Three issues you’ll face when implementing an HRMS time and attendance module

Implementing a time and attendance module will give you many advantages. It provides visibility into work activities and how your employees spend their time. It enables efficient staff scheduling and allows for reporting. A time and attendance module may bring challenges during implementation. Here are three areas where you need to stay aware to easily bypass any issues.

1. Standardization takes time

One of the advantages of implementing an HRMS time and attendance module is that you have an opportunity to standardize work rules and practices. You may have local agreements and working regulations that outline your requirements. Working practices may have been defined locally many years ago and evolved over time.

It is an effort to figure out which work rules have a legal basis that will need to be set up in the new system. You may choose to standardize other ones when possible which will improve your operational efficiency. You are often starting from scratch in this area to document the variations to later convert into system rules.

Implement a time and attendance module as effectively as possible using this step-by-step HRMS implementation guide

2. Defining and testing clocking devices

If you have a uniform workforce where everyone clocks in on-site or uses a standard laptop build when working from home, it’s easy. Most workplaces have more diversity in their population and devices. When your employees need to log in each day to clock in and out, your clocking mechanism must be robust. Potentially you will need to add time and effort to your testing schedule to accommodate your variety of devices and time clocking mechanisms.

Device management is another area that can benefit from standardization. If you are a BYOD (bring your own device) workplace, have you defined requirements to access your HRMS? There are many self-service transactions that can be done in the HRMS but time and attendance is one of the key ones to get right.

3. Integration of clocking systems

When everyone logs into the HRMS to clock in and out it’s an easy implementation. More often you will need to support a variety of physical clocking systems on various platforms. If you are not able to standardize to one clocking provider due to existing contracts or facility limitations you may need to integrate data from a number of systems. Multiple integrations are not the end of the world but they add a layer of complexity to your implementation. The frequency of data exchanges needs to be established for timely data and each integration will require a layer of testing before sign off.

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Heather Batyski

About the author…

Heather is an experienced HRMS analyst, consultant and manager. Having worked for companies such as Deloitte, Franklin Templeton and Oracle, Heather has first-hand experience of many HRMS solutions including Peoplesoft and Workday.

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Heather Batyski

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