Employee Time Clocks

Written By: Brad Sylvester

Inaccurate reporting of the hours worked by your employees, whether intentional or not, can end up costing your business big money. By using an employee time recorder, you can save yourself not only money, but many other headaches as well. Employee time clocks can be inexpensive solutions to potentially expensive problems.

Let the clock handle personnel issues for you

One of the hardest parts of managing employees is telling them what they're doing wrong. For example, consider a good employee who comes in 10 to 15 minutes late every day. You don't want to alienate a productive worker by telling him to shape up, but you also don't want the tardiness to continue. If it does, you risk all your other employees taking this as an example that it's acceptable to come in late and still get paid for their full 40 hours. So what do you do? The best solution is to implement employee time clocks. Employees punch in when they arrive and punch out when they leave. Hours are accurately recorded, and if someone is 15 minutes late, you don't pay for that time. There's no argument.

Employee time clocks save you money

The clock is an impartial judge. It ends any perception of favoritism or special treatment that can play havoc with employee morale. Just as importantly, accurate employee time clocks mean you only pay for the hours your employees are actually working. Taking the previous example of an employee who shaves 15 minutes a day off his hours by either coming in late or leaving a few minutes early, you lose 1.25 hours a week, or 65 hours a year, for each employee who takes advantage of lax employee time tracking. That's like giving your employees another week-and-a-half of paid vacation every year! Not many businesses can afford that extra expense, especially during leaner business cycles. Compared to the cost of lost labor, employee time clocks can be one of the best investments you can make for your business.

Establish clear overtime policies

Once you start using employee time clocks, you need to make sure your overtime policy is clear and well communicated to your employees. If you don't want to pay for overtime hours, institute a policy that all overtime must be approved ahead of time. Otherwise you may find employees working a little extra each day and coming in early to pad their paychecks a little. Payroll policies should be written out and prominently posted near the time clock to prevent any misunderstanding among employees.

Software-based time clocks – usually known as time and attendance systems – can help manage your time tracking processes. They can apply overtime rules, detect trends of lateness or absenteeism, and make sending information to a payroll service easy.

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