Time and Attendance Has Its Time in the Spotlight

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - March 6, 2008) - In the new benchmark report, "Evolving Time and Attendance: Foundation for Workforce Management Improvements," Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), found that time and attendance systems have become the very cornerstone for laying a foundation of effective workforce management systems. This benchmark report is a compilation of surveys and interviews from over 300 organizations globally, and highlights how Best-in-Class performers are maximizing the value of their time and attendance systems to improve employee satisfaction, increase revenue, and decrease labor costs.

"Whereas time and attendance used to be one of those ho-hum topics, good for figuring out paychecks, but not sure what else, it is now viewed as the launching point to improve staff scheduling, workforce planning, and labor cost savings," according to David Weldon, research analyst in the Human Capital Management practice at Aberdeen. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of organizations that achieved Aberdeen's Best-in-Class status have partially or fully automated their time and attendance data collection. In doing so, 65% have improved the accuracy of their time data, 60% have increased their revenue per employee, 59% have decreased their overtime as a percentage of total labor costs, and 47% have decreased their labor costs.

"The rising interest in automated time and attendance systems is driven by the difficulty in tracking what has become a rapidly moving target," Weldon said. "Companies are going global, expanding domestically, and hiring a more diverse workforce. This presents challenges of capturing data on more workers, in more locations."

The study also found that Best-in-Class organizations with respect to time and attendance are more likely to:

--  Integrate time and attendance data with employee scheduling
--  Integrate time and attendance data with workforce planning
--  Have a single repository for all time and attendance data
--  Provide real-time access for managers to generate time and attendance
    reports
    

"Best-in-Class organizations are able to improve scheduling, reduce overtime payments, and better match available workers to needed projects," Weldon said. "The Best-in-Class are able to optimize labor costs and improve productivity in ways that other companies are unable to achieve."

This report examines how global enterprises are implanting time and attendance strategies, processes, and solutions to improve performance in critical workforce management metrics. In addition to providing insight on what Best-in-Class companies are doing, this report also offers recommended actions that all companies can take to impact how time and attendance data can be used to drive improvements in payroll, scheduling, workforce planning, and employee retention.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Kaba Workforce Solutions, ADP, Kronos Incorporated, and Time Link. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4641.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
260 Franklin Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com

Contact Information: Media Contact: David Weldon Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5374 David.weldon@aberdeen.com