Every business can and should benefit from accurate tracking of employee time. Collecting timely data for both billable and non-billable tasks helps to ensure:
- Timely processing of salaries
- Labor regulation compliance
- Enforcement of punctuality and time-off regulations
- Calculate savings
- Understand better the spending of employees time
Equally important is identifying an efficient and cost-effective attendance tracking system that’s not cumbersome, time-consuming, and complicated for workers. Otherwise, the information targeted becomes unreliable for job records, reporting, and other activities that pick from accuracy.
If you want to be cost-effective in tracking employee time, you need to review what’s present in the market and make the proper selection. Keep reading to understand the best and most effective ideas to track your employee working hours.
Use mobile apps
You can implement mobile apps in your organization to track employees’ clock-in and out and track time by activity for workers on the payroll. Most mobile apps with the capability to track time spent on online activities are offered by scheduling software tools.
With these apps, your employees can access a timer through their handsets. If an employee comes in for shift hours, the app will prompt them to clock in or take a break for their shift.
In the event the app works by client or project, you can track the time each individual worked and assign it the required cost through their phones. Before selecting this method, ensure that all your workers can access a smartphone.
Implement wall mount card swipes.
Mount cards are an improved version of the punch card system. Instead of using a timecard, workers use their work identification cards to clock in and out. The automated data in the IDs then transfers to a computer system where the hours they worked get summed up for employee attendance.
Geo-fencing and GPS tracking
As mentioned in our first point, you can track your employees’ time via a mobile app, whether in an office or indifferent job places. However, if you need improved accuracy, you need to choose GPS tracking or geo-fencing.
With a GPS, you only need to set up a geo-fence within your employee’s job site. When workers arrive at the site, their mobile time clock automatically signals them to clock in. When they leave, they also get a notification to clock out.
Also, a GPS tracking system helps you see where your workers are throughout the day. You can verify their time at the workplace and while en-route.
Install biometric clock-in
Biometric identification works with biological features like fingerprints and facial detection to verify an employee’s identity in an organization. This method is time-conscious and doesn’t require the resource manager’s supervision.
It allows employees to clock in and prevents buddy punching, where they want to clock in for another. Once an employee identifies themselves via a biometric feature, the organization’s time clock tracks their hours until they clock out.
Desktop or time clocks
The majority of time clock software tools come with multiple ways for workers to clock in or out. One of them is a desktop app that allows you to set up a clock-in station. Using this app, you can have your employees record the time they spend at work by creating specific accounts to log in to during their arrival and departure times.
The good thing is most are easy to set up while they also allow you to transfer employee time information to the payroll section and do simple payment calculations.
Use browser plugins and URL tracking
These time-tracking solutions are best suited for organizations that primarily deal with computer-oriented data transfers and operations. Usually, you will be required to install a software system that tracks employee URLs or gives a timer in the form of a browser plugin.
With a simple click, an employee can start and stop the timer from recording their ongoing task and send the time spent to their timesheets in real-time.
If you want to check how each employee spends time, all you have to do is to direct the time clock to identify the URLs visited by the employees. The system breaks down hours spent on profitable tasks versus non-work-related sites. This helps you define ways for employees to work and identify committed performers efficiently.
It’s possible to track employee time without breaking the bank!
Identifying a centralized system for tracking your organization’s data enables the supervisors and workers to keep up with work hours. Luckily, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started with time tracking and measuring productivity at the workplace.
Use insights collected by your preferred tool to make better decisions about labor costs and your workforce.