Many businesses all over the world are facing a common issue – time theft. Time theft occurs when a company is paying an employee for the work they didn’t do.
It can happen through laziness, like when an employee is watching TV when they should be working, or through fraud, when they ask someone else to clock them in before they show up to work, which is a practice called “buddy punching.” Other common ways employees are stealing time at work include long and frequent breaks, starting late, finishing early, and taking care of personal business during work hours.
If your business is losing money due to your employees not working all of the hours you’re paying them to, stick around as we’ll be exploring some of the ways to stop time theft.
Properly Set Expectations For All Employees
Time theft can be a result of an employee not understanding the actual requirements of their job and they end up slacking or not doing anything. It is very important that your employees clearly understand what are their duties on the job and exactly what is expected out of them.
Inform Your Employees About the Rules
While it may seem obvious to you that it’s not appropriate to clock in a coworker who still hasn’t arrived at work yet, it may not be obvious to everyone. Some people may view it as doing a favor for their coworkers so that they don’t end up in trouble. These people probably aren’t aware of the real consequences false clocking in does both to the company and to the other employees who clock in on time.
Introduce a Time Tracking Policy
You should also introduce a policy that outlines how work time is properly tracked as well what are the consequences for those who are not tracking their time.
The most common way to track attendance is to use a timesheet, which is a simple table that both you and your employees can use to keep track of all the hours they worked. You can either create your own or use a remote time tracking software you downloaded from the web. They can also be used for tracking overtime and payroll.
If you’re not a fan of using Excel tables, you can use electronic key cards or even fingerprint scanners, which could be a bit too excessive, for your employees to clock in and out. If you want to automate the process, you can use time tracking software.
It usually takes some time for employees to develop the habit of clocking in and out whenever they come and leave work or take breaks, so you need to frequently remind them to do so.
Follow Your Standard Disciplinary Policy
It’s okay to let some things slide once in a while. If you’re rigid and strict all the time, your employees will feel more stressed which is definitely not good for employees or the business. But, if you let time theft go unchecked, some of your employees will start to think it’s okay, even though it’s not.
To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, follow your standard disciplinary procedures while at the same time being aware of the seriousness of the offense. While it’s okay to check Instagram for a couple of minutes between two customers, it’s not okay to falsify the time you started working. Not clocking out for that three-hour lunch is a much worse offense than clocking in 10 minutes before you start working.
Regardless of the offense, you have to follow up and your employees need to know that you will. If you don’t follow up, you’ll risk that bad behavior becomes a standard in your company.
Always Set a Good Example
Time theft usually happens because employees saw someone else at the company doing it. They may see their boss taking a long lunch, or their managers playing on their phones instead of working.
If that’s the case, can you really expect your employees not to do the same and follow what their supervisors’ are doing? Make sure both you and all of your managers are always setting a great example.
Final Takeaways
While time theft usually isn’t a serious offense, it can be damaging to the success of a company. That’s why it’s important that you, as an employer, do these actions to try to minimize or even entirely stop employee time theft at your company. Your employees will be thankful, satisfied, and more productive.
