If there is one thing you need to know about aviation companies, it's that organization and control are key. Just think about what an air traffic controller is in charge of; they need to organize and manage air traffic, often with hundreds of thousands of people in the sky at one time and they're regulating all of it. Now, this is just one job within the aviation industry. Think of all the other ones, such as pilots or ground staff. They all have a crucial hand in the safety of passengers and the safety of the aviation company they work for. But who manages them? Well, human resources (HR) does and therefore, human resources or people management is paramount.
But HR isn't about managers sitting behind desks, filling out employee worksheets. It's all online now and the main thing they're using tech for is time and attendance, whereby 80% of companies track work attendance and 78% use employee monitoring tools, which are showcasing their immense benefits.
When it comes to the aviation industry, flight crews, ground staff and maintenance teams work irregular hours, cross time zones and must comply with aviation-specific duty rules. The best platforms combine accurate time capture, flexible scheduling, compliance tracking and solid integrations with payroll and rostering systems. As there are a lot of moving parts in terms of employees for aviation companies, many of whom work on the ground away from an office, high up in the sky and even office workers who simply work remotely now, tracking time and attendance has never been as critical as it is today. For this, certain attendance tracking platforms are required, the best of which will be outlined below.
Factorial Offers Modern, Crew-friendly Time and Attendance
Factorial has become a favorite for midsize organizations that need a cloud-native, user-friendly suite, making it an excellent example of time and attendance software. For business aviation firms looking for a balance of usability and functionality, the factorial platform offers:
- - Simple mobile clock-in/clock-out with geolocation and QR code options to verify on-site presence.
- - Intuitive scheduling tools that handle irregular shifts and ad-hoc duty assignments.
- - Automated time-off and leave tracking, with custom rules for different employee groups (pilots, cabin crew, ground engineers).
- - Integration-ready APIs and pre-built connectors to common payroll and HRIS systems, making downstream payroll and compliance easier.
- - Reporting dashboards that show overtime, utilization rates and real-time labor cost projections.
The design behind the Factorial platform must be noted, as it is exceptional. The user experience (UX) is of high importance in this digital age. Employees and HR need to be able to log in quickly, start timers and get tracking, without too many hiccups.
Now, the reason that it's important for employees to be able to log in their times is a) to showcase when and where they worked and b) as a company, you can better understand where they've spent their time and how they've spent it. Additionally, using an intervention strategy like this for workers who are all around the world significantly reduces absenteeism, which is a massive indirect expense for companies. Some sources, including "Statistics Canada", cite that absenteeism approximates 15-20% of payroll costs.
This means that if you are not able to locate your workers, this could cost your business up to 20% of your payroll, which translates into losses of over $16 billion in salary expenses. In terms of the US, this economy loses a massive 50 million hours of productivity per day; therefore, tracking attendance is not just something needed for legal compliance, nor is it a means of monitoring; more than that, it's about helping your bottom line.
This tracking is crucial for work effectiveness. Those who track their hours are more effective at work than those who don't.
Oracle Workforce Management is Great for Enterprise Scale and Always Regulation-ready
Another option, ranked after Factorial, is Oracle’s Workforce Management suite, which works well for larger companies. Most aviation companies are large to begin with, so this suite will work well regardless; however, it's especially handy at navigating more complex team dynamics and setups. That's the thing about these pieces of software, although they are set up to suit the needs of the time and tracking attendance for aviation companies, certain ones will work better than others. Factorial is arguably ranked the highest; however, at the end of the day, it's up to the company to pick the suite that they feel best suits their needs.
On Oracle, you will find deep scheduling rules engines capable of modeling regulatory duty limits, rest requirements and multi-leg rostering. Additionally, they have relatively robust exception management tools and multi-level approvals for roster changes. This can free up a lot of time for HR managers, who don't have to scour through the site to try to make their approvals but can do this from one centralized dashboard.
In terms of the payment structure, Oracle has extensive integrations with ERP and finance systems for consolidated payroll and accounting, which also makes the life of an HR manager much more bearable. Even if the workers have different contract types, which is the aviation industry is very common,
Oracle can manage all of this. You can reconfigure a lot of these elements and set up the dashboard in a way that suits your needs, which is great.
Microsoft Teams with Shifts has a More Flexible and Collaborative Approach
Microsoft Teams has its own scheduling option called Shifts, which provides a lightweight but powerful scheduling layer, particularly when paired with Microsoft’s broader Power Platform and workforce integrations. The thing about going the Microsoft Teams route is that it is also used as a communication tool and therefore can get a bit data-heavy, as everything feels like it's happening on one platform. It's not the ideal option if you have a large company; however, if you feel very comfortable with it, you could get away with using it.
It's great because Shifts supports shift scheduling, approvals and basic time capture inside Teams, making it simple to communicate schedules and changes with the crew and it has integration with Microsoft Power Automate and Power BI. This lets HR teams build custom workflows and reports without heavy development. However, these are structured in a calendar look that you may already know from Teams, making it not the most ideal solution for a very complex setting.
SAP SuccessFactors Time Management Has Integrated HR and compliance
SAP SuccessFactors offers time management that ties closely to its broader HR suite, delivering end-to-end workforce administration.
With SAP, you have advanced time recording methods, from mobile punches to kiosk and biometric terminals, which is great for aviation teams who might be checking in from different parts of the world or even different parts of the airport. The great thing about SAP is that they are known for creating a platform that is very in tune with labor law requirements and their setup works for companies that have specific in-house policies that need to be applied.
SAP even has a forecasting metric that allows you to plan ahead by creating planning modules that allow you to see the labor needs in the future and then organize employees for those days specifically. Planning like this is not only important time-wise but also productivity-wise. Having plans increases employee success by increasing engagement and retention with statistics showing companies with strategic plans grow 30% faster. Plus, engaged employees see 21% higher profitability and 17% higher productivity, which is amazing.
SAP SuccessFactors is perfect for companies that want one vendor for HR, talent and timekeeping. Its strength lies in integrated people data and the ability to align time policies with broader workforce planning and compliance initiatives.
UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) has Purpose-built Workforce Management
UKG remains a market leader for workforce management and is especially strong in industries requiring complex scheduling and timekeeping. It has sophisticated forecasting and demand-based scheduling tools that help balance staffing against flight schedules and ground operations. Also, the timekeeping systems are engineered to minimize time fraud and ensure accurate overtime calculations and its industry-specific solutions and professional services offer help in implementing aviation-friendly rostering logic.
What Aviation Operators Should Prioritize When Choosing Software
Selecting the right system depends on specific operational and regulatory needs.
The most important aspect for you to think about is compliance. By tracking the hours of employees, you get to see if they're in line with the hours required in their contract, plus you can see if there are perhaps too many overtime hours that would scoot you out of compliance and then you can think of intervention strategies to rectify that. Visibility into overtime, duty compliance, fatigue risk and labor cost helps managers make smarter rostering choices.
These pieces of software also just suit the lives of aviation companies. Pilots and cabin crew spend little time at desks. Mobile clocking, easy shift viewing and quick approvals are crucial for them to be able to do their jobs in a way that works for them. Also, crew often cross time zones, which can make reporting hours tricky but the right system should normalize time entries and report in both local and home time as needed.
Fly High Up in the Sky with Time on Your Side
Business aviation demands flexibility, stringent compliance and clear visibility over crew hours and labor costs. Factorial stands out for organizations looking for an approachable, modern system with strong mobile functionality and straightforward integrations. For larger operators with complex rostering and regulatory needs, enterprise options from Oracle, SAP and UKG provide the robust rule engines and scalability required. For smaller companies, it might be worth looking into Microsoft Teams and Shifts, especially if you're already using Microsoft Teams as a communication tool, as it's then easy for everyone to engage with.
Tracking attendance is not about monitoring. It's a strategy that must be used by companies looking out for their bottom line, making sure their time logs are compliant and ultimately having better insight into the daily lives of their workers.
