence management, billing, documentation,
CONCLUSION
time and attendance, and labor management; human resource
Workforce resources are a strategic asset. Even in a down
management, client and staff payroll; and data collection devices.
economy with high unemployment, agencies have to manage these resources wisely.
MITC provides complete automation and offers agencies a “single source of truth” for employee data. The modules are designed to eliminate redundant data entry and consequently reduce errors and administrative costs. By providing centralized and integrated tools that collect data in real time, MITC aims
Agencies that use MITC to efficiently and effectively manage their workforce can achieve real benefits in terms of cost savings, increased billing, productivity gains, compliance efforts, and alignment between employees and agency goals.
to reduce costs and improve productivity related to workforce
MITC is designed to offer automation, ease of use, integration
administration tasks.
with existing HR, payroll, billing and financial systems, and realtime data processing for quick validation.
ABOUT MITC MITC provides modular workforce management solutions and services to support all the needs of agencies — time and attendance, advanced employee scheduling, service documentation, payroll rules and reporting engine, workforce analytics, payroll and billing integration, and more. For 25 years, MITC has grown to serve over 1,500 organizations (with anywhere form 5 to 10,000 employees) in the USA, the UK , Africa, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. They have selected MITC to help control costs, save time, improve productivity and ensure compliance.
Visit www.mitcsoftware.com to learn more.
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