Since a lot of employees are working from home now, it makes sense that employers are looking for efficient ways to track employee time. Even though employees do have more autonomy over their working time, you still need to ensure that you’re not paying for excess idle time. Most professionals can be trusted to work when they’re supposed to, but there will always be some people who try to take advantage of the working from home situation. Following are some considerations to keep in mind and some ideas about various ways to track employee time.
Put Expectations in Writing
If your employees are transitioning from full-time, in-house work, don’t just expect that they’ll know what expectations are when working from home. For one thing, it’s unlikely that your employees will appear judiciously at their home computers at 9 a.m. on the dot, take two short breaks and one hour-long lunch before shutting down at 5 p.m. That’s just unrealistic considering a) the distractions and interruptions they may face and b), the amount of focused work they’ll be able to do from home. The truth is, many people find that they’re able to get more done in fewer hours from home than in the office. There are fewer colleagues stopping by the desk to “catch up” or gossip, fewer reasons to visit the water cooler, and fewer reasons to do busy work for the sake of looking busy for the boss. So put your expectations in writing, but don’t expect the same things as you did when your employees were office-bound. In other words, focus on meeting goals rather than meeting minimum hours worked. Put everything in writing and then have the employee sign the document. If you need to terminate the employee for a time-related issue, the document will help prove your just cause.
Decide on How You’ll Measure Time Worked
For employees that are on salary, you don’t need to worry so much that you’re paying for idle hours. It’s the hourly employees that you need to concern yourself with. For this, there are several different ways that you can measure the time actually worked. The one you choose will depend greatly on what kind of work needs to get done and your employee’s tolerance for oversight.
One such method is to keep track of keystrokes. For this, your employee would install a program on their laptop or desktop. They would log in and proceed with work. If they aren’t actively typing, that means they aren’t working. When they want to take a break for anything (bathroom break, put a load of laundry in, etc.) they would log off and then log back in when they’re ready to work again. This particular method of employee time tracking is suitable for employees who do data entry, but not much else. It can feel oppressive to an employee who might be writing content for your marketing blog or some other work that involves typing.
Another method involves the telephone. If you have employees that make cold calls for your company or do sales calls, this method can be very useful. It involves paying for a phone service that your employee dials into to make their calls. The phone service keeps track of which employee is making calls, when they make them and how long the calls last. In fact, this time tracking method serves two purposes; it allows you to gather accurate information about hours worked and it also protects employees from having to expose their personal telephone information to prospects.
You could also rely on traditional timesheets to track employee time. Bear in mind that timesheets aren’t as reliable and you might spend a significant amount of time chasing down timesheets from certain employees. Making the paycheck dependent on a timesheet being submitted on time is a great inducement! The timesheet method is most effective for businesses that have a lot of different clients and/or projects and you need to keep track of how many hours employees are spending on each client/project. Types of businesses that this is suitable for include architectural firms, marketing agencies, software companies and similar. If you do opt for a timesheet model, you can choose from a digital timesheet or an actual printable timesheet that employees fill in by hand and email back to you.
Motivating Employees to Keep Track of Time
Employees that are new to the work at home model may need some cajoling to get on board with time tracking. It may feel oppressive or domineering at first, so you should make time tracking as easy and beneficial as possible. Try to consider what kinds of employees you have. Are they sophisticated, highly educated professionals accustomed to little oversight? If so, you probably already have them on salary, so you might consider just trusting that they’ll do the work they’re expected to get done.
Are your employees mostly freelancer or creative types who rail against authority and rigid boundaries? Then a DIY timesheet might work in your favor.
Are your employees high school grads who are basically just inputting data or doing other rudimentary tasks? Then a log in, log out time tracking system that keeps track of keystrokes will probably work in your favor.
Finally, make time tracking beneficial. Couch the system in terms that demonstrate your concern that they get fairly paid for the time they put in. Give them the tools they need for free or provide easy to understand instructions for downloading and installing time tracking software. Make things as easy as possible for your employees so that it’s as easy as possible for you to pay them accurately.
For more tips and advice about accounting for employees’ time worked, consult with your CPA.