We’ve seen a major shift in the US workforce in the past four years. In 2022, CNBC reported that 72% of workers now prefer a flexible work model and 67% feel more empowered to take advantage of the flexibility offered by employers.
How can employers deal with the complications that arise from increasing flexibility? It’s time to take a direct approach to attendance management by using time-tracking software.
In this article, we’ll discuss both the importance of attendance tracking and the features our time-tracking software offers. Let’s dive in.
What Is Attendance Management?
Attendance management is a system of employee tracking that focuses on scheduling, hours worked, and time off. In the past, your company may have relied on in-person time clocks to track each employee’s work hours. Employees punched in and out to signify when they started working, took their lunch breaks, and left for the day.
The old time clock becomes obsolete in the face of increased flexibility. When you have employees working on their own schedules or out of the office, you need an attendance management system that’s just as flexible as your scheduling.
Attendance management software can be used on a variety of platforms, including:
- Desktop computers
- Laptop computers
- Tablets and smartphones
No matter where your employees are or what hours they work, they can access their schedule and time clock, and you can access that important data.
Top Attendance Management Benefits
If you’re not using an attendance management system to support your flexible or hybrid scheduling, it’s time to start. Here are the top benefits of our modern approach to attendance management.
Accurate Work Hour Tracking
First and foremost, attendance management allows you to track your employees’ work hours more accurately. Without a system in place, you’re relying on self-reporting, which allows employees to easily misrepresent their work hours each week.
Attendance management also allows you to improve internal record-keeping. Having employees self-report their hours doesn’t just lead to potential time theft. It can also compromise your compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires employers to record:
- The time and day your employee’s workweek begins
- Hours worked each day
- Total hours worked each week
- Straight and overtime earnings
Attendance management is often a must to meet state and local employment laws, as well.
Productivity Support
Offering your workers more flexibility doesn’t mean that you’re lowering your standards. You still expect employees to meet hourly and productivity goals regardless of where they’re working from.
Introducing attendance management software can improve business productivity by:
- Creating clear scheduling expectations
- Streamlining communication about scheduling needs
- Identifying absenteeism
The latter is one of the most important things you can do to decrease productivity losses. According to Investopedia, chronic absenteeism results in billions of dollars lost each year, particularly in professional and managerial roles.
Streamlined Scheduling
When are your employees taking sick leave? When are they scheduling their floating holidays? How much PTO do they have left for the year?
Attendance management makes it easy to see everyone’s schedule in one convenient place. This is an important tool for both individual and team considerations.
For example, you can use attendance management software to process time off requests. You can also use it to see who’s on the schedule in the coming weeks to prevent worker shortages.
Evaluation of Employee Engagement
As you collect attendance management data, it’s important to pay attention to employee patterns. Is anyone working at odd hours when the rest of the team is logged off for the day? Is anyone calling out often or clocking out early?
When you notice patterns in certain employees, you can take a hands-on approach to addressing the issue. Find out the source of low employee engagement so you can offer solutions.
It’s not always easy to gauge employee satisfaction in a hybrid work environment. Employee attendance systems can show you the signs that someone is struggling to keep up or fit in.
Payroll Simplification
Depending on the size of your company, you may face payroll complications each time paychecks are due. Accurate paychecks require that you know each employee’s:
- Pay structure (e.g., hourly or salary)
- Pay rate
- Use of paid vacation or sick leave
- Hours worked in the pay period
- Overtime earnings
Our attendance management software is easy to integrate with most payroll systems. All of the information above is transferred with ease, allowing your HR department to deliver accurate paychecks on time.
Location Tracking
So far, we’ve focused on tracking when your employees are working. What about tracking where they’re working? Certain TimeTrakGO software programs come with GPS tracking to increase employee accountability.
Knowing where your employees are when they’re on the clock can ensure compliance with location-sensitive positions. For example, you may require employees to work in-state or in a reciprocating state for tax reasons.
Employee GPS tracking is also a great tool for service-based work that involves frequent travel. You’ll never have to wonder if your employees showed up to an appointment with a client on time again.
TimeTrakGO Attendance Management Software Features
Still not sure if you need to track attendance and scheduling? Before we go, let’s discuss some of the features you can use with TimeTrakGO attendance management. Our packages can include:
- Digital time cards
- Shared scheduling calendars
- PTO requests and approvals/denials
- Secure log-in options including PIN entry and facial recognition
- GPS tracking
- Payroll integration
Please note that not all of these features are standard. Our customizable packages allow business owners and HR departments to get the technology that best suits their needs.
Optimize Workforce Management with TimeTrakGO
Flexibility is an asset to most business models and can attract dedicated employees. However, it can also create unique time-tracking concerns. Attendance management software is a great solution for employers looking for a modern approach to the old-school time clock.
TimeTrakGO has been revolutionizing time-tracking software since the late 1970s. We’ve risen to every change and challenge employers have faced in that time, producing time-tracking systems that are simply better than the rest. Start your 14-day trial today to see if TimeTrakGO is right for your business.
