Not Bad If You Have the Time and Money
April 09, 2019

Not Bad If You Have the Time and Money

Drew Bishop | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Ascentis

It is used for work and training scheduling and as the company time card to determine Payroll. We also have the performance management portion. However, given the level of paperwork we have and the lack of training time available to us across the organization, this component is not used.
  • The scheduling function provides a good platform that allows employees to see what their schedule is. If multiple departments have need of their time, they can look and see availability. If none, they can negotiate with the employee's direct report to get them in. We use it to coordinate both work hours and training hours.
  • It can be programmed to notify if someone clocks in/out early/late and awards points accordingly. Our frontline staff have a work requirement for in/out timeliness. It lets Managers know when and where to intervene with HR to bring this performance focus back into line.
  • If there are log-in/out errors, Supervisors can easily make corrections. This is important when there are issues that might affect an employee's points.
  • Ascentis requires that every change MUST be saved. So, if one has done a lot of work, and forgets to hit Save, then it's all for naught.
  • It is not intuitive so for Supervisors and Managers who oversee staff timecards, Ascentis training needs to be built into their promotional process.
  • All users need to be proactive in letting their scheduling managers know about schedule changes in time to update the schedule. Otherwise, at the backend, there is a GREAT deal of work to be done to fix time cards and points. In our organization, we have 1 scheduling manager for every program and a manager over them.
  • There is a great deal left on the table in our organization because of the lack of good, easy to access, self training documentation. Being able to use everything in the toolbox requires a great deal of training which requires a significant training budget.
  • It requires an organization fully committed to getting full RoI. That means either having, or developing, an organizational culture where the employees see the Ascentis tools as beneficial to them as individuals.
  • Ascentis has the potential to be a good tool. However, it requires front line buy-in before roll out. An employee who already has a full plate of job responsibilities needs 1) time built into their schedule so they can fully interact with Ascentis and b) to see positive reinforcements for investing in their time pool to use all of the Ascentis tools.
I have not evaluated other products besides Ascentis. It was in use when I arrived.
It takes too long for them to get back on questions. 1 example - I placed a call to Customer service about a possible Phishing attempt through Therap. It's a week later and I still have not heard back, even though in the phone message, I was specific in why I was calling. Given that we use Ascentis 24/7, I would expect a more robust support service.
This system is good for organizations that are decentralized with multiple points of employee sign-in/outs. Because it is Web based, employees can clock in on a computer, at their cubicle, on their phone or any other device that is not simply a time clock.

Ascentis (discontinued) Feature Ratings

Employee demographic data
4
Employment history
5
Job profiles and administration
3
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
6
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
6
Pay calculation
8
Support for external payroll vendors
8
Benefit plan administration
6
Direct deposit files
7
Salary revision and increment management
7
Reimbursement management
7
Approval workflow
8
Balance details
8
Annual carry-forward and encashment
8
View and generate pay and benefit information
8
Update personal information
7
Employee recognition
Not Rated
Report builder
5
Pre-built reports
5
Ability to combine HR data with external data
4
Performance plans
6
Performance improvement plans
6
Review status tracking
6
Review reminders
4
Multiple review frequency
4
Corporate goal setting
6
Individual goal setting
6
Line-of sight-visibility
6
Performance tracking
6
Job Requisition Management
Not Rated
Company Website Posting
Not Rated
Publish to Social Media
Not Rated
Job Search Site Posting
Not Rated
Duplicate Candidate Prevention
Not Rated
Applicant Tracking
Not Rated
Notifications and Alerts
Not Rated