Considering getting rid of your time cards? Don’t. Not yet, at least. There are actually several reasons why clocking in is a good idea for not only employees but managers as well. Here are five reasons why clocking in should still be part of the employee picture.
Peace of Mind for Employees
You don’t want your employees to feel like you don’t trust them. In fact, trust is a key component of employee engagement and high morale. However, you need some level of visibility into what your employees are doing and how much time it takes them to get things done.
Clocking in shows that you care about the outcome of the work, but not necessarily the process. This will give your employees peace of mind because they won’t feel like you’re micromanaging them. They’ll be able to focus on getting things done instead of worrying about whether or not they have enough time to complete everything on their plate each day.
Security for Employers
Security is one of the biggest reasons why employers should have a clocking-in system. With no system in place, an employee can say they worked a certain amount of hours and get paid accordingly. However, without an employee time clock system in place, there’s no way to verify that an employee worked those hours.
There are also security issues that arise when dealing with employees who steal time or falsify their timecards to get more money. Without a reliable clocking-in system, there’s no way for employers to prove that an employee stole time or is lying about how many hours they worked.
Increased Accountability
A clocking-in system provides an objective measure of accountability for each individual employee. While everyone has off days, a repeated pattern of tardiness or leaving early can be easily identified using a time tracking system. Accountability is the obligation to accept responsibility for actions and decisions that affect others. Accountability calls into question our motives, intentions, and behaviors as they apply to our work life.
Why Do Accountants Prefer a Clock in System?
There’s no need to schedule a set time each week to manually enter hours and calculate overtime. Clocking in systems also come with an in-built payroll module that allows you to easily export your data to your payroll system or accounting software.
Clocking in systems is extremely accurate as they automatically calculate employee hours and overtime pay. Unlike traditional punch card clocks, clocking-in systems provide accurate records of employee activity throughout the day.
In most organizations, a lack of accountability means people don’t take ownership of their responsibilities or results. It also means that people are motivated to do just enough to get by but not enough to excel. As a result, the organization lacks momentum and suffers from low productivity and morale.
Easier Time Tracking
Time tracking is the process of recording the amount of a worker’s time spent on each job. It’s used by companies to measure the efficiency of their employees and projects. If you don’t use any time tracking software or system, it can be very difficult to know how much time your employees spend on each task. Tracking hours manually could lead to inaccurate information and even loss of data. Time tracking software enables you to easily monitor your team’s hours and productivity in real-time with accurate data.
More Accurate Payroll
Time theft can happen, whether you like it or not. Without a system in place to track hours worked, your employees may be tempted to commit time theft. This occurs when employees clock in early or clock out late to claim more hours than they worked. Time theft can cost your business money and put a strain on profits.
With a clocking system in place, however, you are able to keep accurate records of the hours your employees work, so you can ensure you’re paying them for the time they actually worked. With accurate payroll information, you can avoid legal issues and streamline time-tracking processes.
In the end, clocking in and out on time will continue to be important for the workplace. As businesses, both large and small, adopt new technologies to make their workplace more efficient and streamlined, expecting employees to arrive on time with all of their work still ahead of them will become even more important. Businesses that require their employees to clock in and out with a time card will have a larger advantage over those who don’t.
