What do you call that tiny sliver of real estate between a rock and a hard place? It’s starting to feel like home for small business owners. Beginning in 2014, the government (rock) will require you to provide affordable health insurance for your employees while pushing for a higher minimum wage. Workers’ comp carriers (hard place) are pushing in on the other side by raising their rates. How can you find any breathing room?
One of our long-time customers had an idea. Kevin, the owner of a janitorial company in New Hampshire, called and said that his workers’ comp provider is trying to raise his rates by 25% percent. Kevin performs a litany of services, and our time tracking system records the time for each activity. One of his services offered is window cleaning. His workers’ comp provider noticed an increase in this “hazardous” activity over the past year and is trying to reward Kevin’s entrepreneurial zeal with a nice little rate increase.
Kevin wanted to know if he could pull a job report from our system showing how much time his employees spent on window cleaning last year. You bet. Our activity detail report indicated that last year’s total window cleaning hours accounted for 2% of his total labor hours. 2012 represented a 14.5% increase in window cleaning over 2011. Do these stats justify a 25% increase in his rate? The increase would cost thousands of extra dollars. Our comprehensive reporting armed Kevin to fight for a lower rate.
Our timekeeping system can save you 5% or more in labor costs by capturing accurate time. We’re seeing that maintaining accurate and thorough records may save you thousands of dollars. And protect the patch of ground you call home.