A time and attendance system can be a valuable solution for ensuring compliance and accuracy, reducing errors and legal disputes, and increasing HR efficiency.
Ensures Compliance
A time and attendance system provides employees with a means to consistently record their time worked. These systems track paid breaks and unpaid lunch hours, reduce timekeeping errors, and monitor where and when an employee is on the clock. They can help you stay compliant with employee overtime laws by automatically tracking OT, and they also help businesses comply with labor laws and regulations affecting time off, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Improves Accuracy
Automated timekeeping systems pay employees more accurately, removing guesswork from when someone started or ended their shift and minimizing errors. That reduces time theft, which affects three-quarters of businesses, according to research from the American Payroll Association.
Time fraud is a significant issue for businesses; almost half of U.S. employees have admitted to time theft. Time theft may cost employers as much as $11 billion per year.
Saves Time
Another benefit of a digital time and attendance system is that it reduces the time employees, managers, HR and payroll team members spend manually tracking time.
It can take about six minutes to complete each worker’s timecard, according to research from Sierra Workforce Solutions. For large organizations, those minutes add up to time that could be better spent elsewhere. A time and attendance system eliminates that burden from managers and staff, freeing them to work on more important tasks.
Reduces Disputes
Time and attendance software’s functionality reduces errors that may occur as a result of handwritten or manually keyed-in time sheets. An automated time-tracking program prevents timecard disputes and reassures employees that they’re being paid accurately.
Simplifies Clocking In and Out
Time and attendance systems make clocking in and out simple. Employees can typically do so using a computer time clock or phone app. Most systems also offer a mobile app, which gives remote and field workers an easy way to record their time.
Displays Valuable Data
Once your employees are logged in to the system, they can clock in and out, view their total hours worked each week, review their schedules, see how much time off they’ve accrued, and request time off.
Administrators and managers have additional controls to track employees’ attendance and hours, review labor data reports and approve or deny time-off requests. The system allows the data to be exported as a report or CSV file if you want to share it with other systems or users.