It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, keeping on top of your employee time and attendance will always be a core function. Company owners don’t have enough hours in the day to be dealing with time-off requests and employee attendance tracking.
From the outside, employee attendance tracking can often seem quite simple. But it comes with its complexities. No company is the same size or operates in the same way. But they all share one common goal. The need for efficient and continuous productivity. Having the right technologies for your employee attendance tracking can be pivotal in doing so.
Let’s explore employee attendance tracking and why it’s so essential.
The importance of employee attendance tracking
Employee attendance tracking has revolutionized from scribbles on paper to best-of-breed technologies. While companies continue to make significant efforts to regain their pre-pandemic productivity, they must be wary of the effects of inefficient tracking tools. The inefficient tracking tools may offer a basic package of tracking. But they won’t stop the potential obstacles a company may face in finding the schedule to suit their needs.
Employee attendance tracking will help you to identify and solve any attendance issues. In recent times, absenteeism has become a big concern. Statcan reported that in 2020, absenteeism was costing Canadian companies 11.6 days per employee per year. And unfortunately for company owners, it’s not the only major impact on productivity. Time theft is becoming more and more of a common practice. As many as 49% of US employees and 62% of Canadian employees admit to time theft. With suitable technologies, abusing breaks, buddy punching, and timesheet padding can all be prevented.
An error you won’t want to make
Even for companies with trustworthy employees, attendance tracking can still prove tricky. Many owners still opt for manual processes as their preferred method of documenting work hours. And this makes them susceptible to both intentional and unintentional data errors. Inaccurate employee attendance tracking can lead to one big headache when it comes to payroll. This won’t only impact the time and money a company spends on putting it right. If they’re paid incorrectly, there will also be a drop in employee morale. Retaining employees has been difficult enough in the current climate and company owners should do everything in their power to make it easier.
So, now that we’ve looked at some potential issues that companies may face. Let’s look at how technology has improved employee attendance tracking.
Employee Scheduling Software
Most employee scheduling software offers a range of tracking features to collect and review time and monitor attendance and performance. And for good reason. For the larger companies who offer shift work, you’re expected to have more fluctuations and complications with employee working hours.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 3% of your workforce is absent on any given day. So, it becomes the owner or manager’s duty to ensure that this attendance drop is tracked efficiently. And a solution is readily in place. This is where employee scheduling software and its power of automation can be so crucial. There’s no room for user error over here.
Let’s take a further look.
A myriad of benefits
During the recent pandemic, companies have required a form of employee attendance tracking to navigate through an uncertain period. Burnout, mental health, and general sickness cause high levels of absenteeism. In order to ensure the increasing levels of demand are continuously met, they’ve needed a solution to cope with change.
Companies have utilized employee scheduling software to track time and attendance levels effectively. The real-time shift data they can collect through employee scheduling apps can be monitored and used to choose a best-fit schedule. Maybe employee A is always late to work. But employee B has never been late before. The little differences in employee performance can go a long way. The autonomy to plan their schedule more efficiently based on this knowledge has ensured that managers avoid scheduling those who unsettle the scheduling process.
Let’s dive into some of the specific parameters that can help to control this.
GPS tracking
Time theft is one of the first issues every manager needs to remove. When it comes to employee attendance tracking, adding GPS coordinates is essential in confirming location accuracy. And this can be done on a site-by-site basis in employee scheduling software. You’ll be ensuring that when your employees clock in and out, they’ll be in the right place. Some managers may require photo verification as additional proof, which can be attached by the employee inside of their app on their mobile devices.
Break check-ins
To ensure that companies are getting the most out of their workforce’s hours, they may require a break check-in and out. Breaks are an important factor in attendance management. This is a necessity for those wanting to avoid employees abusing company time. Unscheduled breaks can be a costly practice. By requiring your employees to check in and out of a scheduled break, you can be sure that it’s being accounted for. If these breaks aren’t being taken, it’s time to speak with them.
Eliminate discrepancies
As many scheduling software integrates with payroll software, it’s vital that employee attendance is monitored correctly. You can set your system to warn you of any double-bookings, overtime, or other discrepancies to ensure you’re not paying any more than you need to. These won’t just affect your labor costs but may cause workplace conflict too. Any problem that can cause another problem needs to be addressed immediately.
Essentially…
Essentially, employee scheduling software is invaluable to companies looking to reduce unnecessary costs, understand their demand and optimize their productivity. Also, to comply with the latest labor laws. The many benefits associated with employee attendance tracking make them irresistible to company owners with complex schedules.
If your schedule isn’t catering to thousands of employees at once, you may choose a simpler technology to track your employees’ attendance. Enter time clocks.
Time clocks
There’s no better way of managing time effectively than using a technology that specializes in it. The various ways in which time clocks can be used to suit a company’s needs is why they prove so popular. And more so, the continuous efforts to improve these time-tracking technologies ensure that they move with the times. We pardon the pun. But you get the point. They’re a critical employee time attendance tool for smaller companies who are keen to monitor their employee attendance levels.
How can they help?
Time clocks allow you to streamline the employee attendance process and save time. By tracking labor hours, companies can see how their employees are spending their hours. Are they productive? Do they always show up on time? A factor that draws many companies into using time clocks is their adaptability to integrate. They can often be used in conjunction with employee scheduling software or payroll software. This streamlining process has helped companies to ensure that all their essential information is communicated as one.
Let’s not forget, they also play a significant role in removing potential threats in the workplace.
Removing buddy punching
Buddy-punching has always been a real menace. But until recently, companies have struggled to control it. Luckily for them, time clocks have ensured that they provide a multitude of mechanisms to combat it. The solution to tracking employee attendance was traditionally through the swipe of a card. But now, high-tech fingerprint and facial recognition may leave the deceitful with nowhere left to hide.
You’ll no longer be left with those unsatisfactory productivity levels from late arrivals or no-shows.
Mobile time clock
Quite like employee scheduling apps, the mobile time clock apps gives employee autonomy over their schedule. This autonomy goes a long way to helping managers too. By having their own mobile app, they can submit time-off requests and shift availability. This freedom gives the employee the work-life balance they crave. But also gives the employer an idea of their employees’ working trends. Which may or may not suit the company’s demands.
Choose your method of magic
Companies are consistently striving for the best technologies to implement into their strategy. And an essential part of this process is employee attendance tracking. Without recording work hours with automated administrative procedures, companies will leave themselves short of fully streamlined optimization.
Employee attendance tracking software is beneficial to both the employer and the employee. Employers with the correct attendance system will have a fully optimized workforce achieving maximum productivity and profitability.
Employees will work within a stable schedule that has the best interests of themselves and the company. As a result, this will keep them fully engaged and motivated to continue in a role they know they can perform. If you are interested in Celayix time and attendance tracking software, check out a free live demo here!
