In This Issue

1 OPINION: NYC’s ineffectiveness in labor management during snow removal

1 WAGE & HOUR LEGAL UPDATE: New Jersey adopts federal policy on rounding time

2 TimesheetPlus dashboard tracks mobile employees in real-time

3 What’s new with Team Datamatics

4 Check us out at the APA in Salt Lake, May 24-27

4 Datamatics Speaks at Continuum Care Forum

4 Datamatics on Software 500 list

OPINION

Snowpocalypse draws attention to New York City’s labor management inefficienciesBy Norman C. Heinle

On December 26, 2010, New York City was hit by the sixth largest snow storm in city history. As the flurries amassed, snow removal seemed to be proceeding as usual. Mayor Bloomberg insisted that the city was clearing streets with typical efficiency. However, New Yorkers sensed early on that something was amiss: ambulances and city busses were getting stuck in the snow and entire neighborhoods were unplowed.

Efficient snow removal is a necessity, especially for a major metropolitan area. On the business side, snow storms suppress retail sales, reduce productivity and cut into tax revenue. Studies show the economic impact of a one day shutdown in New York is $700 million. For this particular snow storm, the reported loss was over $1 billion. Of course, much more significant is the mortal threat and danger unplowed roads present. On the night of December 26, over 1,000 calls were in queue waiting for 911 response, and problems were exacerbated as over 100 ambulances had become stuck in the snow.

On January 10, 2011, the City Council presented a preliminary review of the city’s response to the blizzard. Included in this review are points of failure and a 15-point action plan. Interestingly enough, the entire review fails to mention the main culprit. A combination of poor labor management practices and employing antiquated technologies were at the root of the problem.

The review suggested steps in the right direction, but the proposed solutions do not fully encompass the entire course. One action point is equipping every piece of snow moving equipment with a GPS phone to provide two-way communication. Continued on page 2

WAGE & HOUR LEGAL UPDATE

New Jersey adopts federal policy on rounding timeUntil recently, New Jersey remained one of the only states to reject the federal policy permitting employers to round an employee's time worked. Effective December 20, 2010, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development adopted the federal rule verbatim, but emphasized that it would take appropriate action if an employer's rounding policy does not properly compensate employees over an extended period of time.To discuss your organization's rounding policies, contact svail@datamaticsinc.com. More on page 3

T IME AND ATTENDANCESOFT WARE & WORKFORCEMAN AGEMENT SOL UT IONS

T IME AND ATTENDANCESOFT WARE & WORKFORCEMAN AGEMENT SOL UT IONS

Vol. XL No. 13 | www.datamaticsinc.comBEATIn This Issue

1 OPINION: NYC’s ineffectiveness in labor management during snow removal

1 WAGE & HOUR LEGAL UPDATE: New Jersey adopts federal policy on rounding time

2 TimesheetPlus dashboard tracks mobile employees in real-time

3 What’s new with Team Datamatics

4 Check us out at the APA in Salt Lake, May 24-27

4 Datamatics Speaks at Continuum Care Forum

4 Datamatics on Software 500 list

2 DataBeat | Vol. XL No. 13 | 800-673-0366 | www.datamaticsinc.com

TimesheetPlus dashboard tracks mobile employees in real-time

Managers use Datamatics' customizable dashboard to quickly leverage real-time

workforce dataRecently, Datamatics released an enhanced dashboard which presents snapshots of multiple customizable reports featuring real-time workforce data related to both mobile and on-premise employees. The dashboard is available in TimesheetPlus (TSP), Datamatics' Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) time and attendance system.

The enhanced dashboard coalesces many prime features on a single homepage that is visible immediately to managers upon sign-on. Each individual manager is able to customize his or her dashboard, allowing instant access to their most utilized TSP applications for real-time insight into employee attendance behaviors, labor distribution, and other key performance indicators. The real-time data presented on the dashboard includes mobile employees who, with TSP, are given the ability to clock in/out and track projects via a toll-free telephone number.

Instant access to real-time graphs and reports enable management to quickly respond and act on the data, leading to an increase in workforce productivity. For example, upon sign-on the manager can see an overview of missing punches (employees who forgot or failed to punch in or out). A manager can now attend to those missing punches directly from the dashboard. There is an extensive amount of information that can be featured in the configurable dashboard, including a combination of data such as pending time off requests, upcoming birthdays, and a view of employees currently at work or absent.

"Many organizations have employees that perform job duties outside the office, yet few have methods in place to properly track and manage their mobile workforce. Datamatics offers a convenient solution to both problems. Mobile employees easily clock in and record projects using any telephone. In real-time, this data is available on the manager's dashboard, accessible at any internet-enabled location," explains Noah Heinle, Director of Online Services at Datamatics.

TSP also features a dashboard for non-managerial employees. The standard employee-level dashboard allows workers to check accrual balances, verify schedules, request time off, view company announcements and add reminders via a personal electronic notepad. The exact information displayed on the standard TSP dashboard is customizable by the employee or the employer.

Continued from page 1Do we really need a tax-payer-funded review to come to this conclusion? What about outlining ways these truck drivers could use their own phone to seamlessly report on which streets they serviced and request tow trucks to remove cars that are blocking progress? For example, a hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system could be a great solution that would then give supervisors real-time data to spot poor performance areas in order to effectively redistribute resources.

Another problem pinpointed in the review (and failed to be resolved) was the statement that payment to private contractors would take 6 – 12 weeks. No wonder private contractors were not on call to assist with plowing or towing during the storm! The review never unveils the mystery of why paying these workers would take so long. With the right labor management system, each contractor’s time would have been processed instantly and then automatically sent to the city’s computers for quick processing. When you shovel through the excuses of the fast snowfall rate, inaccurate weather forecasts, and allegations of purposely slow productivity as a protest of budget cuts, you get down to a consistently fundamental problem of local, state and federal governments: poor labor management. There are no tools in place that (1) make workers accountable for their on-the-clock productivity; (2) give supervisors real-time data to make speedy management decisions and redistribute resources as needed; (3) efficiently schedule employees to maximize productivity and minimize overtime; (4) accurately track tardiness, absences, and paid time off.

We can only hope that by December 26, 2011 these issues will be resolved.

OPINION

New York City’s labor management inefficiencies

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New Jersey adopts federal policyon rounding timeThe New Jersey State Wage and Hour Laws and Regulations now includes the Federal policy (verbatim):

Use of time clocks(a) Differences between clock records and actual hours worked. Time clocks are not required. In those cases where time clocks are used, employees who voluntarily come in before their regular starting time or remain after their closing time, do not have to be paid for such periods provided, of course, that they do not engage in any work. Their early or late clock punching may be disregarded. Minor differences between the clock records and actual hours worked cannot ordinarily be avoided, but major discrepancies should be discouraged since they raise a doubt as to the accuracy of the records of the hours actually worked.(b) "Rounding" practices. It has been found that in some industries, particularly where time clocks are used, there has been the practice for many years of recording the employees' starting time and stopping time to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest 1/10 or quarter of an hour. Presumably, this arrangement averages out, so that the employees are fully compensated for all the time they actually work. For enforcement purposes this practice of computing working time will be accepted, provided that it is used in such a manner that it will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked._________________________________________________________

If your office closes for the day, do you need to pay?Exempt employees are due their full pay. Under the FLSA, exempt employees are to be paid a full week's pay for any week in which they perform any work in that week. The company may require the employee to use any accrued time during the closing, but if the employee has no PTO, the company must still pay the full salary. Note: not all salaried employees are "exempt" from the FLSA. Non-exempt employees do not need to be paid for hours they are not working. If the company shuts down and the employee is unable to perform duties, the company does not need to pay the employee. Note: Many states have laws that differ from federal requirements , such as reporting time pay laws.

Reporting Time Pay Law: Though not required under the FLSA, many states have reporting pay laws which require employers to pay employees who report to work even when no work is performed orthe employee is permitted or required to not work.

www.datamaticsinc.com | 800-673-0366 | Vol. XL No. 13 | DataBeat 3

Wage and Hour Legal Update Continued from page 1

Congratulations Joseph Markert! Our Director of Professional Services was named Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education at Rutgers Business School (Newark Campus). Joe has been a member of Rutgers’ faculty since 1969. Joe has been providing HR and business management consulting for Datamatics since 1980.

Welcome David Fearnow! David, who has over ten years of experience working with Human Resource, Payroll and Time & Attendance solutions, has joined our staff as a Sales Representative.

Welcome Gary Ragone!Gary has come on board as our new National Sales Manager. Gary has spent the last 33 years at Firmenich, an international producer of perfumery and flavor chemicals, managing global and North American sales.

Congratulations to Somer Vail Jefferiss!And welcome Winston James Jefferiss! Winston was born on December 30, 2010 to the proud parents of Somer and Pete. We think he’ll be ready to field software support calls in a few months.

Datamatics Team News

States with Reporting Time Pay Laws: California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon (minors only), and Rhode Island.

Each state's reporting time pay law is different and some are dependent on the industry, the hours scheduled and even the type of worker. Employers should bear in mind that they may be subject to pay requirements if and when an employee reports to work. For more information on reporting time laws and steps to take to minimize exposure to invalid pay practices, contact svail@datamaticsinc.com. To read more wage-and-hour news that may impact your business, visit DatamaticsInc.com/wageandhour.

330 New Brunswick Avenue, Fords, NJ 08863800-673-0366www.datamaticsinc.com

Datamatics speaks at Continuum Care Forum

Educating Health Care Managers on the Changing Workforce

On January 21, Datamatics conducted a meeting for the Continuum Care Forum at Deborah Hospital in Brownsmill, NJ. The meeting consisted of an intriguing presentation delivered by Joseph Markert, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education at Rutgers Business School. Below is a brief synopsis of Joe’s teachings. To view the presentation’s PowerPoint slides, please visit: www.datamaticsinc.com/ccf.

The top three reasons organizations are experiencing problems in the work place are: • Hiring Challenges • Communication Problems • Low employee motivation & morale

Part of this is due to generational influences. Americans are living longer and working longer which means that we have four generations in the workforce at the same time. Four generations with different life experiences, drives, values, attitudes and beliefs. This can and does lead to conflict, which then leads to higher payroll costs and poor customer service. The net result is wasted human potential and reduced profits. Add to this mix the influx of foreign born workers and the potential for workplace conflict and poor performance only increases.

Today's managers need to understand the need to identify appropriate job candidates, regardless of their age or background; communicate in a way that each employee understands the message and motivate employees in multiple ways so each generation and employee feel "energized." In the 21st century there is no "one size fits all" message.

4 DataBeat | Vol. XL No. 13 | 800-673-0366 | www.datamaticsinc.com

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