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Time and attendance is a human resource protocol designed to track actual employee hours and the leaves taken, in order to provide details to payroll. It is one of the largest categories for timesheet systems on the market and is a serious component of most payroll systems in manufacturing units, government, airports, border checkpoint, healthcare, retail, financial institutions, and educational organizations. Time and attendance helps to control time consuming in time tracking related processes. It is mainly used by companies which have more than hundreds or thousands of employees. It is used to simplify the workforce in the management of a company. Time and attendance provides a range of features including creation of comprehensive shift, rotation patterns, and pay schemes.

At the heart of time and attendance is a time tracking device. Different types of time and attendance equipment, systems, and software are available. In highly developed forms, devices can distinguish people simply by reading their fingerprint, hand or retinas. Time and attendance systems are designed to provide cost effective services in the areas of data collection, access control, job costs, and bell ringing. It offers all the features needed in the pay rules and the systems capture time, edits, assign costs, accounting details and reviews, and approves timesheet submissions to payroll.

Time and attendance automatically computes employee wages and time using the payroll policies of the company. In addition, it gives a clear management report that helps to control overpayment of employees and distribution of labor. By using this solution, job labor costs are forecasted and then compared to actual totals. Time and attendance helps to increase greater control over productivity by granting the accuracy needed in the business operations.

Most time and attendance packages offer schedule management that allows supervisors to maintain and create a schedule for each employee. Additionally, there are rules for scheduling the staff on the basis of overtime, holidays, absences, and break times. A number of companies choose software that allows staff to enter their flex-time hours, vacation time, sick days, and other information directly.

So, let’s take a look at time management from a 30,000-foot perspective at a level you might call “life management.”

Let’s start with the question “How well do you believe you’ve used your time so far in your life?” Like every other area of our lives, some degree of introspection is valuable and healthy; however, as we think about how we’ve used our time so far, we should make sure we don’t go overboard beating ourselves up about the mistakes or poor decisions we have made in the past.

I’d like to throw out the encouraging idea that each of us should be able to say that we, and all of our ancestors before us, have done a magnificent job of using time effectively up until now from a big-picture perspective.

Through millions of years of evolution, our predecessors have beaten all odds in an extremely hostile environment and somehow persisted. They survived, ultimately producing you and me, and since our birth we’ve successfully carried on and gotten ourselves perfectly to wherever we are at this moment.

If we had taken any other turn along our life paths, who knows where we might be today? We can second-guess our life’s decisions. For example, wishing we had bought Microsoft stock back in 1975 then we’d be even wealthier today! However, if we had made any other decisions in our past, there isn’t any guarantee that we would even be alive today, much less healthier, wealthier, or happier.

I like this concept because it frees us from having to spend time regretting our past. Our past has perfectly gotten us to where we are now. We are survivors ready to positively experience whatever our future will bring us.

One of my favorite books, A Course in Miracles, says that “the purpose of time is to enable us to learn how to use time constructively.” It goes on to read, “Time is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. Time will cease when it’s no longer useful in facilitating learning.”

In other words, time’s only purpose is to facilitate learning. With that in mind, let’s ask another real easy question: “What are you using this lifetime to learn?

Once we know that answer, it will make our time management a lot easier, and, as Stephen Covey says, “You’ll be less likely to get efficiently to the top of the ladder and find it’s leaning against the wrong building.” Time management skills and techniques are the ladder, but you need to make sure you are climbing to the top of the correct building.

Once we have figured out what we’re here to learn, then we can best use our effective time management skills and the remaining time of our lives which is hopefully decades rather than mere years in pursuit of that learning.

This certainly makes me want to look at the bigger picture of my life and do what I can to make sure that I’m going down the best life path for my own learning.

This brings me back to my question: “What are you attempting to learn in this lifetime?” That ought to keep you busy for a little time.

Vic Conant is the President and CEO of Nightingale Conant Corp. the premier publisher of audio personal development programs in the world.

Vic had the great fortune of growing up surrounded by the works of the modern legends of the motivation industry like Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale to name a few.

Vic has undoubtedly worked with more of the great self-improvement authors than any other human being alive today. And when an upcoming author in the human potential field wants to get published it is just natural for him or her to seek out Vic and Nightingale-Conant. Nightingale Conant publishes personal development audio programs with authors such as: Wayne Dyer,
Deepak Chopra, Brian Tracy, Earl Nightingale, and many, many others.

A trade show is an ideal way of showcasing your products and services to a large number of prospects all at the one location and at the same time. Thoroughly planned marketing is the key to success at your next industry related exhibition.

The following are six of the most important marketing rules that exhibitors need to undertake to ensure their next trade show is a success.

1. Market Prior to the Show

Four weeks before the event, invite your prospects and current customers to visit you at the trade show.

Ensure that you design an invitation that gives delegates a real incentive to come over and visit. Think of a distinctive approach to promote your company. For example, you could provide demonstrations of the latest technology that can benefit your audience. People love to look at what the newest thing is and how it will save them time and money. If you have a new food product, offer free tastings and samples.

2. Create an Eye-Catching Booth

Your exhibition booth is perceived to be a reflection of what you are like as a company. Make sure it is warm and inviting and that it stands out from the crowd.

Signage must be clear and kept simple. Clearly write your business name on your sign and state your unique selling proposition. You only have 10 seconds to grab the attention of attendees as they walk past. If people cannot work out what you are selling they will keep on walking.

3. Provide Promotional Materials

Brochures and leaflets are typical promotional materials that need to be freely available. Make sure your contact details and web address are printed on everything.

Set up a DVD player in your booth that continuously loops your marketing video. Make sure that the DVD you receive from your production house has this loop feature built in. We’re all little kids at heart and colour and movement can be a great way to grab attention.

Playing your promotional video is also a great way to demonstrate how your product is made and how your product works. Especially if your product is too large to take to the tradeshow or your production process is too long and complicated to explain.

4. Train your staff to Market for you.

Your staff represent your company and they must be professional at all times. Gossiping and ignoring delegates is a poor reflection of your company.

Make sure you staff your booth with employees who are people-orientated. Brief them fully on what is required of them. Let them know the reasons why you are at the trade show, what you are exhibiting and what you hope to achieve by being at the event.

Training on how to correctly approach and interact with people and collect quality leads is also essential.

5. Appealing Giveaways

Whether we like to admit it, most of us have probably left a trade show and proudly shown off our new pens and trinkets to those unable to attend.

It can be easy to dismiss these giveaway items as a waste of money. However, the reality is that they do increase awareness of your company and entice attendees to your booth.

The trick is making sure that you are giving away an item that your target audience wants. What items will appeal to your market?

6. Lead follow up

A successful trade show is dependent upon your skills in following up leads. Research has found that 70% of trade show leads do not receive proper follow up.

To make the job easier, plan before the trade show how you are going to follow up prospects. Design a system to mail out information to leads within a week or two of the event and how you will follow these up. The longer leads are left unattended the colder they will become.

Ideally, ensure that all your leads are qualified before you pass them on to your sales team.

(c) Marie-Claire Ross 2004. All rights reserved.

Marie-Claire Ross is one of the partners of Digicast. Digicast works with organisations who are not satisfied that their marketing and training materials are helping their business grow. She can be contacted on 0500 800 234 (Australia wide) or at mc@digicast.com.au. The website is at http://www.digicast.com.au.