Paper is scary

Paper is scary. No, really

Love it or loathe it, you can’t fail to have noticed that Halloween is upon us once again. So, we thought we’d tell you some frightening facts about a seemingly inoffensive item you almost certainly have lying around: Paper.

Whilst the majority of companies have now moved away from paper invoicing and billing, there are still those favouring the use of paper timesheets, holiday request forms, etc. Depending on the size and nature of your business, you may be resisting the switch over to digital time and attendance software such as uAttend by Chronologic. This could be for a host of reasons, including misconceptions over the cost and complexity of using a cloud-based attendance system.

But whether it’s the environmental impact, likelihood of error or drain on resources that we focus on, one thing is certain: paper is scary. Don’t believe us? Think we’re exaggerating? (Admittedly we are a little, to emphasise our point, but only a tad…) Check out these facts:

  • Paper waste can reach totals of up to 85 million tonnes a year. Every year.
  • For every ton of paper produced, some 380 gallons of oil is needed, and around 17 trees.

But whilst becoming more environmentally friendly is obviously a major plus, it is not what tends to swing the decision for many companies. So, in that case, what does? We may be overgeneralising, but here are some hard-to-dispute reasons why the use of paper timesheets in your company is a ticking time bomb:

  • Human error means that, at some point, at least one important paper is going to be misplaced, lost, destroyed (spilt coffee, oops!), accidently thrown away or incorrectly labelled and filed, never to be found again.
  • Employees can, and do, lie. Even the nicest ones, and yes, even yours. Time theft is a massive problem for businesses, and can cover everything from buddy clocking to covering up late arrivals or extra long lunches. It’s just not possible with a modern-day clock-in system, especially one that relies on biometrics such as fingerprints.
  • Even with the best will in the world, files can sometimes arrive late to HR or payroll departments, missing important deadlines and meaning staff members don’t get paid correctly or on time. Your employees will not appreciate this. (Even if it’s kind of their fault…)
  • Payroll staff lose countless hours – which they could make much better use of on other things – trying to decipher messy handwriting, manually imputing workers’ hours into payroll systems, chasing timesheets that haven’t been handed in.
  • Keeping track on absences is a veritable nightmare with paper timesheets. And takes a long time. With a system like uAttend, however, you can have all the clocking in and out data you need, in real time, instantly.

The fact is, that by switching over to digital tasks such as clocking in and out, holiday requests, absence forms, payroll and overtime calculations, etc, every single company will save a lot of time. Not only that, but you’ll find you can really optimise your resources, manage your workforce more effectively and with greater ease, forecast and budget better and boost your company’s productivity.

If you’ve been sufficiently spooked by the dangers lurking in those piles of papers mounted on desks, don’t worry – we’re here to help! Give us a call or send an email to arrange your free online demo, and we can show you how uAttend could help your business. Change can be scary, but sticking to paper is scarier!