Mitrefinch to focus on new Trends in Time and Attendance at TAPS Workplace Review

The Association of Payroll Specialists’ (TAPS) are hosting their annual Workplace Review Conference in both Melbourne and Sydney this month. The event is Australia’s longest running payroll conference and this year’s theme is “Give your Payroll a Workout".

Give your payroll a workout at the TAPS Workplace Review and Payroll Expo

The conference will feature an impressive line-up of educational sessions with a strong emphasis on recent changes to legislation, as well as popular pay and HR related topics such as long service leave, super reforms, expats, payroll fraud, workplace health and safety, salary packaging and fringe benefits tax. 

The team from Mitrefinch will be on hand to present an informative session on “Trends in Time and Attendance”, focusing on new advancements in workforce management, incorporating leading-edge biometric and mobile technology, as well as the different ways in which employee time and attendance information can be effectively utilised across other areas of the business, outside of payroll processing and HR management. 

The Payroll Expo will run in conjuction with the Workplace Review, providing attendees with an opportunity to learn more about the latest payroll and HR technology and tools to implement best practices, operational efficiencies and cost savings. 

“We are pleased to be associated with TAPS and the Payroll Expo once again, and are especially looking forward to presenting as part of the educational sessions”, said Jamie Fitzsimons, Mitrefinch Marketing Manager. 

“As well as advising attendees on new trends in workforce management, we will also demonstrate how up-to-the-minute time and attendance data can be used for effective labour costing, fatigue management, mobile workforce tracking, and staff and production scheduling.” 

The Conference will take place at the Bayview Eden in Melbourne on October 17/18 and at Luna Park in Sydney on October 24/25. 

For more information contact Mitrefinch direct on 1300 884 831 or visit the event website. 

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".

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' 

Melbourne Cup: the Race that can grind Business to a halt

With the Melbourne Cup day just a few days away, many employees across NSW are busy planning Cup day lunches and office sweep stakes.

However legal experts are advising employers to have all the right policies in place before “the race that stops a nation” to avoid getting caught up in any scandals.

Speaking to mX Sydney, Joydeep Hor, managing principal, at People + Culture Strategies, explains that it doesn't matter whether you decide to have a half-day or not: you need to set expectations for all staff so there's no disappointment or confusion come Tuesday.

“Issues have arisen in the past for some of our clients where staff assume they have the rest of the afternoon off, when in fact they are required in the office”.

He also added, "There are plenty of complications regarding the consumption of alcohol and the risk of inappropriate behaviour, the disclosure of corporate information."

The solution isn't difficult, according to Hor. Just spend some time setting guidelines for all staff about whether or not they should come back to work, if alcohol can be consumed, and any other related topics you may think of.

Despite it been a Public Holiday in Victoria, employers there have raised concerns about the tendency for workers to call in sick on the Monday beforehand - giving them an extra long weekend.

While the majority of employees take a legitimate four-day weekend by applying for leave in advance, employers have also experienced a significant increase in unplanned absences or sickies on the day.

The impact of staff taking a ‘mass sick day’ on a business is significant in terms of financial costs and lost productivity. Where possible, employers should encourage staff to use up any stockpiled leave if they are planning on taking an extra-long weekend.

In addition, there are numerous tools available to help employers better manage leave and absence.  

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

This new functionality enables managers and supervisors to limit how many employees can be off on a given day or time period (e.g. the Monday before Cup Day) - averting potential staffing shortfalls and ensuring you have sufficient staff on hand to meet demand.

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 addition, Absence Profiling, allows you to see who took a sick day, when, and if any particular pattern is forming. For example, you could check back to last year and see if there was a significant spike in absence on the Monday of Cup Week – and take appropriate action.

If you happen to work in an industry where staff are required to work on Cup Day, an automated Time and Attendance Software System can also take the stress out of payroll processing – by easily calculate overtime pay and public holiday penalties, and exporting this information direct to your external payroll application. 

For more information call 1300 884 831 or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Read more: 

Smart Company: Cup day blues legal expert warns businesses to get their work policies in order

mX Sydney: Race that stops nation if boss OK