Time theft can cause a significant dent in a company’s bottom line. Indeed, a study has shown that employees steal around 4.5 hours from their employer every week on average. And while companies can take steps to monitor their employees in the workplace, it becomes even more difficult when employees are working out in the field.
Field workers are typically trusted to spend their time productively instead of doing something not work-related. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for field workers to abuse that trust. For example, some people might choose to do some shopping on their company’s time, or maybe go for a meal. In some cases, field employees might not even leave their homes at all but still charge for time that they did not spend working.
It should also be noted that time theft is not always deliberate. Employees can make mistakes and forget details about their working week if they don’t fill in their timesheets straight away.
The main headache with monitoring fieldworkers has long been the fact that you just cannot know where they are. It’s often easy for field workers to lie about their location or their timing with no way to check up. However, GPS has provided an effective solution to the problem.
Modern Tracking Apps are the Solution
In the past, GPS tracking hardware would have been prohibitively expensive for most companies and would not represent a solid return on investment, if at all. However, GPS hardware is now very affordable and can be installed on smartphones. Indeed, modern smartphones typically come with GPS already installed, meaning the technology is already available for companies to use.
Of course, having the hardware that tells you where somebody is great, but it’s not of much use without software that helps you make use of information. The good news is that apps like those from PK4 Tech are available on the market that integrates GPS technology to offer valuable information for managers regarding their employees’ whereabouts and behavior.
Time tracking apps can use a smartphone’s GPS to place the phone’s location at any time. Simply put, a time tracker, in conjunction with a smartphone’s GPS can tell managers where their employees are and where they have been. As a result, the solution helps prevent time theft because employees can no longer lie about their location, while it also helps prevent honest mistakes on timesheets.
An Effective Deterrent
Not only does GPS time tracking software help prevent time theft, but it also helps to prevent it from happening in the first place. It can otherwise become too easy even for dedicated employees to start taking liberties, so it makes sense to let all your employees know that their location is being tracked.
Remember that it’s also important to educate your employees on why such technology is required so they understand why it is being implemented. Otherwise, it could be easy for them to feel as though they are not trusted and are being spied on, potentially causing morale and productivity to take a hit. Ensure that your employees know that using the technology is not an attempt to spy on their every move but to protect the company overall and provide reports that help improve efficiency.
In-Depth Reports
GPS time trackers can do so much more than just inform managers of their employees’ geographical location. For example, trackers can also keep records on which tasks an employee was working on, such as travelling to a location or carrying out a site survey. You can then use this information to see how efficiently employees are spending their time and what you can do to improve their efficiency further.
Comprehensive dashboards are also available that help management to see key information at a glance, helping them make fast and impactful decisions. Reports can also be created and distributed automatically, removing much of the manual work that would otherwise be involved.
Summary
GPS time tracking helps to remove many of the issues associated with time theft and employees working in the field. Not only does the technology help managers monitor and record employee data, but it also helps to act as a deterrent. The technology can help prevent deliberate time-theft, while it can also help avoid genuine errors. Remember that it’s important to educate your employees on why the technology is important to prevent a loss of trust.
With GPS time tracking apps, managers are also equipped with information that can help them make informed decisions that will help boost efficiency. Overall, the technology can help prevent time theft, increase productivity, and improve the bottom line.
Managing Employee PTO[/caption]Every worker deserves time off, and paid time off (PTO) is one of those perks many companies choose to offer. Reviewing and approving paid time off used to be overwhelming, but with modern tools in place, managers can now focus on more important things.
Similar to traditional leave, with paid time off, employees get paid when taking personal time off, vacation days, sick leave, time off during federal holidays, and parental leave. The only difference with PTO is that employees don’t have to give a reason for taking paid leave.
How much PTO should you offer?
Since paid time off isn’t federally required, you’re probably wondering how much time off should your company offer. Short answer – it’s totally up to you, but in this competitive work environment, providing PTO will contribute to happier, more productive employees.
Statistically, US businesses offer an average of 10 days of PTO per year, while European workers are guaranteed between 20 to 30 paid days off – that’s a whole month off!
Before you get all envious, you should learn that modern businesses have recently embraced the concept of unlimited PTO, provided that employees still get their work done. It works great for young workers who value their autonomy and flexibility, although many of them end up taking less time off than the average.
How to effectively manage PTO requests
Leave management can become very complicated, especially if you have to handle a high number of employees. Many companies still log PTO requests manually inside a spreadsheet, which makes for an inefficient and expensive process.
If you’re an HR manager in the digital era, you’re probably balancing different types of employees – remote or on-site, salaried, hourly, or part-time. Logging mistakes when managing PTO could lead to unfair payment and open up your company to potential lawsuits.
This is why you need to run a tight ship and have great systems in place. The best way to do this is to establish ground rules and use modern time tracking tools that allow for seamless PTO management.
Define the rules in your employee handbook
Creating a standard policy on taking paid time off is the best way to go, especially if you have many employees and they all come to you with their individual problems and requests.
Inevitably, leave requests will overlap during times like winter holidays, and you’ll be the one prioritizing which employee gets time off. So how do you make that decision?
First come, first served. This type of policy takes out a lot of the guesswork and makes sure all workers are fairly treated.
Seniority-based.Time off is granted according to the employee’s “rank,” although, because of their vital experience, taking time off is not always feasible.
Reasons for making the request.Personal reasons such as sickness, burnout, parental leave, or family issues should be discussed and, if possible, prioritized.
Flexibility of the request.When completing the PTO request form, employees should mention whether their vacation dates are flexible or not.
Taking time off too often. You should set rules to prevent employees from requesting time off too frequently or during times when it impacts productivity.
Your employees may have personal issues, or they may be prone to burnout, and as a manager, you have the final say in allowing them to take paid time off.
But keep in mind that favoritism can get the best of you at times, so use your better judgment and adhere to company guidelines when managing your workers’ paid leave.
Use a tool that easily tracks time off
Time tracking has come a long way. Modern time tracking tools are now indispensable for efficient project management – everything gets logged, and time off is no exception.
Managing Employee PTO
Our leading time tracking tool for Salesforce, PK4 Time Tracker, is built to easily manage PTO days. Inside Time Tracker, the PTO Current Status displays Total Days, Available Days, and Pending Approval Days.
Users can log their desired PTO days by selecting the PTO type (personal, vacation, sick, other, etc.), the start date and end date of their leave, and send it for approval.
Managers can edit total PTO days for their employees and approve or reject requests. The available days get automatically updated as employees use their time off.
This entire process is organized within a simple interface, where you can have a bird’ eye view of your workers’ activity.
Needless to say that this automatic system of vacation management takes a lot of pressure off of HR managers.
There’s no more back and forth communication – all the information is out in the open, and employees can feel confident that they get fair treatment when it comes to their earned paid time off.
As a professional, you can’t run your business arbitrarily. Having a set number of PTO days, establishing a universal policy, and tracking hours, including time off, are all essential to your company’s productivity and your employees’ wellbeing.
For a lot of us, we’ve now spent over half a year working from home. I think a lot of us started down this path with if not excitement, at least a sense of relief. The benefits of WFH are self-evident: spend more time with your family, save on commute time and costs, work from the comfort of your home in comfortable clothes, and schedule your day’s work according to what is most comfortable for you.
But has the reality of working from home been as effective as the benefits we thought would accrue? The ongoing COVID19 pandemic seems to be continuing much longer than expected with no clear end-dates in sight. Many companies have decided to extend WFH; some till the end of 2020, and many until mid-2021. We’ve even heard of companies that have decided to give up on office space completely and have employees working from home indefinitely. They’ve decided on weekly/monthly all-hands meetings at co-working locations. While there are major benefits to WFH, there are significant drawbacks too.
Remote working problems
And the biggest of those drawbacks are feelings of isolation and loneliness. These feelings are not restricted to people who’ve started working remotely during the pandemic. It affects people who have worked from home for years, either full-time or part-time. This data fromBuffer’s State of Remote Work 2020report that 20% of remote workers suffer from loneliness and another 20% report issues with collaboration and communication. And an almost similar percentage (18), complain of “Not being able to unplug” from work. And these numbers are aggravated with more people working from home because of the pandemic.
Signs of loneliness
Perhaps you are feeling isolated and lonely or perhaps someone on your team is. The signs aren’t always easy to spot. These could include feeling like you don’t belong, that your work is not appreciated, that you are not understood. These kinds of feelings can cause people to become less productive at work, to lash out at meetings or withdraw from group activities. With the pandemic and social distancing guidelines still in place, it’s natural for people to long for experiences that we just can’t have in the near future.
Why is it becoming more common?
Most obviously, it is because more people are working from home. And have fewer chances to go out and have normal social experiences. Burnout is another big issue. When you go “out” to work, there is a definite separation between work and personal life. But when you are working remotely from your kitchen or dining table all day, that separation is lost. One outcome is that people are now working longer hours. Counter-intuitively, without the routine of going to and from work, it becomes harder to maintain work-life balance. 🙂
Tips for coping with working remotely
If you work as a manager of a team, then you really need to do double duty. Handling the issues of remote work for yourself and helping others on your team manage remote working issues. The remainder of this article covers both you as yourself and as a manager.
The big thing to remember is that there is no single way that works for everyone. Each person needs to do what is right for them. So here goes:
Tip # 1: Have a set routine
Home Workspace
Set up a routine and practices that help re-create the structure that you’re normally used to. So start work at the same time everyday. If you have a workspace within your home, that automatically gives you a separation between work and personal space. If it helps, set up a 2-minute walk around the house, before you get in to work mode. That “commute” helps to set up context in your mind. If being properly dressed, helps you get into “work” mode, then definitely get dressed in work clothes.
One of the things that we’ve found useful is to have a quick team meeting every morning on Google Meet. That’s when we discuss things that need to get done during the day, any urgent customer issues that need to be solved and so on. But it also gives everyone a sense of structure to the day. And to make sure that we get together with the team at least once each day.
Make sure that you set up coffee break times and lunch breaks. If possible, use your break times to chat informally with colleagues. Or if it makes sense, use that time to catch up with what’s going on at home.
Using a time tracker likeTime Tracker for Salesforce, can give you a great understanding of how your people are spending their time. If people are not taking enough breaks, or working too many hours, you’ll see that easily from the Time Tracker reports. That will help you identify and address those issues, before they become major problems.
The biggest perk of working remotely or WFH is the freedom and flexibility that it gives you to plan your day and work according to it. Not everyone is a 9-to-5 person. Schedule your work day and tasks, based on your own energy levels and interests. If early morning is your best, most interruption-free time and you are at your brightest, then schedule your most intense/creative/analytical work for that time. If afternoons are when you are most tired, then take a break at that time. Get some rest or do something else that you enjoy then. One of the best things about working from home is that you get to spend time with your family and kids. If you want to be available for play time with your kids, then schedule your work time around that.
Most importantly, keep your colleagues aware of your work times, so that they know when they can get ahold of you. Make sure that you schedule in group meetings and calls in to your day, but schedule the rest of your day around things that you may need to do. If you are a team leader or manager, empower your team members to set their own schedules and work your assignments around them.
At the beginning of the lockdown, many people set goals for weight loss, getting into better shape and so on. If you are sticking with those plans, more power to you. If you’ve been losing steam, then break into smaller activity chunks.
Do some simple exercises at your desk
Run up and down the stairs before your coffee breaks
Walk around when you are on calls
Make sure that you stand up and stretch at least every 2 hours.
Tip # 3: Stay in touch virtually
Get a bunch of your work colleagues together and join an online Pilates/Zumba/exercise/yoga class via Zoom. If you or one of you colleagues can run the class, that’s even better. if you can get your company to agree to it, perhaps you can set this up as a regular work task for your team. If not, at least make sure that your team members get some time for informal catch up and exercise. Schedule a common walking time with a friend, and speak with them as you walk. Great way to multi-task and keep in touch. :).
Set up a regularly scheduled call where members from different teams can talk about what they’ve been working on. This is a great way to replicate those water cooler / lunch room discussions that played a great role amongst teams. Set up a “brainstorming” meeting schedule, when team members can bring up technical issues/problems that they need help with. Encourage other members to provide solutions, so that individuals can get over those issues.
Organize a weekly trivia quiz for your teams. Even include a small prize for the winner to make it more competitive. Have simple games that you can play on an online Zoom / Google Meets call. Organize a team lunch. Have food delivered to your team members and set up an online call where everyone can eat and chat online. This is something that I’ve seen an aunt’s Rotary Club group use to fantastic effect.
When you are in the office, chances for communication are constant. You lean over and speak to someone at the next desk, you meet people in the elevator and in the lobby, in the break room, even in the rest room. You go out for lunch with your team, you walk with co-workers during your lunch break. The chances for conversation are endless. These conversations and interactions play a crucial part in building a sense of belonging and camaraderie. So how can you do this when you are working remotely?
If you know your colleague welcomes impromptu calls, then call them up when you think of them. But with most people juggling multiple responsibilities, you’re better off scheduling a specific time for these calls. These calls don’t have to have a specific reason. They are just for catch up and keeping in touch. You get updates on what your colleague is working on but also what’s going on in their lives. If you regularly walked with a co-worker, then perhaps you can schedule a time when you walk and talk with them. Whenever possible, try a video chat. There’s something to be said for actually seeing a person. The connect is always better. And as everyone grapples with issues of loneliness while working from home, these catch-up sessions can be invaluable.
Tip #5: Learn something new
If you’ve ignored your interests and hobbies because you’ve been too busy, this is a great time to start / re-start on them. Put the time that you would otherwise use for commuting to good use. Whether it’s to learn a new language, learn an instrument, start to bake, learn financial planning or a new cuisine, there are plenty of online classes to choose from, for whatever your interest may be. So if you are looking for something new, go ahead and start right away. This is something that will stay with you, whether you continue to work from home or you get back into the office. If you need additional encouragement, a great way is to get together with a group of friends and challenge yourselves to achieve something specific every week. If you don’t have too much time available, then do it in small steps. Don’t sign up for expensive classes, but look for free lessons on Youtube. Do as much as you can. If you like to write, keep a journal. Or start a blog and post your thoughts, poetry. Share your achievements with your friends for a quick high.
Key Conclusions
There is still no clear time frame on when work from home will end. It looks like a lot of us will continue this for the next few months, perhaps until mid-2021. So we need to make sure that we can work from home successfully and deal with loneliness issues. The good news is that it’s POSSIBLE! It needs some effort and conscious thought, though. Both organizations and individuals need to put in effort to make remote working successful.
Follow some simple steps, like a daily routine, regular formal and informal contact with colleagues and friends, scheduling our work day around our energy levels and other commitments. All of these will enable us to tackle work from home with fewer issues and be more productive at work.
If you’ve found some specific ways to cope with work from home, do share it with us. We’d love to hear from you.
Looking to grow your donor base? A fantastic place to start is to convert your Volunteers to Donors. According to Abila’s Donor Loyalty Study, 75% of those who volunteered say they are more likely to donate. That is an overwhelming statistic and one that nonprofits should leverage. Studies also show that volunteers donate 10 times more than non-volunteers.
So how do you convert volunteers to donors for your nonprofit? Here are five best practices to help you convert volunteers to donors.
Acknowledge Volunteers like you do Donors
Treat your volunteers right. They may not make monetary contributions. But the time that they donate to your nonprofit has a tangible monetary value. According to the Independent Sector, the value of Volunteer Time in 2019 was $ 25.43 per hour. So a volunteer who spends 10 hours with you, has made a contribution of over $ 250 to your nonprofit.
Are you telling your volunteers how much you appreciate their time and effort? Try and do that at as many opportunities as possible. If you can, try to quantify their activity into how much money or time they’ve saved your organization.
For example, “The supporters that you brought to the Annual Walkathon helped us raise an additional $ 5000 this year. This will help us serve another 100 people. Your time and effort helped make this possible!”
Track all volunteer activity
Do youtrack all volunteer hoursdiligently? Do you have reports that tell you how many hours a volunteer spent with you this year vs last year? Can you track volunteer retention rates?
Tracking each volunteer interaction gives you a better understanding of the volunteer’s engagement with your organization. And, if you don’t know how the volunteer helped, how can you appropriately thank them?
Tracking all the volunteer hours spent with your organization provide great statistics for grant requests too.
Acknowledge Volunteer Milestones
Volunteer Awards Report
Tracking all volunteer hours lets you keep track of specific volunteer milestones. Set up simple acknowledgements or rewards for when volunteers complete specific hour-based or time-based milestones. For example, a volunteer reaches 50 hours this year or completes 3 years of volunteering with you. Reach out to the volunteer. Make a public gesture. Show them that you are aware of their effort and interest in your cause.
Give your volunteers opportunities to share their experiences
Social media share
Give your volunteers easy ways for them to share their experience on social media. Use their experience quotes on your website, in a newsletter. Talk to your volunteers about why they do what they do. They can become great ambassadors for your cause. And that may inspire their friends to become donors to your nonprofit.
Ask your Volunteers
Finally, just get down and ask your volunteers for donations. Communication is key, whether it’s with volunteers or donors. According to the Institute for Fundraising, 8 out of 10 people donate after being asked to do so. Don’t assume that your volunteers know your cause and therefore will donate automatically. Maybe they don’t know that your organization needs the money; they may just know that you need volunteers. They may not even know the best or easiest way to donate.
So a simple , straight forward ask may suffice. Perhaps you could set up a way for volunteers to donate a small amount every month. Think of it as a SIP donation plan for volunteers. They could give you $ 10/20/50 every month. That may be easier for some volunteers.
Have you already converted some volunteers to donors? How did you do it? Do share your stories with us.
Vacation time isn’t just a perk for employees – business owners and entrepreneurs need a break just as much, if not more. They are a time for spending much-needed time with your family and/or friends as well as for de-stressing and revitalizing yourself, while refreshing your mind with new ideas. But not only is it common for small business owners to not take vacations, they are known to worry when they do take one.
But the fact is that a vacation is one of the best things that you can do for yourself, your business and your customers:
A vacation gives you a physical and mental break.
You’ll learn that your employees and customers can live without you for a few days. Perhaps, you’ll even discover a key employee who can be your trusted lieutenant.
You’ll come back with a refreshed perspective and new ideas for your business
Most importantly, you’ll avoid burnout and resentment that can destroy employee and customer relationships.
With all the technology available today, you can thwart vacation anxiety and go on a relaxing vacation with things running smoothly in your absence. Here are some tips to get rid of vacation anxiety while you’re away, whether you’re relaxing on the beach, hiking up those mountains or chasing animals on safari.
Choose the right person to hold the fort for you: The absolute first thing that you should do is to select a trusted employee to stand in for you. Make sure that it’s someone who knows your business well. Ensure that you transition smoothly by going over routine and unexpected tasks with her/him. Figure out what issues constitute an emergency where s/he should get in touch with you right away.
Communicate with your customers and staff: Problems arise if customers expect you to be around but can’t get in touch. Tell them about your vacation plans in advance. Remind them before you leave. Let them know who’ll be in charge and what they should expect. Make sure you tell your employees too. Keep them informed of how much/little time you plan to spend on work-related matters. Clarify your expectations, so that your team knows how and when to reach out to you.
Set boundaries for yourself: Just as you set boundaries for your customers and employees, set boundaries for yourself. Forty percent of travelers agreed that their smartphone was the most important thing that they take on vacation. And that they check work emails often. But let’s face it, it’s not a vacation if you stay glued to your phone all day. If you’ve committed to staying in touch via email every day, pick convenient time slots and stick with it. If you plan on spending an hour every day on work, ideally pick a 30-minute slot in the morning when the rest of your vacation group is getting ready and a 30-minute slot in the evening when you can check emails, calls, chats. Avoid the temptation to check in more frequently.
Manage your phone and email: You may be on vacation, but the rest of your world isn’t.
Set up an email auto-responder and a voice mail message clearly stating the dates that you will be out of reach
Tell people that you will get back to them after you return if it is a non-urgent matter
Make sure that the message has details of who they should get in touch with for urgent matters
If there is an issue that you need to deal with, do it in the time that you’ve set apart for work
Only respond to critical matters. Make a note of the other matters, so that you can deal with them after you get back
If there is something really urgent and critical, then a face to face meeting with your stand-in or other employees or customers may be necessary. Use Facetime. Google Hangouts, Google Duo or Skype for a live video-chat.
Stay in the loop with collaboration tools:If your team uses a web-based collaboration tool such as Trello, Asana, Slack or Evernote, use it to stay in the loop – but within the boundaries you’ve set for yourself. If your team uses project management ortime tracking tools, you can check your daily/weekly reports. Again, within the time boundaries that you’ve set for yourself. With access to tools like this, you’ll realize that you can troubleshoot in real time, without being tied to your office desk. And that your business is running just fine.
Running a business on vacation, may be a challenge. But it’s definitely something that can be done. All it needs is some planning and preparation and making use of technology to stay in touch. So if you’re off on a vacation, go on. Have a great time!
As an employer, you have many responsibilities but perhaps the most important one is complying with government rules and regulations. Recently, the time clock rules for hourly employees have changed and you need to make sure that you comply with theFair Labor Standards Act(FLSA). You need to be compliant in recording work hours, breaks, overtime and calculating wages for hourly employees.
TheDepartment of Labor(DOL) is very strict about enforcing time clock rules. If you break these rules, your company can be penalized with substantial fines for every lapse. The best way to ensure that you fulfill federal and state time clock rules is to use a good time tracking software system. Ensure that the system tracks employees clocking in and out at the beginning and end of their workday. And lets them check in and out of specific jobs/projects.
Hourly Vs Salaried Employees
When understanding the FLSA rules, the most critical thing is the difference between salaried and hourly employees.
Asalaried employeereceives pay based on an annual sum or salary. As the employer, you decide the pay period – weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. A salaried employee is not obligated to complete a time sheet, though you may use one for project management or other tracking purposes. The salaried employee’s pay is based on the salary as a whole, rather than on the actual hours worked. So, if a salaried employee works a little over or under the normal 40-hour work week, the employer doesn’t need to keep track of their work hours.
An hourly employee,gets paid by the hour for the number of hours that they worked. As the employer, you decide how many hours your hourly employee must work. Some US states and cities have authorizedpredictive scheduling lawsthat mandate that hourly employees be given a specified amount of notice of the hours they need to work.
An hourly worker is obligated to record their working hours through a timesheet or timecard system that the employer must verify.
Time Clock rules for Hourly Employees
To help you with your FLSA obligations with hourly employees, we reviewed the important rules that you need to keep in mind. These rules are for your hourly employees clocking in and out and tracking their work hours. Here are the top 6:
Time tracking system
Reported Hours Rounding
Maintaining time sheet records
Clocking in and out
Confirming hours
Clarifying time tracking policies
Time Tracking System
The FLSA does not obligate you to use any specific kind of time tracking system.
Mobile, web & Salesforce time tracking
You are free to choose any type of system to track employee time as long as it is accurate. It’s important that the system that you use tracks actual hours worked including any breaks.
dftly’sTime Trackerapp is used by many businesses to track time for individual employees and teams. It works on mobile devices, on web pages and within Salesforce, with alltime trackingdata securely inside Salesforce, regardless of what device it was recorded on. Click here to see how your employees can record their time easily and accurately, wherever they may be working.
Rounding work hours.
The FLSA allows you to round your employees’ reported time to the nearest specified increment. You are permitted to round your employees’ time up or down. For example, if you are rounding off in 10-minute intervals and your employee finishes work at 5:16 p.m., the time should be rounded up to 5:20 p.m.
You need to round up and down fairly. If you are always rounding down (where minutes are deducted), you may be breaking overtime and minimum wage laws.
Make sure that your time tracking system automatically rounds up or down to ensure accuracy and fairness. If the rounding up has caused your employees to be entitled to overtime, then you are obligated to pay that overtime, based on the overtime laws for your state/city.
Maintaining time sheet records?
Employers are required to keep time cards (or other records) that demonstrate how your hourly employees wages were calculated for a period of at least two years. The two-year period is required by theUS Department of Laborand you are required to provide access to the Wage and Hour Division access to inspect your records when necessary. So make sure that your time tracking software can store timesheet records for as long as necessary. With the Time Tracker, since all records are stored securely in Salesforce, you can always maintain time records for the necessary time-frames.
Clocking in and out
As the employer, you can decide whether your hourly employees are allowed to clock in early or clock out late. However, it should only be a few minutes and not hours. With the Time Tracker, you can easily add a limit on clocking in early and clocking out late. In addition, you can configure the Time Tracker to automatically log out or check out an employee after a certain number of hours or minutes for mandatory break times.
Confirming hours
Your hourly workers should have the opportunity to confirm their hours at the
Employees verify worked hours
end of every pay period. Although a good time tracking system would have recorded the work time accurately, your hourly employees should be able to review and verify their hours,
Your time tracking system should give you or a designated supervisor/manager with the functionality to approve time cards. In addition, you or the manager should receive emails notifications if there are any anomalies in the time cards.
Clarifying time tracking policies
Use photos to avoid buddy punching
As the employer, you must inform all hourly employees of the policies and procedures regarding your time clock rules. We suggest that you include it as part of your employee handbook and provide training on how to use the time tracking system. Policies that should be explained include:
What happens if employees are caught tampering, or attempting to tamper with the time tracking system
The consequences if employees are caught trying to commit time theft
What happens if employees are caught buddy punching (trying to clock in and out for their colleagues).
Make the right choice for your business
Given the importance of adhering to time clock rules, it may be impossible to adhere to state and federal requirements, with just manual time cards. Investing in a good, accurate time tracking software system is the right choice for most businesses. It’s not just about potential legal and compliance problems, but you could be losing money on payroll, if you are not correctly calculating work hours with overtime and rounding.
In the past, GPS tracking hardware would have been prohibitively expensive for most companies and would not represent a solid return on investment, if at all. However, GPS hardware is now very affordable and can be installed on smartphones. Indeed, modern smartphones typically come with GPS already installed, meaning the technology is already available for companies to use.
