Are you still using a paper-based system for employee attendance and re-entering data by hand for payroll? Does compliance review take hours of manual examination, with a risk of human error and legal liability?
Automated timekeeping will simplify your processes and save you costly hours of labor time. Your organization’s productivity will improve and your compliance with laws and regulations will become much easier to monitor.
Automated timekeeping can increase your ability to strategize effectively, with better knowledge of your workforce. And the ease of access and mobility offered by automation can allow your employees a greater sense of involvement in their organization.
Here are 8 ways an automated timekeeping system will benefit you:
1) Accountability and Accuracy
Payroll costs are the largest budget expenditure for most businesses, and every year, businesses pay for unworked hours due to late arrivals or early departures. The increased accuracy of automated attendance tracking means no more lost time to increase payroll costs and lower productivity. “Buddy-punching†actions (when an employee clocks in for a late or absent coworker) will no longer be possible in an automated system. Biometrics can even be added to clock-ins to verify identity.
Automated timekeeping increases accountability with tools like GPS location tracking. You will be able to verify when your employees are onsite, at another office, or on a remote assignment with geotagging.
2) Cost Savings
Overtime costs can eat into your profit margins and jeopardize your bottom line, and unplanned overtime happens all too easily with a manual timekeeping system.
When automation makes data available in real-time reports, supervisors can easily see which employees are still available to work without incurring overtime. Automated notices pop up when overtime charges may be nearing. The attendance system can be set to prohibit clock-in after a certain number of worked hours, as a safeguard to prevent unexpected expenses.
Cost savings add up quickly in administration, as integrated data transfer across systems saves hundred of hours of labor. Instead of employee labor hours devoted to collecting and re-entering information across several systems, the software automatically synchronizes attendance, payroll, and time-off scheduling.
3) Increased Productivity and Workplace Insight
Both managers and employees benefit when they can see how they are managing their time. Time spent on individual projects can be tracked to allow greater insight for planning and strategy. Project-based clock-ins can also allocate hours to cost centers. For example, an employee being paid by an outside grant can clock in separately for the grant project to keep track of worked hours for grant reporting requirements.
Questions about low productivity can also be answered by automated timekeeping, while higher productivity can be noticed and rewarded.
4) Compliance and Legal Protection
The detailed and integrated data records produced by automated timekeeping are a company’s best friend for the complicated task of compliance. Even unexpected new regulatory changes can be met successfully with the capabilities of a system that records attendance and payroll without error. Automation allows flexibility in report generation that can take all the headaches out of changes in reporting requirements.
Because compliance is easier, your business lowers its liability to employee lawsuits. One lawsuit can undo years of hard work building a business, so reduced liability alone is a major benefit of making the change to automated timekeeping.
5) Reduced Risk of Information Loss and Human Error
Simple errors like lost timesheets or data entry mistakes can cause costly payroll problems, compliance issues, and wasted employee time. An automated system minimizes the problems caused by human error and eliminates the hours of labor often necessary to track down errors and fix them.
6) Efficient Absence Management
Employee skills and overtime can be tracked by the system so that when an emergency absence occurs, you can determine which employees are available and equipped to fill that absence.
7) Ease of Employee Access from On-Site, Desktop, or Mobile Device
An automated system is easy to use and clock-ins are possible from many locations due to the ease of mobile access. A system can also allow self-service, so employees can check their own schedules or request time off from their mobile devices. Because the system can allow employees more access and more insight on their own work, it can increase their sense of engagement with the company.
8) Improved Employee Morale
Automated timekeeping increases equality in the workplace, which improves employee morale. When manual timekeeping fails to establish equal accountability for everyone, some employees will take advantage of the system and their behavior will be noticed by others. Late arrivals and longer lunch breaks for those who abuse a manual system causes hard feelings and lowers staff morale. Automated timekeeping ensures that no employee can repeatedly break the rules and cause conflict in your workplace.
FAQs: Making a Transition from Manual to Automatic Timekeeping
Will my employees make a smooth transition to an automated system?
Since employees may sometimes have concerns about whether they will feel pressured for more output under an automated system, it’s important to reassure staff that outstanding performance isn’t always measured by quantity. Timekeeping is just one piece of a much larger picture for employee performance.
Increased equality for employees and ease of access under automation usually wins over employees who have concerns once they have a chance to experience the automated system’s advantages.
What happens if the system goes down?
Cloud storage and innovative backup solutions prevent data loss during an outage. Though paper systems may seem more reliable to those who are accustomed to them, losses and errors are actually easier to prevent with an automated timekeeping system.
How will the automated system affect my bottom line?
The automated system should bring your business a return on your investment within a year or two, and sometimes even within months depending on your current circumstances. Savings will accumulate rapidly from eliminating payroll inefficiencies and reducing administrative labor hours.
If you have more specific questions on automated timekeeping and would like professional advice for your business and its specific needs, please contact Andrew King at (501) 225-6555.