Time and Attendance and payroll: What's at stake?

But what is time management? What are the challenges for Human Resources? What are the advantages of digitising time management software to support payroll management? We’ve outlined the challenges of Time and Attendance as well as the advantages of implementing time management software to support payroll management.

What is Time Management?

Time Management combines several areas, from managing employee absences to analytically monitoring their activity. This information can then be analysed in different ways, including by department, cost centre or project.

The main themes of Time Management

Several themes come together within the context of time management. These consist of:

• Employees' hours worked: management of overtime and additional hours worked
• Monitoring of working and rest times: respecting the maximum working time and the minimum requirements for daily and weekly rest periods
• Management of employee absences, such as paid annual leave, accrued holiday pay, accrual leave, and paid time off
• Management of the different working types: shift work, night work, split shifts, seasonal work, flexible work, and rotating shifts
• Employee timekeeping: computer entry, badge or fob entry, remote logging in
• Analysis of employee activity, such as by department, by cost centre or project

What are the challenges for Human Resources?

From the monitoring of employees' working time to forecasting the management of jobs and skills, Time and Attendance Management is of great importance for Human Resources departments.

Securing working hours

Time and Attendance Management makes it possible to monitor and analyse the working time of employees and ensure compliance with the rules and regulations regarding working hours. According to GOV.UK, current regulations are as follows:

• Maximum of 48 hours per week, on average over a 17-week period
• Minimum of 10 hours rest in any 24-hour period and 77 hours rest in any 7-day period
• The right to 11 hours rest between working days
• Entitlement of at least 20 minutes of uninterrupted rest if you work more than 6 hours a day

Therefore, monitoring and analysing employees' working hours makes it possible to ensure that maximum working hours are not exceeded and that minimum rest periods are adhered to.

Non-compliance with the rules on working hours exposes the employer to criminal sanctions (of up to £1,500). The employee can also raise a grievance, or resign and claim constructive dismissal at an employment tribunal. As well as a bad reputation for the company, this highlights the importance of carefully monitoring working time.

claim compensation for the damage suffered before the Labour Court, hence the importance of monitoring the working time of employees.

A Resource to help job and skills management

Job and Skills Management is a key resource for monitoring activity by department, project or cost centre, and allows Human Resources to precisely adjust the workforce to the skills required for the task, as well as the number of workers needed.

Analysing the activity of employees also makes it possible to ensure that the budgets allocated to HR are respected.

Time & Activity Management Software: What Are the benefits for Payroll Management?

To optimise Time Management within the company, employers can equip themselves with a Time and Attendance solution. But what is the benefit for payroll digitising time management?

Time and Attendance Management software: What are the features?

Time and Attendance Management software enables employees' working hours to be managed, but also links the payroll elements to working times, such as meal allowance, petrol allowance sick pay or personal time off.

Other features offered by Time and Attendance management software include: entering absences; employee self-clocking in, as well as by using a physical or virtual badge; and the option of analysing employee activity by cost centre, project or service.

Integration of payroll software

A Time and Attendance solution is either separate to the payroll software or integrated with it. Even though integration is the easier option, not all providers offer Time and Attendance as well as payroll options.

Most TIem and Attendance management software offers a system for integrating calculated variable pay elements, such as overtime and absences, into the payroll software, via APIs or web services. However, the Kelio HRIS and Time and Attendance software is compatible with more than 160 different types of payroll software.

Decentralise payroll element entry

Time and Attendance management software can allow the payroll team to free themselves from entering payroll on behalf of the employee or management by enabling them to enter their own absences and working hours directly.

This decentralisation of entering payroll elements represents a hugely beneficial time saving for the payroll team who are freed from tiem consuming data entry and can concentrate on other tasks.

Enabling employees to enter theory own payroll elements has the added advantage of empowering employees / managers. It creates a feeling of being more invested in the company than if they were to send the information to the payroll team.