Tag: timekeeping

Posted on

10 employee timekeeping & tracking best practices

Summary

  • Using a software solution to improve your time-tracking is a great way to ensure you’re recording time and attendance data regularly and accurately. 

  • Following our time-tracking best practices helps you identify problematic patterns that lead to employee lateness.

  • Understanding the extent and causes of lateness inside your company will allow you to implement changes that will help reduce tardiness altogether.

Your employees turning up late to work from time to time is normal and to be expected, to a certain extent. The problem is when patterns of habitual tardiness start to emerge. 

The most obvious issue with employee tardiness is the added costs to your business. An employee who is 10 minutes late every workday will have taken the same amount of time as one week’s paid vacation by the end of the year. 

Besides the cost, employee lateness and absenteeism can negatively affect productivity, which trickles down to your customers and can tarnish your company’s brand image. Tardiness can also mean more pressure if work is shifted onto other team members, leading to burnout and low morale. 

Accurate employee time-tracking and consistent recordkeeping help you identify the patterns and causes of employee lateness. Business owners often turn to time-tracking software to do this and to prevent tardiness from getting out of control.  

Here are 10 employee timekeeping best practices you can use to encourage timeliness and efficiency at your business.

1. Keep precise records

Accurate time and attendance data is the foundation of any timekeeping initiative. Without knowing exactly who is on time, who’s late, how often they’re late, and by how much, fixing the problem feels like working in the dark. Having access to this data in real time makes employee time tracking easy.

Use time and attendance software to put this informational bedrock in place from the start. Once you know that you are accurately recording attendance data in a usable form, you’ve made any new timekeeping initiative much easier to manage.

2. Track data regularly

Manual entry timekeeping systems are prone to errors, yet so many small businesses still rely on spreadsheets for tracking employee hours. The longer you leave gaps in the data, the greater the chance that employees will forget what time they arrived or left.

If your company is still using manual timecards and employee timesheets, you should be collating that data daily, when possible, or weekly at the very least. Don’t get complacent if you’ve swapped manual methods for a software system. Be sure to generate attendance reports at a similar cadence, at least once a week. The sooner you spot a problem, the more quickly you can address it.

3. Spot problematic patterns

Consistent data tracking helps you spot the problematic patterns holding your business back.

Once you have your regular cycle of time and attendance data in place, take a holistic view of what it is showing you about your business over time. Look for deeper recurring patterns related to particular shifts, managers, or locations. There may be a simple fix for hotspots of poor timekeeping methods, but if you don’t know a hotspot exists, you’ll never be able to address it.

Webinar: The Best Way to Replace Call-Outs

4. Have a clear point of contact

A clear management hierarchy means there’s no confusion over attendance issue reporting.

Make someone responsible for time management and maintaining accurate timesheets. This could either be on a per-shift basis or per location or department. Make it clear their role isn’t simply to punish late arrivals but to work with employees to resolve issues that might be affecting their attendance.

5. Use a point system

More companies are switching to point-based systems to track and penalize employee tardiness. These attendance point systems work by automatically assigning staff points for various infractions such as clocking in late, leaving early, or never showing up. HR can use these point records to build a case and take appropriate action against repeat offenders. 

This kind of system is perhaps the most practical way of dealing with lateness. Since points are automatically accumulated for showing up late, employees are much more likely to be incentivized to be on time to avoid verbal and written warnings. 

Webinar: Points-Based Attendance

6. Normalize healthy working hours

If staff are constantly expected to work late, they’ll be tempted to claw the number of hours or minutes back from somewhere else.

This is the flip side of making sure everyone arrives promptly. Show staff they’re expected to leave on time as well as arrive on schedule while still encouraging those who actually want overtime hours.

The WHO recently released estimates of a 29% increase in deaths from heart disease and stroke brought on by long working hours. Even if those figures are off, the days when people would tolerate overwork are on the way out. Be ahead of the curve in this area, and staff will notice.

7. Introduce and automate break times

Offering breaks means staff have fewer reasons to be late in the first place.

Breaks and paid meal periods are not required by labor laws in the US, but they benefit employees and employers alike. Staff who take lunch breaks are more productive, loyal, and engaged.

Research shows that one in 10 employees never break for lunch, and nearly half just eat at their desks three or more times a week. If managers are seen taking their lunch break away from their desks or workstations, that gives employees permission to do the same. An effective employee scheduling system should allow you to automate these breaks into the daily workflow, sending staff reminders when it’s their break time. These reminders encourage staff to actually take their breaks, unlike in non-automated systems where properly timed breaks can often go overlooked.

If staff feel the company values their time, they’ll value the time they give to the company. When they know they’ll have an opportunity during the day to make that important personal phone call or just grab a sandwich, there’s less reason for them to cram those things in before work, which makes them late.

8. Use predictive scheduling

Often lateness occurs because people are trying to accommodate their lives around erratic working hours.

Predictive scheduling is already legally required in some states, but it’s worth considering, even if it’s not mandatory. Setting schedules two weeks in advance gives employees time to plan. By reducing the number of frantic child-minding emergencies and other last-minute problems, you reduce the reasons for people to arrive late to work.

Webinar: How to Optimize Your Staff Schedules

9. Lead by example

Creating a company culture in which timekeeping is valued starts from the top.

Hold yourself, managers, and even executives to the same standards as other staff. Make it clear that being diligent with work time is expected of everybody. If management rolls in at 9:30 am several times a week, don’t be surprised if staff start to view prompt attendance as a moving target and follow suit.

10. Set and reward goals

Rewarding staff for being at work can be seen as a false economy, essentially paying them twice for doing what they are already contracted to do. That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to incentivize good attendance.

Applying bonuses to teams rather than individuals helps boost morale while maximizing engagement and attendance. Rewards don’t need to be financial in nature. If employees maintain punctual time reports by the end of the week, give them an early finish on Friday. You could even show appreciation through something simple like praise in the company newsletter or being given control of the workplace Spotify for an afternoon.

Identify and address lateness before you have an absenteeism problem

Proper attendance tracking is about more than just reprimanding people for being late. Patterns of poor punctuality are a warning. Addressing them is a health check of your company’s staff engagement and an opportunity to create a happier, more productive working environment.

Use attendance tools like Workforce.com to fully integrate these ideas into your business.

If you find your employee tardiness problem is morphing into a more severe absenteeism problem, it may be time to take additional measures. Watch our webinar on absenteeism below featuring Anne Laguzza, CEO of The Works Consulting. 

Webinar: How to Reduce Absenteeism

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Logistics company ordered to pay $120K for wage and hour violations, must implement timekeeping system

timeclock, wage and hour, schedule, timesheet rounding

A Southern California logistics provider was ordered to pay $120,000 in overtime back wages to 388 employees and also must implement a timekeeping system to shore up compliance issues.

Following a recent finding of the Department of Labor affirmed by a federal court in California, an additional $2,000 penalty also was assessed to the employer, Global One Logistics, by the department’s Wage and Hour Division to address the employer’s willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employees were told to record only eight hours of labor each day regardless of how many hours they actually worked, according to a May 24 Labor Department press release.

Maintain accurate timekeeping

The court ordered Global One Logistics, which provides warehousing and distribution services for the home fashion and apparel industry, to implement a reliable timekeeping system that allows each employee to accurately record their daily start and stop times, the Labor Department stated. The order also instructed the employer to not alter or manipulate time or payroll records to reduce the number of hours actually worked and not to encourage or pressure workers to underreport hours worked, the statement said.

Aimee Delaney, partner at law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson, said that while the timekeeping order is not unusual, the FLSA places an obligation on employers to maintain accurate time records for its employees. It does not dictate a specific method, but there must be accurate records maintained, she said. 

“Digital time and attendance systems do deter manipulating time and payroll records, particularly if you are comparing to handwritten timesheets,” Delaney said.

 ‘Willful’ wage and hour violations

Investigators found the employer willfully failed to pay employees overtime at time-and-one-half their regular rates of pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week, according to the Labor Department. In addition to requiring employees to falsify the number of hours they worked each day, the employer also paid for the unrecorded hours in cash at workers’ straight-time rates, the Labor Department stated.

A “willful” violation under wage and hours laws has specific meaning and consequences, said Delaney. If a violation is found to be willful, the statute of limitations for the claim goes from two to three years and there are additional penalties, such as the $2,000 levied against the employer, she said.

Aimee Delaney, wage and hour violation
Aimee Delaney, partner at law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson.

“When used in the FLSA context, a violation is willful if the employer either knew or showed reckless disregard for whether its conduct was prohibited by the FLSA,” Delaney said.

Employers who purposefully manipulate payroll records in an attempt to avoid their legal obligations will be held accountable by the Labor Department, said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Rafael Valles in West Covina, California.

“The outcome of this investigation serves as a reminder to all employers to review their pay practices to ensure they comply with the law and as a reminder to workers that they have the right to be paid for all of the hours that they work.”

Compliance is an organizational responsibility

Minimizing the risk of wage and hour and overtime violations falls on several departments and various roles within the organization. Managers in particular often are on the frontline with workers and should be familiar with compliance and timekeeping requirements.

“They know and are often the assigner and approver of overtime,” Delaney said. “Managers certainly bear a responsibility for knowing the state and federal requirements and not directing employees to do something out of compliance with those requirements.” 

Human resources and payroll departments often have higher-level oversight and compliance responsibilities. HR may not always be aware of specific timekeeping violations occurring day to day but can ensure that managers are properly trained. 

Also read: Using software to simplify payroll and overtime

“HR should also be aware if unusual or significant hours are being worked, which may prompt a review or audit to ensure employees working the additional hours are properly paid,” Delaney said. “Payroll is often simply a function of processing pay for what is reported on the time records. However, payroll certainly has a role to play in ensuring that all reported hours are paid correctly, including the correct overtime premiums.”

Labor Department enforcement

Delaney also pointed out that “off the clock” violations are among the clearest abuses of state and federal wage and hour laws.

“It literally means you are requiring the employees to work while not recording their time, which means they will not be paid,” she said. “Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees must be paid for all hours worked. Employers also have an obligation to maintain accurate time records.”

She added that this case isn’t necessarily a predictor of tougher Labor Department enforcement of wage and hour laws. The violations presented in the facts were blatant violations of fairly established wage and hour rules, she said. 

“Once violations are found, the Labor Department is always going to ensure enforcement to get the employees paid the wages owed,” she said.

Time and attendance software takes the headache out of tracking your hourly employees. Workforce.com has automatic systems in place to help you streamline your processes, save time and protect your bottom line. Book your demo today.

Posted on

5 Options to Track Employee Hours

track employee hours

Summary

  • Some businesses get away with tracking time manually with pen and paper.

  • Time clock machines with biometrics, card swipes, or punch-in codes are worth considering in most cases.

  • Automated time and attendance software is the easiest and most comprehensive way to track employee hours.

Without a time tracking program in place, it’s easy to lose track of which hourly employees did what and for how long, leading to mistakes in payroll. 

Inaccurately tracking hours also creates compliance issue landmines. There are stiff penalties and fines for organizations that ignore local, state and federal wage-and-hour and overtime laws. 

It’s a mistake to maintain relaxed standards or have no policy at all to track employee hours. 

Time tracking allows you to accurately see how long any given task takes to complete, and who on your team works most efficiently whether they are hourly or salaried employees. Knowing how much time is spent on certain tasks helps employers to efficiently select how their workers should be using their time.

Still, there are some employers who don’t track employee time because they don’t want to offend employees. Introducing time tracking can be seen as micromanaging or an intrusion on employees’ privacy and shows “a lack of faith” in your own employees.

Instead, they rely on an employee monitoring their own time. Showing trust can build commitment to the company but it can open the door to fraud. 

Before implementing an employee hour tracking solution, answer all questions your employees may have about the process. If employees don’t see the value of time tracking or it is not accurately communicated, your team may not buy in. A key component of streamlining the process of tracking employee hours begins with your honest, transparent communication.

Not tracking employee hours can result in thousands of dollars in lost revenue and invite expensive wage-and-hour violations. Following are five ways that you can track employee hours.

Whether you need to clean up your compensation and compliance practices, track employee activity on a job site, or gauge exempt employees’ time on a project, there are several ways to track employee hours.

  • Manual timekeeping — pen and paper.
  • Time clocks or punch-in tools.
  • Automated time-and-attendance solutions.
  • Mobile apps.
  • GPS clock-ins.

1. Manual timekeeping

If your company is small, using a pen and paper to track employee hours may be a workable option. A manual pen-and-paper system or an Excel spreadsheet at least offers a minimal way to track employees’ time at work. But its limitations quickly become evident as a company grows. 

Manual timekeeping can lead to many difficulties for employers who want to accurately track employees’ time.timesheet, paper time sheet

Managers face reams of paperwork on a regular basis, and it’s easy to misplace or lose timesheets. Employee paperwork also is cumbersome to store, and accessing the documents for recordkeeping or auditing is a challenge.

Manual timekeeping can also make calculating payroll seems like an endless task. If a manager’s time is spent sorting through messy, handwritten employee timesheets and contacting them with questions, they have less time to build the organization through more strategic tasks. 

Correcting mistakes also could hold up the payroll process, which affects all employees.

Accurately tracking employee time becomes an issue. Employees and employers can only add or delete time manually, so they depend on memory to recall who came in when and at what time they took a break or went home.

Wage-and-hour fraud becomes a real possibility. Time theft practices like buddy punching are difficult to detect. Even if several employees falsely change their clock-in time by just five minutes every day, employers can unwittingly pay dozens of unworked hours over the course of a month. 

Of course, the pendulum can swing the other way. Manual timekeeping opens the door to employer fraud. Unsuspecting employees can be cheated out of thousands of dollars in working hours. If and when the fraud is uncovered, wage-and-hour or overtime violations will lead to substantial penalties and potentially steep fines. 

When payrolls are prepared manually, the process is not only time-consuming, mistakes are inevitable and payroll errors are costly. With the trend toward automation, more and more companies are incorporating advanced technology into the workplace to accurately track employee hours, among other functions. 

Pen-and-paper timekeeping simply doesn’t offer the accuracy, versatility and security a digital time and attendance solution will provide. By leaving so much room for error, you risk losing big money for your company. 

2. Time clocks

Time clocks were introduced to track employee time in the late 1800s. While typically more accurate than pen-and-paper timekeeping, time clocks have flaws.

Time clocks vary widely in levels of sophistication. And as with manual timekeeping, time clocks leave plenty of opportunity for time theft and abuse. There is no guarantee that your employees are on the job when they say they are. 

Time clocks also are expensive. They require specialized equipment that is subject to malfunctions and require ongoing maintenance. 

Though card swipes or fingerprint biometrics will provide more accuracy, they are particularly costly, especially when a business owner has multiple locations. Wortime clocks, employee scheduling

However advanced the time clock may be, they’re an impractical choice for a mobile workforce that will routinely work hours at different job sites.

Cleanliness should always be a concern in any workplace. You wouldn’t set out boxes of dirty tissues. Why should a time clock that’s not sanitized after constantly being touched be the lone option for employees starting and ending their working hours? 

The functionality of a time clock is limited and typically cannot integrate with your other workforce management solutions. 

3. Automated employee time tracking solutions

Automated workforce management systems aren’t just for the Fortune 1000 anymore. Solutions exist that are built to support behemoth enterprise organizations yet are flexible and customizable enough to solve a small business’s need to track employee hours.

Companies quickly realize the ways they save time and money once they start using an automated time tracking solution to track employee hours. Timekeeping software becomes your online paper trail that produces accurate, objective accounts of employees’ time and prevents dishonest employees from inflating their hours.

Besides being a strong deterrent to costly time theft, quickly and easily accessing timesheets through an automated solution dramatically improves the accurate calculation of payroll. Time theft is easy to trace and can be quickly solved after you’ve begun to track employees’ hours. You will notice patterns of behavior and can act accordingly.

Before implementing an employee hour tracking solution, answer all questions your employees may have about the process. If employees don’t see the value of time tracking or it is not accurately communicated, your team may not buy in. A key component of streamlining the process of tracking employee hours begins with your honest, transparent communication.

Implementing Workforce.com’s time tracking solution provides your managers with an effortless time-and-attendance system that stays on top of employee productivity, eases administrative tasks and requires minimal training. Managers don’t have to send countless emails or wait for employees to turn in their timecards. The approval workflow handles it, with timesheets attached for easy review and simple approval.

Managers receive notifications when employees clock in and out, when they are running late or must call off at the last minute and when they’re about to incur overtime costs. 

Tracking time with Workforce.com’s automated solution also boosts compliance with regulatory laws. Wage-and-hour and overtime laws vary by state and locality, which makes payroll a calculation and compliance headache. 

Workforce.com’s proactive compliance tools, which were pioneered in Australia to manage the world’s most complicated wage laws, ensure simplified and automated adherence with U.S. federal FLSA, state and local labor regulations. It also includes built-in overtime pay calculations for all 50 states and territories to keep your numbers in compliance.compliance, wage and hour , overtime

Integration with all workforce management systems becomes simple and easy. You control wage costs even further by integrating Workforce.com’s software with your current payroll, POS and HR tools via the cloud for faster, more efficient workforce management operations. 

Verifying and exporting timesheets to your payroll system software is straightforward and fast thanks to the available integrations. Timesheets that have been verified and match scheduling are auto-approved, saving your managers time.

Ultimately, if your employees don’t feel comfortable using your time tracking solution, it will affect their productivity. Since they will use it every day, get them to experience a trial run with you. Building trust early on will amplify buy-in and confidence in your hourly time tracking strategy, making implementation and use simple and error-free.

4. Tracking employee hours with a mobile app

A huge advantage of an automated, cloud-based time-and-attendance system is the capability a mobile employee time tracking app or timesheet app provides to track employee hours. Mobile time tracking makes clocking in and out and sharing schedules easier for all employees, no matter their location.employee mobile app, time clock app

With a time tracker app you can watch who is coming in that day, what time they’re scheduled to start, which location they’ll be working at and their hours on the clock straight from your phone.

There’s no need to camp behind a desktop computer in an office anymore. Your managers get a powerful mobile tool that boosts their ability to track employee hours any time, anywhere. 

A mobile tracker app also empowers managers to follow employees in real time from anywhere and assure that all shifts are covered, update scheduling for any shift and continue tracking when an employee clocks in. Workforce.com’s mobile time clock app helps manage employees’ time and administer digital timesheets, payroll, budgeting and labor compliance reporting. 

Communications become immediately simpler and faster, allowing them to call in someone for an unexpected absence, approve leave requests, and receive automatic notifications on the go. 

5. GPS clock-in

While a time tracking app could be enough for your employees or those who travel between different job sites, you may need pinpoint accuracy to track employee locations. Some time tracker apps include location tracking, providing you with the ability to track enabled devices. 

GPS tracking capabilities help everyone stay in the loop regarding an employee’s clock in and clock out when they arrive at their remote work location. 

Workforce.com’s GPS clock-in takes your time tracking capabilities global. Timesheets automatically sync GPS locations of all clock-ins and outs. Some industries have varying pay rates depending on the job, location and employee’s position. Clock-in data intuitively assigns pay rates depending on the location, saving time and administrative work computing pay.

The time clock app with GPS also includes geofences. Geofencing creates a radius for a location and then it starts flagging shifts in the timesheet approval system, making it easy to track employee hours and identify shifts where someone has clocked in offsite. 

The GPS clock-in app lets everyone clock in from their mobile device and gives managers an edge to track employee hours with the platform’s photo-verified clock-in system.GPS clock in

Tracking employee hours is crucial to your organization’s operations and profitability. It provides key labor cost data, accurate payroll information and a boost in productivity. Regardless of what process you select to track employee hours, use the function that fits your company. But an automated system is scalable to your company’s size and shifting needs and offers the flexibility to stay local or go global. 

Payroll is tired of translating messy, handwritten timecards submitted by employees and managers, and a time clock is an impractical choice for your highly mobile workforce. An automated solution to track employee hours keeps you in compliance and builds your business success. 

Workforce.com’s time clock app automates how your staff clocks in and out. Ask for a free demo today.