Tag: automation

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The four essential elements your time clock system should offer

When as many as 38% of employees admit to turning up late to work at least once a month, it’s clear that a time clock system that accurately tracks when staff start and finish their working day isn’t something companies can afford to overlook. Research has found that the accumulated minutes lost to tardy workers costs $1 billion a year in California alone.

If you’re considering implementing time clock software at your business, or if you’re one of the 38% of companies still relying on physical time cards and feel it’s time to upgrade, this checklist of features will ensure you choose a time clock system suitable for the modern labor market.

Electronic records for easier data handling

Verifying when employees start and finish their working day is only the start of what time and attendance data can do. This information is at the heart of your HR processes, so you need a time clock that integrates with other departments and systems, from payroll to tax compliance.

This is where the companies still relying on older time clock systems are really losing out. Not only does copying across time and attendance data into payroll or accountancy software add unnecessary hours of work, but it also adds the risk of payroll discrepancies, which can in turn lead to costly legal exposure. The Department of Labor raised more than 24,700 back pay compliance actions in 2021, totaling $230m in underpaid wages.

Using specialist time and attendance software to collate and update your data automatically as employees arrive and leave means more robust labor compliance. It also provides the ability to integrate that data over time, generating internal reports on productivity and efficiency to guide your future business decisions.

Automatic verification for efficient clocking in and out

Shift-based businesses don’t just lose out when workers are late. Managing shift changes as smoothly as possible is also vital, and a time clock system that creates bottlenecks as staff wait to clock in and out adds to your problems rather than solves them. If managers also have to spend time transcribing attendance data or double-checking timesheets, then you’re losing valuable hours every day at all levels of your business.

Once again, manual time clock systems that use punch cards or paper timesheets will struggle in this area. Even electronic code entry systems or key cards can slow down your workflow, as employees spend time pushing buttons or digging in their pockets and bags for whatever they need to satisfy the time-entry requirements.

When speed is of the essence, the latest biometric time clock systems have a clear advantage. Employees only need a thumbprint or to face a camera, and they’re ready to work. Managers benefit, too, with time and attendance data that’s accurate and ready to use as soon as staff is through the door. Mobile apps can speed the process up even more, allowing staff to clock in using their own phone as they arrive.

Manager oversight for company peace of mind

Trust is vital to the viability of any company. Research has shown that employees who feel their employer trusts them are 50% more productive and 76% more engaged in their work. The best time clock systems are therefore unobtrusive for staff and still give managers visibility and authority over time and attendance issues.

Manual time clock systems that rely on self-reporting arguably skew this dynamic in favor of staff, giving managers no reliable way to verify the data. The practice of “buddy punching,” in which staff clock in for absent colleagues, is a typical weakness of this sort of time clock system.

Biometrics swing the pendulum in the opposite direction, using staff’s biological data — fingerprints, retinal scans, facial recognition — to prove they are where they say they are when they claim. It’s airtight from a management perspective but unpopular with employees. A survey found that 69% of the public is uneasy with the use of biometrics.

Time clock systems that utilize mobile apps offer a great compromise. Employees clock in using GPS and sometimes a selfie on the premises, which their manager then checks against their schedule before approving the clock in or out time. This system also gets around some concerns regarding biometrics, as the selfie is approved manually rather than storing the data in a database or feeding it through a third-party biometric algorithm.

Many automatic time clock systems also display cost variances for shifts, showing money saved or lost if there is a difference between an employee’s scheduled time and the actual time they work. Offering oversight into labor costs at a granular level is one of the main benefits of a precise time clock system.

Precise entry tracking for spotless payroll

This one may seem obvious, and you might think every time clock system being used today would be able to correctly log the exact time workers arrive and leave, but anything that relies on employees or managers manually recording hours worked is prone to inaccuracy.

As many as 80% of U.S. employers report having to fix mistakes in manually submitted timesheets, as staff forget to clock in or out or because errors creep in as information is copied across by hand. That’s a big problem when you consider that 1 in 10 companies still rely on inaccurate printed timesheets or offline spreadsheets, according to Workforce.com’s 2021 research.

At the very least, when shopping for a new time clock system, make sure to invest in a digital point of entry that automatically records the precise time employees start and end their shifts so managers can easily check against their scheduled hours. Some WFM software offers mobile GPS tracking for this very purpose, setting up a geofenced area around your workplace that staff must be inside in order to clock in on their phone. If there’s ever a dispute over hours worked or wages paid, you need your data to be irrefutable. If your only defense is an easily edited spreadsheet or drawer full of handwritten paper records, you’ve weakened your position for no good reason.

Future-proof your time clock system for the best return on investment

The labor market is changing fast, and you want a time clock app that can evolve and scale to your circumstances for the foreseeable future. Many of the systems currently used by U.S. businesses are outdated and will only become more inefficient over time.

It’s not enough to simply think of a time clock as an HR tool for checking time and attendance. It’s a holistic part of your entire business and should be as up-to-date as any other vital system. Whichever method you use to get staff clocked in and out, Workforce offers state-of-the-art app-based time clock solutions, deep reporting options, and is able to scale and grow alongside your business.

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The ethical use of AI on low-wage workers

warehouse workers, hourly employees

The impact of technology has not been equal among different segments of employees. 

The introduction of automation and artificial intelligence-enabled labor management systems raises significant questions about workers’ rights and safety, according to the “AI Now 2019 Report,” which explores the social implications of AI technologies. AI Now is a nonprofit that works with stakeholders such as academic researchers, policymakers and impacted communities to understand and address issues raised by the introduction of AI.

While the use of these systems puts more power and control in the hands of the company, it also harms mainly low-wage workers, who are disproportionately people of color, according to the report. These systems don’t work for employees when they set unrealistic productivity goals that can lead to injury or psychological stress and when they impose “unpredictable algorithmic wage cuts” on gig workers that undermine their financial stability, for example. 

Also read: Should there be a code of ethics in technology? 

warehouse workers, hourly employees
Hourly workers such as warehouse workers may be adversely impacted by AI-enabled workforce management systems.

Lower-wage workers stand to lose the most with the rise of automation while white-collar workers are generally unaffected, the report noted. It cited a McKinsey & Co. study that concluded “labor automation will further exacerbate the racial wealth gap in the U.S. absent any interventions.” 

Unions have been the traditional way for workers to contest harmful practices, but many employees don’t have access to union membership and many fear retaliation if they bring up their concerns. Still, the report noted, tech companies like Amazon and others are using many tactics to prevent unions from forming in their workforce. For example, whistleblowers have disclosed the fact that in a time of employee unrest, Google hired a consulting firm “known for its anti-union work.” 

It’s critical to get the perspective of hourly workers on how technology is playing into their lives, said Annelies M. Goger, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Brookings Institute. Her research focuses on workforce development policy, the future of work and inclusive economic development. She was not talking about unions specifically in her interview with Workforce, but she did stress the importance of respecting and addressing employees’ concerns.

There are certain aspects of how technology is used in their jobs that hourly workers may appreciate, but they also have concerns or frustrations about issues like the influx of automated checkout lines and lack of consistency in scheduling, she said. 

“There’s a range of people who really want to embrace technology, but they want to make sure that workers have a voice at the table and that they have a way to provide feedback,” she said. 

These employees may also have concerns when management changes at their company, Goger said. 

As restructuring takes place new management might not take into account the needs of hourly workers, and these employees end up having less input on the quality of their jobs. 

Also read: Ensuring equity in the digital age

“Food, retail and grocery workers have witnessed rapid change in recent years, especially in the front end of their stores. Most feel they lack voices in these changes and feel pessimistic about the future for humans in their stores,” according to “Worker Voices: Technology and the Future for Workers,” a November 2019 paper by Molly Kinder and Amanda Lehnhart. Kinder is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and a nonresident Senior Fellow at New America. Lenhart is the deputy director of the Better Life Lab at New America. 

“Worker Voices” also noted that low-wage workers’ low pay and economic insecurity is a barrier to them preparing for jobs that aren’t as impacted by new technology. An excerpt:

“While technological change is not the direct cause of workers’ precarity, it can add insult to injury. Automation and the adoption of new workplace technologies can exacerbate financial insecurity when jobs change, wages or hours are suppressed, or when workers are displaced altogether. Economic insecurity also limits workers’ resilience to technology changes by undermining their ability to weather a job transition, pay for training or schooling, and move into better paying—and less automatable—work. If workers cannot afford to make ends meet today, they will be ill-equipped to prepare for tomorrow. Raising income, reducing inequality and improving the economic security of workers is key to enabling a better future of work for those at greatest risk of change.”

Skill development is on some people’s minds. Chris Havrilla, leader of the HR technology practice for Bersin, Deloitte Consulting LLP, said that one application of AI could be to go through data and find potential new roles for people, in terms of talent mobility. From there, organizations can think about what employees need to accomplish and possibly help them develop the skills they need to get there. 

“I’m seeing some interesting things around, ‘We don’t want to lose people who already know how to work within our organization. How do we help them find other roles that might be applicable to them?’” she said. 

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The Increasingly Important Role of Screening in Recruiting

Today’s recruiters face tough competition for good talent — and they worry about losing good candidates to long, drawn-out screening processes.

Recruiters are also facing increased pressure to fill more roles faster as 3 out of 4 companies plan to increase hiring. “With hiring on the rise, there is always a time challenge,” said Clare Hart, CEO of SterlingBackcheck, a background-checking provider. “The war for talent has enabled people with skills to change jobs more frequently, which is creating anxiety for recruiters tasked with filling those roles.”

At the same time, recruiters can’t afford to skip this vital step in the hiring process, especially with trends showing candidates are misrepresenting themselves more than ever. “I don’t want to be responsible for hiring someone with an unacceptable background,” said Kimberly Martin, senior human resources manager for Dentsply Sirona, a global dental supply company based in York, Pennsylvania. “People falsify their applications all the time.”

Mary O’Loughlin, vice president for global customer experience for HireRight, attributes this rise in part to the recession. “A lot of candidates were unemployed, and they are trying to expand previous jobs to cover those gaps,” she said.

Automate Everything

To meet the needs for faster, better and more seamless screening, employers are looking to their background-checking providers to streamline the screening process and make it as transparent and easy as possible for both the candidates and hiring managers. In response, vendors are revamping their technology and processes with a focus on improving the candidate experience from start to finish, and eliminating much of the manual entry and administrative tasks that bog recruiters down. “It’s all about addressing the pinpoints in the screening process,” O’Loughlin said.

These upgrades include integrating user platforms with clients’ applicant tracking systems in order to automate candidate data capture, offering tools that enable candidates to enter their own data from any device rather than requiring recruiters to do it, and providing text and email alerts to let the candidate and hiring manager know where they are in the screening process. Some vendors are also working with clients to develop candidate-facing tools including videos for their hiring sites to educate candidates about the screening process. “It helps set their expectations, which helps them build their brand as a great place to work,” she said.

To demonstrate the effect of these new tools, they are also offering more metrics to help customers understand how the screening process is functioning and to track key trends such as where red-flag candidates might be sourced from, said Christine Cunneen, CEO of Hire Image, a national background screening firm, and a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Professional Background Screeners.  “Employers want more metrics about screening because it helps them to hire faster,” she said.

 

Contingents to Marijuana

Along with streamlining the screening process, employers are also turning to their screening vendors to help them manage a number of emerging trends in the broader recruiting world. One of the most notable trends is the tremendous uptick in use of contingent labor.

In 2015, the U.S. Labor Department found that 65 percent of employers anticipate an increase in the use of flexible staffing arrangements to meet their future talent needs, and consultancy Ardent Partners anticipates that 50 percent of the workforce will be contingent by 2020. Yet, less than half of organizations screen these workers, which exposes them to increased risks of negligence, fraud, theft and violence.

O’Loughlin said that interest in screening these workers is rising, though it can be more difficult to track down data about serial contracts, particularly because of how they record their work history. “They may say they worked at IBM, but really they were part of Beta Staffing Co. doing a project for IBM,” she said. “It’s a challenge to sort out.”

There is also the question of how to handle the data, and what you can screen for with contingent laborers, said Chris Dyer, founder and CEO of PeopleG2, a background checking company. “In most cases you can evaluate more data for contract workers because they have fewer protections,” he said. However, as contingent labor becomes a more dominant aspect of the workforce, that’s likely to change. Employers should pay attention to shifting regulatory trends. “If compliance rules for screening contract labor changes, it could impact the business,” he said.

Then there is the issue of drug screening, which Cunneen believes is an area of the background-checking process that is “ripe for change.” The big issue: marijuana. In many states marijuana use is legal in some or all cases, but it is still a federally banned substance, and unlike alcohol there are no tests to determine whether someone is using on the job because the drug stays in a person’s system for a long time. Employers are already asking how they should address marijuana testing if at all, she said, and she anticipates that there will be a lot of lawsuits as employers and regulators figure out how to handle this issue.

Lax Compliance Puts Employers at Risk

One area that employers are less worried about than they should be are general compliance rules. Less than one-fifth of employers say they are extremely concerned about compliance issues and related lawsuits despite the ongoing risk of lawsuits tied to mishandled screening processes.

In 2015 alone, BMW Manufacturing Co.; Chuck E. Cheese, also known as CEC Entertainment; Food Lion; Home Depot Inc.; and Whole Foods Market Inc. paid substantial Fair Credit Reporting Act class-action lawsuit settlements ranging from $716,400 to $3 million for conducting illegal background checks, failing to disclose background checks to applicants and breaking other FCRA rules.

Cities and states might also have a unique set of regulations governing what employers can screen for, how far back they can look, what constitutes a personal intrusion, and how exactly an employer needs to notify a candidate about the screening process. And when employers “screw up,” they face serious consequences, Cunneen said. “It is the employers’ responsibility to follow these rules, but they need to be able to rely on their background-screening provider to let them know what’s going on.”

This risk will only increase as more employers use these firms to screen employees in other countries where data can be less accessible, rules vary and information is harder to track down. Employers also need to be concerned about where screening data is stored when screening global candidates. “If a vendor’s data center is overseas, employers should be aware of their security protocols and their liability if that data is breached,” she said.

The issue of global compliance is becoming more important in light of the rapid growth of this $2 billion industry where several leading vendors have been acquiring competitors in order to quickly grow their global footprint. In the past two years alone, Accurate Background acquired fellow background checking company Hirease; HireRight acquired Powerchex, a pre-employment screening firm in the United Kingdom; and SterlingBackcheck acquired EmployeeScreenIQ then merged with cloud-based TalentWise earlier this year.

The industry has also seen HR tech firms from other areas of the workforce management software world moving into the background checking space through deals such as CareerBuilder’s acquisition of Aurico, a global provider of background screening and drug testing services. “Background screening is an essential part of recruitment and a natural extension of CareerBuilder’s product line,” CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson said in a news release about the deal.

And this is just the beginning, said SterlingBackcheck’s Hart. “The industry is definitely consolidating, and we will continue to make future acquisitions as opportunities arise.”

Hart said that the consolidation trend is being driven by demands for better, faster and cheaper screening. “You gain advantages with scale,” she said, arguing that larger firms have the talent and resources to upgrade their platforms and provide a global service to meet the needs of international customers.

Vendors need to be thoughtful about their acquisitions and how they will continue to meet the needs of clients during the often tumultuous integration process, Dentsply Sirona’s Martin said. Martin previously worked with a background screening vendor who provided great service until it was acquired by another firm.

Suddenly the technology stopped working as well, links were broken or timed out, the screening process was delayed with no explanation, and in one case the vendor asked a candidate to travel 200 miles to do a drug screening.

“It was frustrating for the applicant, and it took up a lot of my time,” Martin said. It also caused a few good candidates to move on to the next job offer because the screening process took so long. “We hung in longer than we wanted to make sure the next vendor would be a good fit,” she said.

Martin now uses HireRight, which she said eliminated a lot of the technical glitches, automated much of the data entry, and in most cases completed the screening process in 10 days or less. “Background screening should feel seamless,” she said, adding that vendors need to stay on top of that customer experience or risk losing business. “If it’s not done well, customers will feel it,” she said, “and they have a lot of other options to choose from.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.