With the new year approaching, looking for a way to keep your bottom line from shrinking is always a smart resolution. Taking inventory of your employees is a good place to start. Uncomfortable as it may be, time theft is a big problem and business owners are paying the price. Punch clock abuse is an all too common and very costly offense. Whether an employee is asking a co-worker to clock him in early or for an unscheduled shift (also know as known as "buddy punching") or he's rounding off and inflating his own hours, your business is taking a major financial hit. In fact, 43% of surveyed workers admitted to exaggerating their hours at least once.
Identify the problem
Even with the greatest of intentions, getting to work early and leaving late – and punching in and punching out accordingly – can add up to plenty of unbudgeted excess hours. Whether employees are guesstimating their manually recorded times, taking longer than their allotted breaks or using the punch clock to manipulate hours, these offenses can wreak havoc on payroll. And when employees aren't where they're supposed to be, even bigger problems arise.
New York based Muffetta's Domestic Assistants, a leading home & office cleaning company, struggled with this type of employee accountability. Automating the timekeeping process and setting up geofences around work sites has provided both peace of mind and significant financial savings – upwards of 10% in payroll alone.
Use caution being casual
Small businesses and startups can easily fall victim to time theft. Creating a laid back work environment with flexible hours appeals to millenials entering the workforce. Yet accomodating this type of work-life balance can be tricky when it comes to accountability. Employees are bound to be spending a portion of their flex time on personal texts, phone calls, social media – and even other jobs – during work hours. While punch clocks may not exist at these companies, manual and verbal methods of timekeeping are no more reliable. Implementing a smart mobile timekeeping system where locations, tasks and schedules can all be configured is an ideal way to carefully keep it casual.
Ensure compliance
Transitioning to an employee time tracking system can be met with resistance, so be prepared. Explain the importance of accountability in your business – that which archaic punch clocks simply cannot provide. Assure employees that their privacy is paramount and they will not be tracked when they are off the clock. Explain the range of features in detail and make sure employees with both smartphones and flip phones feel comfortable with the process.
Real results. Risk free.
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