Monitoring the time that your employees spend at work can be quite tricky and time-consuming. The solution for most businesses is to use dedicated devices (whether mobile phones or computers), apps, and even desk clocks that support multiple time zones.
If you have employees, chances are you’ve faced the challenge of tracking their time. Sometimes this can be done manually with a spreadsheet or timer on your phone, but what if your employees want to use a different device? Or what if they don’t even own a phone?
The inability to track employee time accurately can lead to inadequate productivity and high cost. Studies show that the United States loses 50 million hours of productivity each day due to unrecorded work activities.
Tracking employee time accurately enables you to calculate payroll according to the hours worked.
If you want to make sure that your employees spend their time on productive operations, you’ll need a system in place. Thankfully there are several ways to track employee work hours accurately without costing you too much time or money.
Manual timekeeping
Manual timekeeping is the most basic way to track employee work hours. It’s also the least accurate, but it can be a good way to track time for small teams or when you want to ensure that everyone knows what they need to do.
Paper timesheets and punch cards are still the most common way of recording time at 38% of US companies. This helps them keep track of their employees progress and provide feedback on how well each employee is doing overall.
But this requires manual entry of your employees’ hours in a spreadsheet or database, then schedule jobs. And if you have more than 25 people working for you though, this approach will not cut it.
The best way forward would be to record time with geotagged text messages, or IVR-based phone calls. There are a lot of software options out there, but they all require a computer or web-enabled phone with the internet.
But how do these IVR-based and text-based time clock systems work? With geotagging whenever your employee reaches a location, the system will automatically trigger the IVR or text for punch in punch out.
Automated time-and-attendance solutions
The days of manually tracking employee hours are past us. Automated timekeeping solutions can help businesses solve their time theft issues and gain full control over their labor costs.
According to statistics, 74% of employers lose money due to frequent buddy punching. With the help of an automated time and attendance solution, you can track the employees time accurately preventing buddy punch in.
By adding automatic timekeeping features, you’ll be able to make better decisions about their productivity, job performance, and pay. According to The Economist, 73% of organizations are highly satisfied with the returns they have received from automating their business tools and processes.
There are many different types of automated solutions that provide you with detailed reports about your employees’ activities throughout the day (or week). These reports include:
- Time spent working on specific projects or tasks within your organization’s goals;
- Hours worked over a set period;
- Days off taken per week;
These tools will help you get an accurate picture of how much work each employee is doing compared to their coworkers so that you can better manage their workloads accordingly.
Track employee time with mobile apps
Time tracking can be a painful process, but implementing an app to manage your hours is a great solution. If you’ve ever tried to track employees’ time with a traditional timecard and paper timesheets, you know how much of an effort and how inaccurate it is.
The proliferation of mobile technology has changed the way businesses operate and benefit from time management and attendance tracking. With apps, such as allGeo, you won’t have to worry about installing time clocks at different locations, instead, your field employees can clock in and clock out using their smartphones.
This will help managers to follow their employees’ shifts in real-time, update schedules for any shift and continue tracking the employee’s movements once they clock in.
Additionally, these mobile apps give employees insight into time spent on each task which will help you improve job scheduling, prioritizing, and thus productivity.
Time clocks or punch-in tools
There are many options for verifying employee time. Time clocks are one of the most popular for a reason: they’re more accurate than manual timekeeping. These tools allow you to record when your employees start and end shifts, which can be used for payroll purposes.
However, there are drawbacks. Time clock devices like card swipes or fingerprint biometrics are expensive and they wouldn’t be a feasible choice for the field workforce. For these reasons, having a configurable system makes more sense for your company’s needs.
GPS Clock in
You may not realize it, but a time-tracking app could be enough for your employees. Or even those who travel between different job sites. When it comes to the field workforce, time cards, and manual timekeeping are out of the question, due to inaccuracy and a high chance of buddy punching.
According to reports, time theft can cost businesses up to 20% of their revenue. That’s where the GPS clock comes into the picture.
GPS-enabled time tracking software tracks the location of your employees while keeping the time record. With this method, you can keep track of where your employees are working, what and when they’re doing their jobs, and save money on payroll.
This process will help you keep tabs on the status of employees and ensure that everyone complies with company policies. Some of the software makes this process easier and simpler with Geofencing.
While it will enable you to track the employees more accurately, Geofencing gives you the advantage of a zero-touch clock in clock out solution. This means supervisors will have real-time access to what employees are doing, how long they’re working, how often they’re offsite, and where they are at any given moment during work hours.
Conclusion
There are several ways to track employee work hours accurately. The most important thing is to find a system that works for your business and employees.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so experiment with different solutions until you find the best fit. A good system lets you track each employee’s hours every week with minimal effort, but it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.
By using one of the five methods listed above, you can be sure that you are getting an accurate picture of your employees’ work hours. This will help you to make better staffing decisions and ensure that your employees are being compensated fairly.