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The Olympics is driving down business as companies say the current Games have deterred visitors. For example, at the normally hectic retail and tourism hub Oxford Circus, the streets have been noticeably quieter than usual. Ahmed Waqas, who runs a nearby souvenir stall, had planned to work longer hours during the expected Olympic boom. He lamented: “It has been a disaster. Our sales are down about 50% on last year.” Tensor can help drive efficiency and profits up with our time and money saving Time and Attendance clocking regimes. WinTA uses Tensor’s range of Smart Cards where the badge or fob does not need to be removed from a wallet or purse. The badge will read through your wallet or purse in a quarter of a second (up to 15 times faster than swipe systems and more reliable). If flexible working during the Olympics is an issue, then using the Shift Swapping function means employees may have their shift for a particular day changed in advance.  

A workplace study has shown the value of people management to the bottom line. It says firms that are highly skilled in core human resources practices experience up to 3.5 times the revenue growth of less capable companies. The report, From Capability to Profitability, was based on a survey of more than 4,200 HR and non-HR managers worldwide. The report found the correlation between economic performance and HR capability was especially strong in certain areas, including performance management and leadership development. Tensor Personnel is an HR management tool which integrates with our WinTA Lite and WinTA Enterprise time and attendance systems. It will prove to be a pivotal part of leadership development at your company. Using Tensor Personnel, extensive information can be stored on each employee in your office. The Training Information function takes care of pending courses, including locations, descriptions and notes. The Letter Writer feature includes mailmerge functionality. Tensor Personnel allows full customisation of generated reports and exporting options.  

Ram raiders stole a cashpoint machine from outside a bank in the early hours of Thursday morning (August 2). Police say the raid happened shortly after 2.15am at a Lincolnshire branch of Barclays Bank. At least four men wearing balaclavas loaded the cashpoint into the back of a 4×4 vehicle and made their getaway. Detectives say the gang’s getaway vehicle and the cashpoint were both liable to be abandoned in an isolated rural area. Tensor can provide your business or organisation with a sophisticated access control system guaranteed to meet your security requirements. Tensor Access Enterprise is the multi-user version intended for larger companies. It includes extra software to enable you to easily add and edit profile settings to all registered hardware equipment attached to your company’s network of Tensor equipment. It provides total control over who is allowed access through any controlled point at any time of day at a site. Adding biometric technology will practically eliminate any chances of mimicking a person’s identity.  

Employment Minister Chris Grayling denied that there were any government financial targets to reduce people on sickness benefits. He said: “The reason why we reassess people who are on sickness benefits is that all the evidence is that a substantial proportion can return to some form of work. We have no financial targets for this.” The minister’s comments came after advisors the government tasked to review the ‘fit to work’ tests system warned that it still needed improvement. Even Tensor’s entry-level Time and Attendance systems handle sickness, absence and other clocking issues at the workplace. For example, Individual and Group Absence Planners are features of WinTA Start, which manages time and attendance recording for up to 50 people. Management or HR can choose to view all types of absences, a single absence type or all types with a common category. Absence categories and types are fully user-definable. Reports can be instantly generated as a customised web page that integrates perfectly with a company Intranet.  

A discussion currently taking place among professionals on the business networking site LinkedIn is the importance of taking a lunch break. It comes after a recent survey from Bupa found that companies in the UK are losing neat to £50 million a day in lost productivity from workers who fail to take a lunch break. The debate explores the idea that by skipping lunch, the impact on workers’ productivity levels is keenly felt. Tensor solves the problem of regulating, recording and monitoring breaks at the factory or office. Our Time and Attendance systems, like WinTA Lite, make both paid and unpaid breaks are easy to define and calculate. The PC-run network inserts unpaid breaks if employees do not clock them. You can also enable breaks to activate between set times, and/or after a minimum number of hours have been worked. Tensor can offer various financing and rental packages to both private and public sector organisations who wish to install our products.  

Prison authorities are feeling the backlash over using Monmouthshire inmates to fill nearby vacancies. The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that 23 prisoners were working at a Cardiff office, but said they were filling vacant posts. A Prison Service spokesman said: “Prison Service rules are very clear: prisoners employed by outside companies cannot replace existing staff. They can only fill genuinely vacant posts.” Furthermore, 40 per cent of the open prisoners’ earnings at the call centre go to a victims’ fund. If your office wants the sophistication and speed of smart card access control, but do not wish to use a PC, then this Tensor equipment is for you. The T3510 Low Cost 4 Scanner Controller is programmed with up to three Master Cards using feedback LED’s and switches. This offers the user a quick and easy method of adding or removing access rights for individuals. Any standard burglar alarm can be connected directly to the T3510 so an audible and/or visual alert is immediately triggered from a forced entry.  

The cause of a huge weekend fire at a recycling centre will not be known for days. More than 200 firefighters tackled the blaze which took place in Dagenham on Sunday. Olympic venues were not affected, and a fire service spokesman said: “Because of the amount of damage and the size of the site and because how deeply the stuff was stacked that was burning it will take some days to remove it and properly investigate the fire.” Tensor technology has health and safety at work as a priority. For instance our Access Control T3512 Low Cost 1 Scanner System includes magnetic door release with built in door monitoring; push button for exit; and break glass for emergency exit. It also features Fire Roll Call from fire panel input. Using two Smart Card readers to control entry and exit gives better management control as the T3511 can differentiate which reader was used so you know who is left in the building.  

The latest research finds staff aged 16 to 29 faced a 10 per cent wage fall from 2003 to 2011 in real terms. Their pay situation compared poorly to that of older workers. The Resolution Foundation discovered that earnings for employees aged under 30 fell by 6.4 per cent in the seven years from 2003, representing the biggest pay contraction of the UK workforce. Young men fared worst as their average wages fell 8.6%, while women’s went down 5.8%. Payroll, wages and hours are all dealt with by WinTA, the leading clocking recording and HR management system from Tensor. All frequently used methods of hours calculation are handled, from simple determination of overtime by the number of daily hours worked to the more complex payment of overtime hours adjusted when periodic targets are not met. WinTA contains special rules to accommodate the formal flexitime contracts worked by many public sector employees. Workers paid via annual contracts are encompassed by the annualised hours procedures.

Olympic Security Chief Chris Allison said cuts in specialist police officers were already starting to bite. The Met Assistant Commissioner had asked chief constables to delay making cuts until after the Games, but warned police bosses will need to make “very difficult decisions” in the aftermath of London 2012. There were no security major incidents in the Olympics. This was partly due to more than 100 people being arrested in pre-emptive operations before the event, plus the deployment of extra troops. Tensor’s gates, barriers, and turnstiles fully integrate with our smart card and biometric access control systems and will prevent a security incident happening in and around your site. Automatic bollards limit vehicle access to a specific location, and can easily be lowered when passage is authorised, typically within a few seconds. Proven in a range of locales, these bollards are a trusted way to control access to private or restricted parking facilities. For more information on a Tensor turnstile, barrier or gate, please contact our sales team.

A man has appeared in court accused of four counts of fraud by false representation, four counts of fraud by abuse of position, and two counts of using a false instrument with intent it be accepted as genuine. Giovanni di Stefano is a lawyer who has represented many notorious criminals, including ‘Great Train Robber’ Ronnie Biggs. The legal team of Di Stefano indicated he “vigorously” denies the allegations and will plead not guilty to the ten charges. A Visitor Management System (VMS) from Tensor is the answer to checking the credentials of individuals who enter your facility or office building. The document scanning facility within VMS allows your organisation to make scanned digital copies of special identification licenses or insurance documentation provided by a visitor or contractor. Once recorded onto the system, these documents can be retrieved, viewed or recreated and printed on demand. This is especially important where it is necessary to provide proof that only properly qualified people are allowed on site.  

A well-known car company moves to 24-hour production at one of its factories this week. Workers at the Jaguar Land Rover Halewood facility will assume three eight-hour shifts for the first time in its 50-year history. The vehicle maker said that the move was in response to growing demand for its Range Rover Evoque model, which was launched in July last year. New production operators taken on will receive training of up to a year towards an NVQ Apprenticeship. Tensor can install a complete factory smart card time and attendance system, ensuring that your company retains full control over changing shifts, manning levels and rostering. Using the Shift Premiums function, complex payment schemes can be used, based on factors such as the time of working to the grade of employee. Via the simple use of contactless smart cards or key fobs, employees can book time against their production jobs to produce a fully costed analysis and breakdown of time spent on each one.  

Police have issued CCTV images of two suspected burglars being sought over the riots which broke out over summer 2011. Both men were seen in Hackney, east London, which witnessed much looting from shops during the disorder. A police spokesperson said: “A year on and we are still working hard to track down the people responsible for last summer’s disorder. I hope that someone somewhere will be able to identify them.” Protect your retail premises, whether a shop, warehouse or on an industrial estate, with a Tensor Digital CCTV system. The technology enables your management to monitor movement and access within a specific area. The camera network can be combined with any previously installed Tensor access control or visitor monitoring equipment. In addition, you are not restricted to the type of camera you wish to install as the CCTV software is able to support all cameras within our product range. Picture quality is far superior to that of an analogue system.