You may feel that an article on time and attendance (T&A) is out of place in a security magazine. Well it may have been 10 years ago but today the market requirements are for integrated access control and T&A. But is T&A just an add-on to your access control system?
I would like to suggest that it is such an important issue that you should decide on the T&A system before choosing the access control system. Many have found out the hard way that what they have purchased cannot handle their unique requirements in the wages department. There are some essential questions that your system vendor should be asking you. If not then ask them yourself before making a costly wrong decision.
Starting at the end
You should start at the end - your payroll program. Most organisations own a payroll program long before they own T&A or access control. Look at what you are manually typing into the program and ask if the T&A system can take away some or all of this work.
Firstly check whether the T&A program can export data directly into the payroll program. It may be that your payroll program cannot import at all. In that case you may need to look for a payroll program that can. Here are some of the questions you need to ask of the T&A system:
p Can the program export total hours worked to the payroll program?
p Will the program differentiate between normal time, multiple overtime rates, sick and holiday pay?
p Can the normal time and overtime be split up according to day shift, afternoon shift, and night shift, so that the payroll program can pay shift allowances on night shifts automatically?
p Can the number of shifts worked be counted and exported?
Next you should analyse your pay period.
Do you pay weekly or monthly? You may have a mixture of monthly and weekly staff. If so you should check that the program can support both types.
Also be aware of the different ways that people work - flexi-time, fixed shifts, rotating shifts, or 'flexi-shifts'. Flexi-time is common amongst highly-skilled staff and professionals. These individuals come to work anytime but must work a specified minimum number of hours. Fixed shift and rotating shift workers have predictable hours which may be defined in advance.
Most programs handle this type of worker quite easily as it is easy for a computer to compare clockings to a fixed plan. The most difficult type of worker to cater for is the 'flexi-shift' worker. This is found particularly in the retail industry (eg petrol stations, supermarkets, etc) where customer demand dictates how many staff are needed on duty, when lunch can be taken, and so on. It is important to write down exactly how each member of your company works and check that the T&A program can handle it. Pay attention to details such as:
p What day of the week does the weekly pay period start?
p What happens when the employee is late?
p When do they take breaks for tea and lunch, and do they clock out for these breaks, and are they paid during the breaks?
Public holidays often cause a lot of extra work for the wages department and on top of it they have one less day on which to do that work! A T&A program should be able to handle the public holiday automatically. There are two scenarios that must be taken care of:
1. Staff are paid a day's wages without arriving at work.
2. Staff are allowed to come to work and are paid at a premium rate for being at work.
Reporting functions
When there are no checks on an employee he is more likely to work less than required than to work more than is required. For this reason a company should be able to obtain the following reports from the T&A program:
p Absenteeism.
p Tardiness (arriving late for and leaving early from work, and taking longer breaks than allowed).
p Lost time (usually done on a department basis for manpower planning purposes).
These reports should be available for at least the last year's data to see trends and to pick up habitual tardiness.
Key features to look for
There are many extra features that a T&A system can offer but before being sold on the fancy features make sure the system can do the basics right. Some of the other features you can look out for are:
p Tea bell ringing.
p Wall clock synchronisation.
p Audit trail on changes made.
p Overtime authorisation.
p Shift detection.
p Job costing.
p Flexible reporting.
GSC Systems has an 18 year history of involvement in the T&A and access control market. It is the manufacturer of the Minitman-Pro timeclock and TimeMaster for Windows software. Its experience in the field has driven it to design the most important features into its T&A system. The company is represented around South Africa by selected and trained representatives.
For details contact GSC Systems on telephone (021) 712 5130, fax: (021) 712 5743 or e-mail erich@gsc.co.za
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