Tired of Clocking in and Out Issues? Here’s What You Can Do
Imagine this scenario.
You are going through your team’s time tracking report, trying to calculate the paychecks for the previous month. Everything goes well, until you see an employee with 126 logged hours in the third week of the month. 🤔
You know they didn’t work day and night. So, they must have forgotten to clock out for a few days.
If this is something that’s happened to you before, join us to learn how to solve this issue efficiently.
This article is the abridged, adapted version of the blog post originally published at the Clockify blog: https://clockify.me/blog/workforce-management/managing-employee-attendance-issues
Why do employees fail to clock in and out?
First, let’s explore different reasons why employees don’t clock in and out on time. We’ll go through the most common causes.
Employees forget to clock in and out
Most of the time, irregular clock-ins happen because employees simply forget to log their hours. One way to solve this is by creating a habit that will stick.
James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, claims that the way to better habits is the path of least resistance:
“The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. You want to make your good habits the path of least resistance.”
A good example of this would be switching from manual ✍ to digital time tracking. 👨💻
Employees may not be tech-savvy
When faced with a complex clocking-in system, non-tech-savvy employees and new hires can experience feelings of fear, anxiety, and burnout, better known as technostress. 😬
This can cause them to make more mistakes when clocking in their hours.
Employees may engage in time theft
If your employees intentionally or unintentionally report working more hours than they actually did, you’re dealing with time theft at work.
With over 80% of employers reporting they correct 80% of manual timesheets, manual time tracking is one of the biggest causes of misreporting working hours.
Whether intentional or unintentional, time theft affects payroll — and you should address it as soon as possible.
How to prevent employees from not clocking in and out?
If you’re struggling with irregular clocking in and out practices — we’ll now show you exactly what you can do about it. 👇
Create a clock in and out policy
Every company should have a clear clock in and out policy. 📌
It’s best to have the policy available to employees in the form of an electronic handbook. In it, include clear step-by-step instructions for clocking in and out.
If employees need to clock in and out for breaks — make sure to include this in the policy.
Also, mention the next steps, such as a verbal notice (a private conversation with the employee) and a written notice (a formal reminder about the clock-in and clock-out practices and consequences).
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The final steps in the clock-in policy should include more serious measures, such as:
Being familiar with the company’s clock-in and clock-out policy is crucial for preventing violations. 📢
Organize meetings and training about clocking in
As soon as you notice mishaps with clocking in and out — it’s time for a meeting. 🗓️
You can organize a training where you’d provide step-by-step instructions on how the clock-in-clock-out system works. Or, try scheduling 1:1 discussions where you can directly check what the issue is.
Tech startup CEO Simon Bacher says that his employees can openly express their concerns about any issues:
“We have an 'open discussion' policy where employees can voice their concerns about any logistical or technical difficulties they face.”
When you know what the issue is, it becomes much easier to solve it, right?
Assign your employees a clock buddy
Pair a tech-savvy employee with a non-tech-savvy one so they can:
With this simple practice, you will reduce irregular clock-ins in a way your employees will appreciate.
Eliminate attendance tracking issues with a time clock kiosk
One of the best ways to prevent mishaps with clocking in is to introduce a simple, easy-to-use time clock kiosk. 🥇
Why?
A straightforward clocking system isn’t difficult for non-tech-savvy employees to master.
With gentle reminders sent after each missed clock-in, the irregularity rate decreases.
It takes seconds to finish clocking in, which makes it far less dreadful than manually filling out the hours worked.
Clockify offers Time audits — you can use this feature to detect suspicious time entries. For example, you can find entries longer than 8 hours a day, or shorter than a few minutes.
You can also find the hours employees entered but didn’t assign to a specific project.
Then you get to easily edit or delete these faulty and incomplete time entries, and carry on with calculating payroll.
Never get another payroll-induced headache because your employees failed to clock in or out. 🕘