Building a Business Case to Purchase an HRIS, Part 3

Building a Business Case, Part 3

Integration saves both time and money.

One of the biggest reasons to push for an HRIS at any organization is the reduction or complete removal of double entry. Not only does double entry of data result in major errors (covered in Part 1 of this series) which costs companies money in payroll processing errors, but it can also create benefits and paycheck problems for employees, and can complicate compliance issues (covered in Part 2). In addition, it will also increase labor costs for the entry of data multiple times into multiple systems.

However, while an interface between an HRIS and a completely separate payroll vendor is works well, it doesn’t truly offer the same benefits as a FULLY integrated system. A FULLY integrated system offers the transfer of data in real time – meaning data is always up to date – for both the HR and Payroll departments.

Ascentis HR is fully integrated with Ascentis Payroll, offers integration to benefits carriers for enrollment data, as well as document management capabilities so that there is a single source of all HR data. This increases data accuracy and validity, while reducing the time spent on day-to-day data maintenance tasks. Accurate data can result in avoiding compliance lawsuits, overbilling from a benefits carrier, and better management of leave policies. In addition, accurate data enables managers and other staff to make more informed personnel decisions resulting in higher productivity from employees.

Want more information about integration with Ascentis HR? It’s easy. Just fill out this this form or call Ascentis at 800.229.2713.

Building a Business Case to Purchase an HRIS, Part 2

Building a Business Case, Part 2

In our last post, Building a Business Case to Purchase an HRIS (Part 1), we covered the first main reason to purchase an HRIS – elimination of costly errors.

In Part 2, we’ll be talking about Compliance.

Reduce risk by automating compliance

Compliance is a hot topic nowadays. It isn’t necessary to be willfully negligent to be confronted with serious and very expensive problems. Even the most compliance conscientious employer who meets the variant interpretations of specific regulations may encounter unexpected litigation and find their efforts fruitless. Many companies presume that they are adhering to strict regulation guidelines when in fact they’re at fault for violating a compliance specification located somewhere in the fine print.\

For instance, an average of 450 employment lawsuits are filed in the U.S. each day, and 57% of companies have been named as defendants in at least one employment related lawsuit in the past five years. A simple google search of the term “employment lawsuits” results in over 17 million results. Lawsuits by disgruntled employees are one problem. But nowadays, a company can face suits from candidates who were never hired, as well as from former employees months after termination.

Compliance with federal and state regulations involves a mind-boggling array of topics, most of which fall within the purview of the HR department. OSHA, FLSA, COBRA, EEO, VETS, SOX, and EDA all have minutely detailed requirements, many of which are open to individual interpretation, and they all have severe penalties for infraction. It is a never-ending, full-time task to keep up with these requirements, ensure corporate compliance, and follow the required reporting procedures. Human error is seldom seen as an acceptable defense in cases of compliance infraction.

Compliance automation plays a critical role in both preventing violations by ensuring that requirements are automatically monitored and fulfilled, and in defending alleged compliance violations. The best defense against an alleged violation is a watertight reporting system and automatic documentation of everything related to a specific case.
For example, in a case of proving OSHA compliance, an updated, organized on-line injury reporting system in the factory is going to carry more weight than the standard illegible notebook. In addition, some compliance authorities, such as VETS-100 and COBRA will waive strict reporting requirements if it can be proved that appropriate data collection and tracking systems are being used.

Ascentis HR can reduce the likelihood of error as well as reduce the workload for HR staff in collecting such compliance information by providing compliance automation. The powerful report wizard can quickly generate reports such as EEO-1, VETS-100 and OSHA incidents reducing time spent on generating these reports as well as covering any liabilities in case of lawsuit.

Curious about how to make your company more compliant? Ask for more information by filling out this form or call Ascentis at 800.229.2713.

What is it Worth to You?

When considering automating payroll and time and attendance, many employers balk when they ask themselves how much the system will cost to implement. In the current regulatory enforcement-focused and litigious business environment, the answer may be entirely pragmatic: how much money do you not want to pay in a wage and hour investigation or lawsuit?

The American Payroll Association (APA) perrformed a study in the early part of the last decade that has become a benchmark for return on investment estimates when automating payroll and time and attendance systems.

The APA study found that employee time theft, where employees clock in late, clock out early and take long lunches and breaks, averages 10 minutes per employee per day; payroll personnel take 5–6 minutes to reconcile and calculate each time card each pay period; human error costs 1%–8% of total annual gross payroll. Using these three statistics, a Washington Business Journal article estimated the annual savings of automating the payroll process for a 25 employee company that paid an average wage of $10 per hour amounted to $8,400.

A different study estimated that the cost of unearned paid time off (PTO) averaged a conservative estimate of half a day per employee per year. Unearned PTO occurs when employees take advantage of manual time off tracking systems to take time off they haven’t earned.

Combining this fact with the APA’s findings and assuming full-time work with no overtime, employers who use manual payroll processes may pay an estimated additional 3.4% in effective wages to each non-exempt employee compared with their raw hourly wage rate. So, an employee earning federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour could effectively cost an employer $7.50 per hour.

These raw estimates make a very effective case for automating payroll and time and attendance. Once implemented, the savings compound. (See how much by using this webapp.) Employers get back most of the 5–6 minutes per timecard per pay period, which gives time back to payroll and HR to focus on other strategic initiatives that save more time and increase productivity.

Find a Human Capital Management Partner, Not just a Vendor

One of the most common compliments we hear from our customers is that Ascentis offers some of the best customer support in the industry. We perform biannual customer surveys to ensure that we’re providing the best support possible and we’re very proud of our average score of 9 our 10 for customer support

In fact, in this case study, Leslie Hoerle, payroll manager for world renowned cosmetics retailer Bare Escentuals, shares that “I wanted to establish a strong relationship with our payroll partner, and I was pleasantly surprised that they, in turn, wanted a strong business partnership with me”.

A number of customers feel the same way as Bare Escentual’s payroll manager, Leslie Hoerle. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s video customer testimonial below speaks to this very issue.

Aside from excellent support, it’s essential to find a business partner who addresses issues and concerns the moment they arise, and one that can easily customize and make changes to your system so that it is finely tuned to meet each individual client’s needs.

Among many other functions, an organizations payroll department is responsible for gathering time and attendance information, maintaining compliance, ensuring all employees of every time are paid in time and accurately, and ensuring that errors do not occur. Under this daily, even hourly, pressure, many payroll professionals find themselves fighting with their current payroll solution to meet extraordinary deadlines while still meeting the needs of the company’s senior executives, human resources, and employees.

If you’re tired of wishing your payroll vendor was more a partner to your business here are some crucial questions you should be asking:

Is the system flexible and customizable based on my company’s exact needs?
Will my IT department have to host the software on our local servers?
Will periodic software upgrades cost me downtime?
Am I guaranteed security, uptime, backups and disaster recovery?
How long will my implementation take? Weeks? Months?
How will I get my “old data” into the new system?
Will my new partner listen to me and provide upgrades based on my needs, my personal experience with the product, and my recommendations?
Will my new partner charge extra for what should be included? Can I expect that I’ll know in advance what my monthly bill will look like?
Will my new partner quote one price and then allow project “scope creep” to inflate the cost of implementation?

If you’re interested in finding out how we treat our customers as partners, and how our payroll software can make your payroll department more effective, you can watch our complimentary archived webinar “Are You Ready for a Better Payroll Solution”. It lasts just under one hour, and will give you a better idea of how Ascentis creates successful business partnerships with its customers.

If you’d like more information give us a call at 800.229.2713 or send us an email.

Ascentis Blog

Information to help HR and payroll managers, recruiters, and compliance officers become more effective.

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