Author: tasmin

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Timekeeping Systems: Pros, Cons, & Best Options

According to Workforce.com’s 2021 survey of US businesses, 1 in 10 companies still rely on manual timekeeping systems such as printed timesheets or offline spreadsheets. At the same time, over half of the companies say their biggest problems are manual errors in their time and attendance data and integrating that data with their other HR systems. The connection is clear: companies still relying on outdated solutions for time and attendance are causing unnecessary harm to their business through inefficiency.

Paper timekeeping systems are simple but outdated

Lots of companies stick with pen-and-paper timesheets out of habit, but while they may be familiar and cheap, they are very inefficient and actually end up costing you money in the long term.

Benefits of paper timekeeping systems

  • Low-cost: Paper timesheets are cheap to produce and implement. All you need is a blank template and a standard office printer or photocopier, making it accessible to even the most cash-strapped employer.
  • Accessible: Pen-and-paper systems require no specialist knowledge or training to use—staff of all levels know how to fill in a sheet.
  • Best for small staff: They’re best suited to small businesses with fewer staff—a local café, for example, with a handful of shift staff coming and going throughout the day.

Drawbacks of paper timekeeping systems

  • Inefficient: Paper timesheets are incredibly inefficient. Processing them each day is laborious and will either take valuable time away from admin staff or require the hiring of data entry staff specifically for this purpose.
  • Prone to error: Pen-and-paper systems have two critical weak points for data mistakes. Errors are easily made both when the sheets are being filled out and when the data is transcribed into payroll.
  • Easily lost: Information gathered and stored on paper is particularly vulnerable to loss, damage, or misfiling. Should you be faced with an audit, the penalties for that missing information can be steep.
  • Hard to share: Paper records are also hard to share by nature. Robust record keeping is more important than ever, and files full of paper are harder and more expensive to deliver to the relevant authorities than digital records.

Spreadsheets are convenient but prone to errors

Spreadsheets are a sensible step up from pen and paper and reduce some of the more pressing problems of rudimentary print-based timekeeping systems. Lots of businesses manage to make spreadsheets work, but they are still far from ideal.

Benefits of spreadsheet timekeeping systems

  • Ease of use: Spreadsheets are easy to set up and use—Microsoft Excel even offers a generic timesheet template that can get you started in a few minutes.
  • Affordable: Spreadsheets are a low-investment solution to time and attendance tracking. There’s a strong chance that you already have and use the office software needed.
  • Less work: A properly configured spreadsheet will calculate hours worked as each day’s shifts are logged, removing at least one time-consuming task from your admin load.
  • Fast and shareable: As a digital solution, spreadsheets are by nature quicker to process than stacks of hand-written timesheets. It’s also much easier to share a spreadsheet or export the data for tax and accounting purposes.

Drawbacks of spreadsheet timekeeping systems

  • Still a timesink: While more convenient than a purely paper-based system, collating and processing each timesheet manually into a spreadsheet is still labor intensive. You’ll save time, but not much.
  • Formula mistakes: Spreadsheets are very prone to errors. In a 2019 academic study, over 90% of business spreadsheets contained at least one error, and about 50% of those used by big businesses had material defects.
  • Errors stack up over time: The big danger with spreadsheet errors is that if they’re not spotted, incorrect calculations start to pile up over time. One small formula mistake can result in payroll errors being made every month until spotted. Fixing this is expensive and potentially exposes the company to serious legal repercussions.
  • Data security: Spreadsheets can create additional security concerns, especially if the same templates are being duplicated, reused, and passed around. In 2016, Boeing hit the headlines with a data leak in which the personal data of 36,000 employees was left in a hidden column of a shared spreadsheet.
  • Poor fit: Spreadsheets are not the right tool for the job. They may be able to perform basic time and attendance functions, but it’s not their intended purpose. Using spreadsheets as a timekeeping system is like cooking a steak in a microwave. Yes, it will heat up the meat, but you’re not getting anything close to the best result.

Bespoke software will meet your needs, but the cost is high

Hiring an external company to develop a new timekeeping software package just for your business solves a lot of problems, but you can expect to pay a premium for the luxury.

Benefits of bespoke timekeeping systems

  • Made for you: This is software that has been developed with your specific business in mind so it will fit like a glove and do everything you need it to, the way you want it to.
  • Fits current processes: As it’s been developed with one company in mind, implementing bespoke software requires no changes to your existing processes. The software accommodates you rather than the other way around.
  • Ownership: Depending on the contract signed with the developer, you can own the software outright, making it a potentially valuable asset for the balance sheets.
  • Suited to large corporations: Bespoke software is a solution most likely to be used by multinational corporations that may prefer to have software unique to their internal structures and processes.

Drawbacks of bespoke timekeeping systems

  • Frontloaded cost: Bespoke software comes with a high upfront cost. On average, hiring developers to create a software solution specifically for your business requires you to set aside around 4.5 months and $36,000.
  • Updates must be paid for: Bespoke software solutions can be inflexible over time, locking you into the way things are done now. Changing any of the processes that tie into timekeeping, such as HR or payroll, down the line will mean changing the software to match.
  • Staying legal: Compliance will also go out of date. Employment law is always evolving, and while a bespoke solution may be compliant today, it will eventually need to change to reflect new legislation that affects your business.
  • Security: Third-party developers often use open source tools and components to solve common problems, and 84% of these free-to-use bits of code have been found to have security vulnerabilities.
  • Pay to improve: You’re on the hook for all of these necessary updates, improvements, and bug fixes, and so improving the software over the years incurs more costs as you pay the developers to patch it up. That’s if your original developers are still in business in 10 years’ time, of course.

Commercial time and attendance software grows with your company

Existing time and attendance software has the benefits of bespoke software, such as integration with your existing HR and payroll systems, but is also flexible enough to accommodate your changing needs as your business grows.

Benefits of vendor software timekeeping systems

  • Scalable: Unlike bespoke software, vendor-provided solutions are designed to work for customers ranging from small businesses to large corporations. This means these timekeeping systems are flexible from the start, with features that can be implemented as you need them.
  • Spread the cost: Using an established software timekeeping system means no huge upfront investment. Most offer rolling subscription prices that are scaled to your needs. Many also have a free trial period.
  • Getting set up: Integrating an existing staff-management software package into your business is quicker than you think. Companies can be onboarded to use Workforce.com in as little as four weeks, for example.
  • Data quality: Joined-up data from scheduling through to timekeeping and payroll also means greater accuracy. Electronic time and attendance data can be directly obtained from the point of entry to clocking out at the end of a shift, dramatically reducing the risk of manual entry errors.
  • Simple compliance: Tying all your employee data together also makes compliance easier, with constantly updated records for tax and accounting purposes. This can also be directly beneficial for internal troubleshooting, with most vendor-supplied software timekeeping systems able to produce reports that quickly reveal pain points in your business.
  • Support: Commercial software means you have an entire company monitoring and updating the security of your data, as well as pushing out updates and improvements to the system at no extra cost to your business.
  • Mobile friendly: Most vendor time and attendance systems feature an employee time clock app. These apps provide staff with more flexibility, while also increasing their engagement and accountability. What’s more, mobile time clock apps save employers money as they are typically free, unlike more expensive kiosk hardware.

Drawbacks of vendor software timekeeping systems

  • Change can seem daunting: If your company has grown used to using an older timekeeping system, the thought of changing to something more up to date can be intimidating. The benefits far outweigh the minimal disruption needed to switch things over.

Integrated timekeeping systems protect your business

Timekeeping systems are the central source of your company’s most important internal data. Inaccuracy here impacts everything from payroll to business taxes. The more outdated your timekeeping system, the more inefficient your business will be—and the unnecessary cost in time and money makes your company weaker and less competitive. If you’re still using those methods, the time to upgrade is now.

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5 best ways to deal with short staffing

Summary

  • Labor shortage persists across the nation, spanning multiple industries

  • Unemployment benefits, COVID fears, and career reevaluations fueling shortage, among other reasons

  • Beat short-staffing with labor forecasting, scheduling in advance, increasing engagement, automating breaks, and cross-training

In what people are now dubbing The Great American Labor Shortage, businesses across the United States are suffering from severe understaffing issues – and small businesses are taking the biggest hit.

Indeed, recovery is happening slowly. The National Restaurant Association says that, as of July, the industry is within 1 million jobs of its pre-pandemic peak – this is after three consecutive months of increasing employment levels. Nevertheless, short staffing still persists. The NFIB found in July of this year that 49% of small businesses reported having job openings they could not fill – the historical average is 22%. Restaurants are still experiencing the most difficulty with this, even in the face of recovery. Many of them, both local and franchise alike, are having to slash opening hours a significant amount due to low availability of staff. You know it’s bad when Alabama Chick-fil-As are closing early nearly every day of the week. 

Needless to say, this is as concerning as it is stressful for hardworking business owners, HR and front-line managers everywhere. After such a tumultuous year as 2020, one would think that things could only get better with the economy opening back up. Clearly, the staffing recovery is happening much slower than people hoped for or expected. 

Why the shortage exists

So why is this all happening you may be wondering? Well, there are several contributing factors to the problem; each probably plays a role in its own way. Understanding these causes will better inform how to schedule an understaffed business more effectively.

The first and most obvious reason is that people are afraid of COVID-19 still. Recently, the Census Bureau found that 3.9 million people are not returning to work because they fear catching or spreading the virus. The increasing prevalence of the Delta variant only adds to this already strong concern for personal health.  

And why bother risking going back to work when you can live comfortably without a job? Herein lies the second potential reason for the labor shortage: unemployment benefits may have acted as disincentives. The American Staffing Association reported that some people made as much as $6 more per hour on unemployment insurance with pandemic bonuses. Due to these benefits, perhaps it makes sense that people don’t want to return to work. 

However, the problem is not that simple.

26 states withdrew federal unemployment benefits in June and July, months before the Sept. 6 due date. In a recent study, it was found that there was no meaningful difference in increases of shift work between states that ended benefits and states that continued benefits. In fact, states that ended the benefits only saw a 2.2% growth in shift work between May and July, as opposed to a 4.1% growth in states that continued benefits. Clearly, there are other, more personal factors keeping people from returning to work.

While unemployment benefits and pandemic fears are the most discussed causes, they might coincide with a longer-running trend. 

The United States has a rapidly aging population and in turn, a shrinking workforce. Many industries are affected by this trend, and the pandemic only served to exacerbate it. Older workers probably chose to retire early in the face of remote work. Others may have relocated to work remotely in an attempt to spend more time with their families. 

Whatever the reasoning may be, the fact remains that industries across the United States are struggling to attract young workers to replace retiring older workers. The healthcare industry knows this well, as they are facing a nursing shortage. The NCBI reports that 1 million RNs are over the age of 50 and that in 10 to 15 years, about one-third of the current nursing workforce is due to retire. Slightly alarming, right?

These staffing shortages impact a variety of markets, ranging from hospitality to healthcare. With a multitude of factors causing the shortages, it can be extremely difficult to address each problem directly. There are, however, a few simple techniques you can use in your scheduling system that may help. 

Solve the shortage with better scheduling 

One of the best ways to handle an understaffed workforce is to adopt more efficient scheduling techniques. With smarter scheduling, managers can get the most value out of their limited number of employees. As the old saying goes, “work smarter, not harder.”

1.) Use Labor Forecasting

Automated employee scheduling software exists now that makes the creation of schedules quite simple. Labor forecasting is perhaps the most impressive example of what this technology can do. It looks at historical sales data and other external factors, predicting how many employees are needed for certain shifts. Not only does this ensure proper staffing numbers but it also helps maximize productivity. Managers should use labor forecasting analytics during staffing shortages to accurately schedule their scarce employees at the right times to best meet predicted demand.

2.) Make Schedules in Advance

Tools like labor forecasting software help expedite the scheduling process; this allows managers to send schedules to employees far in advance. Doing this gives employees ample time to plan their personal lives accordingly. With a dedicated workforce management platform, these schedules are published in one place for everyone to see, no matter where they are. When faced with a staff shortage, publishing schedules early is extremely important because it ensures dedication to upcoming shifts. It also allows for early communication regarding potential conflicts – shift conflicts are often a nightmare to deal with last minute while shorthanded.  

3.) Increase Employee Engagement

Simply publishing schedules early isn’t always enough. Managers need to empower their employees with tools for communication. Shift swapping software lets workers signal via phone notifications if they need a shift covered; co-workers can then choose to claim a shift with the tap of a finger. Utilizing a shift-swapping tool lets employees adapt quickly and efficiently to schedule conflicts. 

Shift feedback is also critical for handling a short-staffed business. By allowing employees to briefly rate different aspects of their shifts, managers gain valuable insight into how their employees perform under certain conditions.

4.) Automate Breaks

With understaffing comes the risk of overworking. It is tempting for workers to skip breaks in order to keep up with demand; however, this can be disastrous for a manager trying to avoid labor compliance violations. With automated workforce management software, managers can input their own required fields for employee break times. These breaks then show up automatically in every schedule created. If an employee misses a break, starts it late, ends it early, etc., the manager will be notified. 

Errors in break times are very common in short-staffed environments, but by scheduling more efficiently with the proper software, these errors can easily be mitigated. 

5.) Cross-Train Employees

Finally, it is worth considering cross-training employees to perform multiple job roles. In a short-hand environment, it is always useful to have people on duty capable of performing a variety of tasks when needed. Cross-training makes scheduling much easier since the manager will almost always have people with the right qualifications on duty. 

Dealing with a staffing shortage is no easy task. The issue is something business owners in many industries have had to deal with forever, and there are really no definitive answers on how to solve it. However, utilizing more efficient scheduling techniques will nearly always help. Scheduling is one of the main things under the complete control of a manager, even in the face of a labor shortage.

Curious to learn more? Check out our webinar below featuring the founder of Grategy Coaching, Lisa Ryan.

Webinar: How to Schedule While Understaffed

 

Want to take immediate action? Innovative scheduling software like Workforce.com gives managers the necessary tools to start allocating labor more efficiently. 

Book a call with one of our team members to learn more, or try our software for free today. 

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Simple shift replacement: A home run for the Lake Elsinore Storm

Summary

  • Last-minute schedule changes are difficult to manage without the right technology

  • Modern workforce management solutions make shift replacements easy

  • Minor league baseball team the Lake Elsinore Storm use Workforce.com’s shift replacement tool constantly

Uh oh, looks like Last Minute Linus can’t make it to his prep cook shift tonight. To make matters worse, it is a Friday – the busiest night of the week. Someone needs to cover his shift. So begins the feverish process of cold calling and texting dozens of employees to find a shift replacement. Sounds familiar, right?

If so, that’s a problem. There is simply no reason to overcomplicate replacing employee shifts. However, many in the hospitality industry are doing just this.

Businesses struggling with schedule changes

According to a study from earlier this year, 69% of schedules are made on paper or word processors. Because of this, navigating scheduling logistics is taking far too long. About 29% of employers say approving schedule changes and shift swaps takes the most time in the scheduling process. When dealing with shift replacements, 75% of managers claim to only call, text, or email employees to communicate. 

Combing through your phone and email contact lists like this takes valuable time, as does manually updating schedules with every last-minute change. 

Fortunately, there is an easier way to orchestrate all of this. 

Easy shift swapping

Workforce.com facilitates easy shift replacements all in one place for every employee and manager to see. No more texting seven different people to figure out who can cover who. Right from their phone, an employee can signal a need for a shift swap; this sends a notification to all their team members. These team members can then view information about the available shift and decide for themselves if they will claim it or not. Once a swap happens, all a manager needs to do is review and approve it with one click. Boom. It’s that easy.

Also Read: Shift swap software empowers managers and employees to take charge of scheduling

Utilizing efficient shift replacement technology benefits both employers and employees. According to a whitepaper published by Workforce.com, shift replacement tools empower managers to reduce overtime and lower under/overstaffing. For employees, the technology provides a better work/life balance as well as the ability to build camaraderie through more effective communication.

Time savings in Minor League Baseball

Many businesses know firsthand the positive impact shift replacement software has on their scheduling efficiency. Recently, we reached out to the Lake Elsinore Storm, a minor league baseball affiliate of the San Diego Padres, to hear about their experience using Workforce.com. 


“One of my favorite features is the shift replacement feature where I can see who’s not available for a shift and who is available to pick it up and don’t have to worry about reaching out to people,” says Katie, an HR generalist for the team. The Storm has a heavy emphasis on hospitality, employing a staff of over for a variety of roles encompassing restaurant service, ticketing, concessions, and groundskeeping. 

Before implementing the software, Katie found that personally overseeing shift replacements was eating up a lot of her time. This has since changed with the switch to Workforce.com: “I don’t have to worry about reaching out to people last minute, getting on the phone, sending emails. I know that it just shows up on someone’s phone and they can pick it up.”

Right there lies the real beauty of Workforce.com’s shift replacement feature; it empowers employees with the ability to take part in the scheduling process. Through this empowerment, unnecessary work is offloaded from the manager directly to the employee, saving time and money while maximizing convenience.

For Lake Elsinore Storm, the time savings brought about by key features such as shift replacement were well recognized across upper management. “It’s almost like we have another assistant or another employee working with us that is really intelligent and smart and knows what it’s doing … it’s really a time-saver,” states Christine Kavic, the Storm’s CFO.

The Storm have many different employee teams set up on Workforce.com, each serving different areas of hospitality. From the taproom staff to stadium maintenance crew, all teams work in unison to make game days go smoothly. Because of this variety, Lake Elsinore Storm management understands more than most what it takes to efficiently schedule a workforce in the hospitality industry. A result of this is high customer satisfaction through exceptional service to the public – something the team prioritizes. 

“Without Workforce.com, we could not do what we do best, and that is entertain the community,” says Kavic. 

Experience it for yourself

Replacing shifts shouldn’t be a hassle; in fact, it should be the easiest part of scheduling. Since Workforce.com’s shift replacement tool has been a big hit (sorry, I had to do it) in baseball stadium management, maybe it’s time you try it for free to see how it works. You won’t believe how simple it is.

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How to use Excel employee schedule timesheets – and why you no longer need them

Ensuring your employees are at work when they’re supposed to be and work the hours they’ve been scheduled for is at the heart of any business. Without accurate attendance data, your company efficiency suffers and payroll becomes chaotic. Despite this, the 2021 Workforce Management Trends survey found that one in 10 companies still track time and attendance manually. At the same time, 50% of companies reported that their biggest challenge was manual errors in attendance data.

 

A common way of logging staff attendance is on a spreadsheet, such as Excel employee schedule timesheets. Getting to grips with Excel requires a little practice, and it is time-consuming even once you’ve got a system in place, but it’s an improvement over outdated pen-and-paper records. Once you’ve understood how to manually calculate timecards in Excel, there are employee scheduling software solutions that will make the process even easier and more efficient.

How to do timesheets in Excel

Using Excel, or any similar spreadsheet such as Google Sheets, to keep track of employee schedules and timesheets has several advantages over pen-and-paper methods:

  • You can take advantage of formulas so that calculations are done for you.
  • It’s faster than writing entries by hand.
  • All records are easily kept together within a file and easily shared.

Here’s how to get started.

DOWNLOAD THE EXCEL TIMESHEET TEMPLATE

An advantage of Excel is that it has a free timesheet template already set up for basic functionality. That means it has the main formulas already entered, so you don’t need to spend time working those out.

CREATE A NEW SHEET FOR EACH EMPLOYEE

Using the plus icon at the bottom of the screen, create separate timesheets for all your employees and fill in the employee, manager, and pay period details at the top of each one.

It’s always a good idea to keep a blank version of the template on a separate sheet in your workbook so you can copy and paste it to add more new employees later.

FILL IN EACH EMPLOYEE’S SHIFT DATA

Using information from your time clock, or whatever method you use to check employees in and out, start at the top of the data entry section and fill in dates worked, time in, lunch start, lunch end, and time out.

Be aware that for the formulae to automatically calculate hours worked, the Excel employee schedule timesheet template requires time to be entered in the format HH:MM and uses a 24-hour clock—so 5:00 pm should be entered as 17:00. It also assumes lunch breaks – if offered – are unpaid.

GET THE TOTAL HOURS WORKED

If you have entered the data using the correct format, the total hours worked should automatically be calculated at the top of the timesheet.

SEPARATE REGULAR HOURS FROM OVERTIME

If you are updating your timesheets daily and have entered the total weekly hours an employee is contracted for, you will be able to see when an employee is getting close to exceeding their scheduled shifts under the Overtime Hours heading.

REPEAT THIS PROCESS FOR EVERY SHIFT FOR EACH EMPLOYEE

This will be the most laborious part of the process, so be sure to come up with a sustainable system for how and when this information is entered. Keeping daily records is ideal, so discrepancies are spotted as early as possible. Putting aside a large chunk of time each week to enter all the timecard information can also work, but it is not ideal.

Dealing with the disadvantages of Excel employee schedule timesheets

Just because a spreadsheet can do something doesn’t mean it was designed with that task in mind. While Excel employee schedule timesheets will get the job done, there are numerous problems with relying on this method.

It’s time-consuming: Manually entering data for every employee is very time-consuming, and that problem only gets worse the larger your company becomes. Repeating the above process for 20, 50, or 100 staff members or more will eat up a large chunk of your working week—or cost you extra in hiring someone to do it for you.

It’s prone to errors: While a spreadsheet is better than pen and paper, research has found that as many as 90% of all Excel spreadsheets contain errors. Even small mistakes when copying information across from timecards can cost you money, either in overpayments or in damaging wage and hour lawsuits.

It’s reactive rather than proactive: Updating spreadsheets by hand means you do not see real-time attendance data, and if you don’t input the data regularly, you’ll always be reacting to yesterday’s information, and that’s if you update daily. If you only update your spreadsheet weekly—or even less frequently—it’s easy to fall behind and be caught out, for example, if an employee’s hours have already gone into overtime by the time you enter their data.

It’s vulnerable: Spreadsheet files are fast becoming as impractical and outdated as paper files, becoming large and cumbersome over time as you track multiple employees across the financial year. Not only are such files slow and limited in accessibility, saving this much essential data in one place means you’re always one computer crash or corrupted hard drive away from a data catastrophe.

All-in-one attendance and employee scheduling software is the ideal solution

All of the pitfalls of Excel employee schedule timesheets are easily avoided by using intelligent workforce management software that has been specifically developed with both managers and employees in mind. Workforce.com’s employee scheduling software is also a fully-integrated time and attendance system, so you can track staff hours and collect data in real-time without the need for manual timesheet entry. This gives managers an accurate view of staff and shifts minute by minute, freeing up their time to concentrate on the management tasks that really matter.

Still have questions about creating timesheets in Excel? Go ahead and reach out to us. We are here to help.

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Online time and attendance tracking can save you more than money

If you are still tracking staff attendance using offline methods, such as paper timesheets or even computer spreadsheets, your company is at risk of more than just money lost to inefficiency. With increased scrutiny over working hours and pay—and new labor laws likely to favor workers—sticking with outdated and inaccurate offline methods of recording on-the-clock hours can expose you to expensive legal risks. Here are the key ways in which switching to online time and attendance software for staff management will allow you to stop worrying about legal compliance and concentrate on managing your business.

Be ready for predictive scheduling

One of the most talked-about developments in labor law is predictive scheduling, or “fair workweek.” These laws are designed to protect hourly workers from unpredictable schedules and ensures they are given ample rest between shifts. Predictive scheduling laws are already on the books in multiple states and cities, with more likely to follow.

Complying with predictive scheduling laws without using online time and attendance software is a huge task. Offline staff scheduling systems require managers to spot shifts that clash with these laws by checking and cross-referencing every timesheet and schedule manually. Even with only 10 employees mistakes are easy to make and problematic shift patterns are hard to track.

The risks of getting it wrong are high, as non-compliance results in punitive fines that usually stack per individual infraction. Break the law for one worker’s shift, and you may be fined $5,000. If the same problem occurs for 10 staff, you’re facing a $50,000 penalty. Since scheduling errors rarely impact only one employee, your risk grows exponentially the more workers you have. In April this year, New York City sued Chipotle for $500 million for 599,693 infractions of the city’s 2017 predictive scheduling law. Even if you’re not operating at the level of a brand like Chipotle, the more staff you have, the more shifts you run, the higher the cost of scheduling mistakes.

The benefit of using online time and attendance software such as Workforce.com is that it can be set up with the specifics of any local state or city labor laws, automatically preventing managers from creating a schedule that will break the law. At a stroke, you’ve minimized your exposure to predictive scheduling class action and ensured your staff receives fair treatment that respects their work-life balance.

Avoid costly wage and hour lawsuits

Wage and hour litigation currently makes up the majority of employee class-action suits. Not only are they the most common legal threat faced by businesses, but more suits than ever are successful. That trend isn’t going anywhere soon. The Biden administration is making large-scale changes to the law in this area, extending coverage to protect part-time and “gig economy” workers and the payment of tips to service staff.

It’s never been more important for companies to be sure that they are correctly logging hours worked and wages paid. Using offline time and attendance methods to keep track of these business essentials is prone to error and manipulation, by both managers and employees, and problems quickly become systemic. When that happens, it only takes one employee to cause everything to unravel, as Chicago restaurant Tank Noodle discovered when one employee’s complaint about wage discrepancies snowballed into a federal investigation and a $700,000 bill for back pay to 60 staff.

Online time and attendance software covers you both ways where wage and hour suits are concerned. Software that automatically clocks staff in and out, recording their hours worked down to the second, makes it easier to spot problems and produce data in your company’s defense. At the same time, automatically connecting that attendance directly to your payroll systems means that workers get paid exactly what they have earned—and you have the data to prove it if needed.

Comply with data laws

Unlike some other countries, the US has no clear and simple federal law covering data protection or privacy. Instead, there are various proposed bills making their way through the legislatures of multiple states. California and Virginia have passed data privacy laws, but similar laws were defeated in Washington and Oklahoma. All told, 25 states are considering—or have considered—legislation that dictates how businesses handle personal data.

Excel and paper timesheets can often contain personal identifying information—phone numbers, email, home addresses, etc.—for contact reasons. These can be lost, shared, or printed out and disseminated, creating a compliance nightmare. The rise in biometrics in the workplace adds a new layer of complexity as businesses will not just be storing addresses and phone numbers but fingerprints and retinal scans, too. The Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) passed in Illinois gives a good example of what such laws are likely to require.

Data protection and privacy in the US is very much an evolving topic, but whatever happens, it’s clear that spotless record keeping is going to be more important than ever. Using online time and attendance software that unifies as many of your HR functions as possible—schedules, payroll, on- and offboarding—means all that vital data is stored securely in one place but easily accessed as and when you need it should the legal position change.

Online time and attendance makes old methods obsolete

These are turbulent times for business. The world of work is changing rapidly, legislation is increasingly favoring employees, and successful workplace class-action suits are on the rise. Relying on filing cabinets full of old timesheets or a folder full of spreadsheets on an office hard drive is simply too error-prone and vulnerable in this new landscape. Investing in online time and attendance software is a long-term investment in legal compliance but also gives you the confidence that you are ready for whatever comes next.

If you are intrigued and want to learn more about how to improve in this area, our team is here to help.

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Vaccine mandates: what are they and how should businesses handle them

Summary

  • Under Biden’s mandate, companies with 100+ employees now must require vaccinations or weekly testing for all workers

  • Vaccine mandates face pushback, both currently and in the past, with 45% of the U.S. population choosing not to be vaccinated

  • Businesses can use qualification tags, notifications, and shift questions to manage employee vaccination and testing status

The COVID-19 delta variant is becoming a serious threat across the nation. Mask mandates are back in vogue and remote work is once again looming on the horizon – all this and flu season hasn’t even begun.

In light of all this, many businesses have turned to their own internal vaccine mandates. One of the largest breweries in the world, Molson Coors, announced earlier this year a vaccine mandate for all non-union corporate, sales, and contract employees. Some states like Washington and Connecticut have also issued strict mandates for government and healthcare employees.

Biden’s Mandate

This trend has made its way into federal policy recently with the introduction of President Biden’s new vaccine mandate that will affect around 80 million people. Businesses with over 100 workers now must require vaccinations or weekly testing for all their employees – the alternative is a $14k fine. Ouch.

And the mandate does not stop there.

Anyone involved with the federal government in any capacity must show proof of vaccination with no weekly testing as an alternative. This means federal employees, contractors, and federally funded healthcare workers all are required to be vaccinated.

Government officials in states like Texas, South Carolina, and Florida are pushing back, with many citing the new mandates from the administration as overreaching and unconstitutional. Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently signed an executive order in direct retaliation to Biden’s mandate. The rule bans Florida employers and businesses from requiring people to provide proof of vaccination. Failure to comply with the vaccine passport ban results in a $5,000 fine per case. How this state rule will clash with the federal mandate remains to be seen.

This kind of contention is nothing new.

A Divisive History

Vaccine requirements in the past have almost always been met with resistance, and occasionally even full-blown lawsuits. Medical workers in Houston are suing their hospital a second time now after their first case was dismissed earlier this year. The 61 employees are suing in the wake of being suspended and fired for failure to comply with their hospital’s stringent vaccine requirements.

Unions have also traditionally held anti-vaccine mandate policies.

In Chicago, the police union refused to comply with local vaccine requirements announced last month. In fact, the union is reportedly prepared to go to court over the matter. However, many other unions have changed their policies in light of both Biden’s mandates as well as the FDA’s approval of Pfizer last month. Even so, vaccine mandates are still a topic of division among unions – this is something important for companies to keep in mind when navigating Biden’s new requirements.

Staying Compliant

Needless to say, there is a lot of tension surrounding vaccine passport culture. Whether the new mandates are constitutional or not, the fact of the matter is they are here, and business owners everywhere need to do their best to stay compliant.

For companies with 100+ employees not involved with the federal government, the first step to staying compliant is understanding who is exempt from vaccination.

According to the EEOC, an employer cannot issue a blanket vaccine requirement without providing appropriate exceptions for employees with certain medical conditions or religious beliefs. If workers cite one of these exceptions, employers can only mandate that they provide weekly negative test results.

Understanding the laws and technicalities surrounding all these changes is one thing; effectively adapting a workforce management system to these changes is a whole other matter.

Qualifications and Accommodations

There are two primary areas to keep in mind when dealing with the onset of nationwide vaccine mandates: qualifications and accommodations. Managers need to learn how to properly balance vaccine qualification requirements for specific jobs with accommodations for employees that meet exemptions. Accomplishing this balance will translate to an organized and collaborative workforce.

To potentially assist with balancing qualifications and accommodations, Workforce.com offers a few useful features.

The Limiting Scheduling According to Qualifications feature allows managers to keep track of and update employee certifications required for specific jobs. Since vaccines are essentially a kind of certification now, this feature is nearly essential in 2021. By adding a vaccinated status to the customizable qualifications list, managers are able to automatically restrict shifts to various employees.

Joseph Cuellar, a software consultant at Workforce.com, notes, “recently we’ve seen a lot of companies use the qualifications feature to make sure they’re on top of vaccination requirements.” In the coming months, this trend is likely to continue.

Another way for businesses to manage their COVID-19 vaccine and testing requirements is to have employees answer pertinent questions when clocking in. With Workforce.com, managers can prompt employees with questions like these to confirm that they understand the vaccine and testing requirements associated with employment, or confirm that they’ve not exhibited symptoms of COVID-19.

As previously mentioned, these vaccine related qualifications for shifts must be balanced with accommodations.

Some employees may meet one of the two exceptions for getting vaccinated, and organizations should consider properly accommodating them. If they choose not to, they run the risk of losing significant human capital at a time when national staffing shortages are plaguing various industries.

To successfully accommodate exempt employees, both the qualifications tool as well as clock-in questions may be used. Managers can also send weekly reminder notifications to exempt employees to get tested. They can also create a custom qualification tag for testing status that expires after a week. As a daily safeguard, clock-in questions regarding proof of negative tests can also be used.

Vaccine-heavy Future

At the end of the day, if your company has over 100 workers, it is safest to assume that you’ll need a way to keep track of vaccination status across your workforce. Tracking the status of vaccinations and negative test results can be complicated, but there are ways to make it a clear and concise process with workforce management solutions.

Times are hard. Let us make them a little easier for you. Chat with us today over the phone about handling vaccines and testing requirements, or leave your email below and one of our team members will be in touch.

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Data and WFM Technology: The Essentials of Leading a Successful Team

Anticipating changes is part of running a business, and the past year has magnified how important that is. But what does it actually take for businesses to stay agile and prepare for the most unexpected things? Quick answer: Access to real-time data and being able to act on it. However, it’s not as simple for most organizations. 

97% of respondents to a Deloitte survey said that they need additional information on some aspect of their workforce. However, only 11% of organizations were able to produce information on their workforce in real-time—and this challenge has been around even before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Given today’s landscape, organizations need to have the mechanisms in place that enable them to use data to stay ahead even amid unexpected circumstances. The question is, how and where do they start?

Why keeping everything in one place is essential

The key to having access to every vital data point is keeping them in one place or having the means to see all of them at a glance. It starts with having an integrated workforce management system. 

“There are cases when organizations use separate platforms for clocking in, building employee schedules, and tracking time and attendance. Such practice can create silos, resulting in inaccuracies, and affect the integrity of workforce data,” Travis Kohlmeyer, vice president of sales at Workforce.com. 

Organizations can run into different risks when implementing various platforms for processes that could otherwise be done on a single system. Cross-checking data from separate software can be time-consuming and prone to errors that can even become costly compliance violations. Complexities can also happen later on, especially when these systems update and become difficult to integrate with each other. Scalability is also a potential roadblock because it can be challenging to work with different vendors as you grow your business and your requirements change. “It’s just not sustainable and can be costly in the long run,” Kohlmeyer said. 

Having a myriad of different tools and systems can also be difficult for frontline teams to use and counterproductive. “Employees should love to use the tools provided, or they generally won’t use them at all,” Tasmin Trezise, president of Workforce.com said. One of the biggest trends in workforce management is emphasizing ease of use, especially for frontline teams. “We will continue to see the rise of native SaaS cloud applications over clunky enterprise workforce management software with organizations preferring improved frontline manager/employee mobility options and ease of use. Simple and modern UI has long been missing from workforce management solutions. Organizations need to solve their problems and complete tasks in the easiest and quickest way possible,” Trezise explained. 

Workforce data is vital to staying agile, but at the core of it is an integrated workforce management system. When systems are well integrated, it’s easier to gather data and build algorithms that can automate processes or provide insights into how your team or organization is doing. 

In Workforce.com, for instance, managers can do auto-scheduling based on demand and other relevant information. The platform does this by integrating with the different systems an organization uses for appointments, reservations, events, sales volumes, to name a few. Algorithms are then created from information from these systems to anticipate staffing levels needed to meet demand and stay cost-efficient. 

Workforce.com also equips managers and frontline teams to make data-driven decisions on the fly. Because the platform is well integrated, it shows data about the operations in real-time, allowing managers to make adjustments in operations as the day goes. 

It’s also essential to check in on your team and get their feedback and sentiment on how things are going in the frontline. Workforce.com makes this easy for managers and leaders through functionalities like shift rating and feedback and shift questions. These features allow for timely feedback and help managers spot and address issues more quickly. In addition, data gathered from these functionalities can be easily compiled, which decision-makers can use to improve performance and employee engagement.

 

The secret to successful system integrations

The most advisable thing for organizations is to use a single platform for workforce management—which is time and attendance tracking and employee scheduling at its core. “These are the fundamental functions involved in workforce management, and workflow would be more seamless if they are all done on a single platform. This system can then be integrated to other systems that the organizations use such as payroll, appointment systems, POS, and internally built platforms,” Kohlmeyer advised. 

Simplified workforce management and robust integrations are two of the most crucial factors that companies should be on the lookout for when thinking about implementing a WFM platform or any system for managing their teams. “The first part is having a powerful platform that simplifies workforce management, and the second part is making sure that it’s robust enough to be customized according to unique operational needs and variables. Of course, the second part will only be possible if the WFM platform can integrate to other systems a company uses,” Kohlmeyer said. 

Workforce.com has an open API, which means that it can sync into most systems and software. “Its increased adoption is expected to bring huge advancements in workforce analytics and promote internal innovation, integration,  and personalization. By leveraging the power of connectivity, enterprises can quickly eliminate the chaos of using multiple applications leading to rapid innovation and deeper insights into their workforces,” Trezise remarked. 

Leveraging technology and interconnectivity can bring a lot of wins to any organization. It can bring about increased revenue, more significant labor cost savings, resilience in times of market volatility, and an engaged workforce.

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Salt Bae Sued: Rethinking Time & Attendance for Salaried Employees

Summary

  • Former cooks at Salt Bae’s New York steakhouse sue for unpaid overtime

  • Fair Labor Standards Act classifies over $913 a week as exempt from overtime pay

  • Organizations should not overlook the importance of tracking salaried employee time and attendance

 

The fateful day has finally arrived; our beloved meat-mincing and salt-slinging internet hero Salt Bae, also known as Nusret Gökçe to his parents, has fallen out of the good graces of online society. 

First launched into internet stardom in 2017 via a viral video of him eccentrically sprinkling salt onto strips of freshly sliced steak, Gökçe has since built an empire for himself out of artisanal steakhouses and social media influence. This empire started to crumble on August 9, however. Five of Gökçe’s former employees just sued him for denying them overtime pay after they consistently worked 70-90 hour weeks. 

These are some excessive hours to work with no overtime pay, even for steakhouse grillers. So what happened? Well, unlike many in the restaurant industry, the five employees were salaried. They made $1,125 a week, or around $58,500 a year. The chain also classified the grillers’ positions as managerial so as to avoid paying them for overtime.

Citing the Fair Labor Standard Act, the lawsuit claims that Gökçe’s restaurant owes the five salaried employees overtime pay for consistently working them over 40 hours a week in positions misleadingly designated as managerial in nature. 

Crazy stuff right there. Who knew that such a suave, sunglass-wearing, meat connoisseur could have incredibly manipulative intentions behind closed doors? Where is the outrage? Shall the public riot? 

Not so fast.

It is worth understanding what the Fair Labor Standards Act actually says about overtime for salaried employees. As of 2016, only salaried employees who make up to $913 per week, or $47,476 per year, qualify for overtime pay. If an employee makes more than this, they are classified as exempt from overtime pay. Taking what we know from this recent lawsuit against Gökçe, it is clear that the former grillers made over $47,476 a year in salary, meaning that they are potentially exempt from overtime pay according to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

But wait, there’s more. 

On the other hand, the FLSA provides an exemption, of sorts, to…the exemption. You see, the $913 per week ceiling only applies to “white-collar” workers – people in executive, professional, or managerial roles according to Maduff & Maduff, LLC. The FLSA says that “blue-collar” salaried employees can still qualify for mandatory overtime pay no matter how much they make in salary. Blue-collar in this case is defined by the FLSA as “workers who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy.” Examples would include carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, ironworkers, craftsmen, etc. 

So, the natural question is this: are artisanal steak grillers technically blue-collar workers? 

Well, I don’t know. I will let the lawyers bicker over the answer in the coming weeks. What I do know, however, is that this whole mess brings up an interesting subject regarding how employers track time and attendance for their salaried employees.

You see, it was revealed that Gökçe’s restaurant chain did not keep records of the five mens’ working hours or wage statements throughout their employment. Obviously, this negligence does not help matters for the chain. When labor lawsuits like this come up, a company must have access to a paper trail that shows how many hours employees have worked and how much they have received in pay. Now, this practice may seem obvious for hourly employees; however, it is not so obvious for salaried workers.

 

Reasons for tracking salaried employee hours

Automated workforce management solutions should not be seen as exclusive to hourly workers; they can encompass all aspects of a company in any industry. Whether your salaried employees are exempt from overtime pay or not, you should consider attempting to track all their hours worked. While I should note that legally you are not required to do so, it still may be beneficial for your company. Here are a few reasons why:

 

One: Overtime Pay

This one is straightforward. If you have salaried employees who make $47,476 a year or less, they are non-exempt and legally entitled to overtime pay whenever they work over 40 hours a week. Using an automated time and attendance system like Workforce.com allows for companies to accurately and easily track how many hours all employees work, both hourly and salaried. 

Also Read: Management tips on overtime equalization and tracking hours

Two: Paid Time Off

If your employees receive PTO as part of their salaries, tracking daily time and attendance is essential for figuring out how much time they accrue as well as how much they have used.

Also Read: Managing employee time-off requests: A guide for business owners

Two: Labor Compliance

In the event of a lawsuit, you want to be sure you have records of how salaried employees have been compensated and classified. Without proof of good practice, a business is extremely vulnerable to legal trouble. Moreover, labor laws are constantly changing; it is a company’s responsibility to stay up to date on them. For instance, the FLSA policy on the ceiling for mandatory overtime is going to be subject to change every three years. If you are accurately tracking your salaried employees’ hours, you will be much better prepared for future changes to the overtime exemption ceiling. 

Three: Understanding Labor Costs

Since salaried employees don’t have clear-cut hours they need to work, it can be hard to track when they arrive, leave, and how much value they provide to the firm relative to the amount of compensation they receive. By keeping time and attendance records via an automated workforce management platform, managers can get a clearer understanding of their labor costs as well as employee productivity. Just keep in mind that legally, this can not lead to reductions in pay. Tracking hours like this should simply be used as a device for understanding employees and improving productivity. 

Also Read: How to reduce labor costs and attract quality staff in a post-Covid market

Four: Employee Burnout

Similar to identifying labor costs, knowing how many hours salaried employees are working as well as the times they start and stop work is important to managing employee burnout. An exhausted and stressed employee working odd hours is never good for productivity or company culture.

Five: Internal Communication

Using workforce management software to track salaried employee hours also opens the door for rich communication options. With Workforce.com, employees and managers alike can easily message one another, receive instant notifications, and give feedback on a vast array of subjects. Having a transparent and unified system to track time and attendance allows for salaried employees and managers to be on the same page regarding hours worked; this leads to open and honest internal communication. 

 

These are only five simple ways tracking time and attendance for salaried workers can benefit a company. To discover if this is something that might work for you, it may be worth chatting with a representative or booking a free trial. 

Let’s all learn from Salt Bae. Nobody, even a peak internet meme persona, can evade common workforce management issues all on their own. Give time and attendance tracking for salaried employees a try with Workforce.com. 

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8 Pros & Cons of Biometric Time Clocks

xYou arrive for work, walk up to the door and look into the scanner. Infra-red light maps the unique patterns of your retina and, in the literal blink of an eye, your presence is verified, logged, and the door unlocks. This scenario used to be limited to high-security government installations and blockbuster spy movies, but the use of biometrics such as fingerprints and retinal scans to access everyday workplaces is fast becoming the norm.

In a 2019 study, more than a quarter of small North American businesses were using thumbprint scanners as a way of confirming identity, a number that leaps to over 40% for companies with more than 1,000 employees. Even retinal scanners, with their lingering science-fiction reputation, are being used by more than 10% of companies.

Biometrics is a rapidly evolving technology, and if you are considering investing in a biometric time clock system for your business, there are some pros and cons to weigh before making a decision.

The benefits of a biometric time clock

Biometrics offers considerable advantages over analog time clock systems such as punch cards or keycards, and it can improve accuracy, efficiency, and security across your locations.

Biometrics eliminates “buddy punching”

The biggest advantage from a company perspective is that biometric time clocks only work for the employee in question. This makes the common fraudulent practice of “buddy punching,” in which shift workers clock in and out for each other, all but impossible. Whether using fingerprints, palm prints, or retinal scans, biometrics requires the relevant person to be physically present. The only way to clock in for an absent colleague using this system would be to have their eyeballs or fingers, and there aren’t many work buddies willing to go that far to shave a few hours of their working day!

Biometrics improves on-site security

This also means an increase in security and safety. You can be sure that the person gaining access to your premises under a biometric system is who they say they are. It isn’t foolproof—employees can still hold the door open and allow others access—but the chances of anyone using a lost or stolen keycode or card to enter your workplace is gone.

Biometrics streamlines shift changes

Biometric time clocks can also increase efficiency in several areas. Employees don’t need to remember passcodes or keep track of a physical key card, which means your company doesn’t need to spend time and resources providing and managing those measures. The shift change process can also be sped up, as employees can clock in and out more quickly without typing in codes or fumbling in wallets for cards, reducing time-wasting bottlenecks.

Connecting biometric time clock systems to time and attendance software has advantages for employees, too. Being able to prove beyond doubt that they were on-site at specific times means that claims for unpaid overtime are much easier to prove. That, in turn, gives your managers the tools to ensure that payroll is correct, reducing the risk of wage and hour lawsuits.

 

The potential pitfalls of a biometric time clock

Biometrics is still an evolving technology, and it may still produce practical and legal hurdles for businesses to handle. If you introduce a biometric time clock now, you will need to consider a new range of accessibility issues as well as taking on additional data admin work with the possibility of further changes in the future.

Biometrics can limit access for disabled employees

Where employees with disabilities are concerned, companies should be especially alert to their practical access needs. If an eye-level retinal scanner is used to access the workplace, how will that impact wheelchair users? If access is via a palm or fingerprint reader, how will employees with limited or no visibility know where to place their hands? The Americans with Disabilities Act requires companies to make all reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities to access premises, even just for job interviews. While there have been exploratory studies raising concern on this issue, there has yet to be a test case involving biometrics. You don’t want your company to be the one setting that precedent.

Biometrics can require new data handling systems

Data privacy is already something companies need to be on top of, and the use of biometrics will only increase that burden. Although there is no federal law governing the use and storage of biometric data, several states have enacted their own, and it is only a matter of time before others follow suit. Texas and Washington have laws governing general biometric data use, while New York has labor legislation that covers it specifically for workplaces. Passed in 2008, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is the leading template for this kind of legislation, so it is useful to be familiar with what it requires from employers.

Under BIPA, companies must have a publicly available written policy that lays out how biometric data will be used, stored, and deleted. Employees must be sent written confirmation that their biometrics are being collected and how long they will be stored. Employees must also give written consent for this to happen and give separate consent for this data to be shared with third parties. Employee biometric data must be safeguarded and should not be used for profit-making.

Biometric data law violations are costly

As of 2018, more than 50 companies were facing lawsuits filed under BIPA with penalties that can quickly stack up—$1,000 per violation caused by negligence, such as inadequate data security, and $5,000 for every deliberate infraction, such as selling the data to third parties. There have been some high-profile results. Early in 2021, Walmart was hit with a $10 million settlement following a BIPA class-action suit involving 21,677 employees who used a palm scanner when handling cash register drawers without being asked for consent.

In another 2018 case, Smith Senior Living settled a lawsuit brought by an employee who was not made aware that her fingerprint data used to clock in and out of shifts was being stored in a database by Kronos Inc., the external supplier of the biometric systems. Any biometric time clock that shares data with an external platform—such as time and attendance software—means you should get explicit consent from employees to avoid legal exposure.

 

Biometric time clocks require companies to earn trust

Since biometric data is uniquely personal, it stands to reason that people will see the collection and use of that data in more personal terms. As an employer introducing biometric time clocks, the onus will be on you to build trust and put systems in place that reassure your staff you can be trusted with this information.

Legal challenges such as the one Walmart faced are likely the thin end of the wedge when it comes to concern from the general public over the use of biometrics. A 2018 survey found that 69% of respondents felt there were strong arguments against biometrics, with worries about the data itself being the most common.

A case was brought against Honeywell in 2015 for encouraging employees to sign up for a wellness program that included biometric screening in order to qualify for health insurance. The tests included cholesterol, waist size, and smoking history. Those who opted not to take part risked thousands of dollars in penalties and lost contributions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the suit saying it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act by forcing employees with disabilities to reveal medical information for purposes not required by their work.

Although the Honeywell case was not related to biometric time clocks, it is inevitable that some employees will see any introduction of biometrics into the workplace as a prelude to punitive personal scrutiny. These are paranoid times, especially where matters of health and privacy are concerned, and some may even assume that their data will be misused regardless. It’s up to you to convince them this isn’t the case.

 

Biometric time clocks aren’t vital for every business—yet

Although the use of biometric time clocks is growing, with the pandemic driving takeup of contact-free retinal scanners in particular, that doesn’t mean it’s the right call for every business to adopt this technology. Biometric time clocks are especially useful for businesses that rely on hourly shift workers. Keeping track of lots of staff coming and going, without causing bottlenecks as people clock in and out, is a boon to companies operating on that model. Producing accurate data for payroll and efficient staff management is another bonus.

This is also a system that can be implemented gradually, used for access to specific locations that need additional layers of security or accountability. Or it may not be right for your business at all, right now. Biometrics in the workplace, whether for time clock purposes or other reasons, requires the introduction of new data security systems and the additional admin load of handling employee consent and the deletion of data when staff leave. Add in the still-evolving legislative landscape where biometric data is concerned, and adopting a “wait and see” approach is a valid strategy.

Whatever you choose, this is a technology that managers need to be familiar with as it appears in more everyday workplaces and will no doubt play a much larger role in the future. For those who do invest in biometric time clocks now, be assured that Workforce’s time and attendance software will integrate with your new system for a complete and secure solution.

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Time and Attendance Challenges and How to Solve Them

At the core of workforce management is employee schedules and making sure that they are accurately implemented. Tracking time and attendance is crucial to this. It seems elementary, but it tends to become challenging and complicated when different factors are at play, such as business size, various locations, labor regulations, and unique operations and processes.

Here are common challenges that companies face when accurately tracking time and attendance and ways to solve them.

Outdated and inefficient WFM platforms

The biggest roadblock companies have to contend with is an outdated system not just for tracking employee clock ins, but for managing their workforce in general. 

According to a Workforce.com study, the top time and attendance challenges that companies face with their current platforms include:

  • Manual errors (48%).
  • Lack of integration between HR and payroll (40%).
  • The inability to demonstrate compliance with wage and hour laws (19%). 

WFM platforms should take out the complexities of these areas and make processes smoother and not the other way around. However, most companies experience the pain points of dealing with WFM platforms that complicate processes instead of simplifying them, which results in heavy admin work, manual errors, and compliance risks. 

How to solve: Go for a robust platform that can provide efficiency with every area of workforce management, beginning with time and attendance tracking.

A WFM platform may claim to have the most advanced features, but it will not be of much help if it can’t integrate with your operations and existing systems. “Integration is key to automating time and attendance tracking, employee scheduling, labor compliance, and reporting. It’s only through integrations that you can truly customize the platform to suit your needs and goals. However, a WFM platform that can do that for you is hard to come by. That’s why it pays to do your due diligence before implementing a WFM platform in your organization,” explained Travis Kohlmeyer, vice president of sales at Workforce.com.

How Workforce.com can help:

  • Open API –  Workforce.com can easily integrate with other software and systems, even those that are internally built within organizations. Through this, the platform can generate algorithms that help simplify and automate time and attendance tracking, labor forecasting, employee scheduling, labor compliance, payroll, and reporting.

Ensuring that employees are at the right place at the right time

It can be challenging for businesses operating in multiple sites to ensure that staff are where they should be, especially when you do it through inefficient systems. Time theft, gaps in operations, and inaccuracies in payroll are the typical results of not keeping track of employee locations and clock ins the right way.

How to solve: Use a time and attendance technology that can record GPS locations upon clock ins and set geofences. Such functionality makes record-keeping more efficient and closes the gap for inaccuracies and errors. “Efficient time and attendance tracking will never happen after the fact. Managers need to have a system that will provide them with complete oversight of all their locations and teams—from who’s clocking in and where, who’s running late, and who’s about to go overtime—and all of this should be in real-time,” Kohlmeyer explained.

How Workforce.com can help:

  • GPS Tracking –  Workforce.com can record the GPS coordinates of employee clock ins. It is automatically recorded on the timesheet and can be easily verified by managers.

  • Geofencing – Workforce.com enables organizations to set geofences where employees can record clock ins. Being able to impose such limitations helps time and attendance tracking more efficiently and also avoids time theft. When an employee tries to clock in outside the geofence, the platform flags it and notifies the managers. It can also prompt employees to state why they are away from their scheduled location.
  • Shift questions – Shift questions can be posted for employees to answer before clocking in or out. It can be asked when specific criteria are met, for instance, when an employee clocks in a location where they’re not scheduled to work.

  • Workforce.com dashboard – Managers have a single view of upcoming shifts, employees who are clocked in, late, or have yet to be in their assigned locations and shifts.
  • Key alerts – Managers are notified about their teams’ time and attendance and any last-minute absences they need to fill. Just the same, Workforce.com also informs employees when schedules are coming up and reminds them to clock in for their shift.

Tracking attendance of staff who work in multiple locations in a day

Some companies have employees assigned to work in different locations in a single day, which can be troublesome for managers to track and easily result in payroll or compliance issues.

“We’ve come across companies that are having problems with keeping track of their staff who work in multiple locations in a day. They needed a system that can automatically note such clock ins without having any issues once the timesheets are exported to their payroll system,” Kohlmeyer shared. 

How to solve: Provide employees a fast and straightforward way to record their clock ins, even when they move from one location to another. 

How Workforce.com can help:

  • GPS clock ins – Employees who need to work in two or more different locations in a day can record their start and end times using their own mobile device via Workforce.com’s mobile app via GPS clock in functionality. All they need to do is go on the app before starting and ending work in one location and repeat the process in the following location they’re scheduled to work. Workforce.com automatically logs that information on the timesheet, which can be easily verifiable and exported to payroll.

Ensuring employees take their breaks

Failure to assign and track employee break times is a common risk for non-compliance, especially for businesses operating in locations that have strict rules around breaks. 

How to solve: Have a system in place that helps managers schedule the appropriate break times for each employee according to their employee classification and laws that apply in the area of business. Likewise, it’s crucial to have a system in place that prompts employees to take their breaks. 

How Workforce.com can help:

  • Easy access to data and analytics – Workforce.com provides easy access to all of your data and information. That being said, you can easily see time and attendance records and identify whether or not employees used or recorded their break hours. This can be helpful in case authorities check on your compliance when it comes to employee breaks. When you have access to your information, it’s easy to find lapses or identify whether there’s non-compliance or not.
  • Alerts and notifications for breaks – The Workforce.com platform sends alerts to employees and managers about breaks—prompting staff to take them and notifying managers in case team members didn’t do so.
  • Scheduling alerts – Workforce.com flags potential mistakes with assigning break durations to employees during scheduling. This ensures that managers assign the correct break times to the right employee in accordance with labor laws.

The ideal platform for tracking time and attendance

Organizations experience difficulties with time and attendance tracking because they don’t use the right system in the first place. The ideal system is not a one-size-fits-all software but a WFM platform that can quickly adapt to how your organization works and changes. 

Workforce.com is a robust WFM platform that simplifies the core elements of workforce management, ensuring that the factors unique to how you operate are taken into account, resulting in more efficient schedules, lower labor spend, increased profitability, and compliance to labor rules. 

See Workforce.com in action. Book a call or try it for free.