We have mentioned many times that companies lose about 10 minutes a day per hourly employee to time theft. This is most common when employees use handwritten timesheets and exaggerate the numbers. With automated timekeeping systems employees can call or use the app for precise timekeeping. No more handwritten timesheets, no more exaggerating, right? Almost. There’s another factor to consider. Where was the employee when he punched in or out?
We call this location confidence. If he was at home or in the drive-thru at McDonald’s, then that’s time theft, too. It’s unearned time that you are paying for (including payroll taxes) that could also be contributing to overtime (or the 30 hour a week average according to the Affordable Care Act).
For small businesses to survive these changes it is vital to protect the bottom line with the use of a remote employee timekeeping system that uses the available GPS technology to give the best estimate of an employee’s location when clocking in and out.
Chronotek timekeeping offers 4 tools to help discern employee location:
- App-based GPS location tracks. When employees use our app to clock in and out we stamp their location using the device’s GPS. We have seen this show amazing accuracy. The clock in/out events can be easily reviewed on a map.
- Caller ID is captured on all calls. If the employee uses the job site phone to clock in and out, then you know he is on site. View the call log and/or time cards to see what phone numbers employees are using when clocking in and out. The other day we helped a customer confirm that his employee clocked in with the job site phone, but the customer noticed that the employee clocked out with a different phone. It turned out to be the employee’s home phone!
- Restrict clock ins/outs to the jobsite landline phones. Using site phones ensures that employees are on site when punching in and out. Link the jobsite phone to the job, and timecards are automatically associated the correct job. Also, unauthorize any phone numbers that are not allowed (such as home phone numbers).
- Set the acceptable Tracking Accuracy/Verification Threshold on a job site address and if a GPS track is detected outside of this parameter, the Clock Location screen will flag that punch as not at the job. This is just another tool to help alleviate some of the daily stresses of managing remote employees.
Location confidence takes timekeeping to another level. As the saying goes, what matters is location, location, location. It’s a vital piece of the remote employee management puzzle that must be solved to protect your company profits. Our timekeeping solution gives you the accountability tools for confidence in the integrity of the time cards. If your employee is picking up a double cheeseburger and a Dr. Pepper, you’ll know that it’s on his time and not yours.