As companies continue to navigate the return-to-office (RTO) transition, it has become crucial for employees to comply with the new policies. Non-compliance can lead to negative consequences, including job loss, reduced bonuses, and salary reductions. To shed light on how companies are tracking office attendance and enforcing compliance, ResumeBuilder.com conducted a survey of 800 business leaders from organizations where remote work is feasible.

The Survey's Key Findings: 

• 91% of companies will require employees to come into the office at least once a month, with 75% requiring weekly office attendance
• 95% of companies surveyed stated that employees will face consequences if they fail to comply with RTO policies
• One-third of companies surveyed said that they would not hesitate to terminate employees who consistently fail to adhere to office attendance requirements.
• The companies that will enforce office attendance at least once a month, 88% will definitely (70%) or probably (18%) track attendance.

Currently, 79% of companies are already tracking employee office attendance. The most common method used is badge swipes (58%). Other methods companies plan to use include manual tracking (50%), Wi-Fi (50%), occupancy sensors (43%), and under desk sensors (38%).

While badge card swipes are the preferred method for tracking attendance, they only record entries into the office and not early exits. Swipe card door entry data can show how frequently staff are attending the office, but it can’t record how long employees were in the office and when they exited.

Return to the Office (RTO) Policies

The survey indicates a growing emphasis on ensuring employees are physically present in the office. Companies implementing RTO policies believe that they positively impact productivity (76%), improve company culture (63%), and enhance employee satisfaction. Additionally, 29% of business leaders stated that working from the office helps reduce burnout. To encourage compliance, 91% of companies plan to provide incentives for employees to come into the office.

Employees will face consequences if they fail to comply with RTO policies. These consequences can range from job termination to impacts on bonuses and benefits. The primary driver behind these policies is the belief that working from the office enhances productivity. Acceptable reasons for not coming to the office include limited site capacity, business travel, annual leave, sick leave, medical reasons, and those who have official flexible working arrangements or part-time employment.

Analytics for Return-to-Office Attendance

There are tangible benefits to tracking and analyzing attendance data to gain better insights into employees' office interactions, their timings, and the reasons behind their attendance patterns. Leveraging this data presents an opportunity to proactively enhance the workplace experience, thereby fostering a more conducive and engaging work environment.

Among its features, reports allow administrators to obtain a comprehensive list of individuals present at the office within a specified location on a particular day or timeframe. Additionally, reports provide valuable insights into metrics such as no-shows and average time to check-in.

As you fine-tune your return-to-office (RTO) strategies, it’s important to take an experimental approach and analyze how you’re doing. Here are return-to-office analytics you need to improve your RTO strategies:

Percentage of Employees Attending the Office

Tracking employee attendance rates over time is crucial for measuring your RTO success. Once you have this data as a baseline, you can test out new RTO tactics to see how they affect your attendance rates week-over-week and month-over-month. Look for trends such as busier days compared to others and variations in office attendance among different teams. These insights will help you understand how employees utilize the workplace and allow you to optimize your RTO tactics accordingly. For example, you may discover that certain teams prefer to work in the office on less busy days, allowing you to encourage them to come in on those specific days.

Employees' Average Number of Days in Office vs. Working From Home

Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide valuable insights into the overall office attendance and the balance between in-office and remote work. By tracking the percentage of employees attending the office and comparing it to the average number of days spent working from home, you can assess the effectiveness of your RTO strategies.

This data will help you identify any gaps or areas for improvement, allowing you to make informed decisions and adjustments to optimize workplace attendance. By leveraging return-to-office analytics, you can continuously improve your RTO strategies, enhance workplace attendance, and create a more productive and engaging work environment. Tracking and analyzing office attendance data empowers you to make data-driven decisions, optimize resource allocation, and foster a positive workplace experience for your employees.

Remember, the key to successful RTO strategies lies in continuously monitoring and analyzing the data, adapting to changing circumstances, and prioritizing employee well-being and productivity.

Tracking Office Attendance

Managing employee attendance can be a challenging task, especially when it comes to ensuring compliance with Return to Office (RTO) policies. However, there are effective solutions available that can help you track and manage office attendance efficiently. By implementing a robust time and attendance system, you can reduce the administrative burden and mitigate the risks associated with non-compliance. Such a system allows you to accurately monitor employee arrival and departure times, ensuring that they are adhering to the RTO policies set by your organization.

There are several methods available to effectively track employee attendance in the office. Let's explore some solutions to ensure accurate and streamlined attendance management:

1. Time and Attendance Software: 
   Invest in a reliable time and attendance software that allows employees to clock in and out electronically. This system automatically records the time and duration of their presence in the office, eliminating the need for manual record-keeping. It also provides accurate data for payroll calculations and generates comprehensive reports for management analysis.
    
2. Biometric Time Clocks:
   Biometric time clocks use unique biological features like fingerprints, facial recognition, or iris scans to identify employees when they arrive and leave the office. This advanced technology ensures that attendance records are accurate, eliminates the possibility of buddy punching, and provides a high level of security.
    
3. RFID Badges or Proximity Cards:
   RFID badges or proximity cards can be issued to employees to track their attendance. These cards are easily swiped or tapped on dedicated card readers located at entry and exit points. This method is convenient and minimizes manual errors in attendance tracking. By implementing these solutions, businesses can effectively track employee attendance, minimize time theft or buddy punching, and generate accurate reports for efficient payroll management.
    
4. Mobile Apps:
   Implementing mobile attendance tracking apps enables employees to log their attendance using their smartphones. These apps use GPS and geolocation technologies to verify an employee's presence in the office location. They also provide flexibility for remote or field-based employees to track their attendance accurately.

PayClock Mobile App

To effectively track office attendance and ensure compliance with RTO policies for both exempt and non-exempt employees, we recommend utilizing the PayClock mobile app. This app is provided for free with the PayClock online employee time clock system, offering a flexible and seamless solution for time and attendance tracking.

PayClock offers a unified platform, streamlining time and attendance processes with precision, offering a cohesive solution to enhance compliance and efficiency. Real-time data synchronization ensures accurate attendance tracking across diverse work environments. With PayClock, accurate time punches are captured, ensuring seamless adherence to RTO guidelines and bolstering operational productivity. Automatic data consolidation from physical and mobile time clocks enables a comprehensive view of employee attendance, enriching decision-making processes.

The PayClock mobile app is compatible with Apple iOS smartphones, iPads, and Android devices, providing complete functionality for both employees and managers. Even employees working remotely or in the field can easily track their time using the app. Clocking in and out has never been easier, right from their smartphones.

Concerned about tracking employees in different locations? Don't worry. The PayClock app allows you to configure settings so that employees can only record punches if their smartphones have GPS location recording enabled. The GPS coordinates are then seamlessly sent to PayClock online, allowing you to review when and where employees clock in and out. The PayClock software even showcases the identification of the device, the geographic area of the employee's time punch, and the accuracy radius using Microsoft maps.

Customizable settings on PayClock ensure employees' location data is verifiable, enhancing accountability and supporting precise compliance with RTO policies.

For employees working at your facility, they can still use a Lathem physical time clock to record punches. The PayClock mobile app, online software, and time clocks work together to share data, ensuring accurate and accessible information.

The PayClock mobile app offers powerful tools for managers and administrators as well. With PayClock’s mobile app, managers can verify attendance and resolve discrepancies, ensuring a seamless RTO experience from any location.

Managers can easily manage and edit employee time cards, view in and out status, check benefit time totals, and approve or deny time-off requests with just a few clicks. Real-time management allows you to handle your workforce's time and attendance from anywhere, at any time, resulting in faster and easier payroll preparation.

Easier Tracking of Employee Attendance for Return to the Office Compliance

In conclusion, tracking office attendance and ensuring compliance with RTO policies is crucial for businesses in 2024. By utilizing a complete system like PayClock online software, time clocks and free mobile smartphone apps, companies can streamline time and attendance tracking, promote compliance, and empower their workforce with real-time management capabilities. This ultimately leads to improved productivity, enhanced company culture, and increased employee satisfaction.

When it comes to tracking employee time, companies now have a lot of options to choose from. The most popular methods of employee time tracking include online time clock systems, biometrics, apps, and badge systems. Each system offers its own set of features and capabilities, allowing companies to tailor their time tracking solution to their specific needs.

When choosing an employee time clock system, the most important feature to consider is how accurately it tracks employee time. Systems that use biometrics, like fingerprint scanning or facial recognition, are the most accurate and secure.

Biometric Employee Time Clocks

Biometrics are becoming increasingly popular for employee time tracking, as they now are affordable and provide a layer of security and accuracy that traditional time tracking methods can’t match.

Biometric systems use physical characteristics such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or iris recognition to identify employees and accurately record the times they start and end their shifts. These systems prevent employees from clocking in or out more than once, stealing time from the company, or claiming hours they didn’t work.

When looking for an employee time clock system, consider the features that will be most beneficial to your business. Think about how many employees and locations you need to track, the types of integrations you may need, and any special features that could be useful. Also, make sure the system is easy to use and offers reliable customer service and technical support. By taking the time to carefully evaluate time clock systems, you can find the one that is best suited for your business.

Biometrics, such as fingerprint scanning or facial recognition, can be used to further secure the accuracy of time tracking and help prevent employee time theft. Lathem's PayClock facial recognition employee time clock system is an advanced biometrics system designed to accurately track employee time and attendance and increase the security of a company's payroll system. The system works by scanning an employee's face and verifying their identity based facial features using 3D camera technology. A dual camera system performs a 3-D analysis of the 60 facial points that are unique to each employee, so the PayClock FaceIN time clock system completely eliminates employee buddy punching that leads to higher labor costs

An employee's facial data is collected only as digitally encoded information, so they cannot be reproduced as a photographic image. It helps to speed up the time tracking process and reduce the risks of employee time theft. Because it can be contactless, a facial recognition time clock is a more hygienic method for employees to record their time helping to reduce exposure to germs & viruses when the workforce shares a device for time tracking.

The system is also easy to set up and use, with a simple, intuitive interface and a range of customization options to meet the needs of any business. Employers can choose to have the system generate reports and alerts, such as overtime notifications, late arrivals, and missed punches, to help them manage their employee time tracking more effectively.

Using biometrics for time tracking also eliminates the need for paper timesheets or manual calculations. This reduces the chances for human error and makes it easier for managers to track hours worked, manage overtime, and record attendance. Biometrics can be used in conjunction with other time tracking methods like online systems, apps, and badge systems, making it easy to tailor time tracking solutions to meet specific needs.

Proximity Badge Card Time Clocks

Proximity card time clocks are a type of employee time clock that require employees to swipe a card or badge to clock in and out. These time clocks are designed to be secure and accurate, and they provide businesses with an efficient way to track employee hours and attendance.

Proximity card time clocks are beneficial for businesses that need to ensure that employees are paid accurately and reduce the potential for employee time theft. Additionally, these time clocks are easy to use and require minimal training for employees.

Mobile Time Clock Apps

Mobile time clock apps are a type of employee time clock that allow employees to clock in and out from their mobile devices. These apps are designed to be secure and accurate, and they provide businesses with an efficient way to track employee hours and attendance.

Mobile time clock apps are beneficial for businesses that need to ensure that employees are paid accurately and reduce the potential for employee time theft. Additionally, these apps are easy to use and require minimal training for employees. They also provide businesses with the ability to track employee time and attendance from anywhere, making them a great option for businesses with remote or mobile employees.

A time clock app can be installed on a mobile phone to record time worked. This is a great option for businesses with employees who are often out of the office. Mobile time tracking systems can help managers keep track of hours worked and manage overtime. In addition to calculating wages for each employee there are also calculators available to help calculate overtime allowances, holidays and other deductions.

It’s important to select a system that can be accessed both in and out of the office and that integrates with existing payroll systems.

Time Clocks with Online Time and Attendance Software

Time and attendance software is a type of software that accompanies time clocks to help companies track and manage employee attendance and time worked. Time clock systems are connected to computers allowing employers to quickly and easily keep track of employee hours.

Time and attendance software provides a comprehensive set of tools to help employers manage employee scheduling, time off requests, and other aspects of payroll. It also helps employers keep accurate records of hours worked, as well as overtime and other deductions. Additionally, most systems offer managers the ability to set shift schedules, overtime rules, and other aspects of employee time tracking. With a few clicks of the mouse, managers can easily manage and track time for their entire staff. This can be a great time saver for companies. It is important to choose a system that is easy to use and offers the features and capabilities needed for your business.

A time clock system that can use a variety of technologies, such as biometric scanning and badge swiping, to verify employee attendance makes it virtually impossible for employees to manipulate or falsify the time worked.

It can be used to set up time clock rules, such as overtime and shift start/end times, to ensure compliance with labor laws. Time and attendance software can also help employers track employee productivity, as well as other metrics, such as the number of breaks taken, the number of hours worked, and the total time spent on each project. This information can be used to monitor employee performance and identify areas that need improvement. Additionally, time and attendance software can be used to create reports and generate invoices to clients.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Employee Time Clocks

When choosing the right employee time clocks for your business, there are several factors to consider.

First, consider the size of your business and the number of employees you have. This will help you determine the type of time clock that is best suited for your needs. Additionally, consider the features you need, such as the ability to track overtime, manage employee schedules, and generate reports. Finally, consider the cost of the time clock and the ease of installation and maintenance.

Integration with Payroll Applications

When evaluating online time clock systems, there are several features you should look for. First, consider how the system will record and calculate your employees’ hours worked. Will it be able to track overtime and manage attendance? Does it come with a built-in calculator to calculate wages? Will it allow managers to quickly and easily record hours worked? Will it integrate with other accounting software, or will it require separate data entry? Does it allow multiple users in multiple locations to access the same data. These are all important questions to ask to make sure you’re getting the most out of your time clock system.

Usability

It is important to ensure that the employee time clocks are easy to learn and use. This will help ensure that employees are able to quickly and accurately track their hours and attendance. Look for time clocks that provide intuitive user interfaces and clear instructions. This will help ensure that employees are able to quickly learn how to use the time clock and reduce the amount of time spent on training. Finally, consider the availability of customer support and training materials, as this will help ensure that employees are able to quickly and easily get the help they need when using the time clock.

Budget

Creating a budget for employee time clocks is an important step in ensuring that your business is able to save money and maximize efficiency. When preparing a budget for employee time clocks, it is important to consider the cost of the time clock itself, as well as any additional costs associated with installation, maintenance, and training. Additionally, consider the potential cost savings that can be achieved by using employee time clocks, such as reduced payroll costs, improved accuracy, and increased productivity. Finally, consider the long-term cost savings that can be achieved by using employee time clocks, such as reduced employee time theft, improved compliance with labor laws, and improved customer service. By taking the time to create a budget for employee time clocks, businesses can ensure that they are able to save money and maximize efficiency.

PayClock Employee Time Clock System. Time clocks, Online Software, Mobile apps - all in one 

Time clock systems are a great tool to help managers and supervisors keep track of employee attendance and hours worked. With the right system in place, businesses can ensure accurate payroll, reduce time theft, and uphold compliance. Lathem's PayClock employee time clock system comes with a variety of features, such as leave tracking, shift scheduling, automated reminders, and more. PayClock online time and attendance software offers the ability to set up specific rules for various departments or positions, automating time and attendance tracking and it includes integration exports to popular business accounting and HR software, making it easier to  prepare payroll.

When it comes to time clocks, there are a variety of options to choose from. Physical time clocks with biometrics, badges, or key fobs to record hours worked. Look for physical time clocks that can be paired with online time clock software so employee timecard data can be accessed through an online portal or even a mobile phone. 

 

What is Power over Ethernet?

Power over ethernet might seem like a very technical term but it’s actually quite simple. It’s a technology that allows electrical power to be sent to a device through network cables.

Traditionally when we imagine a connected device, we picture two wires - the power chord and the network cable, but with PoE, this isn’t the case. One cable can do both jobs, connecting the device to both the power source and the network data.

This makes life much less complicated and makes it easier to connect devices across a large, dispersed area.

What are the Benefits of Power Over Ethernet Devices

So, we’ve answered the question, “what is power over ethernet,” but what about its benefits? PoE - power over ethernet has a number of advantages over the traditional delivery of power to devices, so let’s take a look at them.

1. Save Time and Money

The first benefit is that power over ethernet devices are very simple, which means setting them up can save time and money. As opposed to electrical cables, network cables don’t require an electrician to fit them and can be placed virtually anywhere. This makes your life easy, allowing you to place connected devices wherever you see fit without having to worry about where the nearest power source is.

When your device uses power over ethernet, your only concern is placing it in the optimal location, you don’t have to worry about access to power.

2. Flexibility

Next up, power over ethernet devices are very flexible

Because they’re not tied to an electrical outlet, you can put them where you want and move them about as necessary. There’s no need to install new electrical outlets if you want to move your device because all you need is the network cable.

If you think about a connected device like a time clock, then this becomes very important. Time clocks are normally placed at the extremities of your building (where you may not have the same convenient access to electrical power), and you may want to experiment with placements.

This would be difficult to do with a traditional time clock, but with the added flexibility of power over ethernet, it’s no problem at all.

3. Scalability

When you have this level of flexibility and the ability to quickly and cheaply install new devices, your operations become much more scalable. You can easily add and remove devices as your business needs them.

For example, for a seasonal business, you might want to add extra time clocks as you take on more staff. With PoE, this is much easier to do because you don’t have the additional worry of sorting out electrics.

Essentially, one wire is much easier to work with than two, which means you can add interconnected devices as and when you need them.

4. Safety

Power over ethernet has been designed specifically to work with network devices. This means it's optimized to protect equipment from overload, underpowering, and incorrect installation.

Installing electrical outputs is a complicated job that’s reserved for professional electricians, but with power over ethernet, you don’t have to worry about that. Instead, you can simply plug in the ethernet cable and connect your device to power in a safe way.

5. Reliability

If your device is performing a key business function, then you can’t afford for it to lose power periodically. When you use power over ethernet, power comes from one universal source, rather than multiple wall adapters.

This means there’s less to go wrong, less maintenance to worry about, and a lower chance that your device will become disconnected.

Keeping your networks up and running is essential for your business, and power over ethernet can help ensure this happens.

Power Over Ethernet Devices

So, what is power over ethernet used for exactly?

As you might expect, with the added flexibility and convenience, power over ethernet devices are quite common in a business environment. Here are some of the devices you might find use the power of ethernet.

• Employee time clocks
• VoIP phones
• Intercoms and public address systems
• IP cameras
• Intelligent lighting controllers
• LED light fixtures
• Remote point of sale (POS) kiosks
• Network routers
• Wall clocks using Network Time Protocol (NTP)
• And much more…

As you can see, power over ethernet devices are excellent when you need to connect devices over a large distance, and this can see PoE used in many different scenarios

Power Over Ethernet Time Clocks

Another excellent use case of power over ethernet is time clocks.

Modern time clocks are much more than just a machine where employees punch in and out of work; they’re a highly integrated system. With something like PayClock Online, time and attendance time clock system employees can perform a number of tasks (like checking PTO), and their hours are automatically synced to editable timesheets.

To perform these functions, the time clocks need to be connected to other devices, but in many businesses, this poses a logistical problem. Time Clocks tend to be placed at the extremities of a building, often in places where there aren’t existing electrical outlets.

With a power over ethernet employee time clock, that’s not a problem though.

Thanks to the added flexibility of PoE, businesses can put up time clocks wherever they see fit, easily scaling to meet their needs. This makes life much easier for everyone and can help optimize the payroll process.

Now Use Power Over Ethernet to Upgrade Your Business’s Time Tracking

Power over ethernet can be used for many things, but one of the most useful is employee time tracking.

Being able to track and manage employee time is an essential part of any business, and the easiest way to do this is with the right time clocks. Power over ethernet allows you to easily install modern time clocks in the right locations to maximize compliance, making life much easier for administrators.

When you have accurate time data, you can then ensure a much more efficient payroll. This means employees get the correct pay, without delay!

Without good time tracking software, this process becomes much more challenging, so make sure you’re investing in good time clocks.

Power Over Ethernet with Lathem

Power over ethernet is a useful tool that not every business knows about

It’s not feasible to have electricity outlets near every device your business uses, so sometimes you need to look for an alternative option. One of the best ways around this problem is by using power over ethernet, and it also has some helpful benefits.

This allows you to power connected devices without the need for an electrical cord, giving you flexibility while maintaining safety. It’s a win-win, and an excellent solution for things like time clocks.

If you’re looking to update your time tracking hardware and need a PoE clock, then look no further than Lathem. We offer a wide range of ethernet clocks that can streamline your time tracking and make payroll more efficient.

Request a Time Clock System Quote Today!

Employee Absenteeism: What Causes it and How to Address it

Employee absenteeism can cost businesses thousands of dollars a year in lost productivity. By some estimates, unscheduled absenteeism costs roughly $3,600 per year for hourly workers and $2,650 each year for salaried employees. Chronic absenteeism across a team can have a major impact on your business’s bottom line.

Absenteeism in the workplace can often feel difficult to address and manage. But knowing the causes of absenteeism and putting the right tools and strategies in place can help reduce the absenteeism rate and improve overall productivity.

The Negative Effects of Attendance Issues

Employee absenteeism in the workplace comes with a variety of direct and indirect costs.

One of the most obvious costs of excessive absenteeism is lost productivity. When an employee is chronically absent, it disrupts the entire workday. Their work may not be completed by the deadline and it takes time and resources to bring in a replacement. Other team members may need to pick up slack and managers scramble to find a replacement.

Absent employees can also take a toll on employee engagement. When team members are constantly taking time off, it can leave other employees feeling stressed and resentful that they have to do extra work.

Some other costs associated with absenteeism in the workplace include:

● Direct costs of finding a replacement or paying other team members overtime to cover an additional shift or work after hours to make up for lost work.

● Indirect costs of being understaffed or overworking other team members leading to fatigue, low employee morale, which lead to delivering poorer quality goods or services.

● Payroll disruptions caused by chronic absenteeism. Unexpected absences can make this already complicated process more difficult.

● Potential safety issues that arise from understaffed facilities or needing to bring in replacement workers that are not as qualified or familiar with operations.

As you can see, investing in the right absence management solutions can help save your business money in the long run.

What Causes Employee Absenteeism

How to address employee absenteeism starts with understanding why employees call in sick, take time off, or are constantly leaving early. Here are some common causes of absenteeism in the workplace:

Illness

In recent years, illness has been a major cause for employee absenteeism. It likely comes as no surprise that with the COVID-19 pandemic, employee absences from the workplace due to illness has dramatically increased. Even during the typical cold and flu season absences continue to spike.

Employees may take sick leave if they’re ill or if they need to quarantine. While you certainly don’t want sick employees on the job, it’s important to enforce a strict absence policy. Keep the workplace sanitized to ensure employees stay healthy while at work to reduce these absences.

Injury

Similarly, accidents are another main reason for employee absenteeism. An acute injury may cause an employee to take a long leave of absence while a chronic injury may result in an employee taking more sick days throughout the year.

Injuries may also require your employees to have more medical appointments they would need to miss work for.

Mental Health

Mental health issues can also take a toll on employee attendance. In fact, the National Institute of Mental Health reported that one of the leading causes of absenteeism in the United States is depression.

When employees are experiencing depression or anxiety it can affect their ability to complete work. And even if they attend a shift, they may be unable to focus which can result in a poor quality of work.

It’s important to offer your employees support for their mental health issues.

Workplace Harassment or Bullying

When employees feel uncomfortable or unsafe at work, they naturally want to avoid it. They may leave work early to avoid confrontations to call in sick altogether.

It can often be difficult for others to identify the signs of workplace bullying or for team members to articulate if they feel they are being harassed. This is especially true if the harassment is being carried out online or by a manager.

Make sure you can identify the signs of workplace harassment and have steps in place for how to address it. By creating a safe work environment, you can reduce employee absenteeism and turnover.

Job Hunting

Sometimes, unexpected absences are due to your team members' job hunting. Finding a new job can be a long process that, naturally, takes place during the traditional workday. Your employee may unexpectedly take days off for interviews or travel. They may even take a day to work on their resume or meet with a recruiter.

While some turnover in a business is to be expected, if you notice many employees taking sick days and then handing in their notice you may have a problem. Consider improving your employee retention strategy.

Low Employee Engagement

Employee engagement and absenteeism are closely related. According to a recent study by Gallup, engaged employees make it a point to show up to work and do more work. Highly engaged business units experienced an 81% difference in absenteeism and a 14% difference in productivity.

It’s important to ensure employees are engaged while on the job so they show up for their shifts and are efficient.

Childcare or Family Emergencies

Sometimes, the unexpected happens and your employee needs to call in sick. Maybe their child got sick and can’t go to daycare or they need to take their parents to a doctor’s appointment.

One way to reduce these instances of absenteeism is to offer employees the chance to work from home (if possible). More flexible working hours can help your employees plan their day around childcare or family needs while still completing work.

Burnout

Burnout, stress, and overall low morale can also be causing your employees to call in sick. If your employees aren’t feeling like they’re respected or achieving a work-life balance, they may take days off to compensate for it.

Keeping a pulse on how your employees are feeling can help stop burnout before it starts. By emphasizing a work-life balance, you can have a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce while reducing absenteeism.

How to Address Excessive Absenteeism

Knowing how to talk to an employee about excessive absenteeism can be difficult. You don’t want to pry into their personal lives, but you also need to know how you can support them. Absenteeism can come in many different forms. From taking extended lunches and leaving work early to calling in sick often or simply not showing up. If you notice these signs of excessive absenteeism, there are some steps you can take to address it.

Talk to your employee. According to Indeed, one of the first steps you should take is to have a discussion about why they have been calling in or showing up to work late. You can be sympathetic while also emphasizing your absence policy. This conversation may help you understand if an employee is being bullied and what solutions you can offer.

Offer them resources. If your employee is absent often due to a personal issue, you can offer them resources while still respecting their privacy. Make sure they know their healthcare options and wellness programs your organization may offer.

Create a plan for improvement. Come up with a plan for how your employee can improve their attendance. Be clear about timelines and expectations during this part. You may also want to schedule weekly check-ins.

Issue a formal warning. If the excessive absenteeism continues, it’s time to issue a formal warning. Keep this on file and include what the next steps would be if expectations aren’t met.

As a final resort, it may come time to terminate an employee for excessive absenteeism. By following these steps, you can protect your business against any wrongful termination claims.

How to Manage Absenteeism in the Workplace

Managing absenteeism in the workplace can seem daunting but is possible. Here are some easy ways you can manage attendance issues at your business:

Have a Clear Attendance Policy

You should always have an attendance policy in place for all new and current employees. According to Zippia, a solid attendance policy should include guidelines about taking leave, tardiness, and absences. It should also include repercussions for poor attendance.

This policy will set expectations and guide conversations about excessive absenteeism.

Offer Incentives for Good Attendance

Rewarding consistent attendance can have a positive impact on absenteeism rate. Thank employees who are always on time and consider good attendance when it comes time for a raise. Even a simple verbal acknowledgment can go a long way.

Monitor Employee Attendance

The best way to stop excessive absenteeism in the workplace before it starts is by closely and accurately monitoring your employees’ time tracking and attendance. The right time clock solution like PayClock makes it easy for employees to record their time and for managers to monitor attendance.

With a time clock, you can stay on top of your employees' attendance and flag any chronic absences to have a productive conversation with them. Spot employee absenteeism before it becomes excessive with PayClock Online employee time and attendance system.

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.

Time tracking is incredibly important for any business that uses shift patterns, but it’s also a huge hassle. Tracking hours, working out deductions, and scheduling paid time off can be a nightmare. The right time clocks make this process much smoother, making life easier for both employees and managers. Each business is unique though, so you need to find the time clock that best fits your requirements.

What are the Benefits of the Right Time Clock?

Keeping track of employees’ time is incredibly important, especially for businesses that run on shift patterns.

Without the ability to track time accurately, payroll becomes a nightmare, and employees regularly receive late and inaccurate payments. This is the last thing a business wants as it’s going to lead to lower employee morale and higher turnover.

The best time clocks for small businesses quickly solve this problem.

They provide employees with a simple way to clock in and out of work and make it easy for managers to track and adjust employees’ hours. Not only does this keep your employees happy, but it also takes pressure off administrators by automating large parts of the process. As well as automating large parts of the process, it also minimizes the opportunity for human error, resulting in more accurate payroll.

So, the best time clocks for small businesses can have a big impact, but which modes should you be looking at?

The 5 Best Time Clocks for Small Businesses

Every business that employs shift workers needs some form of time clock, the question is, which one is going to provide you with the most value for money?

We’ve compared the different time clock machines for small businesses to find the best option to meet your needs.

1. Proximity Badge Time Clocks

Proximity time clock machines for small businesses are extremely common. Whereas a manual time clock requires the employee to stamp their timecard, a proximity time clock only needs to scan an ID card. As the employee arrives at work, they simply scan their card on the time clock and their start time is logged, they then repeat the process when they leave, and the system logs their total hours for the day.

This option is less-time consuming for employees, and it also offers a lot more automation options.

With the right time clock software (which we’re going to talk about later), proximity time clocks can save administrators a ton of time by syncing each employee’s hours to your payroll software.

Proximity time clocks balance affordability with automation and are certainly one of the best time clocks for small businesses.

2. Biometric Time Clocks

Biometric time clocks are a little bit more expensive than proximity time clocks but they do have some big advantages.

A biometric time clock uses the employee’s unique biometric identifiers (normally fingerprint or face ID) to clock them in and out of work. Not only does this make it easier for employees to clock in (you can forget an ID card but not your fingerprint), but it also cuts down on time buddy punching.

Buddy punching is when an employee gets a buddy to punch in for them when they’re not actually at work. This is possible with manual and proximity time clocks, but it’s virtually impossible to do with a biometric time clock.

This makes biometric time clocks a popular option for modern businesses as they’re highly efficient.

3. PC based Web Punch Time Clocking

With the best PC based kiosk type time clocking and web punch portal, employees have access to a variety of essential functions. They can clock in and out; make department transfers; view schedules; view their benefit time balances; review punches by day and total time worked by pay period; and even make time off requests.

Employee managers can view a list of employees with current In / Out status; view punch times for employee; add or delete punches on employee timecards; review employee PTO balances; approve or deny time off requests; run reports; view and edit employee schedules and more.

4. App-Based Time Clocks

Rather than employees having to navigate to a web page to clock in and out of work, they simply have to open the mobile app on their smartphones. The app will make use of the employees’ smartphone GPS geolocation function to verify clock-ins and ensure location authenticity.

This is particularly useful for businesses where employees work from home or are often out on the road. Using geolocation, the software can ensure employees are in the right place at the right time and make sure they are accurately reimbursed for their work.

5. PayClock Time Clock System

The best employee time clock system uses cloud-based employee attendance time-tracking software. It automates large parts of your system, making it easy to manage employee time and sync hours to payroll systems like Quickbooks and ADP.

A PayClock time and attendance software system lets you use any of the best time time clock options for small business. Your business can use proximity badge time clocks, biometric time clocks, PC based time clocking, Smartphone app based time clocks, or all of these time clock methods combined.

Using these time clock methods together, employees can review their time, paid time off (PTO) totals and other information on the physical time clocks, as well as on the PC based web portal or even mobile smartphone apps! They can see their own time information without asking managers or HR how much time they’ve worked for the pay period.

PayClock online software automatically polls the clock and seamlessly transfers employee punch data into the time clock software. Data are updated in real-time to and from the time clock. This makes it easy for both employees and managers to get the most up-to-date information at any time. From there, payroll administrators can view, edit, create reports, and integrate the data with their payroll system.

FAQs: Best Time Clocks for Small Businesses

Still have questions about finding the best small business time clock for your needs? Here are some other things to consider:

Do businesses still use time clocks? Yes, businesses still use time clocks, but they have become a lot more sophisticated. While you do still see manual time clocks, many of the best time clocks for small businesses are now web or app-based, allowing employees to clock in and out on the go. 

What is a good time clock? A good time clock should make it convenient for employees to clock in and out, but also automate large parts of the process. The best time clocks for convenience are biometric time clocks that allow employees to clock in and out online or through an app. 

How do small businesses keep track of employee hours? Small businesses keep track of employee hours using time clocks. Employees clock in and out using the time clock (either a physical one or through an app) and the information is automatically synced to a timesheet, ready to be processed. Once verified the hours can then be automatically sent to payroll so employees get paid accurately. 

What is the best time clock app for small businesses? The best time clock app for small businesses is PayClock Online from Lathem. It makes time tracking effortless, giving your employees different ways to clock in and out, and making life simple for administrators. 

Does QuickBooks have a time clock? QuickBooks offers its own basic time clock app for onsite employees, but there are also more complete options that integrate with QuickBooks such as TimeClock Online by Lathem.

Choosing the Best Time Clock for Small Businesses

Every business will have slightly different needs.

A company with a handful of office-based employees faces different challenges from one with hundreds of employees spread out all over the place, and time clocks reflect this.

No matter how your business runs, Lathem offers a time clock to fit your needs. We’ll walk you through every step of the process, and help make sure your time clock system is meeting your every need.

 

Stated plainly, both time and attendance and payroll management are high-stakes, highly complex endeavors that require attention, focus, and expertise. The professionals who dedicate themselves to these critical tasks are often the unsung heroes of the finance and HR communities, deserving of the support and resources necessary to make their tasks easier, faster, and automated.

Payroll Challenges

Payroll processing complexities don’t end once the hours and calculations are passed to payroll. In fact, there’s a whole new set of challenges that come into play.

Tax withholding

In addition to accurately capturing and applying withholding levels as defined by each employee when they join the company, employers must also keep pace with a constantly changing regulatory landscape at the federal, state, and even local level.

Where an employee lives and works can significantly impact how they are taxed, and with the number of remote workers and “deskless employees” on the rise, even minor missteps can have pricey consequences for employees and employers alike.

Regulatory compliance

Compliance also represents a significant challenge for many employers, particularly complying with some of the less common policies, like applying minimum wage credits for those workers who fall below the defined amount for their location.

Another area that creates headwinds for even the most seasoned payroll professional is calculating an employee’s disposable income to determine what wages are subject to (and exempt from) garnishment.

Even more challenging is that regulations and policies change with surprising regularity, meaning your teams need to stay in the know or risk falling out of compliance.

Forms handling

Forms handling including year-end form processing for employees and quarterly and annual tax filing to the government – represents a significant time sink and substantial manual effort for any employer. As your business grows, the size and importance of this task grows right along with it. With deadlines and all the more strategic pursuits your team needs to address to remain competitive, handling tax forms alone can place a significant drain on your already overworked internal teams.

Whether employees prefer paper-based forms or electronic forms that can be accessed and downloaded via the web, as an employer, it’s incumbent upon you to ensure everything is handled completely, accurately, and promptly.

Employee satisfaction and engagement

The satisfaction of your employees relies increasingly on payroll accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. With 87% of Americans experiencing inflation-related anxiety, 68% of workers indicating they don’t have enough money set aside for emergencies, and 64% of workers stating they live paycheck-to-paycheck, there’s little room for error.

If payroll errors are made, they need to be corrected – quickly – or your employee and your brand could suffer a considerable setback. The negative impact on your business is amplified in a labor market dominated by headlines of worker shortages and record-high unwanted attrition.

The Critical Link Between Time, Attendance, and Payroll

As an employer, “getting the paycheck right” has never been more important. And to deliver on that promise – week after week – you need to make sure that your time and attendance, payroll, and tax withholding processes are automated, accurate, and complete.

We've put together an educational webinar to help you better understand how these practices are aligned and highlight the benefits of “leveling up” your payroll and time-and-attendance practices.

Lathem and Greenshades, a leading provider of automated payroll, HR, and tax compliance solutions - are teaming up to bring you Accuracy Counts: The Critical Links Between Time, Attendance, and Payroll.

Webinar: The Critical Links Between Time, Attendance, and Payroll.

Join us on Thursday, October 6, 2022. The webinar kicks off at 1:00 pm EST. 

We will unpack some of the topics we’ve covered in this post, including:

• Key contributors to payroll and time capture errors
• Best practices for mitigating those errors
• How to use both time & attendance and payroll solutions to simply complexities and overcome payroll challenges

Get the Recap & Replay Now

 

About Greenshades Software

Since 2002, Greenshades has been singularly devoted to helping hardworking companies fulfill the promises they make to their employees. With intuitive technology and best-in-class customer support, Greenshades empowers Payroll and HR departments to give their teams everything they need to thrive. Delivering accurate payroll, proactive compliance, automated tax calculations, and robust employee engagement through one powerful platform supported by world-class customer care.

 

About Lathem Time

Lathem offers innovative technology that is easy-to-use, reliable, and designed with over 100 years of industry expertise. Over 1 million companies have relied on a Lathem solution to track their employees' time for payroll. From cloud-based software to mobile apps and biometric face recognition technology, every Lathem product is backed by an industry leading US-based customer service team that average an astounding 18 years of service. Many have tenures of more than 30 years. This commitment is evidenced in every product that carries the Lathem name. Family values, pride of craftsmanship and attention to detail are at the core of Lathem's culture.

No matter if you have one employee or a hundred, it’s important to know how to calculate PTO accrual. There will inevitably be a time when your employees need a day off. Whether it’s for a vacation, sick day, or family emergency, it’s important to have a policy in place for employees to use their paid time off at their discretion.

Of course, calculating PTO is easier said than done. Especially if your business offers a PTO accrual. Read on to learn more about the different types of PTO policies and how a PTO accrual calculator can help you easily manage paid time off for all your employees.

Types of PTO Policies

First things first: when it comes to understanding how to calculate PTO, you need to define your business’s PTO policy. The Balance explains that a paid time off policy combines vacation, sick time, and personal time into a single bank of days for employees to use when they take paid time off from work.

There are three popular options to choose from, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:

Annual Allotment

Also known as a lump sum PTO policy, this strategy is as straightforward as it sounds. Essentially, employees are given all of their PTO days upfront to use throughout the year. At the end of the period, their unused days may expire or a portion may roll over into the next year. The period may be the start of the calendar year or the employee’s start date.

Each year of employment, employees may have a day or two added to their annual allotment. This strategy gives employees more flexibility for how and when to use their PTO and can also be used as an incentive or method for employee retention. Plus, the PTO balance is easy to calculate since it’s a lump sum. For instance, a new employee may start with a total amount of 40 hours per year of PTO.

The downside is that employees can truly use their PTO whenever they wish, which can leave your team in a lurch. Many employees may also try to use up their PTO before they leave the company, which isn’t beneficial to the transition process.

Unlimited PTO

Offering an unlimited amount of PTO is slowly gaining popularity in the corporate world. However, the Society for Human Resource Management explains that paid open or unlimited leave is still the least popular PTO policy. According to the most recent numbers, only 6% of companies indicated they offered this benefit.

Unlimited PTO can be a great tool to use for recruitment and makes it easy to calculate PTO time. But it also has its drawbacks.

According to Zenefits, the lack of a specific allotment of vacation days means there is no policy to encourage time away from the office. This leaves the potential for employees to be chastised for taking their vacation days. At the same time, there may be employees who take too much advantage of this policy.

Accrued PTO

One of the most popular PTO policies continues to be accrued. This strategy involves calculating PTO balances based on the number of hours worked or a quarterly or monthly accrual period. There’s no rollover policy like for a lump sum, but there are still some rules in place like a maximum amount of PTO an employee can accrue.

This remains one of the best ways for large and small businesses to offer PTO. While it can be slightly more difficult to calculate a PTO accrual rate, it’s a great way to accurately reflect the amount of work employees put into your business

What makes this type of PTO policy more complicated is that there are also different types of PTO accrual. Here are a variety of accrual types and their nuances:

Accrual by Week

This strategy is helpful if you have employees who consistently work eight-hour days. For this calculation, a full day’s work is the foundation of the formula. PTO may also be accrued by week, though this is more beneficial for full-time employees on a consistent work schedule.

Accrual by Pay Period

This method is best for employees on a bi-weekly payment schedule. This way, they can see how their time off is accrued in bulk.

While the best PTO accrual method depends on your business needs, most stick to accrual by hours worked.

How to Calculate Accrued PTO

Calculating accrued PTO can sound complicated, but there’s a simple formula you can typically follow. The experts at Indeed provide three steps to calculate accrued PTO for your team:

1. Set Your Accrued PTO Limit

What is the PTO limit for your employees? This can vary depending on seniority. For instance, new hires may be able to accrue 10 days of PTO a year, while a more senior team member may be able to earn 20.

This helps you determine the total number of hours an employee can accumulate during the course of the year.

2. Divide Annual Hours by Pay Period

Next, calculate the number of hours an employee can accumulate during each pay period. This is either 12 if your employees are paid monthly or 24 if paid twice a month.

For instance, an employee who receives 15 days off per year can accrue 120 hours of PTO annually because 15 (days) x 8 (hours worked in a day): 120 hours. If they are paid twice a month, divide 120 by 24, which means they will accumulate five hours of PTO each pay period.

3. Multiply the Number of Hours Worked by Pay Period PTO

To calculate the amount of time an employee has accumulated, you need to multiply the amount of time that they accrue in each pay period and multiply that by the total amount of hours worked.

As you can imagine, completing this formula for dozens of employees can be time consuming. It can also be further complicated if you have a mix of full-time and part-time employees who may not all work 40 hours a week consistently.

That’s why many businesses turn to an accrued PTO calculator to help.

Benefits of Using a PTO Accrual Calculator

A PTO accrual calculator based on hours worked is the most accurate way to track employee time and determine their PTO accrual rate. A PTO rate calculator can help your business:

Save Time

Don’t be bogged down by spreadsheets or complicated calculations again. A PTO accrual calculator takes your employees’ information (hours worked, PTO limit, and pay period) to easily determine how much PTO they have accrued.

This saves you time to focus on important tasks that improve your business’s bottom line.

Improve Employee Satisfaction

PTO policies are incredibly important to your employees. Many times, potential hires look at these benefits before making their final decision. A PTO rate calculator eliminates human error that can occur when calculating accrued PTO and the frustration that comes with it.

You and your employees can have the peace of mind that their PTO is always being calculated correctly with a PTO calculator.

Be Transparent With Employees

The right PTO accrual calculator gives your employees more transparency into their accrued time off. When your employees have access to the calculator, they can easily check their PTO balance no matter where they are. This puts them in control of their schedule and gives them a better understanding of their accrual rate.

Customize Accrual Rates

Do you employ both salaried and hourly employees? PTO for hourly employees may be different for your salaried employees. A PTO accrual calculator can help you determine accrual rates for all of your employees regardless of their seniority or category of employment.

If an employee’s status changes, like if they earned more annual PTO as part of their raise, this can easily be updated and reflected in the calculator.

PayClock Online Time Clock With Free PTO Accrual Calculator

When you need an intuitive, adaptive PTO calculator, you can trust Lathem. PayClock Online Time Clock is the solution that makes employee time tracking a breeze, including tracking PTO.

As soon as employees clock out, information about their shifts will be synced to a timesheet which can be accessed by employees and managers through an employee portal. This gives them an accurate picture of how many hours worked in addition to accrued PTO.

The time tracking reporting software includes a free PTO accrual calculator that can help your business automate this tedious process. Additionally, it can identify hours worked, calculate full and part-time status, seasonal work, and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees.

PayClock Online reports can be accessed anywhere you are. Employees can view their records including PTO from anywhere they are, on any device, with the touch of a screen.

Learn more about PayClock Online Time Clock software and its included PTO accrual calculator today!

According to Gallup, many remote-capable employees continue to work from home at least part of the time, with 42% having a hybrid schedule, and 39% working entirely from home. Then there are positions where attendance is a must, like construction, packaging, and more. With more diversity in where employees can work comes new challenges for time tracking.

Luckily, there are technologies and time tracking methods that can help perfect your strategy.

The Importance of Time Tracking at Work

Having a time tracking system at work can sound like a large undertaking at first. But the benefits of investing in a timekeeping system far outweigh any of the initial reservations.

Here are a handful of the reasons why it’s important to utilize time and attendance software in the workplace:

Improve productivity

When team members tracking their hours worked, it can have positive effects on their productivity. According to a recent article by Forbes, by working to improve time management, there can be a substantial improvement in productivity and, more importantly, a reduction in stress levels.

By logging time, employees can understand their own productivity and so can their managers. They can work together to create schedules that work best for them and areas that could be potential time wasters.

All in all, time tracking software can help businesses improve productivity across the board.

Eliminate employee time theft

Time theft is one of the largest problems facing modern businesses. It can include accidental time theft like time calculation errors to more blatant examples of theft such as buddy punching.

Even a few misrepresented minutes on an employee time sheet can cost your business a lot of money in the long run. An automated time tracking tool can help stop time-breakers in their tracks and eliminates the common mistakes caused by manual time cards and reporting.

Streamline operations

The right time tracker can help your business streamline more than just attendance tracking. By integrating time tracking data with other solutions, your business can also streamline other essential operations such as scheduling and even payroll.

Ensure compliance

The Department of Labor outlines many rules when it comes to tracking the working time of employees. From keeping records on hand to properly calculating overtime pay, it’s important to remain in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Following employee time tracking best practices can help ensure compliance with wage and hour laws to avoid costly fines and frustrated team members.

Creating a Time Tracking Policy

Before implementing any employee timekeeping best practices, the first thing your business needs to do is create a time tracking policy. This will be the foundation of your time tracking system and can include the time tracking best practices.

Remember that it’s not enough to simply ask employees to use a time clock to record hours. A clear clocking in and out policy encourages employees to use the system properly to achieve the most benefits.

Some things to include in a time tracking policy include:

• When employees can and should clock in and out 
• Who is authorized to track time spent at work 
• How time is being calculated

Time Tracking Methods to Consider

Time tracking best practices can depend on the type of timekeeping system your business chooses to utilize. Since time tracking has been around for decades, there are many methods to choose from each with their own pros and cons.

Here are a few time tracking methods:

• Paper: Believe it or not, some businesses still utilize a traditional physical timesheet to track employee time. However, this method is outdated, time consuming, and a security risk.


• Spreadsheets: A step up from paper, some managers use spreadsheets to track employee time. This still requires manual data entry and room for human error.


• Employee Time Clock: A better way to track employee hours is through a physical employee time clock. An employee time clock placed in a fixed location, like a break room or building entrance, ensures consistent recording of employee time punches in real time.


• Mobile Apps: This is one of the most convenient ways to track employee time, especially if you manage a remote or hybrid workforce. GPS tracking can also be implemented to ensure employees are working where they’re supposed to be.


• Biometric Time Clocks: A biometric time clock uses your unique biometric features to identify you and clock you in and out of work. They are the best way to eliminate issues like buddy punching and there are a variety of biometric time clocks to choose from.

An employee time clock is the most efficient way to track employee time. The exact time clock and software you choose to use depends on your business needs and budget.

Time Tracking Best Practices

With all of this in mind, it’s time to learn more about the employee timekeeping best practices your business should be using.

1. Keep it standardized and simple

There’s nothing worse than an overcomplicated time tracking system. Regardless of the time tracking method you implement, you should ensure it’s standardized and simple for your team to use. This can help your employees learn the system faster and reduce any inconsistencies down the line.

Making sure your time tracking system is standardized helps your employees feel like they’re on an even playing field.

2. Start with a pilot program

With a new workflow always comes a learning curve. If your team is new to time tracking or utilizing a time clock, it’s important to introduce the new process slowly. Even though most time clocks are intuitive, you don’t want to introduce new rules overnight.

Allow for a pilot program and give employees grace if they forget to track time or make a mistake. This time period is all about creating new habits (clocking in and out on time). Alternatively, you can opt for a time clock system that sends reminders to help with this transition.

3. Educate employees

Training employees and managers on how to use the time clock is paramount. Even if it’s as easy as a fingerprint scan, training can help everyone feel comfortable with a new process. As you educate employees about how to use the system you can also emphasize the importance of time tracking and its benefit to increase engagement.

4. Choose which activities to track

One of the most important time tracking best practices is determining which activities employees should track time for. Are employees simply clocking in and out for the day, and consider if they need to clock out for breaks.

Or, if you’re keeping more detailed employee timekeeping records consider tracking both billable and nonbillable hours. This can help provide a holistic view of your team's productivity.

5. Avoid micromanaging

Time tracking methods give managers an overview of their team's time. But it’s important not to use this tool to micromanage. Forbes recommends training your managers on privacy matters and knowing when to be lenient about things like emergencies that could affect an employee’s timekeeping for the day.

6. Use positive reinforcement

The best way to get your team to properly engage with time tracking is through positive reinforcement. Instead of punishing mistakes, make sure to send warnings and conduct training. Always lead by example and reward employees who do follow time tracking policies.

7. Maintain trust with your team

Time tracking should never feel like an invasion of your team’s privacy. While your time tracking policy is important, it should also be flexible and managers should understand emergencies happen and employees may not be able to track every minute of their day.

8. Have the right access security in place

Make sure the right people can access the right solutions. Employees should be able to track their time (and not be able to buddy punch). At the same time, managers should be able to access more employee information necessary for scheduling, payroll, and more. This data should be accessible yet secure.

9. Leverage time clock data

Don’t let your employee work data be stagnant. Use the data from your employee time tracking to make strategic decisions for your business. Maybe this means hiring more staff to reduce the need for overtime or allowing for flexible schedules so employees can work when they’re the most productive.

10. Choose the right time clock for your team

Finally, remember that not all time clocks are created equal. An important time tracking best practice is to choose a time clock that works for your business (including your team and your budget). Don’t simply invest in the first time clock or the most expensive option you see.

Here are some things to consider when choosing a time clock system for your organization.

When you’re ready to implement the best employee timekeeping system, work with Lathem. Learn more about our time clock systems today.

Staffing agencies help support a variety of industries and professions by connecting qualified applicants with jobs. From recruitment agencies to temporary staffing agencies, many businesses rely on their services to find candidates.

Of course, a staffing agency is also a business in and of itself. This means it also relies on a variety of technologies and software solutions to operate efficiently. Read on to learn more about the best software for staffing agencies that can help you operate your business seamlessly.

What are Staffing Software Solutions?

Essentially, staffing technology and software is used by temp staffing agencies and recruiters to help them do their job. This can include essential operations such as payroll billing and scheduling, to more niche activities like sourcing, managing, and tracking candidates.

Every industry uses software to help create more efficient workflows. In the staffing industry, these solutions tend to be more focused on the recruitment and hiring process.

Some of the benefits of utilizing software for staffing agencies includes:

• Streamlined workflows 
• Increased productivity 
• Simplified decision making 
• Enhanced customer service and experience

7 Staffing Company Software Solutions You Should Have

While the best software for staffing agencies will differ depending on the needs of your business, these standard staffing software solutions are something every agency can benefit from.

1. Applicant Tracking System

Perhaps one of the most important staffing software solutions is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Temp agencies and staffing agencies must create an efficient recruitment process for their clients. The right ATS creates a hub for all applicant information throughout the hiring pipeline.

An Applicant Tracking System can help staffing agencies organize and analyze their database of applicants to connect them to the jobs they are most qualified and interested in. Rather than sifting through dozens or hundreds of resumes, easily sort through applications based on candidate experience and interests to streamline the hiring process.

Similarly, an ATS can allow your staffing agency to post on multiple job boards with the click of a button and makes scheduling interviews a breeze. This efficiency creates a positive experience for your clients, especially if they need to fill roles with qualified candidates quickly.

Benefits of using an ATS

• Some of the benefits of using this staffing company software include:
• Streamlining the hiring process and approvals 
• Analyze large groups of applicants at once 
• Easier document management 
• Save time and resources Improve hiring compliance

2. Candidate Relationship Management

Similarly, Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) software is a must for staffing agencies. According to Bullhorn, a popular recruiting CRM provider, this software allows agencies to build and maintain relationships with large pools of candidates and effectively manage the entire recruitment process.

With this software, you can eliminate the need for manual data input and paperwork to streamline processes and better engage with candidates. While this may seem similar to an ATS, it is a very different system. An ATS focuses on workflows behind the recruitment and hiring process, a CRM can assist more with the relationship side of things. Both are equally important, and most staffing agencies utilize these two systems together to create a streamlined and personalized recruitment process.

Note: Many times you can find ATS and CRM solutions bundled. Bullhorn and Zoho Recruit are two popular options for staffing agencies looking to utilize these technologies in tandem.

Benefits of using a CRM system

Here are a handful of the benefits of utilizing a recruitment CRM:

• Improved relationships with candidates 
• Automatic capturing of data 
• Automate manual processes 
• Access important candidate information from anywhere

3. Employee Scheduling

Employee scheduling can be tricky business for staffing agencies, especially those specializing in temporary employees or contractors. In some scenarios, staffing agencies not only connect candidates to jobs but are also tasked with managing their schedules.

In these cases, it’s essential to lean on an employee scheduling solution. Job scheduling and labor allocation are a time-consuming process. Not only does it take a lot of internal resources, but even a small mistake can create a negative client experience and harm the reputation of your agency.

The right temporary staffing agency software for employee scheduling can help you best allocate your greatest resources - your candidates. Create reliable staff scheduling and focus more on building valuable relationships with candidates and clients.

Benefits of using an employee scheduling solution

Some of the ways scheduling software for staffing agencies can be helpful include:

• Improve scheduling communications with candidates 
• Seamlessly assign or reassign jobs to different candidates 
• Reduce human error that can lead to scheduling conflicts 
• Easily schedule invoices

4. Human Resource Management

Human resources and recruitment are two distinct functions. However, they rely on each other to ensure workflows operate smoothly.

Of course, every staffing agency also needs a strong human resource department. Indeed explains that HR professionals are responsible for handling any people-related concerns and needs that arise within an organization. At a staffing agency, they can be responsible for hiring recruiters and keeping detailed employee records. They can also be tasked with benefits administration and ensuring the agency remains compliant with hiring practices and more.

A Human Resource Management (HRM) system can help your HR team improve these processes across the board. It can especially help with keeping documents organized and streamlining the employee lifecycle internally.

Benefits of using an HRM

Some of the ways an agency can can benefit from an HRM solution includes:

• Reduce administrative burden 
• Streamline employee onboarding (of recruiters) 
• Enhance internal communications 
• Improve documentation and security

5. Payroll

Many individuals don’t realize that staffing agencies manage the majority of the paperwork associated with the hiring process. This includes things like contracts, of course, but also payroll tasks and taxes. This is on top of also managing payroll and the benefits administration of internal employees.

Payroll software is essential to help streamline this process while also mitigating human error. There are a variety of staffing software solutions available for payroll processing, and many can automate the process entirely to save your team time and resources.

As a staffing agency, it’s also important to find a payroll solution designed for the staffing industry and that is a fit for your unique needs. For instance, if you specialize in contractors or freelancers rather than full-time employees you need a solution fit for that scenario. Similarly, you should ensure the solution can handle the different federal, state, and local regulations depending on where your business operates.

Benefits of using payroll software

A handful of the benefits of using payroll software as a staffing agency include:

• Automate the entire payroll process 
• Ensure employees and recruits are paid accurately and on time 
• Keep track of legal details i.e. employee classifications 
• Easily organize payroll taxes

6. Communication Management

Communication is important at any business, but is especially essential for staffing agencies. Not only do internal communications need to be efficient, but also communication with candidates and clients should also always be in sync.

While you can utilize messaging tools, you should also consider a communication management software to help. The right solution can not only help your teams stay connected internally and externally, but also seamlessly organize documents to help keep conversations productive.

Rather than rely on paper documents and notes, lean on tools that can keep the digital documents you need on hand for every meeting. This is especially beneficial for recruiters who may be having dozens of conversations a day with different clients and candidates. The right tools can ensure every meeting is an effective one.

Benefits of using communications management software

Having communications management software on hand can help your agency:

• Improve communications with internal and external stakeholders 
• Have more efficient and effective meetings 
• Connect with employees and candidates across the country 
• Organize documents

7. Time Tracking

And last but not least, time tracking software for staffing agencies is a must. In general, time tracking solutions help organizations monitor employee productivity and even help with payroll by accurately tracking hours and overtime worked. In the long-run, this ensures businesses are paying their employees fairly without overpaying them and losing money or underpaying them and incurring penalties.

Time tracking for staffing agencies can be beneficial for both internal and external use. Internally, the right cloud-based solution can help track productivity of your recruiters no matter where they reside. This can help your agency optimize staffing while streamlining payroll.

Externally, this solution can also be used to track the time of candidates. Your team can ensure your hires are being productive and adding value to the organizations that need them the most. This is the best way to keep track of your workforce even if they’re spread across multiple locations.

Benefits of using time tracking software

Here are just a few of the benefits of using time tracking software at an agency:

• Control overtime costs 
• Improve employee productivity 
• Optimize your workforce and resources 
• Eliminate employee time theft

Lathem Time Tracking for Staffing Agencies

PayClock Online is web-based time clock software so you have the ability to manage employee time and attendance from any location and at any time. While this is helpful for every business, it’s especially beneficial for staffing agencies working with teams spread across the country.

When you need time tracking software for your staffing agency Lathem has you covered. Get a quote today.

In the United States, the workforce is always experiencing change. Whether it’s due to unforeseen circumstances like a global pandemic or predictable cycles like seasonal work, there’s always an ebb and flow that comes with employment on a national scale.

This is especially true when looking at the numbers for hourly employees. According to the most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were an estimated 73.3 million workers age 16 and older in the United States paid at hourly rates in 2020. Hiring hourly employees is beneficial to many businesses, but also comes with unique challenges - like figuring out PTO.

Salaried vs. Hourly

To understand how PTO works for part-time and full-time hourly employees, it’s important to know the difference between full-time, salaried employees and hourly workers.

Of course, the biggest distinction between these two categories of employment is the number of hours worked in a week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies anyone who works more than 35 hours a week as a full-time employee. Anyone who works less than that is identified as a part-time employee.

This employee classification is important because full-time employees are often entitled to more benefits, like insurance. Additionally, full-time employees are typically salaried (receiving a set amount of compensation for the year), while part-time employees are paid an hourly rate. However, it is possible that full-time and part-time employees may both be paid hourly.

Understanding these distinctions can help you make the best hiring decisions for your business in the long run.

Nonexempt Employees

While businesses can take some liberties with defining full-time and part-time employees, the Fair Labor Standards Act does outline hard and fast rules when it comes to some classifications.

Namely, hourly employees are often classified as nonexempt and are subject to overtime provisions. Nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per workweek (any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay.

Benefits of Hiring Hourly Employees

Hiring part-time or regular full-time hourly employees can be beneficial for many businesses. Here are some reasons why you may consider hiring hourly employees over salaried.

Flexibility

With hourly employees, you can easily adjust schedules to accommodate busy or slow seasons. If you operate a business that experiences drastic shifts in demand, like construction, restaurants or bars, or retail, paying employees hourly is a good idea for better controlling costs.

Salaried employees are paid their base salary no matter their productivity. For instance, if there’s no work to do they still receive a paycheck. Hourly employees, on the other hand, are only paid for the hours worked during a pay period. This means you can change schedules to ensure you’re not over- or under-staffed at any given time.

Reducing Costs

Typically, hourly workers are part-time employees (though, as we said, that’s not always the case). Part-time employees aren’t entitled to extra benefits and this can help you keep costs low in the long run. This is especially true for small businesses who want to attract more employees without having to offer a robust benefits package.

Productivity

It’s easy to measure productivity with hourly employees. When you want to optimize your workforce, you can measure employee contribution based on their time present on the job. This can help you better prepare schedules or even consider bringing on hourly employees full-time.

Challenges of Hiring Hourly Employees

Of course, hiring hourly employees doesn’t come without challenges. Here are some of the drawbacks of hiring an hourly team.

Overtime Work

As mentioned, most hourly employees are entitled to overtime pay at a higher rate if they work more than the standard 40 hours per week. If your business suddenly experiences more demand, high turnover, or sick employees that require overtime work you can be paying more in the long run.

Learning how to effectively schedule hourly employees is key to keeping costs down.

Increased Turnover

It can be more difficult to retain employees in hourly positions. As the experts at Forbes explain, a part-time job may not attract senior employees who want autonomy, stability, and more benefits.

Hourly positions are often viewed as temporary rather than somewhere a professional can grow their career. By offering some fringe benefits, like paid vacation time and flexible hours, you can make the position more appealing.

Varied Costs

While there are ways to control costs with hourly employees, there’s also less predictability when it comes to budgeting. With a salaried workforce, you have a good idea of your labor costs every pay period. However, this can shift drastically with hourly employees.

In some cases, like if you’ve reduced costs, this can be beneficial. But other times, like when overtime was worked, labor costs can be higher than anticipated.

Do Hourly Employees Receive PTO?

If you do have hourly employees at your business, one thing to figure out is if they’re entitled to PTO. What you may not realize is that the FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays. This is true for both salaried and hourly employees.

Vacation days and sick days are completely optional and are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee. But just because you don’t have to offer PTO to hourly employees doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

Here are some reasons why you should consider offering PTO to hourly team members:

• According to recent research, the majority of American workers say it’s very important employers provide paid vacation time (76%), paid sick time (74%), and paid holidays (74%).
• PTO can be a great way to distinguish your company and attract and retain top talent in the long run.
• Having a paid time off policy can help you better schedule your hourly employees since you will know their vacations in advance.
• PTO promotes a healthy work-life balance, which can help reduce stress and improve productivity at work overall.

How to Calculate Paid Time Off for Hourly Employees

Since the standard vacation time for hourly employees depends entirely on the business, there’s no one-size-fits-all way to calculate it. Of course, there are some things to keep in mind. According to the BLS, the average amount of PTO days in America is 10 days each year (not including sick days or paid holidays). So this can be a good place to start.

Figuring out PTO for hourly employees is very similar to what you would offer salaried employees. In addition to vacation time, you may want to offer PTO for:

• Sick days
• Personal holidays
• Bereavement leave

Depending on where your business operates and how many employees you have, you may be required to offer sick leave.

Accrued vs Annual Time Off

After determining how many days of PTO you will offer, you should determine if it will be accrued or annual PTO.

Accrued PTO is also known as earned paid time off. It’s when employees earn PTO based on hours worked or other time-based criteria. Annual PTO, on the other hand, is when employees are given a set amount of PTO at the start of the year rather than having to earn them.

Whether your business offers PTO in bulk or PTO accrual to hourly employees is up to you. Unlimited PTO is also becoming increasingly popular, but this is often a benefit for full-time, salaried employees.

What to Include in a PTO Policy for Hourly Employees

Like for salaried employees, you should also include some strict rules in your PTO policy for hourly employees. This can include things like:

• A deadline for requesting PTO
• What PTO can and can’t be used for
• How PTO is accrued or given
• How unused PTO will be reimbursed
• If PTO is on a first-come first-served basis of seniority

Using a Time Clock to Track PTO

With a clear PTO policy for hourly workers in place, it’s time for calculations. Rather than relying on manual mathematics, a time clock can help you best calculate paid time off your hourly employees (and even salaried employees at the same time!).

With PayClock, employees can record their time and view their time card data on demand using an online time clock, mobile smartphones, a Lathem digital time clock, - or all three. Now, you have the ability to manage employee time and attendance from any location and at any time.

Lathem's PayClock employee time and attendance system works with numerous types of PTO policies. No matter if you have salaried employees, hourly employees, or a mix of both you can seamlessly track their attendance and calculate their PTO and overtime hours.

Learn more about how a time clock can help you figure out PTO for all your employees and streamline payroll processing.

Best Ways to Use an App to Track Work Hours

According to Pew Research Center, roughly six-in-ten U.S. workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home (59%) are working from home all or most of the time. Many employees work remotely either by choice or necessity.

In the past few years, the way we work has drastically changed. The global pandemic caused millions of people to begin working remotely, and this trend continues to remain.

Even more recently, many workplaces have adopted a hybrid approach allowing employees to work from home some of the time. With such a diverse workforce, it’s more important than ever before for companies to have the right technology in place to track employee time and improve productivity.

Benefits of a Mobile Time Tracking App

It likely comes as no surprise that 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind, and 85% own a smartphone with internet access. Needless to say, cell phones are ubiquitous in the United States. This makes offering an employee time tracking app a realistic option for every organization.

Here are a handful of the benefits of using an app to log work hours.

Connecting a Diverse Workforce

Of course, we can’t begin this discussion without highlighting how a time tracking app can be used to connect a diverse workforce. And we’re not just talking about remote employees.

While it’s true that a mobile time tracker is ideal for allowing remote team members punch in and out from wherever they are, it’s also helpful for organizations with hourly, freelance, part-time, and full-time employees and contractors. In addition, it can be used by employees that work onsite, travel frequently, or work in rotational shifts or from multiple sites.

The right time clock app allows your employees to clock in at ease from anywhere, anytime while validating the authenticity of their punch. It allows for seamless time tracking and gives your organization a holistic view of hours worked across the board.

Streamline Time Punching

Traditional timekeeping and punching systems are not equipped to manage a diverse workforce. Physical machines are bulky and not always accessible, while outdated software may not be compatible with today’s technology.

The best app for tracking work hours offers complete functionality and is also easy to use to save time clocking in and out. With a mobile app to track work hours, no matter when or where your employees work from, they can log in and clock their hours with ease. They can also view their complete punch info and time totals to take control of their schedule.

With a time tracking app, tracking your time is as easy as clicking a button.

Mobility for Supervisors

An app to track work hours isn’t just beneficial for your employees. The right solution also allows supervisors to view their employee time cards, make edits, send messages, and view totals all on a smartphone, iPad or tablet. This means your workforce time and attendance can be managed in real time from anywhere, which is especially helpful when managers or HR professionals are also working remotely or from different locations.

Managers are granted unique access in the time tracking software to accomplish functions like viewing employee statuses, accepting time off requests, deleting or adding time entries for employees, and more.

Simplify Payroll

Finally, we can’t emphasize enough how the right mobile time management app can simplify payroll. Payroll is an essential part of every business, but it’s also one of the most time-consuming and often complicated tasks.

During this process, HR or accounting teams need to collect data on employees’ time spent working to figure out proper paychecks. Any errors could result in frustration or even fines.

A mobile time tracking system means employee work hour data is always up to date and accessible, making payroll processing easier and faster.

Best Ways to Use an App to Track Work Hours

While it’s clear that an app to track work hours can be used for just that, it can also offer additional functionality for your business. Here are some of the best ways to use an app to track work hours to further improve your organization:

Verify Employee Locations

A mobile time tracking app can also be used to verify that remote-based workers are where they should be when they record their work hours. Many times it’s not only important to ensure employees are starting and stopping work on time, but that they’re also being productive and are where they should be.

This additional reporting feature helps validate the authenticity of every employee punch, be it remote or from the facility. This can help eliminate wage theft and other practices like buddy punching.

Empower Employees With Their Schedule

An app to track work hours puts the power of scheduling in the palm of your employees’ hands. Along with tracking time, all your employees can view their personal time card and benefit time information within the mobile time card app on a mobile device. No matter where they are, at home or work, they can review basic information like benefit time and plan and make a request for time off.

This empowers your employees to take control of their schedule. With this information and control at their fingertips, they can be more proactive about their scheduling and requests to make everything operate smoother.

Expand Your Workforce

With an app to track work hours, your business can expand your talent search. You can instantly widen the talent pool by interviewing and possibly hiring candidates around the country. Since an app to log work hours isn’t bound to any location, neither is your organization.

Improve Efficiency

If your business isn’t keeping up with technology developments, you’re likely losing out on their multifaceted benefits. A mobile employee time clock app will not only help streamline your timekeeping function but also simplify payroll processing, saving both money and time.

Improving efficiency across the board helps your employees be more productive, use resources more effectively, and, ultimately, enhance your business’s bottom line.

Qualities of the Best Time Tracking Mobile App

Employee time tracking and management is one of the most critical tasks of workforce management, yet surprisingly, is one of the most poorly equipped functions. That being said, not all time tracking apps are created equal.

When you’re in the market for an app to keep track of work hours, here are some qualities to look for.

Reliability

Reliability of your clock app helps ensure your employees don’t spend precious hours in failed clocking attempts, reporting of technical issues, or manual recording of their hours. This also extends to offline reliability. It’s important to invest in a time clock app that automatically senses internet availability and switches to offline mode during disruptions while still allowing full employee functionality.

Accessibility

The best time tracking app must be accessible to those who need it when they need it. If your business needs a physical employee time clock in the office and mobile smartphone apps for employees in the field, the best employee time tracking app and software allows you to use both together.

The mobile app should have many of the functions and features of the time clock software that is managing the physical time clocks as well.

Along with being easy to use, it should also offer security and different functionalities depending on the user. For instance, employees can clock-in / clockout, view timecard totals, benefit time balances and even make time off requests. Their managers can view employees in/out status, review and edit punches, approve / deny employee time off requests and more.

This accessibility is important to keep information readily available but also secure.

Enhanced Functionality

While time tracking is the main function of an app, you may also want it to include additional features to optimize your business. For example, management features such as approving time off requests and viewing employee time is essential to help your supervisors be more efficient.

GPS tracking is another added feature that may not be standard with all time tracking apps but can be very important to your operations.

Scalability

It’s important to invest in a time tracking app that can grow and change with your business. Whether you’re expanding your workforce, moving offices, or trying a hybrid work model, you need an app to track work hours that can do it all.

Whenever you purchase new software for your business, understanding its scalability helps you know if it’s the right fit for the long term.

Free Trial

Finally, you may want to see if a company offers a free trial to use their app to log work hours. Not all time tracking apps are the same, and some might not be beneficial to your organization. A free trial, is the best way to determine if the specific time tracking app is best for your business and team.

When it comes time to find an app to track work hours for your business, trust Lathem. Our PayClock app can do it all and includes a mobile time clock and time card app with complete functionality for both employees and supervisors.

To discover more, Get a Quote Today for PayClock employee time & attendance software that includes time tracking apps for Apple iOS smartphones and Android devices.