A sign of the times: Rise of Workaholics Anonymous

In this "always-on" society and with smartphone use going through the roof, is it really any wonder that we are breeding a nation of Workaholics?

After widespread success in the US, Workaholics Anonymous has made its way to Australian shores reports The Age Newspaper.

Workaholics Anonymous is a support group in the same vein as its more well-known namesake Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), with groups now up and running in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide. 

A recent study found people are more likely to experience burnout when they are exposed to continuous stress, long hours, increased workload and a feeling that they have no other work alternative. 

While WorkCover’s 2011-2015 Occupational Disease and Wellbeing Strategy, also reported that the number of claims for occupational diseases in NSW is increasing – with more than 17,000 claims for mental disorders such as work-related stress, anxiety and depression between 2007 and 2010. 

Organisational and industrial psychologist Dr Tim Hill said those with high ambition but a lack of stress management skills are at the highest risk for burnout. 

“If you’ve got a new hire who has a real need to prove themselves in a position that has a relative degree of difficulty, desire to prove themselves can turn into a compulsion – they may lose work/life balance, neglecting their needs if they have obvious behavioural changes, something like depersonalisation can be a strong indicator they’re on their way to burnout.”

Dr Hill also pointed to workplace bullying as a leading cause of workplace stress and burnout saying bullying often flies under the radar and workers sometimes feel reluctant to report it.

Employers are urged to look out for warning signs such as; a rise in absenteeism, increased workplace conflict and cynicism, isolation or detachment from others in the workplace.

An automated time and attendance software system can monitor and track employees’ working hours as well as unplanned absence and leave. By recording absences, a time and attendance software system builds a complete Employee Absence Profile which can be viewed on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. While a Group Absence Profile allows you to analyse absence for a specific team, department or site.

By measuring the work absences of individual employees a time and attendance software system can identify how these absences impact the organisation’s overall productivity, while real-time reporting allows supervisors and managers to quickly identify potential problem areas and address issues before they get out of hand.

To find out more about how improved Workforce Manangement and Time and Attendance Tracking can help you monitor your employee's work patterns visit Mitrefinch online

Sources: 

Human Capital Online 
The Age - Workaholics down tools to get their lives back  

Check out our other work stress-related blog posts: 

Excessive Overtime may be linked to Depression
Preventable job stress costs economy $730 million annually

Positive relationships and better work/lifebalance 'key to job fulfilment' 

Festive Workforce Management: Managing Public Holidays

While Christmas is generally regarded as a holiday for most, there are a number of industries that will require staff to work across some or all of the public holidays. 

Image courtesy of Fair Work Australia

Managing public holidays and associated pay rates over the festive period can be quite confusing – in particular for organisations who operate nationally – as some Australian States and Territories adopt slightly different arrangements. For example, in South Australia, part-day public holidays have been declared from 7pm - midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. 

Employees also have workplace entitlements on public holidays, regardless of whether they work or not. Fair Work Australia advises that minimum wages for working on public holidays depend on a number of things, including the industry you work in and the work you do. 

Under many awards and agreements, an employee who works on a public holiday may receive a penalty rate or loading for the hours worked, be provided with time off instead of payment of penalty rates, or receive equivalent time added to their annual leave balance. 

Fair Work also advise that an employee's roster can't be changed to avoid the payment for a public holiday if the employee doesn't work. 

Useful Links: 

• What Employees Get on Public Holidays 
• Christmas and New Year Public Holiday FAQs
• Annual Shut Down FAQs

Regardless of the State or Territory you operate in, a Time and Attendance system can take the stress out of employee allowances and entitlement calculations via inbuilt Award Interpretation functionality. 

Award Interpretation enables you to easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties, ensuring consistent application of your business rules. A direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors. 

Current Mitrefinch TMS users can easily configure their Time Management System (TMS) to process Public Holidays – for assistance contact Mitrefinch Support. 

If you are still processing your payroll manually and would like to put improved Workforce Management and automated Award Interpretation on your Christmas Wish List contact us via email (sales@mitrefinch.co.au) or call +61 2 8762 7888.

Looking To Free Up Valuable Time For Your HR Management Team?

For organisations of all shapes and sizes, the role of a Human Resources Executive generally encompasses many different tasks - from payroll processing, scheduling, award and entitlement calculations, absence management, not to mention keeping track of mobile and flexi workers. 

Helping HR Manage!

By introducing an automated Human Resource Management System, you can lower administrative costs while giving your HR team the time to work on more productive activities and projects. 

Here's how: 

Award Interpretation: Easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties, ensuring consistent application of your business rules and compliance with workplace legislation. 

A direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors. 

Employee Self Service functionality: enables your employees to directly view any leave accrued, requests for time-off can be requested or approved automatically. 

Employee Scheduling: Assign resources based on predefined budgets and skill sets, keeping operating costs as low as possible. In addition, ensure you have sufficient staff on board to cover the holiday period by limiting how many employees can be off on a given day or time period. Once the limit has been reached no further employees can request leave.

Absence Management: Real-time reports allow you to analyse any particular attendance trends or unplanned absences, as well as the commercial impact of schedules, overtime, absence and stockpiled leave.


Comprehensive Reporting: All of your employee data, files and correspondence are centrally stored, making the filing and retrieving of vital information quick and easy to manage. The stored information can be used to run reports on past and present data, such as training and development requirements. 

To find out how you can improve efficiency in your HR and Payroll Department contact Mitrefinch today on +61 2 9762 7888 or visit www.mitrefinch.com.au

Show your Payroll People some Love this Week

Many of us don't give payroll a second thought - that is until something goes wrong somewhere and we get paid incorrectly, but for the large part all we are concerned with - is how we are going to spend it come pay day!

Regardless of company size or industry, payroll professionals are tasked with managing one of the largest costs a business has, ensuring all legislative requirements are being met and keeping up with the changes, developing processes to ensure we are paid on time and correctly, as well as providing a wealth of employee information for the business to use in effectively managing its employees.

This week, it's National Payroll Week (NPW) in NZ, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of the payroll function within a business and how those professionals in the Pay Office manage to get our wages processed on time, every pay run.

As part of the week’s festivities, the New Zealand Payroll Practitioners’ Association (NZPPA) in conjunction with HAYS, are hosting a number of free* breakfast briefing sessions throughout the week in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Each session will have three speakers and morning tea available while giving attendees the opportunity to network with industry peers. 

In addition, NZPPA are distributing posters and postcards which promote the payroll profession to organizations all over New Zealand, they are also running a “Best Payroll Team” photo competition with $500 in prize money on offer. 

Organisations are encouraged to get involved in NPW by hosting their own morning tea or lunch with the payroll team, or simply just take the time this week to drop by your Pay Office and thank your payroll person for a job well done!

For more information on National Payroll Week please visit the NZPPA website: www.nzppa.co.nz

Here at Mitrefinch we are proud sponsors of NPW. Our Time and Attendance System (Mitrefinch TMS) aims to make life in the pay office a little less stressful come pay day by  automating the transfer of hours and rates to their payroll system, ensuring compliance with entitlements, and improving overall productivity and efficiency.

*Free for NZPPA members, for non-members a $12 fee will be payable.

With cold and flu season underway, is your business prepared for Winter Absenteeism?

With the arrival of Winter in the Southern Hemisphere, have you noticed an increase in the number of employees calling in sick?

Safeguard your business against Winter Absence

While we generally don’t get the sub zero temperatures experienced by our counterparts in the US and Europe, I'm sure i'm not the only one tempted to hit the snooze button and hide under the doona on these chilly mornings!

However, in addition to "illegimate sickies", the cooler weather also brings an increase in cases of genuine sickness, like colds and flus, which can directly impact a company’s bottom line.

According to research compiled by Kimberly-Clark Professional:

• It is estimated that the flu impairs a workers performance by between 20 and 40%
• On average 6.5 working days of productivity are lost per employee annually
• 10% of all illness related absenteeism is due to the flu

This unplanned absenteeism and drop in productivity, is a major concern for many organisations and employers must consider both the direct and indirect costs incurred when an employee is absent.

Organisations need to be proactive and plan in advance to safeguard their business from the effects of Winter Absenteeism.

Steps you can take to combat Winter Absence

If you can’t measure it, it’s pretty hard to manage it – as a first step, businesses need to establish an effective means of measuring and monitoring employee absence.

By effectively measuring absence and sickness in the workplace management can easily identify:

• How often a worker is absent
• How much working time has been lost
• If there is any particular pattern forming (i.e. a particular worker regularly calls in sick on a Friday morning)
• and Where absenteeism occurs the most (i.e. within a particular department, team)

Armed with this valuable information, management can assess the extent of their absenteeism issues and decide on the best means of tackling the problem.

How might an automated Time and Attendance System help?

A Time and Attendance system is a powerful Workforce Management tool for analysing employee attendance information and the associated costs.

By recording unplanned absences, holidays and paid parental leave, an automated Time and Attendance system provides you with a complete AbsenceProfile for an individual employee or group of employees for further analysis.

In addition, by measuring work absences an automated Time and Attendancesystem can identify how these absences impact the organisation's overall productivity, as well as identifying potential problem areas – allowing management to address any issues before they get out of hand.

In-built employee scheduling and rostering capabilities also enable management to plan projected manpower and work schedules according to available resources, skills sets etc...

For more information please feel free to call 1300 884 831 (+61 2 8762 7888 outside Australia), email sales@mitrefinch.com.au or visit us online.

Also see: Safeguard your organisation from Absenteeism Spike via the Australian Payroll Association website

Do falling staff sickness levels signal rise in presenteeism?

In the UK, employees are now taking fewer sick days off work than at any time since records began, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed.

However, while absenteeism rates appear to be falling, experts have warned that this could be creating another workforce management problem for employers - a rise in presenteeism – where staff come in to work even when they in ill health, which can ultimately affect their own and their organisation's performance. 

In Australia, the latest estimates put the price of absenteeism at $6bn annually, while the cost of presenteeism could be as high as $34bn, according to a new report by Medibank.

"Sickness absence is in the spotlight because it is something management can measure, putting individual managers under pressure to reduce the level of absenteeism among staff - but it leads to increased presenteeism, especially during a recession," Ksenia Zheltoukhova, a spokesperson for the Work Foundation, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

“Employers have the ability to reduce presenteeism rates, thereby improving productivity and, in the long-term, generate a positive impact on their business bottom line,” Dr Matthew Cullen from Medibank Health Solutions said. 

As such, to minimise negative effects to businesses, employers should take steps to make staff feel comfortable about taking time off when they are ill as part of their absence management strategies.

Medibank advise that investments need to be made in the health of staff, so that employers can reduce presenteeism rates, productivity and, in the long term, generate an overall positive impact on business.

For more info see “Time to get serious about presenteeism, it’s costing you $34bn” on HC Online.

Confident that your staff are being paid correctly?

Maybe it's time you checked your payroll reports as yet another company has been caught out for allegedly underpaying it's employees.

This time, the operator of a Gold Coast pizza shop is being prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman for allegedly underpaying 27 employees almost $20,000.

The employees in question were aged from 20 to 37 and several are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, employed as cooks, kitchen-hands, customer service attendants and delivery drivers.

The workers were allegedly underpaid their minimum hourly rates, overtime rates and weekend penalty rates, with one staff member allegedly underpaid evening work allowances.

It is also alleged that the outlet owner, Mr Murphy, failed to comply with a Notice to Produce documents issued by Fair Work inspectors during their investigation.

Under the Fair Work Act, employers must comply with requests from the FairWork Ombudsman to provide employment records relating to employees and former employees.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said the decision to prosecute was made because of the involvement of vulnerable workers and the employer's failure to rectify the matter.

Read the full article online at Payroll News

How can you safeguard your organisation from a potential Fair Work investigation?

Ensuring that you are compliant with different pay scales, penalty rates and modern awards can represent a major headache for many organisations, with other recent workplace cases such as Toys 'R' Us, highlighting the importance of effective Award Interpretation and Time Management processes.

An automated Employee Time Management System takes the stress out of employee allowances and entitlement calculations via an in-built, fully customisable Award Interpreter.

Easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties, ensuring consistent application of your business rules. A direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors.

Reports and Employment Records can also be generated quickly and easily should you be asked to produce them as evidence by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

If you would like discover how your organisation can benefit from more efficient Award Interpretation and effective Employee Time Management contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 931 or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Hungry Jack's to back pay staff more than $104,000

(Source Payroll News) A Hungry Jack’s fast food outlet in central Victoria has been penalised for underpaying its staff for more than four years. 

The Federal Magistrates Court ordered the operator of the Bendigo outlet to pay a penalty of $46,200, after the company volunteered to pay back more than $104,000 it owed to its staff, who were mostly junior employees. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman said most of the underpayments resulted from the company failing to upgrade wage rates as required for the employees’ length of service. This resulted in underpayments of the minimum hourly rate, overtime and public holiday rates. 

The company also underpaid or failed to pay annual leave entitlements and a laundry allowance. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman said as well as repaying its workers, the company had appointed a new payroll adviser. 

The ruling comes in the wake of an official audit revealing a quarter of Australian employers in the $240 billion retail industry were underpaying staff or failing to record work times and wages properly. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman's random inspection of almost 1900 businesses found 26 per cent were breaking workplace laws or regulations - many unwittingly.
 

The findings have retailers fearing a huge bill, with sector's peak body, the Australian Retailers Association, warning there could be millions more owed in back pay because many of the 140,000 businesses were confused about their new obligations under the changed industrial relations regime and the change to a federal system. 

An automated Time and Attendance Software System can take the stress out of payroll processing, award and entitlement calculations. 

Easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties, ensuring consistent application of your business rules. A direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors. 

If you would like discover how your organisation can benefit from more efficient Award Interpretation and effective Employee Time Management contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 831 or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Minimising the Festive Frenzy with a Time Management System (Part 3)

In this, the third and final instalment of our mini Christmas-themed series, we take a look at how an automated Time and Attendance System can alleviate panic and stress in your HR department.  

 

With the Christmas and Summer holiday season well and truly upon us, HR departments across the country are being bombarded with various requests for time off.

How your business deals with these requests can make a big difference to your bottom line - as well as your HR team's wellbeing!

An automated Time and Attendance System, with Employee Self Service functionality, empowers your staff to manage their own time and attendance in a controlled, accessible and efficient way.

Employees can also view their accrued leave, entitlements, and request updates to their personal records without having to bother the HR department.

A web-based interface could be customised to suit the needs of your complete workforce, handling remote clocking in from desktop PCs, laptops and the latest smart phones. This would allow staff to clock in/out and on/off tasks, appointments and projects, regardless of their physical location.

Leave Slots are an innovative holiday planning feature now available in the latest release of Mitrefinch’s Time Management System.

This new functionality enables managers and supervisors to limit how many employees can be off on a given day or time period - averting potential staffing shortfalls and ensuring you have sufficient staff on hand during times of increased demand – think December 26^th for those in the hospitality and retail sector!

Employees can view available Leave Slots online and they will be unable to request leave once the limit has been reached – hence HR won’t need to deal with multiple requests from staff on what days are available etc...  

In a nut (cracker) shell, Employee Self Service is ultimately designed to make your business more profitable and your HR team more efficient.

To find out how, please visit www.mitrefinch.com.au or call +61 2 8762 7888 and put improved Employee Management on your Christmas Wishlist today!

Half of Australian workers admit to fleecing their employers with Buddy Punching and Time Theft

Australians are the third most likely worldwide to try to fleece their employer by being a little less than honest when it comes to clocking on and off work, according to a new survey by Kronos APAC.

An article in last week’s Herald Sun, stated that 51 per cent of surveyed workers admitted to some degree of Time Theft, with NSW leading the way on 45 per cent - which amounts to alot of lost productivity and revenue!

The survey also found Australia's most dishonest employees were 18 to 24-year-old men earning a middle income.

Top tricks used include; clocking in earlier or out later than scheduled and neglecting to clock off for lunch or breaks.

Ask yourself, if any of the following statements sound familiar? Perhaps you have used them in the past, or maybe your employees are using them now...

“I knew I’d be late this morning, so I gave my mate on the same shift my proximity fob and ID pin and he clocked me in”

“I need to make up my 38 hours this week. If I shorten my actual lunches on my Time Sheet no one will ever know.”

“I needed to take a 20 minute break to make a phone call, but I just didn’t bother clocking out and in again.”

So how might you reduce the potential for Buddy Punching, Time Theft or Time Sheet padding within your business?

While an employee time and attendance system certainly is a step in the right direction, you need to ensure you have the right system in place to match your organisational set up.

For example:

• Will the time and attendance system prevent employees from clocking in or out for one another?
• If it is a mobile time and attendance solution, does it use GPS functionality to ensure that the employee is clocking in from the appropriate location?
• Are time sheets linked to a clocking system allowing you to see that the employee clocked in/out at a specific time and they are not fudging their times?
• If you are using a biometric time and attendance system, has it been proven to reject “spoof” fingerprints?

For more information on employee time clocks to accurately monitor employee time and attendance, visit www.mitrefinch.com.au or contact us directly at sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Mitrefinch to feature Time Tracking Solutions at The Association of Payroll Specialists’ Payroll Expo in Sydney and Melbourne

Mitrefinch to feature Time and Attendance Solutions as part of TAPS Payroll Expo

Once again Mitrefinch are pleased to be associated with The Association of Payroll Specialists’ (TAPS) and their Annual Workplace Review Conference and Payroll Expo.

As Australia’s longest running payroll related event, last year’s conference attracted over 250 delegates, and due to increasing demand from members, TAPS have decided to bring the event to Melbourne, in addition to Sydney this time around. 

With a “Building a Better Payroll” theme, the conference boasts an impressive educational line-up with a strong emphasis on recent changes to legislation, as well as educational sessions related to; Fringe Benefits, Leave, Superannuation, Terminations, Expats, and an Excel Masterclass. 

Following on last year’s success the “Payroll Expo” will also make a welcome return, providing attendees with an opportunity to learn about the latest payroll technology and tools to implement best practices, operational efficiencies and cost savings. 

“Mitrefinch are delighted to be associated with TAPS and the Payroll Expo again this year, and we are especially looking forward to exhibiting at our first Melbourne event”, said Jamie Fitzsimons, Mitrefinch AsiaPac Marketing Manager. “We will be on hand to demonstrate our range of mitrefinch biometric time and attendance solutions, as well as our new mobile applications for effective job costing and time management of remote staff.” 

The Sydney event takes place on October 20/21 at the Southee Complex, Sydney Showgrounds and at Hilton on the Park in Melbourne on October 27/28. You can catch Mitrefinch and their innovative mitrefinch time tracking solutions at Booth 14 (Sydney) and Booth 8 (Melbourne). 

For more information contact Mitrefinch direct on 1300 884 831 or visit the TAPS Workplace Review website

How much is employee lateness costing your business?

Have you ever missed your train or gotten a flat tyre en route to work? Maybe your just not a morning person or you struggle to get the kids out for school before you head to the office?

Whatever the reason, when not measured and managed properly, employees’ lateness can cause businesses thousands of dollars each year in lost productivity and profits.

To understand exactly how much lateness could cost your organisation, let’s look at the example below.

Company ABC Pty Ltd has 150 employees.

10% of their workforce (15 employees) is persistently late for work by 10 minutes. Their average hourly pay is $25.00 p/h (10 minutes late represents $4.16)

Assuming there are 232 working days per year: 232 x 15 (late employees) x $4.16 ($ lost due to lateness) = $14,476.80 lost per year

Combine that with the lost productivity, extra overtime costs occurred when covering workload, and the order value of the contracts lost due to delays in delivery, and you can clearly see how just a few minutes lateness can really affect your bottom line.

So what can you do to address the issue? The Forum of Private Business proposes the following below steps:

1. Set boundaries

Your staff needs to know what you expect from them, therefore a clear lateness policy should be introduced and communicated across your workforce.

The policy should cover:

• The required standards of timekeeping, i.e. working hours, shift patterns, any flexi-time or flexible working arrangements
• Any consequences of persistent lateness
• What disciplinary action will be taken under the disciplinary procedure
• How your company will monitor time keeping, i.e. timesheets or clocking in machine
• If and how your staff will have to make up any time they have missed
• Who they should report lateness to if they know are going to be late and by when

2. Create a formal procedure

The Forum suggests that persistent lateness can often be resolved informally and the employee may be given an opportunity to improve.

This often proves to be a more effective way of resolving such an issue at an early stage - highlighting potential problems that you can quickly address and negating the need for an investigation and disciplinary meeting.

If after the informal action lateness continues to occur, it may create grounds for a formal disciplinary procedure.

3. Be fair and flexible

We’ve all been affected by unexpected events i.e. rail strikes, traffic accidents or inclement weather, which can impact on the time taken to travel to work.

Employers need to be realistic and understanding about occasional unavoidable problems with getting to work. They should always listen to employee’s reason for lateness, which may indicate problems concerning management, working relationships and work hours.

Where possible companies should plan ahead and be open to changing shift patterns, allowing temporary home-working or flexible working arrangements, if appropriate.

How to effectively monitor attendance and reduce the financial impact of Employee Tardiness

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if you monitor employees’ attendance and absence patterns their overall presence rate will generally improve.

An automated Time and Attendance system can help reduce employee lateness by effectively monitoring and analysing working time and absence patterns. I for one know that if I have to register my attendance in the morning, I make double sure I make it into the office on time!

An effective Time and Attendance system also allows you to set up specific rules relating to your business operation. For example, you could set up a rule whereby once a person arrives late to work by 7 minutes, the system rounds that figure up to 15 minutes, meaning 15 minutes worth of pay will be reduced from your employee’s salary.

Continue to our website to find out more information about automated Time andAttendance systems and absence management modules.

Failure to comply with Fatigue Management laws costs Perth Truck company - how are you managing Fatigue?

Industry Search reports that a West Australian truck company has been fined $20,000 for failing to comply with fatigue management laws for its drivers.

Holm, trading as Cockburn Transport, employs drivers to transport freight across Australia on journeys that can take more than two weeks.

In July and August 2008, WorkSafe inspectors investigated the company's fatigue management practices and found it had failed to keep records of work time, breaks from driving or non-work time for trips undertaken by two drivers, and did not ensure that drivers observed fatigue management regulations on three occasions.

Interestingly, the company had been convicted of two similar charges and fined $10,000 in June 2007.

Acting WorkSafe WA commissioner Lex McCulloch said it was "disappointing" that some companies are still failing to comply with laws that have been in place since 1998.

Workplace fatigue is not isolated to the transport and logistics industry. Regardless of what sector you operate in, fatigue can significantly affect a worker’s ability to operate effectively, with side effects including reduced performance and productivity, and greater potential for workplace accidents.

Automated Time and Attendance systems can assist organisations with effective fatigue management, enabling them to proactively monitor staff work and break hours.

Employees have the ability to clock in/out or on/off jobs via wall mounted devices at the depot, head office or manufacturing plant, or via the Internet and mobile or wireless devices for remote staff. This attendance data is recorded and Supervisors and HR are sent an alert when an employee is approaching their work hour limit, enabling them to adjust rosters and shifts accordingly, and enforce minimum break times.

In addition, and automated Time and Attendance system can accommodate current workplace legislation and modern awards, as well as any organisation-specific work rules, and can easily accommodate any new legislative changes. This ensures that your staff are only permitted to work if they satisfy all the associated rules, providing you with ‘peace of mind’ that they are alert to perform their duties in a safe manner.

By automating annual reporting and maintaining a complete audit trail, an effective Time and Attendance system will also arm you with all the information needed in the unfortunate event of legal action.

Ask yourself, how does your fatigue management plan stack up? If you haven't got the processes in place maybe it's time you took a look at a system that will help safeguard your employees and your business. 

To find out more about how an automated Time and Attendance system could help you apply Fatigue Management procedures within your organisation check us out online, email sales@mitrefinch.com.au or call us on +61 2 8762 7888

How a Time and Attendance System could help you implement a Salary Sacrifice Scheme

A city council in the UK has revealed that they've made savings of up to $230,000 by implementing a salary sacrifice scheme which allows employees to buy extra annual leave.

The ‘Holidayplus’ plan at Nottingham City Council gives employees an option to sacrifice part of their monthly salary in order to increase their holiday entitlement, and they also have the option to spread the extra holiday cost over 12 months.

Staff can choose to purchase additional annual leave whilst making savings of up to 41% on tax and national insurance. This also benefits the council with savings on its national insurance employer contributions, which has resulted in a reduction of the overall annual salary bill.

Angela Probert, Nottingham City Council’s director of HR and transformation commented: “With the UK public sector facing substantial financial cuts, we need to try to reduce costs where possible, creating as little detrimental impact on our employees and customers as possible.”

“Holidayplus is the perfect example of an innovative solution which not only supports our efforts to reduce outgoings, but importantly, offers a positive benefit to our colleagues,” she continued.

“It has been well received by colleagues and we hope to make more savings in this way in the future.”

For more information see: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/43333

So how might an automated Time and Attendance system help you introduce a similar program at your organisation?

Implementing an automated Time and Attendance System with Self Service funtionality is a good first step to introducing a salary sacrificing scheme.

An automated Time and Attendance System can easily manage the increase in the number of leave entitlements and would enable you to avoid any inaccurate payments made as a consequence of errors associated with manually tracking leave.

With Employee Self-Service functionality, a Time and Attendance system allows employees to request personal leave without having to speak to their manager directly, employees can also view their accrued leave, entitlements, and request updates to their personal records without having to bother the HR department, saving time spent on administrative duties.

In addition, during busy periods i.e. the run up to Christmas, a supervisor can set up Leave Slots. This option restricts the number of people that can take Annual Leave on the same day. For example, if an employee tries to book leave on a day when 3 other people have already requested leave, they would get a rejection message and would have to change or abandon their request.

In the event that department managers are on leave, they can ‘escalate’ their responsibilities regarding approving/declining holiday requests to other supervisors so that any holiday-related issues could be sorted without any delays.

If you would like more information on Time and Attendance and Employee Self Service functionality contact us on +61 2 8762 7888 or visit Mitrefinch online today.