Workforce Time and Attendance Management for Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is subject to rapid changes in supply and demand, often as a result of seasonal changes, special promotions or new product launches and changes in the economy.

Improve the efficiency of your production staff with specialised Workforce Time and Attendance Software

To remain productive and profitable, manufacturers must respond to these fluctuations by ensuring that their workforce matches the supply and demand situation. 

By achieving this balance, they can avoid problems related to over or understaffing such as increased labour costs, decreased productivity or poor product quality. 

With an automated Time and Attendance System, supervisors and managers can easily assign employees to pre-defined work shifts and rosters, and schedule staff across a multitude of production sites. 

A good time and attendance application should also be able to accommodate complex award entitlements, rosters and work schedules, ensuring you have the appropriate number of staff, with the required skills, available for each shift.

How you capture your employee's time and attendance data is also important. Time clocks and terminals need to suit the environment. Will the area be hosed down? Are staff required to wear latex gloves? Do employees work with different oils or lubricants? Is the area refrigerated or chilled?   

Data capture options can include; biometric fingerscan technology, touch screen kiosks, durable proximity fob and swipe card terminals, or mobile applications. 

Working with some of the world's leading manufacturers, Mitrefinch's Time and Attendance system provides manufacturers with the tools to: 

• Accurately track employee time and attendance, reduce absenteeism, and improve productivity 
• Plan for future work and cover with our budget costing and time allocation tools 
• Easily track expenses against revenue 
• Automate compliance with work rules and industry award entitlements 
• Ensure shifts align with machine time, in order to maximise productivity 
• Manage overtime planning and allocation 
• Increase site safety with integrated Access Control, Fire Evacuation and Fatigue Management Reporting 
• Access real-time information on overtime, absences, and productivity and use this data to make important strategic decisions
• Capture employee time and attendance information from a range of sources

For more information on Workforce Management for Manufacturing visit Mitrefinch online or call 1300 884 831

Alcohol and drug use costing Australian businesses $5.2 billion a year in lost productivity and absenteeism

A new academic paper written for the Australian Drug Foundation has found that alcohol and drug use is costing Australian businesses $5.2 billion a year in hidden lost productivity and absenteeism.

The paper entitled, “Workplace Alcohol and other Drug Programs: What is Good Practice?” estimates the annual cost of absenteeism due to alcohol alone to be close to $1.2 billion.

Australian Drug Foundation Head of Workplace Services, Phillip Collins, explains; “The costs of lost productivity or absenteeism due to alcohol and other drugs are well hidden in most businesses.” “Employers and HR departments simply don’t have enough information to attribute the days of work their staff are missing as being due to drug and alcohol use.

“With access to real-time information on absenteeism, employers can quickly identify; how often a worker is absent, how much working time has been lost, if there is a particular pattern forming, and in which area of the business absenteeism occurs most” advises Jamie Fitzsimons, Marketing Manager at Mitrefinch Workforce Management. 

Workforce time and attendance management systems specialise in recording unplanned absences and leave, producing a complete Absence Profile for an individual employee, group of employees, or department. Armed with this information management can determine how absence impacts the organisation's overall productivity and address potential issues before they get out of hand.

For more information on preventive alcohol and drug workplace programs and how they can help your business become healthier, happier and more productive visit the Australian Drug Foundation website: www.adf.org.au/programs-services/workplace-services.

Safeguarding your business from an underpayment law suit with better workforce management

Yet another company is in the Fair Work Ombudsman’s sights for underpayment with SmartCompany reporting that an Adelaide windscreen company is set to appear in court over allegedly underpaying seven employees more than $100,000 over a period of four years.

In this case, the FWO argues the employees were paid flat hourly rates ranging from $12.50 to $21.62, "resulting in the employees variously being underpaid their minimum hourly rates, casual loadings and penalty rates”.

Employees were also allegedly instructed to work through lunch periods without a break, and then weren't paid for that time. One employee has also accused the company of underpaying annual and personal leave entitlements.

The FWO has been eagerly chasing businesses accused of underpaying workers, especially workers from other countries. However, business groups have complained the wage system is too hard to understand, with businesses likely to make mistakes because of the complexity of different awards and rates.

Safeguard your business from a potential Fair Work Ombudsman investigation

An automated time and attendance system can assist organisations with better workforce management by accurately capturing and recording employees’ work time and attendance information.

With this information a time and attendance system can easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties and modern awards. This ensures consistent application of your business rules and compliance with federal and state workplace legislation.

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

For more information download our White Paper "Howto choose the right Time and Attendance System for your Business".

Positive relationships and better work/life balance 'key to job fulfilment'

According to a new study out of the UK, encouraging better relationships between staff and helping them strike a reasonable work/life balance could be the best workforce management techniques for employers looking to boost staff engagement and wellbeing.

The study by support charity Samaritans and insurance firm Simplyhealth, asked more than 1,400 workers to identify which aspects of their job they felt was most essential to feeling fulfilled at work.

Just under half (42 per cent) of workers felt positive relationships with their bosses and colleagues helped them to feel good at work, while 40 per cent said having a good work/life balance was key.

Receiving praise (26 per cent) and earning the trust of the boss (16 per cent) were also important factors. While just 14 per cent of workers said hitting their targets was essential for feeling good about their job, and interestingly only four per cent agreed that team activities including 'away-days' made them feel fulfilled.

Commenting on the findings, Rachel Kirby Rider, Samaritans' director for fundraising and communications, said: "Samaritans understand how interacting with people is really important and so it is interesting to see that having positive relationships tops the poll of making people feel good at work”.

"Our survey results demonstrate how looking out for each other’s wellbeing and having a good work/life balance is essential."

Employers looking to help staff achieve a better balance between their work and private lives could find that investing in time and attendancesoftware, which allows for the monitoring of employee working hours, can help achieve this.

Management could use the data collected by their time and attendance system to monitor not only the contracted hours of their staff but also the extra hours that employees put in to complete projects. 

Armed with this information they may be able to justify hiring additional staff or bringing in contractors at times of increased activity, or at the very least acknowledge the effort being put in their employees - perhaps introducing a Time in Lieu scheme or incentives for those that put in the hard yards?

This could not only improve staff wellbeing but also boost productivity, suggested Mark Day, spokesperson for Simplyhealth.

"Organisations with healthy, happy employees can find they see improvements in productivity and results," he added.

There are many more benefits of using an automated time and attendance system, visit Mitrefinch online to find out more.