Customer Story

Do you have the proper tools to navigate the ACA? Many organizations are concerned about new regulatory requirements that they perceive as looming in the distance. In reality, we have already reached the mile marker to begin ACA compliance. If you do not currently have a unified system that is collecting and tracking Payroll, HR, Tax, and Benefits information, you are already falling behind. Those systems must be in place in 2015, or before, in order to comply with the 2016 reporting requirements.

Employee engagement has been growing in importance lately as executives are realizing its positive connection to retention and productivity. Discover the latest DATIS infographic that highlights the importance of employee engagement in today’s business landscape.

Can Data Analytics Help You Hire Better Candidates?

Data analytics have been growing in popularity in recent years and have become invaluable for many aspects of organizational management. Data analytics help to identify strengths and weaknesses of an organization, while assisting in solving complex business problems. As many executives have learned, poor hiring choices can be extremely costly, making high turnover an expensive challenge for HR departments today. Not only is it expensive, high turnover can also damage an organization’s culture and reputation. Luckily for HR departments, data analytics can be made useful for hiring the proper candidates.

The Recruitment Success Rate
The success rate of recruiting is based on a process that starts when the candidate first applies for a position and ends with the acceptance or declination of a job offer. Most frequently, the analytics used to measure this effectiveness are cost-per-hire, time-to-fill, turnover ratio, and quality-of-hire. Additionally, HR departments can track where people fall off in the process, whether it is during the screening interview or some other part. By identifying these gaps, an organization can improve their hiring processes. Another tool HR departments can use is HR software. HR software can prescreen candidates based on the criteria required for a specific job, which reduces time-to-fill by eliminating manual processes and certain biases. Harvard Business Review has found that these algorithms outperform human decisions by at least 25%.

Identify Job Requirements
A thorough job analysis can be utilized to identify the position requirements. These competencies can be degrees, licenses, personality traits, and more. Once these competencies have been identified, the hiring process can be built around them.

Utilizing Assessments
Depending on the job requirements, assessments can be a great tool to identify the perfect candidate. These assessments can be personality tests, cognitive exams, or interviews structured to extract answers to certain questions. Some positions may be best performed by someone with certain personality traits, which can be identified through a myriad of personality tests, the most commonly used being the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator. Cognitive exams can be administered if certain abilities are necessary to perform a job, similar to a doctoral candidate taking the boards to ensure they have the knowledge to perform their job. When choosing an assessment, be sure to pick one based off of research and theory that has the statistics to back up its predictive ability for a candidate’s success. Additionally, it is important to give all of the candidates for that position the same assessment in order to eliminate bias.

Recruiting can be a complicated task with potentially high expenses if done incorrectly. However, when used properly, data analytics can mitigate the biases and reduce expenses to ensure you hire the best candidate to suit the unique needs of your organization.

This DATIS Blog was written by Carley Donovan, DATIS, on February 10th, 2016 and may not be re-posted without permission.

Best-In-Class Payroll Practices

Payroll isn’t just paying your employees for their hard hours worked; it’s much more than that. Payroll practices include hiring and firing, salaries, absence management, benefits, bonuses, and more. Along with all of these areas, payroll is also directly associated with Tax & Accounting, where a variety of laws come into play. Between regular tax law, overtime laws, and filing requirements, it can easily become a full-time job to ensure that your payroll is compliant.

With an HCM system, the full-time job of managing compliance and staying up-to-date with the ever-changing laws and regulations becomes obsolete. HR and Payroll software allows you to manage all aspects of your workforce, including payroll, by automatically abiding by laws and regulations, calculating overtime, and distinguishing between various job codes. Here are a few ways that a fully unified solution can keep your payroll compliant:

1. Filling Out Appropriate Forms- On an employee’s first day, they will be given a pre-filled W-4 to complete which will include all of the information needed for tax purposes. This document can then be stored electronically and will flow seamlessly to all parts of the system.
2. Benefits Elections- Using an online portal, employees can elect benefits, declare marital status, add or edit dependents, and view a summary of benefits including employee and employer costs. Once completed, this information can then be accessed in Employee Self-Service, Benefits Administration, Payroll, and more.
3. Automatic Tax Updates- State, tax, and other legislative changes are automatically updated within the system to ensure that your employees are always compliant.
4. Calculations- A unified HCM system will calculate payroll each time it is processed, seamlessly taking into account information from all parts of the system. If employees are working in multiple job codes, change positions, or qualify for overtime pay, their pay will automatically and accurately be calculated to the correct amount every time.
5. Self-Service- If an employee happens to have a change in personal information, it no longer requires the HR department to make those changes. Instead, employees are encouraged to change their own information so that it is always up-to-date.
6. Payroll Previews- With payroll previews, you are able view information and double check that all data is accurate before processing payroll. This increases efficiency and drastically reduces errors.

Wage and hour violations currently outpace all other forms of litigation. In fact, since 2007, the DOL has conducted over 150,000 wage and hour investigations that have resulted in findings of 110,000 violations. Another DOL study also found that that 10-30% of employers audited by states misclassified their employees. With so much revenue at stake, it comes as no surprise that authorities are beginning to crack down on non-compliant organizations.

Hefty financial penalties and harsh consequences are forcing employers to become informed about the infinite laws surrounding hour and labor wages. It’s time to take precautionary measures to ensure that your payroll is compliant.

This DATIS Blog was written by Ally Edwards, DATIS, on February 17th, 2016 and may not be re-posted without permission.

FOMO in the Workplace

Employee dedication in the workplace is constantly increasing. Some have speculated that this may be due to work incentives or promotions. However, it seems there is a new trend that is effecting the workplace. FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, has the potential to be an advantage in the workplace, as it constantly keeps your employees engaged without having to expend extra effort. The challenge is determining how to use FOMO as a catalyst to boost productivity and engagement, without creating an inefficient or distracted culture.

Why Are We Experiencing FOMO?
According to a study completed by Indeed.com, most employees seem to experience FOMO due to the atmosphere they work in. Specifically, approximately 45% of respondents claimed to miss either the work aspect or their team members when they were out of the office. Although incentives are a nice way to keep your employees around, we are seeing that the culture produced within an organization produces a larger impact.

Should We Avoid FOMO?
FOMO can act as both a productive resource for an organization, as well as a negative one. FOMO could potentially lead to employees becoming too distracted on projects that their coworkers are involved in, instead of focusing on their own priorities. It could also lead some employees to wish they were part of a different department, causing them to feel disengaged in their current position. If FOMO is producing inefficient employees, it may be time to address the issue. Completing performance appraisals and executing on Talent Management strategies can help your organization find the right balance and avoid the pitfalls of FOMO.

FOMO as an Engagement Tool
FOMO helps make employees feel engaged, which also allows it to act as a tool to increase employee productivity. Deloitte suggests simple strategies such as limiting team emails and communications, instead of inundating inboxes and overwhelming employees. This could drive employees to pay more attention to the messaging. No one wants to be left out of the loop, and if there are fewer opportunities to be kept in the loop, employees will take advantage of them. This isn’t to say you should be neglecting your employees, but there will be a noticeable difference in the responses from your employees if this strategy is performed correctly.

FOMO is inevitable in almost every organization. The best thing your organization can do is to make sure that FOMO is being utilized as a resource, and not causing a problem. Employee engagement is critical to productivity. So, make sure you can keep the momentum going by using social incentives to keep your employees motivated.

This DATIS Blog was written by Carlos Lozano, DATIS, on March 9th, 2016 and may not be re-posted without permission.

HR Technology: Why a Suite is Really Sweet

When it comes to HR Technology, there are two main categories of software: suite and best-in-breed.

A suite solution is software that encompasses all of the HR processes in one system. Alternatively, the best-in-breed solution requires obtaining data from disparate systems. For example, an organization that utilizes a best-in-breed solution may have separate systems for each HR function such as Time & Attendance, Benefits, Talent Management, and more.

Today’s organizations are evolving and facing new challenges within the market. However, many continue to operate with multiple systems that reduce efficiency and overall productivity while increasing the risk of errors. With technological advances and industry research, a new breed of systems have been created that are both robust and complete or, "best-in-suite". Once organizations make the switch to best-in-suite software, the benefits realized are invaluable.

The Benefits of a Best-in-Suite Solution:

• Single Sign-on: A suite houses all of your HR processes in one system; therefore, you only have to enter one portal to have all functions of HR at your fingertips.
• Data Accessibility: With all of your HR processes held within one database, all of your data is accessible and unified in one place. This allows for robust reporting at a granular level, in real-time.
• Data Accuracy: When your data is housed in one suite, there is no longer the constant worry of losing data or entering duplicate information. With multiple best of breed solutions, data must be transferred between the systems or entered multiple times, which can lead to a countless number of issues with data consistency and integration.
• Consistent User Interface: Switching between different software with a best in breed solution can be tricky because each software has a different user experience. This means that you would need to become fluent in each different system. With one suite, the UI is consistent across all components, allowing for quick assimilation to the system.
• System Upgrades: A suite solution will update all platforms of the software at once, leading to significantly less down time. Best in breed solutions will update at different times, meaning each system will update, then need to be synchronized individually in order to ensure the versions are working together.

By utilizing best-in-suite software, your HR department can mitigate a myriad of challenges that organizations face daily with best-in-breed solutions. It’s time to make the switch to a fully unified HR system.

This DATIS Blog was written by Carley Donovan, DATIS, on March 16th, 2016 and may not be re-posted without permission.

Performance Management: An Ongoing Process

The practice of Performance Management is evolving to meet the needs of the modern workforce. Annual performance reviews have proven to be painful and ineffective to both the manager and the employee. However, Performance Management is still key to the growth and development of employees. In lieu of painful, yearly meetings, Performance Management is now transforming into a continuous feedback process.

Technology is driving the evolution of performance management. Through an HCM system, employees are able to set goals that align with the organization, and track them throughout the employee lifecycle. In addition, managers can view these goals, track the progress, and leave comments for the employee. This way, the employee receives consistent feedback and can work to improve in specific areas throughout the entire year.

By investing in Performance Management technology, you will see many changes in your organization such as:

1. Higher Productivity- Since employees will be able to receive in-the-moment feedback regarding their latest projects, the employee can take that feedback and make immediate improvements to their performance. Employees will no longer have to wait an entire year to receive feedback regarding a project that was completed six months ago.
2. Increased Employee Engagement- Managers will feel encouraged to act as more of a coach than a boss. In fact, organizations with excellent cultural support for coaching see a 13% increase in stronger business results and a 39% increase in stronger employee results. Ultimately, employee engagement will result in a higher retention rate, which will also cut overall costs.
3. Goal Achievement- Managers and employees are able to sit down and set individual SMART goals on the first day. This encourages employees to set personal objectives that are aligned with the organization’s objectives. Setting goals drives an individual forward and gives them something to work toward. These goals will be consistently monitored throughout the system to ensure the employee is on the right track every step of the way.

All in all, by redefining Performance Management and designing it as an ongoing process, you will be able to save time, resources, and boost overall engagement throughout your organization. Employees will feel encouraged and motivated as managers coach and guide them through projects to reach their goals.

This DATIS Blog was written by Ally Edwards, DATIS, on March 23rd, 2016 and may not be re-posted without permission.

How Productive is Overtime?

Remember when a productive work week was capped-off at 40 hours? It seemed that all your work could be accomplished in that time. In recent years, however, increased overtime has become a steadily rising trend in the United States. Today’s average work week for employees is 47 hours and 40% of workers report that they work more than 50 hours. This adds an additional 7-10 hours of labor cost for the employer. Along with this labor cost, these additional work hours are creating overwhelmed employees that are not being as productive as they can be. These additional hours are viewed as a necessity to accomplish the tasks at hand, but could the tasks get accomplished in 40 hours without having to endure unexpected, and unnecessary, labor costs?

Is Overtime Productive?

Unfortunately, the research indicates that overtime is not productive. CNBC recently shared research that shows a steady decrease in productivity once an employee has hit 4o hours in a week and a sharp decline when the employee hits 50 hours. From this research, they were able to establish that an employee would not be any more productive by working excessive hours that resulted in unnecessary labor costs. If we are noticing that overtime is unproductive, then why are we continuously still seeing overtime increasing?

One major leading cause, according to Forbes, is the peer-pressure from upper-management. Though upper-management may believe that it’s beneficial to encourage employees to work extra hours, consequently, it’s producing a less effective workplace. Along with the peer-pressure of upper-management, we are constantly seeing the Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO, causing employees to “work” extra hours without actually getting anything done.

As a result of this unnecessary overtime, employers are seeing their staff getting burnt out, distracted, and overall less efficient. These results bring a negative impact on the workplace and put a halt to creativity. Luckily, there is something that can be done about this.

The Happy Medium Between Overtime and Productivity

A large part of what will make for a more productive employee is the direct relation of how many hours an employee has worked. Chron found that once an employee has exceeded the average hours worked in a workweek, they will have little motivation or encouragement from upper-management, and will typically become less productive. When management focuses on motivating their employees, they see remarkable results in regards to the quality of work produced. Deloitte recommends that to diminish nonproductive employee hours, management can publicize flexible work policies, get input, and lead by example. By management putting these factors into effect will allow for a less overwhelmed, and more productive, employee. Another factor that employers normally put on the back burner is the focus on their employees’ work-life balance. CNBC recommends that by encouraging a strong work-life balance, your employees will be motivated to work productively while still being able to make it home for dinner.

Productivity in the workplace is essential. When you have an overworked employee you will evidently see less results. One of the most essential ways to ensure that your employees are motivated and productive is by consistently maintaining company morale and engagement. Proactively monitoring labor costs and productivity can enable managers to recognize good patterns, and bad ones, and develop strategies for increasing efficiency. Some Time & Attendance software tools will even send alerts to managers when an employee is in or approaching overtime, so that they can appropriately address it on a case-by-case basis. With that being the case, the question now shouldn’t be, “Is overtime necessary?”, it should be, “What will I do about my unnecessary overtime?”

This DATIS Blog was written by Carlos Lozano, DATIS, on April 13th, 2016 and may not be re-posted without permission.