Tag: timesheets

Posted on

5 sneaky ways employees commit time theft (how to stop it)

Summary

  • Time theft is what happens when an employer unknowingly pays an employee for time they didn’t work while on the clock. 

  • Examples of time theft include falsifying time cards, buddy punching, unauthorized or extended breaks, excessive social media use, and personal activities on company time. – More

  • You can deal with time theft by implementing HR policies and utilizing automated time and attendance software. – More

If you discovered that one of your employees was stealing money or equipment from the company, you’d likely reprimand or even terminate them. What you may not realize is that another type of theft is likely happening right under your nose — time theft. 

Software Advice surveyed shift workers and found that 43% of hourly workers admitted to over-reporting the number of hours they actually worked during their workday. This type of employee theft can result in big losses for your organization. If every employee over-reported just 30 minutes of work every day, this could result in thousands of dollars lost to time theft every month.    

To tackle the issue of time theft, you must first understand how your employees could be stealing time in the first place. You should implement a time and attendance policy that clearly states the organization’s stance on time theft, the expectations of the staff, and the repercussions for breaking these policies.

Beyond this, you should consider where your manual time tracking processes are most vulnerable to abuse and seek ways to increase automation across your workforce. 

How to stop time theft for good

What is employee time theft?

Employee time theft occurs when an employer unknowingly pays an employee for time they didn’t work while on the clock. 

It’s primarily applicable to hourly employees more so than exempt employees. If left unchecked, employee time theft costs can eat away at your monthly wage cost budget very quickly. 

One of the more egregious cases of employee time theft involved a US Postal Service employee in Washington, D.C., who received $31,000 in wages for jury service that the employee claimed lasted 144 days. The theft investigation revealed that the employee had actually been discharged from jury duty but forged court papers to persuade his employer to pay him for what turned out to be a very long vacation.

Your time theft problem might not be as bold as the US Postal Service’s. Smaller, everyday occurrences of time theft are more difficult to spot but still negatively affect your organization’s bottom line and employee productivity. 

1. Falsifying time cards

The falsification of a time card occurs when an employee provides inaccurate data about their working hours or causes others to provide misleading information. This typically occurs with manual timekeeping systems or tracking employee hours with a time clock.

For example, say an employee only works 30 hours in a week but claims 40 hours of work time on their timesheet. Or deceitfully claims to have worked an entire shift, such as at the end of 2022, when a Polk County firefighter was arrested for falsifying his time cards. He had received a total of $1,265.04 for three 24-hour shifts he did not work.  

Solution — use automated time tracking software.

Paper timesheets are the simplest way for employees to steal time, and physical time clocks allow for multiple excuses: “So-and-so lost their time card, so I loaned them mine,” or “I lost my swipe card.” With time clock software, you can prevent fraudulent time theft and early clock-ins and prompt employees to clock back in via mobile apps when their breaks are over.

A mobile tracker app also empowers managers to follow employees in real-time from anywhere and continue tracking when an employee clocks in. Workforce.com’s mobile time clock app helps you manage employees’ time and administer digital timesheets, payroll, budgeting, and labor compliance reporting. 

You also can track remote employees’ locations via their GPS clock-in. These tools work everywhere and show you their exact location at a glance. You can restrict their clocking in or out at your job site or see where an employee who always has an excuse for being late is actually spending their time.

2. Buddy punching

Another form of time theft is when an employee clocks in or out for a coworker. This is often referred to as buddy punching. Companies that operate using rudimentary procedures around clocking in are at higher risk of having their employees cheat the system in such a way.  

Solution — automate clock-in and clock-out procedures.

Time and attendance software like Workforce.com makes buddy punching virtually impossible. Employees automatically punch in and out through their smartphones using photo identification and passcodes – this ensures that the right person has clocked in for the right shift. 

3. Unauthorized or extended breaks

Employees deserve their break time — breaks are required by law in some states. But there is room for abuse. Employees could easily extend their lunch break time by a few minutes on a regular basis. Excessive cigarette breaks are also often flagged as a cause for concern. In light of the time used up on smoke breaks, one UK-based company even awarded its non-smoking employees four extra days of time off.

Solution — build a healthy break culture that is effectively managed through scheduling and tracking solutions.

Taking lunch breaks from time to time is important for employee engagement and productivity. So, regulating your team’s break activities shouldn’t be done in a way that puts them off from taking theirs altogether. Create a healthy break culture within your team by doing things like: 

  • Encouraging staff to actually take their breaks
  • Having management take breaks themselves and lead by example
  • Providing pleasant spaces for your employees to take their breaks in
  • Offering catered lunches

Furthermore, Workforce.com’s scheduling solution automatically allocates rest breaks that are compliant with state law. This information is also readily available for employees through their employee app. 

This way, your employees get the rest they need without taking longer breaks that ultimately constitute time theft. 

4. Excessive social media usage

Social media use on the clock is inevitable. When it happens consistently, it can be considered a type of time theft. One study by Desktime found that of the time employees spend on non-work-related websites, nearly 50% of that time is on social media. 

From the time spent on work-unrelated websites, social media takes up 49.1%. 

Solution — incorporate clear guidelines about social media use into your company policy.

Employees using social media and checking their phones while at work is inevitable, to some extent, and attempting to cut it out altogether will likely cause resentment. Instead, develop clear policies on acceptable social media use in the work environment. Your policy could include information on:

  • The distinction between social media use for work purposes (if applicable) and for personal use
  • Times and places for personal social media use; for example, employees can only use it during their break times and not in the work area
  • Policies around posting photos or videos on company property and/or wearing company uniforms

5. Personal activities on company time

You may experience employees who have no problem carrying out personal tasks while on the clock. This could include taking personal calls, online shopping, running errands, or even running their side business. Excessive socializing between coworkers could also be considered time theft.

Solution — create a great sense of ownership and accountability amongst your team. 

There are a number of ways employees can avoid working and take personal time during their work shifts. Turning your workplace into a police state is one way to handle the problem, but it would negatively impact your team’s morale. 

Alternatively, you should strive to create a work environment that prioritizes and harnesses employee satisfaction. When employees care, their loyalty and productivity increase. Implement a system of employee rewards and recognition. Grant time off — or add in an extra shift — for shift workers who excel in their roles. Creating a culture of honesty, transparency, and trust helps prevent time theft.

It is important to communicate with your team to understand what needs to be done to help boost employee morale. 

As Tom Smith, co-founder of Partners in Leadership and three-time New York Times bestselling author, once said, “An attitude of accountability lies at the core of any effort to improve quality, satisfy customers, empower people, build teams, create new products, maximize effectiveness, and get results.” 

Dealing with employees who have committed time theft

Dealing with employees who have been caught buddy punching, taking longer breaks than allowed, or committing any other type of time theft can be tricky. Your first instinct might be to refuse to pay that employee for the time they have stolen, but this can prove to be more costly down the line. 

If you refuse to pay for the hours worked because you think they were falsely reported, you could be drawn into a costly wage-and-hour lawsuit for back pay.

And, if you respond to the lawsuit with a claim of employee time theft, it could be considered retaliation against the employee. Be sure you have a reasonable basis for filing the claim to avoid retaliation.

You are much more susceptible to wage-and-hour and overtime lawsuits with lax time and attendance policies or unsophisticated timekeeping practices. Business owners are turning to automated time-tracking solutions to monitor employee hours.

Create time and attendance policies

It is important to establish clear and specific time and attendance policies and ensure that they are communicated well to your staff. If your team isn’t aware of what is expected from them when it comes to attendance and time theft, how can they abide by your rules?

Ensure your team knows why you are implementing the policies and what is expected of them.

The first thing to do is consult with your employment law attorney regarding local, state, and federal time-theft regulations. An employer can work with you to develop clear, consistent policies regarding clocking in and out procedures, break periods, and cell phone and social media use while clocked-in. It’s crucial that employees fully understand their work-related responsibilities and know what they should be doing when there are lulls in the workday.

Immediately incorporate these policies into your employee handbook. All hourly and salaried employees must review and sign a document stating they have read and understand the policies in the handbook. Also, post reminder signs in high-traffic areas and send alerts through mobile apps so employees can see them. 

Follow through on procedures and disciplinary actions

You don’t want to punish employees. It’s costly and emotionally draining for all involved, and it can suck the morale out of a workplace. But you need preventative measures in place should you discover evidence of time theft. 

Develop and communicate in your handbook the disciplinary procedures to deal with time theft. This may include a program in which you initially issue a verbal warning followed by a written warning or establishing a performance improvement plan that’s ultimately followed by suspension and concluding in termination. 

If it reaches that point, Findlaw.com states that if an employee is suspected of stealing time, it’s up to you to conduct a fair, accurate investigation. Someone other than the person who discovered the theft of time should investigate it, strict confidentiality must be maintained, and you should enlist expert help from a CPA, an attorney, or other relevant professionals.

Compliance with wage-and-hour laws is a headache and difficult to track. Constantly turning to a labor law attorney gets expensive quickly. The laws, regulations, and ordinances can be overwhelming, and a wrongful termination suit is costly. Workforce.com’s compliance platform ensures simplified and automated compliance with federal, state, and local labor regulations.

Stay on top of time theft with Workforce.com

Time theft doesn’t have to be a cost of doing business. It’s challenging to deal with time theft and recoup losses, but Workforce.com has the systems and processes that empower you to prevent time-theft losses from ever occurring again.

Here are a few practical ways Workforce.com helps you crack down on time theft:

Geofencing

Geofencing technology allows you to limit the radius in which employees can use their mobile time clock to punch in for work. This means they always have to be physically present at work to clock in, preventing them from clocking in at home while running late.

Photo identified clock-ins

With Workforce.com’s time clock, staff take a quick selfie every time they clock in for a shift. These photos accompany every timesheet, helping managers confirm employees are who they say they are when clocking in. Photo identification like this prevents buddy punching, a common form of time theft.

Time clock passcodes

If you opt to use a single tablet as a time clock for all staff members, Workforce.com assigns everyone unique passcodes. Employees use these passcodes to securely clock in and out of work without anyone else doing it for them.

Meal and rest break clock outs

You can automatically apply lunch breaks to every shift you create in Workforce.com. If an employee has a break scheduled, they must physically clock-out and then clock back in once their break is complete. This break time is then recorded on their time sheet. Having a specific break button like this ensures an employee never takes unauthorized extended breaks.

Real-time solutions like Workforce.com’s time and attendance system prevent time theft and streamline the payroll process. Automated solutions also provide your managers with a worry-free system so they can focus on running a business and not hovering over a time clock. But don’t take our word for it. Check out the free webinar below, where Forrester Research dissects the ROI businesses can expect from time and attendance platforms: 

Webinar: Building a Business Case for WFM

Build your culture, track employee hours, and crack down on time thieves with Workforce.com’s time and attendance software. Start a free trial today.

Posted on

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.

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

Ferguson Plarre saves over $100,000 a year using Auto-Scheduling

Ferguson Plarre, Workforce.com, retail, scheduling

Ferguson Plarre is one of the longest standing and most renowned producers of hand baked goods. The family-owned business has a rich history of providing customers with sweets and savories since the 1800s. 

The company faced a number of workforce challenges such as difficulty navigating excessive amounts of administration and spending on overtime due to scheduling inefficiencies. 

Since finding Workforce.com, Ferguson Plarre has seen great success in improving day-to-day operations and employee satisfaction. “It has just freed up so much time for my leaders to be able to actually focus on the projects that make us money and are better for the business, rather than sitting there putting spreadsheets together, trying to figure out what labor is going to cost,” said Chris Tankard, culture and human resources manager at Ferguson Plarre.

$100,000 saved on wage spend, hundreds of hours saved on administration

After implementing Workforce.com, the company saved $100,000 on wage spend and reduced hundreds of hours in administrative work. They saved the equivalent of two full-time staff members when it comes to cutting of administration across production, scheduling and reporting. These valuable savings allowed them to reallocate their resources to other more valuable areas of the business. 

Following their implementation of Workforce.com, Ferguson Plarre has adopted a highly optimized scheduling process, allowing them to accommodate for the constantly shifting demand for their products, significantly reducing the time spent maintaining staff schedules, absences and staffing costs.

How legacy systems and processes can dramatically hinder success

Ferguson Plarre is committed to delivering freshly baked goods to its stores. With a staff of more than 150 employees, their goal is to provide the best quality products while catering for constant shifts in their day-to-day sales. As such, they require a staff management system that can optimize their schedule according to demand data. 

Previous systems used at Ferguson Plarre failed to achieve the results they needed to achieve their business mission. Their previous scheduling software was a platform that employees throughout the company avoided. Staff were reluctant to use it due to issues with reliability. Meanwhile, the managerial team found a great deal of effort was required to make basic adjustments to staff schedules, pay rates and documents. 

Not having access to the tools they needed led to higher staffing costs, frustrated staff and the inability to dedicate time and energy to areas of the business that add value. As a result, the company was left with significant sunk costs in a system that didn’t give them outcomes and satisfaction in return.

Implementing a system that helps your business grow

Tankard set out to find a user-friendly system that would be eagerly adopted by his team, a solution that would allow his frontline staff to start thinking like business owners. Finding a great system functions more like a partnership than a service, especially when it comes to managing areas of the business as important as your employees.

Here’s how the team at Workforce.com works with Ferguson Plarre to manage and improve their operations and business:

Auto-scheduling software

  • Ferguson Plarre uses Workforce.com’s automated scheduling platform to create more efficient shifts for their staff.
  • Scheduling according to demand allows Ferguson Plarre to schedule staff on a room-by-room basis, ensuring they never over- or under-staff stations.
  • The shift swapping software lets staff easily request altered schedules, reducing the time managers spent maintaining it. It also helps protect the bottom line as the platform shows how much swaps will cost.
  • Auto-scheduling ensures that Ferguson Plarre keeps unnecessary overtime to a minimum, reducing staffing costs across the company.

Digital timesheets

  • Automatic timesheet generation means Ferguson Plarre can generate and approve accurately costed timesheets in bulk each pay period.
  • Timesheet software automatically flagged any variance in wage spend, aiding Tankard and the team in adhering to their budgeting KPIs.
  • Workforce.com’s timesheet software synced to Ferguson Plarre’s payroll system, allowing them to export the data without any manual entry each pay period, significantly reducing the required labor hours.

Reporting

  • Workforce.com’s dashboards and reporting suite means Tankard and the team could access valuable workforce metrics and modify their business practices for efficiency.
  • Digital reporting and storage means Ferguson Plarre can easily access historical reports and monitor their performance over time.

Compliance

  • Workforce.com’s labor compliance engine applies the correct pay rates, overtime, and allowances to completed shifts, eliminating the need to manually calculate pay rates and amend timesheets.

Thorough implementation guarantees a fast return on investment

Business tools only begin to return benefits when they are implemented quickly and adopted fully across the company. It’s not uncommon to find businesses adopting newer and better processes, only to be caught in the implementation stage, receiving fractional value for an extended period of time. For Ferguson Plarre, a gold standard implementation process was imperative.

Workforce.com assigned a dedicated implementation consultant to Ferguson Plarre. This ensures that the implementation would run smoothly, so they could start getting value from the system as soon as possible. Workforce.com assisted Tankard and his team through the setup, integrating their existing systems into Workforce.com and ensuring that staff knew how to use the system. 

Simplifying the administrative processes to focus on creating value

Workforce.com provides Ferguson Plarre with greatly simplified administrative processes, allowing them to focus on the things that matter. 

Moving forward, Ferguson Plarre will continue to build on its rich history and continue to delight customers. As the business landscape continues to shift, they are well-equipped to face these changes because they have a platform that enables them to be agile and make data-driven decisions. 

Workforce management has a lot of moving parts, but it doesn’t have to be a burden. Workforce.com can take out the administrative side of managing your team so you can focus more on growing your business. See our platform in action and book a demo today.

Posted on

4 ways that health care organizations can build resilience

build resilience

Health care organizations faced numerous challenges when the pandemic hit. Residents in care facilities faced a high risk of contracting the coronavirus as many are between the vulnerable ages of 80 and 90 years old with underlying conditions. 

Beyond the physical stress, residents and staff alike experience mental health challenges. Employees are burdened with adapting to new ways of working, such as dealing with absences, implementing new health protocols, and the emotional toll of seeing patients  affected by the virus. At the same time, residents can also pick up such cues and feel the burden themselves — restrictions such as limited visits from loved ones added to the toll too. 

“Care organizations in particular have been under immense strain. We’ve never asked them to do more to protect the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Bryce Davies, general manager of Workforce.com UK. But there’s another story here, and that’s human ingenuity and creativity can be used to help us all adapt. It’s called resilience.” 

The ability of organizations to bounce back from challenges and show resilience is what can help them thrive during a pandemic. Davies identified four core areas of resilience that can help businesses navigate through this time.

Keeping communication lines open

Communication is key for both staff and patients or customers. But with the pandemic, keeping communication lines open tends to become challenging given restrictions and volatile work patterns. This resulted in information getting diluted and not being communicated to the right person at the right time, which prevents teams from adapting quickly to circumstances. 

“Identify your mission-critical communication channels and build redundancy into these,” Davies said. The speed of communication channels should also be considered and identify possible causes of delays. 

Open and transparent communication lines are vital to empowering staff to step in and take over in case of a teammate’s absence or operational changes. Furthermore, it’s also critical to documenting processes, which lessens onboarding time and equips teams to stay agile. 

Ensuring safety on shift

Fatigue is detrimental to the safety of patients and health workers alike. When care facility staff is exhausted, they are more prone to making errors, forgetting things, having difficulty processing information and reacting slowly. 

Workforce managers can prevent their staff from experiencing fatigue through efficient scheduling and leave management. However, staff schedules can be difficult to plan and subjects staff to work in shift patterns, which fail to account for other factors such as demand, leave and time for training.

“Try planning your schedule out as far in advance as possible to lock in both the time for leave and training,” Davies explained. Monitoring annual leave balances throughout the year also helps allocate resources accordingly and make sure the staff gets enough time off to curb the effects of stress.

Also read: How leaders can boost employee retention by respecting work-life balance of hourly workers

Technology such as Workforce.com provides managers oversight into all the essential factors with staff scheduling. Minus the paperwork, managers can use the platform to make better decisions when creating schedules and ensure that time off, training, and demand are accounted for. 

Promoting financial security

Labor costs and demand are difficult to control and forecast. If not managed properly, it can drive up expenses, resulting in the organization becoming less financially agile. This can make team members feel insecure about the company and may cause them to leave. 

“Build a mock schedule well in advance and cost it using employees’ base pay and overtime to help predict cost. Test different scenarios,” Davies advised. Identifying key demand trends and indicators can also help in forecasting costs. 

It’s also crucial to pay close attention to the variance between schedules and actual timesheets. Investigate probable causes of overspending and optimize your operations to address them. 

More importantly, health care organizations should have a way to proactively manage demand and cost rather than acting on issues after the fact. Having access to labor analytics is vital to do that. Workforce.com captures real-time costs and revenue throughout the day, allowing managers to react quickly and make cost-effective decisions on the fly.

Also read: Labor analytics and reporting starts with access to the right data

Demonstrating HR compliance

Complying with labor laws is a must, but keeping up with changes can be tough. 

“Promote compliance as a culture, not as one person’s job,” Davies said. Integrate compliance to every part of workforce management. Ensure that processes and systems are designed to stay at pace and adhere to labor laws. 

Companies can start with digitizing their documents so that files can be remotely audited and monitored. Compliance can also be accounted for in creating employee schedules. Workforce.com’s employee scheduling platform factors in labor laws and alerts managers if a schedule is at risk of violating regulations. Legislation that affects payroll is also crucial for companies to pay close attention to as it impacts labor costs and treatment of overtime and holidays. 

Also read: The rundown on wage law compliance: What organizations should know

When systems are integrated for labor compliance, all activities are tracked and fixing potential noncompliance risk would be quicker. 

“Resilience is something that we can build into all of our businesses, and it’s never too late to start,” Davies said. Recognizing the gaps is half of the battle. The other half is finding the right solution to address them. 

Workforce.com has been partnering with businesses in different industries to help them engage their teams, safeguard their finances and stay compliant. See our solutions in action and book a demo with us today. 

Posted on

How custom fields builds flexibility and simplicity into workforce management

custom fields, workforce.com

Flexibility is crucial to managing employees.

Advanced workforce management software features such as custom fields improve that flexibility and support immediate, real-time decision making.

The benefits of custom fields

Custom fields eliminate one-size-fits-all rigidity and give managers the flexibility to add, update and store any data on employee files. It’s configurable by groupings of fields and can easily display individuals or customized teams of employees.

Workforce.com recognized the value that custom fields provide to meet employers’ operational needs. Every business has unique circumstances and demands, said Leon Pearce, Workforce.com’s lead software engineer. Integrating additional flexibility into Workforce.com’s software caters to their unique needs.

“There are core common problems that every business faces,” Pearce said. “They need to do scheduling. They need to record employees’ time and make sure they’re compliant. But maybe their industry also has unique requirements. Even down to a single business, there may be unique obligations. Custom fields improve how they’re working. We add an extra layer of flexibility, which helps them achieve their goals.”

Easily track and identify employee needs

With core operations, Workforce.com can take the full schedule experience and customize that for a mobile workforce. Because employees frequently move from site to site, custom fields provide immense value to monitor who is where and when.

Custom fields also can be used to track everything from each employees’ T-shirt size to a specific shift schedule or location assignment, said Michael Valentine, vice president of accounts. “Some organizations provide specialized equipment or clothing for their employees,” Valentine said. “Using custom fields keeps track of boot sizes for employees on a construction site.”

custom fieldsValentine added that in one case an airline needed to store data on pilots’ flight hours annually. They created a custom field and continuously reported on it while scheduling pilots. Customizing the schedules of multiple employees also eliminated the need to memorize their location.

“It can be hard to remember, so having the ability to include an address and some notes that are unique to that location is really useful,” said Pearce, who was instrumental in developing the Workforce.com custom fields feature. “Being able to add fields to schedules that are completely unique makes operations a lot easier. We designed a simplified approach to set up custom fields. We made this seamless so business admins can get in, make changes and updates and get the value out of it themselves directly rather than relying on an IT department to do it.”

Improving the user experience

Custom fields can be used with most core workforce management functions and across multiple departments.

It’s a straightforward process to add a field, Pearce said. Once the object to customize is selected — a timesheet, employee profile or a schedule, for example — the field gets a name and the information is included.

“The most common one is text, but you can make a special field, like a day, or you can make it a file and that customizes the user experience. It’ll add a button to the schedule that allows you to upload the file. And that’s basically it.”

Adding a custom field to “employee” populates the employee profile. Adding a field to an employee’s schedule shows up on the schedule-building tool, which also can appear on their mobile app.

The same is true with timesheets, Pearce said, noting that it will be added to the timesheet review process. “You can export to other systems,” he said. “So you can leverage that information going out of the system.”

Custom fields also can be set up in the mobile Workforce.com app, Pearce said. Users can automatically link information, say from a particular location, in the employee’s app so they can get background, such as the address and some specific circumstances about that site.

Workforce.com’s custom fields feature

Simplification is the key feature when comparing Workforce.com to other systems that allow for added fields. Workforce.com’s custom fields capabilities are much more simple to use compared to other systems that allow for added objects. Customization also evolves along with an organization’s changing needs, shifting with what’s important to a business. 

Interestingly, custom fields have yielded at least one unintended consequence since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Pearce said.

“People have come up with some great ideas to use custom fields for storing information around COVID-19,” he said. “People are being empowered to solve these problems themselves. As someone who’s building the software, it’s been the coolest thing to see.”

While custom fields are not new to workforce management software, Workforce.com’s integration into the operational process is innovative and provides exciting new results. Integrating custom data points to employees’ schedules or exporting it into a payroll and invoicing system improves workflow. Tracking shift data and embedding into the time and attendance process saves money.

“That is a big breakthrough that we’ve had,” Pearce said. “We’re definitely leading and paving the way in that direction. Custom fields are taking our software to the next level in terms of helping businesses solve these problems.”

Organize your employee data with custom fields and get Workforce.com’s scheduling platform working for your business. Request a demo today!

Posted on

Tracking time and attendance a basic but crucial workplace function

time clock, workforce management, scheduling, time and attendance

There are some functions that are so elementary to an organization that without them, there is no business.

People need to show up for work. From the single-person hair salon to a 10,000-employee utility company, time and attendance is mandatory for a business to function at its most basic level. And those workers must spend a requisite amount of time to get the job done.

Digitally pairing the perfect couple

Like Abbott and Costello, salt and pepper and peas and carrots, some things just belong together. For employers, time and attendance and employee scheduling software are two workplace basics that fit hand in glove to make an organization go.

Also read: Timesheet rounding isn’t necessary with the right technology

Like many HR functions, tracking how long employees work each day has evolved from pen and paper to a digital process. Today’s time and attendance solutions reach far beyond a punch clock with employees merely clocking in and out. They typically provide employers with everything needed to track and manage all aspects of their employees’ time.

The value of time and attendance systems

These systems record when employees start and end their day, display their weekly schedules and provide a tool to manage time-off requests. 

Also read: Knock out the practice of buddy punching for good

Employees can no longer round up the hours they’ve worked or buddy punch their co-workers in and out. Employees are held accountable for the hours they have worked. Many time and attendance systems will offer other values, including:

  • Payroll accuracy.
  • Simplify paid time off management.
  • Time and attendance mobility features.

Accurate pay

You want to track employee hours and streamline your payroll processes. But you’re stuck in a paper-based payroll system. Save ink and save a tree by taking payroll digital. Organizations typically want to adopt a time and attendance management system that can integrate with payroll systems, and it has never been easier to make sure all employees are paid accurately and on time. Digital time and attendance systems let supervisors expedite timesheet review and approval.

They can also quickly and easily track that the right person clocks in for the right shift through electronic photo verification and unique pass codes. These, along with payroll add-ons, lets employers do away with lengthy steps and potential errors in computing payroll.

Simplify paid time off management

Time and attendance software often allows employers to record paid time off — sick time, vacation time and other types of paid time off. In addition, employees can use the software to request time off,and managers can either approve or deny those requests. Workforce.com’s intuitive leave management system makes it easy to manage time off by automatically applying changes to schedules and timesheets.

Time and attendance mobility features

Perhaps most importantly, employees have the ability to clock in and out from their mobile devices. A mobile time clock app automates how the staff clocks in while improving the accuracy and efficiency for every manager. Every internet-connected device essentially becomes a time clock. No one has to touch a communal device or handle paper time cards. Spreadsheets and calculators are no longer necessary since a mobile solution streamlines cumbersome administrative tasks. More than a time clock in their pocket, the multi-tool mobile app lets employees use their phones to clock in and out and allows managers to monitor in real time where and when the punch in or punch out occurs.

Time and attendance and employee scheduling software systems offer a huge benefit to your employees as well as their managers. They simplify an employee’s time-keeping responsibilities via clock in using a computer or mobile device.

Investing in digital time and attendance also benefits a business in many ways. Having a system to accurately track an employee’s time simply saves money. It eliminates manual recordkeeping, which reduces errors and more readily demonstrates compliance with labor laws and other regulations.

Simplicity is a key component to efficiency. Make your time and attendance process seamless for employees, and allow your managers to be more effective and focus on the needs of the organization.

Posted on

Companies may pay the price for poorly managed payroll practices

compensation, payroll, blue collar

Culture may eat strategy for lunch, but a fair, well-oiled compensation plan can gobble up culture for breakfast, dinner and maybe even a midnight snack.

While culture indeed is crucial to engagement and retention, compensation still remains near or at the top of most employee satisfaction surveys. Poorly run compensation and payroll practices makes engaging employees an impossibility if they are not being paid fairly and on time.

Get a handle on your payroll practices

Employees deserve their paychecks on time. They also deserve to be accurately compensated for the time they put in. Both of these points may seem to be forgone conclusions when it comes to an organization making its payroll.

But according to a survey earlier this year, 32 percent of small business owners have made a payroll mistake at least once. What is more troubling, the same survey also noted that it took 56 percent of business owners longer than 24 hours to fix a payroll mistake.

That’s a problem for any employee. For those living paycheck to paycheck, a payroll snafu can be devastating.

Also read: Knock out the practice of buddy punching for good

Considering that employee engagement figures typically hover somewhere around 33 percent in good economic times and in bad, there is no faster way to turn a loyal staff member into a disengaged one than a blunder with payroll.

Automate payroll processes to eliminate delays and errors

Automating payroll may initially seem imposing. Organizations are locked into legacy practices, and payroll typically is one such function.

Some 39 percent of small business owners spend one to three hours on payroll per week. That’s hundreds of hours spent poring over timesheets, tapping digits on a calculator, assessing overtime and finally scratching out checks, which if the sun, moon and stars properly align there won’t be any mistakes.

Save a tree, cut back on paper-based payroll

Many organizations rely on a paper-based system, too. A 2017 survey revealed that 65 percent of people surveyed said that HR information is still managed using paper documents, paper-based processes and stored in filing cabinets. 

Implementing a payroll solution not only improves the company’s bottom line but it minimizes hours of repetitive tasks and effort spent on high-volume, low-value work. The result is a better functioning payroll system that affords time to focus on correcting errors, improving processes and delivering payroll efficiently and on time. Automation is assisting payroll teams perform their jobs in several ways. 

Managing compliance risks

It’s a challenge to stay abreast of tax laws, rules and regulations, especially for organizations working across multiple states. Payroll mistakes are costly and learning all the nuances to stay in compliance is a huge time drain. It’s crucial to stay on top of what it takes to remain compliant to reduce legal liability. Workforce.com’s payroll integration platform is designed to keep pace with labor law changes and ensure that pay rates are always updated. 

Gathering the metrics

Collecting timesheets from multiple departments and in varying formats is the height of payroll inefficiency. An automated payroll solution turns data collection inefficiencies into a faster and simpler task.

Move data quickly

An automated, integrated platform also allows for the smooth transfer of information between systems. There’s no need to wait on various departments or managers to file and then crunch their data.

Added expenses due to poor data entry errors and payroll oversights are avoidable. By upgrading an outdated payroll function with an automated platform eliminates inefficiencies, promotes compliance and allows employers to stay on top of wage costs.

With employment contracts, timesheets, benefits and labor laws, there are a lot of factors involved in payroll that can result in miscalculations. Workforce.com’s payroll integration solution connects with more than 50 payroll systems to ease compliance and enhance efficiency.

Posted on

Connecting to community with Grand Finale Desserts and Pastries

time clock, food

Justin Raha of Grand Finale Desserts and Pastries knows exactly why his business has been so successful.

Starting out as a baker’s apprentice with a passion for pastry, Raha eventually founded Grand Finale, starting out with a focus on wedding cakes and chocolate. He diversified to include more types of baked goods and pastries. Now, the small business employs five people and enjoys a good reputation among the local community of Grand Haven, Michigan. 

Locals supporting local

“We use Michigan blueberries, Michigan strawberries, Michigan raspberries. We use dried fruit and we try to use Michigan sugar, and we get Michigan eggs, and so everything that we’re getting we’re trying to get as local as possible.” These ingredients are what makes Grand FInale’s treats so special, Raha said. The result? Quality products at affordable prices, with the added bonus of supporting other local businesses in the area. 

Raha’s commitment to using local ingredients and participating in community events has solidified Grand Finale’s charm — they aren’t just another bakery in the area, but a recognizable name in the neighborhood.

Also read: Building a safety policy was vital to Shawmut Design and Construction’s health

“We give back to the community a lot which is really big. We have a really strong local community that is all about growth and support of each other and different tasks, fundraisers, organizations, and groups,” Raha said. “And so any opportunity we can to help out more for our community we try to do that, which has gotten really substantial in kick back toward our business because people see that we give back to the community and donate to them. Because of that they tend to want to come to us.” 

Smoother payroll with time clock software

Raha found Workforce.com through the mobile app store and thought to try it out. After trying a few other apps, he found Workforce.com the most user-friendly and affordable for Grand Finale’s needs, especially the notification aspect that allows requests to come in through email. Now, the small business has been using Workforce.com’s time clock software for over a year, as well as the employee scheduling features to keep track of operations.

While employee schedules are consistent, what the time clock software has done for them is make shift durations much easier to track. With all the data about when employees clock in and out, calculating wages is faster — Raha just sends the timesheets over to his accountant, and a process that used to take an hour now lasts 15 minutes. 

Sweet gestures

Whether it’s the local farmers’ market, events supporting mental health programs or environmental fundraisers, Grand Finale Desserts and Pastries is there to lift the spirits of anyone who tries their baked treats. Building trust between small business owners and customers over time, through authenticity and visible effort are the key ingredients to the bakery’s success.  

“They know we’re good,” Raha said. “They know that their money is going to stay local and get back into the community.” 

Posted on

Using software to simplify payroll and overtime

payroll, software

Scheduling employees is difficult. Creating a schedule that factors in overtime can make the task even more time consuming.  

For companies that run in shifts or have round-the-clock operations, overtime is often a necessity. Poorly managed overtime can result in unnecessary cost overruns, cause mistakes on the production line and result in fatigue-related accidents.

Don’t work overtime to figure out your employees’ overtime. There are digital solutions that can simplify scheduling, address overtime requests and streamline the payroll process. Utilizing technology to develop a sensible overtime policy is essential to streamline payroll and will result in a safer, more productive workforce.

Why institute an overtime policy?

According to the Department of Labor, employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek of at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay. An effective overtime policy helps employers sort through daily and weekly overtime calculations to remain compliant with state and federal regulations.

Balancing Productivity

Scheduling overtime is often done to meet increased deadlines. Scheduling with a hair-on-fire approach — a practice followed by way too many employers — doesn’t necessarily equal optimal productivity.

Inefficient shift schedules lead to excessive and ineffective overtime levels. Many operations with fluctuating work demands have outdated scheduling systems that leave some employees idle and others too busy. Scheduling solutions can solve that headache.

Consider how many employees are needed to work overtime without affecting your team’s mental and physical health. Evenly rotating overtime schedules also can cut the animosity between employees and encourage a more supportive environment.

How technology helps

Technology plays a huge role today in helping organizations manage and reduce overtime expenses and meeting rigorous compliance standards. If you’re still using manual timesheets, it’s time to upgrade to an automated timekeeping system.

Automating overtime management provides streamlined processing, an impartial implementation of policies, fewer errors and more accurate record keeping. Time keeping and employee scheduling software significantly reduces the workload for supervisors while balancing employee requests and providing significant savings with the elimination of unneeded overtime.

Many organizations already have access to all the data they need to predict overtime costs in their payroll and time and attendance software. However, they don’t utilize it to its full effectiveness and wait until the end of a pay period to begin a deep-dive analysis into employee hours.

Instead, be proactive! Incorporate real-time analytics to track hours as the week unfolds to help identify employees who are on track to work overtime and allow for changes in staffing to minimize or eliminate these situations. Extract the data and examine it in a meaningful, practical way.

Perhaps most importantly, your compensation data can help avoid costly compliance violations, overtime lawsuits and steep fines.

Delicate balance between work and life

Resources are thin. Too much overtime — or not enough overtime — can cause stress, fatigue and burnout. Consider your employees’ health, your workplace culture and your business’ bottom line when scheduling overtime.

Workforce.com’s software simplifies operations and untangles complex overtime regulations. It also gives the entire organization the confidence that employees will be paid correctly.