6 Things to Consider When Tracking Employee Hours

How you track your employee hours affects both your business and your workforce. It decides the level of control you have over labor costs and work schedules. And by knowing their worked hours are recorded reliably, employees are more motivated.

You may be familiar with common time tracking systems such as paper or spreadsheets. Anyone can quickly start time tracking work with a notebook or Excel, but using these methods can be cumbersome.

Employee hour tracking isn’t as simply writing the total work hours of each staff down. Scheduling problems such as time theft or unplanned overtime can mess up the accuracy you need, your budgets, and your expenses. You’re also more prone to human error and storage problems, which costs both time and money.

So, how can you track employee hours more effectively? Here are 6 things to consider.

1. Select a cloud-based time tracking app

A time tracking app makes it convenient for you and your staff to keep track of working time. Employees clock in and out via the app and work hours are automatically stored.

Because everything is automated, you can save time and energy from manual time tracking. And the data exported from this app can be helpful for your labor cost control.

Make sure to choose one that is easy to use and pleasant to look at, because your staff and you will use it almost every day.

2. Control time fraud

Some employees may attempt time theft when you let them clock in/clock out manually. They can show up at 8:15 am and punch 8 am in their time card, or leave at 11:47 am and record that they punch out at 12 pm.

Another common type of time theft is buddy punching, where staff clock in and out for each other. If many employees attempt time fraud behaviors, and do so every shift, the stolen hours add up and cost you money.

An automated time tracking app requires your staff to clock in and out digitally. They have to take a photo of themselves at the working location, or access the location Wi-Fi network, or create a GPS stamp to prove that they’ve arrived in person, on time. This way time theft is minimized to the maximum.

3. Tackle admin tasks and paperwork

Admin tasks and paperwork related to employee hours may include time-off request forms, schedules, reports, etc. When you manage these manually, you need a well-organized system so that you don’t forget to put someone on shifts they’ve already asked to be off, and you can retrieve any documents when necessary.

An automated system helps you manage employee time-off requests, schedules, and timesheets in one place. You don’t have to dig through your office to find a piece of paper anymore.

4. Manage payroll

The objectives of accurate hour tracking are to pay employees correctly and avoid excessive labor costs. A good system can export timesheets for payroll or integrate with your payroll provider. You can maintain accuracy while saving time on entering each number and multiplying them manually.

5. Make sure you’re compliant

Employers need to stay compliant in scheduling and time tracking practices. This may depend on where you are. If you’re a US employer, you need to keep records that determine wages, such as time cards and work schedules, for at least 2 years.

And when the US Department of Labor inspects those records, you need a system that allows you to retrieve necessary documents. This is when a reliable time tracking system shows how helpful it is.

6. Your tools should be able to grow with you

When your team or the size of your business grows, you need a system that can grow accordingly. If you wish to scale up your company later on, you may need to look for features such as tracking time and attendance for multiple locations, custom integrations, or better security.

Track employee hours with Camelo

The Camelo time tracking app allows you to manage work schedules and employee work hours on your digital devices. 

You can have an overview of who’s working, who’s not, and who’s late, as well as the total work hours of each staff. Then you can export accurate timesheets for accurate payroll.

Keeping the right data in a smart way not only keeps your staff happy, but you can also make better decisions and save time on tedious tasks.

Start improving how you track your employee hours now.