December 19, 2022

How to Prevent Employees from Forgetting to Clock in and Out

Want to make sure your employees don’t forget to clock in and out of work?

It’s vital that you’re collecting accurate time and attendance data, which is why it’s important your employees clock in and out properly.

So, let’s take a look at how you can prevent employees from forgetting to clock in and out.

Benefits of Ensuring Employees Don’t Forget to Clock In and Out

Tracking employee time can be a time-consuming process, especially if your employees are constantly forgetting to clock in and out of work.

Getting time tracking and payroll right is incredibly important (here are some best practices to help), which means every time someone forgets to clock in and out it causes problems for an administrator who has to chase the data.

When you put good systems in place to stop employees from forgetting to clock in and out, it’s going to make this problem much less common, resulting in:

• More accurate timesheets 
• More accurate payroll 
• Less work for administrators 
• Happier employees

Make life easier for your employees and ensure they get paid accurately and on time, and they will be happier. And simply by reminding employees “don’t forget to clock in and out,” you can achieve this.

7 Steps to Prevent Employees from Forgetting to Clock in and Out

Don’t forget to clock in, don’t forget to clock out; sometimes it feels like you can say it over and over again, and yet someone will forget.

Every time an employee does forget to clock in it causes hassle for your business and can lead to more serious errors, so it’s time to put an end to it.

Here’s how you can make sure employees don’t forget to clock in and out in 8 easy steps.

1. Make it Convenient to Clock In and Out of Work

If you’re going to get people’s buy-in, then you need to make it as convenient as possible for them. The more difficult you make it to clock in and out of work, the more you’ll find people forget, or simply don’t bother.

However, there’s a simple solution.

You need the right employee time & attendance time clock system, and luckily, there are tons of different options available for you. Whether you’re looking for a physical employee time clock, browser-based clock-in software, or an app, Lathem has high-quality options for you.

When you give people multiple ways to clock in and out of work that fit into their daily routines, then you’re going to find a lot fewer people forget to clock in and out.

2. Create a Policy for Clocking In and Out

If something is important for your business, then you need to convey this message to your employees.

Just throwing out a memo once a year about clocking in and out isn’t going to have much impact. You have to show that this issue matters and one way you can do this is by creating a comprehensive policy.

Answer employees’ pressing questions like what happens if you don’t clock out at work, and make it easily accessible by putting it in the employee handbook.

Make time and attendance official.

3. Show the Value of Clocking In and Out

When people are in a hurry to get to work (or even more so, to get home), they’re unlikely to consider the importance of clocking in and out.

After all, it’s not a big deal right?

Well, it might not seem like a big deal, but when lots of employees forget to clock in or out, it really adds up. It leaves big holes in timesheets, and all that empty data has to be tracked down.

All of this results in:

• Wasted man-hours
• Delays in payment
• Payroll errors

These problems can make payroll processing stressful for payroll administrators and can seriously impact your employees, and it all stems from them forgetting to take care of a simple task.

Show them why clocking in and out matters, and you’ll get more buy-in.

4. Put Reminders in Entry and Exit Points

This is a simple point, but it makes a big difference -place reminders in strategic locations.

They don’t have to be anything complicated. A sign saying “don’t forget to clock in” will do the trick!

Even with the best intentions, people forget little things like clocking in and out of work, so give them a friendly reminder. A well-placed sign will save a lot of people from forgetting to clock in and out.

5. Encourage Employees to Set Reminders on their Devices

We’ve talked about physical reminders to remind employees not to forget to clock in and out, but what about virtual ones?

If you’re using app-based time clock software, then you can set up alerts at the appropriate times to encourage employees to clock in or out. These applications sync perfectly with modern mobile devices, so the notifications are hard to miss.

When employees have daily prompts to clock in and out of work, they’ve got little excuse for forgetting to do so.

6. Offer Monthly Incentives to Help People Remember

Incentives are one of the most powerful tools we have to motivate people, and they’re useful for time and attendance.

Create little awards for employees with perfect clock-in and clock-out records. It doesn’t have to be anything big, just something that makes it fun and gives people an extra reason to remember to clock in.

Gamification can turn boring rules (like having to clock in and out) into a fun competition everyone can partake in.

7. Reinforce Protocol for Missing Punches

When employees forget to clock in and out you need a system in place to make sure the missing data gets collected.

You want to make it as easy as possible for both the managers of employees and payroll administrators to update employee timesheets, so it’s important you have a strategy and a system that lets you do this. One thing you want to remember is that you need to reinforce the importance of your employees clocking in and out - otherwise they’re going to keep doing it.

Come up with a strong protocol and make sure it’s followed.

Now Get the Right Time Clock System With Lathem

The first step in making sure employees don’t forget to clock in and out is good software.

You’ve got to make it as easy as possible for your employees to clock in and out, which is why Lathem’s PayClock Online is such a good investment. It offers a variety of employee time tracking options in a number of formats, including contactless facial recognition time clocks.

Whether you’re looking for physical time clocks, browser-based time tracking, or an app, PayClock Online offers powerful tools to encourage your employees not to forget to clock in and out of work.

FAQs: Clocking In and Out

What does it mean to clock in and clock out?
To clock in and clock out means you log your hours at work. When you clock in, time clock software logs your start time, and when you clock out, it logs the time when you end work. By subtracting the time you clocked out at from the time you clocked in at, you can work out your total number of hours worked.

How do you stop employees from forgetting to clock in and out?
The best way to stop employees from forgetting to clock in and out is to make it convenient to do so. If you offer them multiple ways to clock in that are simple for them to use (like biometric facial recognition), then they’re much less likely to forget.

How do you remind employees to clock in and out?
You can remind employees to clock in and out of work in a number of ways. One simple way is to place a sign that says “don’t forget to clock in and out” by all entry and exit points. Another great option is to use a time clock app that gives employees automatic reminders.

Why is it important for employees to clock in and out?
It’s important for employees to clock in and out because the business needs accurate time and attendance data to make sure everybody gets paid correctly and on time. If lots of employees are forgetting to clock in and out, this makes things a lot more complicated.