Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

I am "CA" Atreya (PMP, MBA), the author of this blog. I help businesses in Atlantic Canada achieve their BHAG successfully. You may subscribe to this blog using a feed reader (RSS).

Let’s face it: there are times when you have to be effective and then there are other times where you have to be efficient. Talking about efficiency essentially means talking about controlling costs. For a small business the one largest outflow is employee costs (it makes sense to hire independent contractors or outsource non-core operations, you know): you do not need me to tell you that. Are you tracking their time? Manually? If yes, then you must make this process efficient by investing in a time and attendance system like Kronos. Click here for more information.

One of the first things that time and attendance effects is payroll. Payroll is a very sensitive subject and you cannot afford to make mistakes. Moreover, payroll is repetitive - a perfect candidate to target for efficiency gains. However, people have different circumstances and you need to take into account those rules when determining deductions and net pay. Throw in overtime, vacations, training, etc. into the mix and you have all the makings of a resource intensive system if done manually.

Payroll is only part of the story. What about reports? Every measure of productivity you will have going will be a function of time. Are you accurately tracking that data? Remember garbage in - garbage out. Overtime kills, and if your organization is constantly asking employees to do overtime, you have some issues! Either your employees are not productive or your project estimates are inaccurate. How will you know which one to fix if you did not even know how much overtime is costing you?

Similarly, time and attendance systems enable you to see other employee specific reports. Moreover, the system you purchase must be scalable; i.e. it must grow along with your organization’s growth. There is no point in getting a system that you have to replace in two years if you hire 50 people in the next two years.

There are many variations of Kronos: web-based, client server and others. You might also want to check out their guide on how to select such a system.

Bottomline: You need to know how productive your employees are. In order to do that, you need a good time and attendance tracking system. Check out Kronos to see if that is what you need.

Note: You are expected to do your own due diligence before entering into any financial transaction with Kronos. We are not liable in any way.

• Time off: TED and How to find a job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & other social networksI have never felt miserable as I have felt over...