Hourly employees form a significant segment of the modern workforce, exceeding 82.3 million workers in the US alone. Serving as the backbone of the economy, their contribution is paramount. Unlike salaried counterparts, the hours worked directly impact their paychecks. Given this importance, mastering the art of accurately tracking employee hours with the right tools becomes imperative.
Whether talking about small startups or large corporations, tracking employee hours is crucial for businesses. It simplifies management tasks and boosts overall productivity and employee satisfaction. The following blog will explore diverse strategies on how to track employee hours effectively. Additionally, we'll emphasize the pivotal role of adopting efficient time-tracking software, particularly for companies overseeing shift and hourly employees.
Key Takeaways
- Modern time-tracking tools, like the Workstaff mobile app, offer a range of features that improve payroll accuracy, increase productivity, and enhance project planning precision, providing significant benefits over traditional time-tracking methods.
- Mobile time-tracking apps have revolutionized documentation and management of work hours, offering features such as seamless integration with payroll systems for both employees and employers.
- Accurate timekeeping with integration with GPS and location services for off-site workers is critical to efficiency, productivity, and accountability in various industries.
- Strategies to boost employee compliance are essential for successful time-tracking implementation.
Understanding the Basics of Employee Hour Tracking
Accurate employee hour tracking holds significance for various reasons. First, it provides valuable data for payroll management, mitigating the risk of financial discrepancies and ensuring fair compensation. Furthermore, it empowers businesses to identify peak productivity hours and recognize trends in task completion time. This data empowers management to make informed decisions, such as optimizing schedules for higher efficiency or redistributing tasks based on historical productivity trends. But in order to reap the benefits, companies need a tool that tracks employee hours with accuracy.
Historically, methods such as pen and paper, spreadsheets, and punch cards served as the conventional means of tracking hours. Surprisingly, between 38-58% of workers in North America still rely on manual systems to track their hours and submit their timesheets. Unsurprisingly, 80% of these timesheets have to be corrected due to hour miscalculations. So, while effective, these approaches are susceptible to inefficiencies and unreliability, leading to inaccuracies in payroll calculations.
Different ways on how to track employee hours effectively
When it comes to tracking employee hours, employers can choose various methods:
- Manual tracking using pen and paper
- Through spreadsheets
- Using a desktop time clocks
- Through Mobile apps
- Geofencing and GPS tracking
- Biometric clock-in
While companies indeed have multiple options, it's essential to recognize that not all tracking methods are equally effective. Moreover, managing multiple spreadsheets or email timesheet submissions can be daunting, especially when handling payroll for off-site staff. The logistical challenge of keeping these spreadsheets and invoices up to date is nearly impossible, not to mention the significantly elevated risk of encountering errors in the process.
Modern Ways to Keep Track of Employee Hours
Managing hourly employees requires employing optimal methods for accurate time tracking. Leveraging the latest tools and software enables seamless and precise hour tracking, ensuring efficiency and accuracy in the process.
Mobile Apps
The rise of mobile applications to track employee hours streamlines the process of documenting employee time spent on various shifts and activities. This not only provides employees with the freedom to track their hours and complete timesheets from any location but also grants managers access to real-time data. If any issues require attention, the app sends prompt notifications to managers.
But mobile time tracking apps go beyond just recording hourly work. Often a preferred feature of staff shift scheduling software, they offer a variety of features, including:
- Automatic time tracking
- Attendance tracking
- Timesheet approvals
- Employee scheduling
- Live presence reporting
In addition, hourly employees can access a time clock or timer via their smartphones, with the app prompting them to clock in, out, or take breaks based on their set shift hours.
Additionally, when tracking time by project or client is available, mobile apps provide a convenient solution for precise time management. It's, therefore, unsurprising that the use of mobile time-tracking apps has gained in popularity, becoming a common and effective tool integrated into scheduling software. This integration is reshaping the way businesses approach tracking employee hours.
Geotagging
Nowadays, many time-tracking tools are equipped with geotagging features designed to document employees' attendance and hours worked across work locations. By leveraging GPS clock-in and other GPS-enabled devices, staffing agencies and other companies that work with employees on the go can use these tools to efficiently manage billable hours based on employees' arrivals and clock-ins at their designated destinations.
With GPS tracking capabilities, managers can establish geofences around specific job sites. This strategic setup prompts employees to clock in upon reaching the designated location and, subsequently, clock out as they depart. The integration of geofencing empowers organizations with staff at multiple job sites to ensure precision in timekeeping for each location by assigning unique job codes to individual geofences.
Biometric Time Clock
While it may sound a bit futuristic, biometric identification is gaining significant attention. This cutting-edge technology uses biological traits such as fingerprints or facial features to authenticate a person's identity. With biometric features, the time clock system monitors employees' hours from clock-in to clock-out. Integrating this technology also acts as a deterrent against practices like buddy punching, where one employee clocks in on behalf of another.
It's worth highlighting that while biometric identification is making strides, it remains a relatively new addition to the time clock software market. Therefore, not all tools may offer it as a clock-in option at this point in time.
Using a Mobile Time Clock to Track Employee Hours
Although employers, staffing agencies, and recruiters often still rely on the old-age method of doing everything by hand, the tide is slowly changing. Many are recognizing that integrating modern solutions such as mobile time-tracking clock apps not only provides a more accurate picture but also reduces administrative burdens.
Once all hours have been entered, time clock software is designed to integrate seamlessly with payroll, ensuring timely and precise payment for your employees' logged hours.
The investment in such software also yields financial benefits. Real-time tracking of employee hours provides valuable insights into labour costs and employee efficiency, enabling you to make informed and cost-effective scheduling decisions.
Ultimately, adopting time clock software can lead to long-term cost reductions and improved operational efficiency.
Time Tracking to Leverage Data for Business Insights
When done correctly, accurate time tracking can yield data that provides valuable business insights. By identifying patterns and trends in employee productivity, companies can better understand areas that require improvement and effectively track time.
Hour-tracking apps provide a clear overview of time and financial resources allocated to each project or client, enhancing project management and resource allocation. This is particularly beneficial for business owners looking to optimize their operations and maximize their return on investment.
By tracking employee hours, agencies gain valuable insights into their labour needs, optimizing scheduling and addressing potential over- or under-scheduling issues. Additionally, tracking time by project or client allows agencies to align labour costs with revenue, facilitating informed profitability and resource allocation decisions. This comprehensive understanding of employee time and project dynamics empowers employers and agencies to make strategic business decisions for long-term success.
Navigating the Future Landscape of Employee Hour Tracking
Covering the fundamentals of employee hour tracking to seamlessly implementing time tracking within existing workflows, we've explored a spectrum of topics related to tracking employee hours.
By embracing modern tools and harnessing data for business insights, companies overseeing hourly employees can ensure compliance with labour laws while simultaneously enhancing productivity and employee satisfaction. As we usher in the future of work, how to track employee hours with efficiency is not merely a luxury but a necessity.
Workstaff App: Helping You Track Employee Hours Effortlessly
Choosing the ideal time-tracking app for your business is critical, given its potential for long-term impacts on productivity and efficiency. Before making a decision, you should evaluate integrated features, functionality, and ease of use and align budget constraints.
Addressing the challenges of shift scheduling and time-tracking, Workstaff, an innovative shift-scheduling and management software featuring robust time-tracking capabilities, has emerged to streamline and expedite operations for companies handling shift-scheduling employees.
Our fully integrated employee hour tracking apps yield numerous benefits, enhancing not just payroll accuracy but also amplifying productivity and honing project planning precision. These advantages prove particularly impactful for hourly employees, who commonly grapple with the repercussions of inaccurate time tracking. The Workstaff app eases the responsibility of businesses by seamlessly integrating usability, accuracy, and a comprehensive array of features to cater to their unique needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best app to track employee hours?
For efficient employee hour tracking, a robust time-tracking app, like Workstaff enables teams to clock in and out from anywhere and submit time sheets to ensure a smooth payroll process.
How do you keep track of employee schedules?
You can track employee schedules through pen and paper, online spreadsheets, time-tracking software, and GPS clock-in. However, each method has varying degrees of accuracy.
What features should I consider when choosing a time-tracking app for my business?
Consider features like functionality, user-friendliness, budget, payroll integration, automatic reminders and geo-location tagging capabilities.
How can GPS and location services be used in time tracking?
GPS and location services can be used in time tracking to accurately record employees' time and attendance at various work locations. This helps in managing and tracking hours worked effectively.
