Time and attendance are vital aspects, and they matter to any business. A workforce is the heartbeat of any business, and how employers manage their time and attendance affects the overall productivity, sales, and business image. But how effective do employers or managers do it? Statistics show that managers waste about 140 hours and spend 20% of their time annually creating manual work schedules for their employees.

However, how most job roles are undertaken has changed as automation gains more traction in workplaces. According to a report (Automation in the Workplace), nearly 70% of workers believe that the greatest opportunity of automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work.

Therefore, this post explores the challenges of manual scheduling and how automating time and attendance systems can benefit a business. More importantly, it outlines excellent insights on what to look for in time and attendance tracking software.

What are some of the Common Employee Scheduling Problems/ Issues?

Employee scheduling can be much more complex and time-consuming than it seems. There are several requirements managers in charge have to fulfill, from allocating time-offs, making necessary adjustments, and managing overtime hours to shift distribution. Suppose scheduling is a manual process; there is a likelihood of making certain mistakes and dealing with a few issues.

Such problems include:

1. Overscheduling

Sometimes the person in charge may schedule staff for unnecessary overtime or have too many cases of “clopen” (close and open). Such instances may affect your employees’ health and payroll budgets. Overscheduling could also lead to poor time management in the workplace.

2. Scheduling at the last minute

Making and distributing a schedule at the last minute is a common problem, especially if a manager has many other roles. Also, forgetting to schedule a shift is a common mistake. As a result, employees have minimal time to plan their personal activities in advance and might also miss attending to their role with an excuse that by the time they got the schedule, lit was late.

Availing of a schedule a week or two in advance is one best practice for employees’ lives.

3. Shift swapping

Allowing employees to swap shifts on their own in the workplace is good but can easily cause disorganization, confusion, and inconvenience. Without the right tools, shift swapping can be a complex task.

4. Unequal shift distribution

In most businesses, some shifts may be less desirable than others. However, playing favorites in allocating some shifts is a big mistake in scheduling. Additionally, not scheduling staff based on their roles and experience may easily lead to employee turnover and absenteeism.

5. Ignoring employees needs

It’s a mistake to ignore employees’ work-life balance when scheduling roles. It’s easy for a manager to ignore employees’ availability, vacation days, and time-off requests. At the same time, it can be hard to track time off and vacations.

6. Spending too much time making a schedule  on excel or using paper and pen

Scheduling can be a hassle depending on the number of employees and roles available in a business. It even takes more time if you decide to do it manually using a pen and paper or on excel templates.

Generally, this approach only increases your odds of making errors, including all of the above outline mistakes.

How to Easily Solve the Above Problems/ Issues: A Scheduling Software

As outlined above, scheduling can be complex, and doing it manually makes you more prone to more challenges and mistakes. Therefore, automating this role using scheduling software such as Workpay is the ultimate solution to solve scheduling issues for any business.

Scheduling software helps employers and managers increase efficiency in several ways, including;

·   Creating an optimal schedule in the workplace

·   Keeping staff updated

·   Helps employers remain compliant with employment laws and regulations

·   Eliminates easy-to-make errors

·   Reduce employee turnover

Notably, it assists managers in keeping track of the time and attendance of their staff during working hours.

What is an Automated Time and Attendance System?

An automated time and attendance system is a cloud-based software or mobile app that tracks employees’ worked hours and transmits the same data/information for payroll processing. It also gives managers and HR leaders real-time reporting and insights, especially when dealing with employees whose jobs are offsite or remote workers.

Employers, managers, or supervisors can keep an eye on employees’ work from anywhere in the world. Usually, employees clock in and out using authentication methods such as biometrics or passwords on-site. Offsite workers and remote employees clock in and out on mobile devices through a website or an app.

More importantly, an automated time and attendance system is a tool that helps managers and employers create schedules and manage vacation requests, among others.

Overall, an automated time and attendance system offers three core functionality to any business, i.e., time management, attendance tracking, and scheduling.

Workpay is an ideal example of a time and attendance system that offers businesses modern time-tracking and scheduling solutions. It’s a system that easily integrates with other employers’ systems, including biometric devices or mobile devices with GPS locations. In addition to receiving real-time updates, Workpay’s time and attendance system are easily customizable to fit employers’ needs.

What are the Benefits of Using Time and Attendance Software?

Here are six benefits of using an automated time and attendance system for your business:

1. Few administrative errors

Unlike manual time systems and attendance tracking, automated time and attendance software helps minimize the possible human and administrative errors likely to occur when scheduling, time tracking, and making payroll. There is the minimal hassle of correcting human errors or struggles to read different handwriting.

2. Improved regulatory compliance

Compliance is a vital key to business survival and success. Automated time and tracking systems help comply with some necessary employment laws and regulations within the jurisdiction of your business.

For instance, such software helps employers schedule work appropriately and avoid overscheduling. Also, it helps minimize administrative errors in timesheets and could lead to incorrect paychecks.

3. Increased productivity and proficiency

Overall, time and attendance software help employers and managers schedule work and update employees' work hours easily. Additionally, the same data is transmitted to help in the payroll process. Therefore, the entire process is easy and saves time.

Notably, it provides real-time tracking and data collection.

4. Enhances transparency

An automated time and attendance tracking system enhances transparency between employers and employees. Additionally, it helps managers start conversations with employees about their work results with supporting data. Consequently, it contributes to employee satisfaction.

More importantly, it builds trust between a client and the business when they have access to information on how long an employee worked on a particular project.

5. Offer flexibility

The workplace landscape has changed significantly over the past few years, whereby remote work is now highly embraced worldwide. For this reason, businesses have adopted time and attendance software due to its flexibility in time tracking for remote workers and office employees.

6. Cost-effective

Studies show that over 75% of companies lose money from buddy punching (one employee clocks in for another), and the average employee steals about 4.5 hours per week from their employer.

Using time and attendance software saves the business money. How? Due to its effectiveness and minimal errors in the payroll, employees are compensated appropriately, including their overtime dues. A business will not be paying for unaccounted hours or unauthorized overtime in the long run. Additionally, this system makes it difficult for an employee to clock in for a co-worker.

What to Look for in a Time and Attendance Tracking Software?

Before subscribing to any time and attendance tracking solution, ensure the software or system offers the following features:

1. Ease of use

Employers must consider a system that is easy to use. Does it have a user-friendly interface? Is it easy for all employees to log in to start tracking their work? These are among the critical things you ought to consider.

2. Integration with HR and payroll systems

Consider a solid time and attendance system that can integrate with your business's HR, payroll or other third-party systems.

3. Employee schedule management

How easy can you create shifts at the same time? Can you easily adjust time boundaries? Can this system automate shift rotations? How easy can a system notify employees when there are changes in the schedule? Employers should consider a system or software that can meet some of these requirements to ensure employee scheduling and management effectiveness.

4. Leave or absence management

Employers should prioritize a system that enables employees to check their leave balances, request leaves, roll over their leave days, and take days off per company policies. Additionally, it should allow the HR team and other managers to approve or reject leave requests smoothly.

5. Real-time reporting

An ideal time and attendance system should have the capability of real-time reporting to the HR team or managers. Consequently, this would help ease employee management.

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Final Thought

Time tracking and attendance tracking are among the key roles any business should consider automating. It’s more effective, proficient, and cost-effective compared to manual tracking. More importantly, it helps employers and managers save time for other vital organizational tasks.

If you own a business within Africa and want to make the most of your team’s time and keep your employees happy, consider using Workpay’s time and attendance software. It’s the ultimate choice for simplifying time management, scheduling, and attendance tracking.

Schedule a demo today and see the Workpay difference in your business.