Traditionally, we are told that stress is just part of doing a job. Bosses and owners are expected to spend untold hours making sure workers are on-site, poring over time sheets and calculating payroll minutia. How much time can you save by streamlining some of these tasks?
Fortunately, there is a solution. Time clock terminal systems cut your stress by reducing your workload, fostering employee accountability and increasing reporting accuracy.
What’s more, time clocks have evolved. These days, they are not machines you structured your company around. They have become technology designed to fit your business. Here is what you should know:
Tracking and Accountability
Today, the term “time clock terminal” refers to any computer or mobile device dedicated to clocking workers in and out. Most time clock terminal systems come with some surprisingly useful options.
It is estimated that about 75% of all small businesses are victims of time theft. Time theft accounts for the minutes and hours that employees are paid for in which they don’t do any work. One of the most common forms of time theft is buddy punching.
Buddy punching is when one worker clocks in for another worker who is not there. The American Payroll Association estimates that three-fourths of US employers are taking significant losses due to the buddy punch. It is not uncommon for employees to be paid as much as 4.5 hours weekly for unworked time.
Biometric scanning is one way to beat the buddy punch. Biometrics uses physical measurements of an employee as his or her identification. Fingerprints scans are most common. Unlike swipe cards, fingerprints cannot be exchanged, so only the employee can clock him or herself in.
Biometrics works great for closed facilities, but what about open work areas? What about outdoor construction sites or catering companies, which are changing work locations daily? What guarantee do you have that employees won’t clock in and wander off?
Time clock terminals can utilize geofencing applications to make sure employees stay within the work area boundaries. These programs use the same kind of tracking as GPS devices and typically work with mobile clocking applications for clocking in and out of breaks.
These platforms also make it easy to track and communicate with workers in mixed or mobile work environments. This helps supervisors ensure that their workers are remaining productive. Additionally, because the attendance record is generated entirely by the employee, human error is unlikely.
Payroll Calculations
Typically, employers or HR staff tally up spreadsheets at the end of the day and often have to rush to meet a deadline. As a result, the risk of costly errors is high.
There is also the issue of time. Doing your payroll manually is incredibly time consuming. Time clock terminal systems can calculate payroll promptly and accurately. This is done by feeding real-time data directly into the accounting applications to eliminate transferal errors.
Best of all, time clock terminal systems can automate overtime and holiday pay as well as tax, benefits and garnishment withholdings.
Bottom Line: Save Time With a Time Clock Terminal System
For efficient, accurate and less stressful attendance-related management, you can’t do any better than a time clock terminal system. The first step is to find the system that most closely matches your business needs.
