How productive is your workforce? According to the data, the average employee is productive for around 94% of the working day. If you don’t know whether your company is above or below that number, chances are you aren’t tracking time.
It’s one of the reasons time tracking is crucial in the modern workforce, particularly given how many employees now work remotely. If you are new to time tracking, read on. This guide will explain how to track employee hours and ensure you do it with accuracy.
Why Time-Tracking Matters
Time-tracking is no longer just an admin task to complete before you pack up your laptop on a Friday afternoon. Modern time-tracking methods have become central to how a business operates. They play several important roles, such as:
- Ensuring pay is fair and accurate
- Avoiding payroll errors like underpayment
- Maintaining productivity levels
- Monitoring tasks for remote workers
- Adhering to ever-growing complexity in labor laws
- Reducing the risk of disputes between employers and employees
Beyond everyday operations, time tracking can also offer a competitive advantage to businesses. It can help you spot gaps, weaknesses, or inefficiencies, making you a more streamlined and productive organization.
How to Track Employee Hours: Manual Vs. Automated Time Tracking
Before you start time tracking, you’ll need to think about your method. The first question to answer is this: should I use manual or automated time tracking?
Manual or traditional time tracking often involves paper timesheets or entering information in an Excel spreadsheet.
You can begin to see where the problems lie with this method. It’s reliant on much human input, which makes it more prone to errors. It’s also admin-heavy, taking up a disproportionate amount of time in the average working day.
Those downsides are why companies like ours have developed more streamlined and automated software.
Automated time tracking means having a system that does much of the leg work for you. That might include automated clock-ins, real-time reporting, and integration with your payroll system, for example. It’s more accurate, convenient, and saves your business time.
Before Tracking Time: Software and the Right Features
Before you begin to track attendance, you must consider the features of a time-tracking tool that will help you get the job done. Here is an overview of what to look for :
Clock-in Methods
Examine how employees should clock-in to the system when they begin work. Ideally, look for a tool like ours that offers multiple clock-in methods, like mobile, web-based, and biometric.
Reporting
Time tracking only becomes beneficial if you use the data you gather. You’ll need to think about the reports you need before you begin time tracking and ensure the system can deliver. For example, you might want to see hours worked, overtime, and absences.
Look for a tool with a nice, easy-to-use visual dashboard so that you can see the information at a glance. You should also look for tools that offer real-time information.
Payroll
If you intend to use time tracking for payroll, set up this integration beforehand. That way, the data becomes automated, and you won’t have the manual task of using timesheet reports to complete payroll.
Check Compliance
Make sure any time tracking process is compliant with labor laws and reflects your HR policies. That way, you won’t run the risk of issues like disputes about overtime allowances or tracking paid leave.
Different Methods for Tracking Employee Hours
There are many ways you can track time for your business, and you might prefer one or multiple methods, depending on your organizational setup.
Web-Based Time Tracking
Web-based time tracking uses an online dashboard that’s accessible on the internet, making it perfect for remote workers. Here, a team member can log in to start work and clock out once they’ve finished.
Mobile Apps
Field workers, using a phone more than a laptop, may find it easier to track time using a mobile-based app. Look for a platform that can use GPS to ensure employees are starting work from the correct location.
Biometrics
Biometrics offers added convenience for employees to track their time. Instead of logging in and clicking buttons, biometrics allows teams to start work with fingerprint scanning or facial recognition.
Ensuring Accurate Time Tracking
Remember that the focus of time tracking isn’t only to make sure it happens but that the data you get is accurate. Here are some pointers to help you achieve that:
- Check and update your HR policies to cover time-tracking rules
- Have clear guidelines about issues like paid leave and overtime
- Train and educate your teams on how to use a time clock
- Train and educate your managers on how to interpret reports
- Setup automated alerts to remind employees to track their time
- Regularly review data to check for accuracy
- Set up any integrations with other tools like payroll
When you have accurate time data, you’ll begin to see more of the benefits. Plus, you’re more likely to get teams to adopt these new methods if you can show that the data is reliable.
Overcoming Challenges With Time Tracking
As with any system, implementing new software comes with a few challenges. Nevertheless, with a bit of planning, these can be easily overcome.
For example, it’s common for employees to forget about time tracking, especially if it is a new system. Focus on communicating the importance of clocking in and out and sending alerts to teams for additional reminders.
Some employees can be resistant to time tracking as they see it as a form of monitoring. It’s vital you take the time to talk to your teams and help them understand that the benefits are not only for the employer but for the employee, too. It means more reliable payroll and transparency on paid leave or overtime.
Using the Best Employee Time Tracking Software
Now that you know how to track employee hours, your next step is to find the best solution. Don’t falter with your time-tracking efforts by using the wrong software or trying to do everything manually.
At TimeTrakGo, we offer a 14-day free trial so you can try our features and see the benefits for yourself. Discover why many companies like yours have switched to our advanced solution, which uses the latest technology and gives you the automation your business needs to thrive.
