We've given 100's of demonstrations and conducted 1000's of calls and interviews as we've built our business. Here are just a few of the typical questions asked by Prospects as they qualify our application and assess our knowledge of their work environments...
What are the key benefits StaffMetric will provide my Agency? StaffMetric eliminates the manual steps associated with paper timesheet processing. No more faxing, collating, auditing, editing, chasing late timesheets or data re-keying. Our goal is for your staff to enter data one time into your Front or Back-office. StaffMetric then propagates that data throughout your office applications without data re-keying, saving your Payroll Department several hours each week in Payroll and Invoice processing. This minimizes your back-office expenses allowing you to invest more time in the front-office functions, where your revenue is generated. We also set you apart from your competitors in the marketplace!
How does StaffMetric set me apart from my competitors? StaffMetric allows your customers to collect and view employment usage data in ways that have traditionally been unavailable to them. They probably have these tools for their permanent staff, but until StaffMetric, there hasn’t been a concise, reliable way to report performance and expenses against your dynamic, temporary workforce unless you generate it for them. StaffMetric provides your clients the tools necessary to compete in the digital age, such as advanced real-time reporting, cost accounting and status reports. Your customers are more empowered and better informed. StaffMetric puts your company and employees' contact information at your Client’s fingertips and provides a convenient and confidential mechanism for them to provide feedback on your Contractors. Furthermore, your company's brand identity will be reinforced every time your client logs into StaffMetric. All of this adds up to a more complete and professional staffing service for your Client and a more satisfied, loyal customer for your staffing company.
I can see how it helps my Agency but my Clients usually want to approve the timesheets before they are paid. Of course they do! Remember, we are a staffing–specific solutions provider. We know your business and understand that your Clients want to approve your Employees’ time before getting invoiced for these charges. StaffMetric’s application was built around three critical roles in the process; the Employee, who enters their time on the timesheet and Submits it to the Client, the Client Manager, who receives the timesheet from the Employee and Approves or Rejects the timesheet, and the Staffing Agency who receives the Approved timesheets from the Client and processes them for Payroll and Invoicing. Each participant plays a vital role in the process. StaffMetric pushes the timesheet through this Approval process by notifying the Employees when their timesheets are late for Approval, alerts the Client Manager when timesheets are ready for their review, and your Payroll Manager when timesheets have been Approved and authorized for payment and invoicing.
Not all of my Employees have access to the Internet. Again, we understand that… we offer a variety of timesheet formats and reporting methods. For your office work environments such as Clerical/Admin, Professional, IT/Technical, etc… we offer several online versions; for your Light Industrial, Hospitality and Retail we offer a biometric hand-scanning solution that records the Employees’ time simply by recognizing their hand biometrics and a unique User ID, and for those employees that don’t have access to the Internet or work on a biometric job site we offer a Group Timesheet that allows a senior Employee, VOP (Vendor on Premise), Client Manager or even your Administrator to record your Employees’ time. Each of these various formats are compiled into your StaffMetric account and presented to your Client for online Approval.
OK, but Some Clients require a printed, signed timesheet with their invoice. We have you covered… each timesheet format can be printed and presented to the Client Manager for signing, straight from the online timesheet. The hours recorded for the Employee’s pay period are reflected in the printed timesheet where the Employee and Client Manager can both sign the paper timesheet. Although Approved in a printed format, the timesheet data is still archived in StaffMetric’s database so your reports are complete… again, keeping your staff from re-keying that data. Timesheets can be printed individually or in bulk if desired.
Reports? What kinds of reports are available and is there an extra fee for this resource? StaffMetric offers a wide variety of relevant business reports that are available to you and your Clients, online 24x7. Reports can be formatted in Word, Adobe, .rtf and Excel and you can select the date ranges from pre-defined values, i.e., year-to-date, monthly, current/previous ppd, etc…, or you can set your date parameters as needed. And these reports are provided to you and your Clients at no charge. They can be printed, saved or sent as an attachment.
Sometimes my Client Managers aren't available to sign-off on the timesheet. You mean they take vacations and sick leave too? Not to worry; StaffMetric has three Approval methods… Employees report to their time to their Client Manager for Approval. If the Client Manager isn’t available to Approve the timesheet, the Client Manager’s supervisor can Approve the timesheet on behalf of the Client Manager as a Client Administrator, with prior authorization. If neither the Client Manager nor the Client Administrator is available, your Administrator may Approve time on behalf of your Client so your Employees are paid on time.
Frequently my Employees forget to turn in their timesheets for Approval. StaffMetric’s notification system sends a “Late Timesheet” reminder to those Employees (or to their Managers) if they have failed to submit a timesheet to the Client Manager for Approval. You set the recurring date/time of this notice. At the specified time the system automatically generates and releases the notice to all Employees that have not processed their timesheets.
Not all Clients will want the service! Some already use their own. StaffMetric’s pricing model is Usage-based. You only pay for the hours your Employees’ record on the system and you assign which Clients, Job Orders and Employees use the system. Since you determine which accounts will use StaffMetric you are not penalized when some of your Clients don’t use our solution to capture their time. However, the more Clients that use the system, the more automated and efficient your entire back-office will operate. And the greater your profits will rise.
I don’t have time to train my Employees how to use your system. You don’t need to, we do it for you… once you have added an Employee or a new Client to the system, StaffMetric automatically generates a “Welcome” e-mail which includes their account login and password instructions. The e-mail also contains a three to four minute flash-based tutorial that contains a very effective training video clip with instructions that are specific to the timesheet format and role of the recipient (Employee or Client). If you have accurate e-mail addresses for your Employees and Clients we’ll take care of the rest.
e-mail and account login? Yes. When we set up your account and synchronize the databases we create a unique, individualized portal for each Employee and Client assigned to use the system. Both Users must login (if applicable for your Employee’s work environment), change their password and view the brief tutorial. That’s all, and it’s that easy. However, before the Client may authorize timesheets, they must complete and fax an Electronic Signature Authorization Form to your Administrator, who in-turn will file the form in their permanent account records and then authorize the Client within the StaffMetric application to begin Approving time. This process is very similar to completing a credit card application and agreeing that your electronic signature obligates you to the terms of the Agreement.
We provide Light Industrial services... my Employees don't have access to the Internet for e-mail and passwords, and besides that, I don't want them taking time to fill out their timesheets! That's why we have developed a solution specifically designed for the Light Industrial sector... in fact, its one of our specialties. StaffMetric incorporates a biometric handscanner into its suite of services to optimize your Light Industrial workforce. Installation and support is provided for this 3rd party hardware, and we'll even provide a White Paper on installation options; ethernet or modem based. Your Employee simply places their hand on the device and the equipment matches up to 90 specific points or measurements of that person's hand with a template that is stored on the device. When a successful match has been recorded the individual can clock-in or out, and even advise which Department they have been assigned to for the day. This data is continuously pulled from the handscanner and converted to an online graphical representation of their activities for the day. Your Clients go online to review and Approve or Reject the Employee's time, enjoying all of the other benefits of the service from the convenience of their desk. We support Departments, Shifts, Shift Differentials, Grace periods, Rounding rules, auto-lunch deductions, and more! And it only takes your Employee 3-5 seconds to clock-in/out and they don't have to keep up with a card or badge!
Who owns the data you collect? It’s yours… we just host it for you. As long as you maintain an account in good standing with StaffMetric we will host your data (every transaction ever made!) until you tell us you would like to have it. We can then burn it to a CD and ship it back to you… Of course you can always generate periodic reports and store them locally if you would like.
What about your network security; you have extremely critical data of mine! Yes we do, and our entire business premise is built on that fact. We have payroll and invoicing data, Employees’ personal information, your Client list and contact information, and more… that’s why we have strict network security policies and take every precaution to protect this data. Although our rates may not reflect this, we ARE a critical vendor to your operations. We take this role seriously... and pay plenty for it! StaffMetric’s servers are located in one of the nation’s leading regional Data Centers, boasting an uptime rate of 99.999%. Our services include UPS and diesel generator back-up capacity, and we are co-hosted with some of the world’s leading telecommunications carriers such as AT&T, Level 3, Cox, Verizon and others.
What kind of hardware and software is required to use your system? As an ASP (Applications Service Provider) we’ve built our platform on the most sophisticated business applications in the industry. A small program called SAAM (about 1.5 MB), which synchronizes your Front or Back-office application to StaffMetric, is installed at your corporate office where your Administrators manage the program. Employees and Client Managers simply access the system using an Internet browser, their Username and password. Each User has a restricted view of the application based on their credentials. Unless your work environment requires StaffMetric’s biometric hardware solutions, no other hardware is required.
How does StaffMetric charge for its service? Just like you do… by the hour! Our pricing model reflects your business practices; if you aren’t making money on an Employee’s time, neither are we. Consequently we charge the Agency by the hours the Employee records on the system each month, and we aggregate those hours into one combined total for your account. Then we apply a Usage charge of 2-3 cents per hour against that total, applying your account’s volume discount. We maintain a Pricing Calculator on our website so you can quickly and easily calculate exactly how much this fee will be for your Agency based on your typical monthly billable hours… see the “Pricing” tab on our website. We scale with your business. And our rates include dozens of useful business reports and all of the powerful features that have made StaffMetric a leading innovator in the industry today. There is a one-time account activation fee of $675 for the SAAM software program, $300 for the annual Unlimited Help Desk Support for your Administrator, and a Minimum Usage rate of $100 per month. Annual renewal is $175 per account and the $300 Unlimited Help Desk charge, plus Usage.
Can I place the login site on my website so it looks like my own? Yes, but there may be reasons you would not want to do so… for example, if your local Internet Service Provider suffers an outage and your Employees and Clients have only been trained to access their timesheets using your website, they will be unable to get to their portal login (which actually resides on StaffMetric’s servers at our co-location facility in Tulsa, OK) even if THEY have Internet connectivity. Instead, we recommend that that you allow us to create and host a url that has your business name in the link, i.e., “XYZStaffers.staffmetric.com” or "timesheets.XYZStaffers.com". Your account will also be branded with your corporate logo and you can customize several parts of the application. We minimize our presence on the site in an effort to emphasize your organization.
OK, I’m sold! So how do I get started? You can get started by contacting StaffMetric to discuss and review our Service Agreement. Call 1.8.online.time (1.866.546.3846), Option #1 for Sales support. We’ll build a StaffMetric account for you, provide complete training, and get you started usually within 3-5 business days of receipt of your contact. Call now... because when time is what you sell, there’s no time to waste tracking it!