Outdated time and attendance systems cost you money! Find out why

When browsing the internet I often stumble upon many self-proclaimed prophets claiming to know “the secret” or next “big thing” to helping you save money and helping grow your business. Like Bernie Madoff fed the masses what they wanted to hear, I often find that most of what is preached, at its core, is what in the industry could be considered sales jargon. To me, the real secret to helping you grow your business and saving money is through increases in efficiency within your operations. Whether efficiency is found through re-engineering of company processes, through new improved management methods, or technology innovations, efficiency is at the core of the solution to helping businesses boom.  There are many examples of more efficient methods throughout history redefining how things are done today and, in turn, leading to business booms. One needs only look at Henry ford’s revolutionary assembly line method which led to mass production of cars at the time and overall success or Toyota’s innovative lean manufacturing system, which is a standard for manufacturing cars today, to see that efficiency breeds great returns. So, you may not be a Henry Ford or have the resources of Toyota but, you can implement more efficient methods of timekeeping within your operations. Taking a leaf out of the Japanese practice of Kaizen modern industries preach the goal of continuous improvements or change for the better within their operations. Implementing a smart biometric time and attendance solution within your operations could be part of the solution to a competitive advantage like it was for Japan in the late 1980’s.  Rather than looking for short-term solutions to your business issues, look for a solution which will align with your business objectives in the long term as well as in the short term. Upgrading your time and attendance system could potentially pay for itself, as well as maximize profits by streamlining the payroll processing for your business. In today’s environment of payroll integrations and complex labor laws, accurate time tracking is more important now than ever before. Taking note that efficiency is a key factor to helping you save the big bucks that the politicians seem to like spending let’s look into the benefits of implementing a time and attendance solution within your operations. 1.) Reduction of Human Error Although no one likes to admit it no human being can be considered perfect (no, not even I can lay claim to that title) and as many movies allude to the imperfections in humans lead to us making mistakes. As we’re not robots tasks requiring accurate up to the minute or second accuracy are best left up to automation. When it comes to the calculation of time cards and vacation times, I am sure plenty of us have given a penny or two away! Well, as the saying goes a penny saved is a penny earned, it’s up to you to ensure minimal losses stemming from time card calculations. Implementing a Cloud based time and attendance solution can go a long way to helping diminish losses being incurred. I’m sure you’ve seen it, in the age of social media and smart phones many people are attached at the hip to their phones and phubbing others during supposed “work” hours. This addiction to technology puts employers  at risk or leads to a common phenomenon that runs rampant through many an organization, a phenomenon called time theft. Time theft while some will say it’s no big deal can be likened to directly stealing money from an employer’s pockets. Time theft, manipulation of timecards, or the act of buddy punching (punching in for co-workers, not at the workplace) are all acts that go unnoticed when using manual timecard calculations. This abuse of time if left unchecked can end up costing you hundreds if not thousands a year. Implementing a Smart Biometric Time Clock ensures that accurate employee verification is a sure fire way to combatting time theft within businesses today. Employees should, in theory, be always focused and enveloped in their work. Of course, we don’t all have awe-inspiring, thought-provoking positions at fortune 500 companies, however, from an employer standpoint employees should be fully engaged  and focused on their tasks during work hours. The use of an updated time and attendance system can keep employees accountable for each minute of every day spent on your companies dollar. This accountability will result in a more dedicated employee through the knowledge that every minute spent working is a dollar earned. The ease of use when implementing a Smart Time Clock can be likened to the quarterback having a winning playbook or an all-star defense in the case of this past Super Bowl 50. With a Smart Time Clock on your side, you will no longer have to worry about spending untold hours on manual time card calculations or worst yet employees chasing down you or your managers for manual punch ins. Many employees work overtime, and paying extra for overtime can leave your company bleeding for resources. Of course, employees  contributing the extra time and effort to meet your business goals should be compensated but, when your company pays additional overtime hours it’s imperative that the recorded hours are accurate.  Over exaggerating on a time card can lead to more overtime hours being paid than necessary. With a smart time clock on your side, like EasyClocking’s Xenio Smart Time Clock, employees can check schedules directly from the time card terminal ensuring that hours to be worked are always known. Having your employees knowledgeable of their work schedules is imperative to stemming the tide of miscalculated hours. Businesses today need to keep track of how much their employees work. With the rise of differing reporting requirements such as  those for ACA compliance in 2016, companies need to centralize their time and attendance records as well as make sure they are able to report their data correctly and accurately. With fines ranging from  $40,000 and up, according to ACA regulations, ensuring compliance is more of a priority now than ever before. Another benefit to having a time and attendance system is the benefit of having an audit trail of employee hours worked both past and present. With automated time records of punches made (even altered punches by managerial approval) businesses with smart time and attendance systems in place could be said to have the best defense. Therefore, a smart time and Attendance system could be said to decrease liabilities to be incurred from false claims filed by previous employees as well as building resilience within your operations. Some business owners are hesitant to purchase updated Time and Attendance Systems due to the upfront investment cost. But, when considering the alternative of not having a smart time clock (the loss of productivity, time, and money), it becomes a no-brainer that a Smart Time and Attendance System is a must. Seeing that a Time and Attendance System can eliminate time wasting by employees and speed up payroll processing times it is imperative that your business looks into making the switch to more modern time tracking methods. When weighing the pros and cons of  implementing such a device you must ask yourself, do I want to continue down a path of frivolous spending and inefficiency? or do I want to journey on to the path of more success?