How much is employee lateness costing your business?

Have you ever missed your train or gotten a flat tyre en route to work? Maybe your just not a morning person or you struggle to get the kids out for school before you head to the office?

Whatever the reason, when not measured and managed properly, employees’ lateness can cause businesses thousands of dollars each year in lost productivity and profits.

To understand exactly how much lateness could cost your organisation, let’s look at the example below.

Company ABC Pty Ltd has 150 employees.

10% of their workforce (15 employees) is persistently late for work by 10 minutes. Their average hourly pay is $25.00 p/h (10 minutes late represents $4.16)

Assuming there are 232 working days per year: 232 x 15 (late employees) x $4.16 ($ lost due to lateness) = $14,476.80 lost per year

Combine that with the lost productivity, extra overtime costs occurred when covering workload, and the order value of the contracts lost due to delays in delivery, and you can clearly see how just a few minutes lateness can really affect your bottom line.

So what can you do to address the issue? The Forum of Private Business proposes the following below steps:

1. Set boundaries

Your staff needs to know what you expect from them, therefore a clear lateness policy should be introduced and communicated across your workforce.

The policy should cover:

• The required standards of timekeeping, i.e. working hours, shift patterns, any flexi-time or flexible working arrangements
• Any consequences of persistent lateness
• What disciplinary action will be taken under the disciplinary procedure
• How your company will monitor time keeping, i.e. timesheets or clocking in machine
• If and how your staff will have to make up any time they have missed
• Who they should report lateness to if they know are going to be late and by when

2. Create a formal procedure

The Forum suggests that persistent lateness can often be resolved informally and the employee may be given an opportunity to improve.

This often proves to be a more effective way of resolving such an issue at an early stage - highlighting potential problems that you can quickly address and negating the need for an investigation and disciplinary meeting.

If after the informal action lateness continues to occur, it may create grounds for a formal disciplinary procedure.

3. Be fair and flexible

We’ve all been affected by unexpected events i.e. rail strikes, traffic accidents or inclement weather, which can impact on the time taken to travel to work.

Employers need to be realistic and understanding about occasional unavoidable problems with getting to work. They should always listen to employee’s reason for lateness, which may indicate problems concerning management, working relationships and work hours.

Where possible companies should plan ahead and be open to changing shift patterns, allowing temporary home-working or flexible working arrangements, if appropriate.

How to effectively monitor attendance and reduce the financial impact of Employee Tardiness

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if you monitor employees’ attendance and absence patterns their overall presence rate will generally improve.

An automated Time and Attendance system can help reduce employee lateness by effectively monitoring and analysing working time and absence patterns. I for one know that if I have to register my attendance in the morning, I make double sure I make it into the office on time!

An effective Time and Attendance system also allows you to set up specific rules relating to your business operation. For example, you could set up a rule whereby once a person arrives late to work by 7 minutes, the system rounds that figure up to 15 minutes, meaning 15 minutes worth of pay will be reduced from your employee’s salary.

Continue to our website to find out more information about automated Time andAttendance systems and absence management modules.

Spring Clean your HR and Employee Management Processes

With Summer on the way for us Southern Hemisphere folk – have you thought about giving your current HR and Employee Management processes a good Spring clean? 

Sit back and ask yourself: 

• Is it difficult to get meaningful information from your current systems? 
• Does the system lack integration with your other business applications? Need to enter the same data more than once across multiple systems e.g. Payroll, HR, ERP? 
• Are you still relying on spreadsheets to process payroll and create management reports? 
• Are you manually calculating award entitlements, different pay rates and overtime costs across multiple sites/departments? 
• Are you constantly bombarded with requests for leave or updates to employee records? 
• Could you easily implement Work from Home or Flexi-Time initiatives with your current setup? 

The Solution? 

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above problems maybe it's time you started looking for an automated Employee Management system that will meet and exceed your expectations. 

Companies generally invest in a Employee Management system to automate the capture and management of all employees’ clocking in and out times and attendance information. This data capture ensures that organisation are complying with all federal and state workplace legislation, such as employee entitlements and modern awards, without having to manage mountains of administrative paperwork. 

A customised scheduling function also allows you to separate work groups that are on different pay scales. While a direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors. 

Integrated Employee Self-Service capabilities allow staff to view holiday entitlements, apply for leave, and request updates to their personal records online 24/7 without having to engage an already busy HR department. The ability to clock in/out or on/off jobs via the Internet or Smart Phone would also allow you to keep track of employees working from home our out on the road. 

With all employee data, files and correspondence centrally stored, the filing and retrieval of vital information is quick and easily managed. This information can in turn be used to run reports on past and present data, such as training and development requirements. 

These are just some of the benefits of using an automated time and attendance system, for more information on how we can help improve your current processes visit us online today or call 1300 884 831 (+61 2 8762 7888 for those outside Australia)

Despite increasing adoption Biometric misconceptions still rife

A recent feature on AM, ABC Radio's flagship current affairs program, regarding a Melbourne Local Council’s plans to track employees' work hours with biometric technology garnered some interesting debate surrounding data privacy and security.

AM revealed that the City of Monash in Melbourne's south-east is considering vein scanning technology to capture time and attendance information for up to 100 library staff, including casuals.

The technology will capture the vein patterns in a person's fingers and store them as a template for future scans.

But while biometric technology like iris, fingerprint and vein scanning was once reserved for Hollywood and the stuff of sci-fi movies, isn’t it becoming more commonplace now?

With Public Sector agencies and corporate organisations around the country, such as Woolworths, already using biometric technology to check and verify the identities of their staff and record work hours. Even patrons at popular theme parks and venues, such as the Coogee Bay Hotel, are now required to present their fingers! (Read More: "You want a drink? Give us your fingerprints”)

So what’s the problem?

Judging by the feedback from the AM talk back show and the subsequent comments voiced by readers on ABC News, the vast majority are worried about privacy issues.

"They're concerned about where this information is going to be stored, what will happen with the information when they leave council, who owns the information, what's the legal ramifications," said Igor Grattan, Australian Services Union assistant branch secretary.

Indeed, this is an all to common reaction we, as Biometric Time and Attendance providers, come across when speaking to prospective clients and unions alike.

As Phil Scarfo, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Lumidigm Inc. explains, “Though most biometrics systems rely solely on templates, or mathematical representations of the physical characteristic, the general public is not aware of this fact. It is the misperception that people are storing fingerprint images in databases that creates concerns related to privacy.” (Read More: What’s behind the biometric template?)

As such, our presales process involves educating users and management that the multi-spectral biometric technology we utilise doesn't actually collect and store fingerprints.

Instead, when an employee enrols via our biometric clocking terminal, the system saves a mathematical representations of the fingerprint and reproduces this as a template. The template is then checked against those stored by the reader, for a possible match. If one is found, the employee’s registration is accepted - otherwise it is rejected.

Contrary to popular belief, this biometric template cannot be reconstructed back to the original fingerprint image.

If you would like to read more about common biometric misconceptions check out: “Dispelling the Myths About Biometrics: Misguided beliefs about biometrics should be investigated for proper understanding of the technology")

Isn’t it time you considered biometrics?

Biometrics can significantly improve the ROI associated with implementing an automated Time and Attendance solution. By utilising this technology oganisations can:

• Enhance site security – as no one without the proper identity is admitted, misplaced cards and staff borrowing “swipes” to gain access to controlled areas is no longer an issue
• Reduce time and attendance fraud – cut out ‘buddy clocking’ practices, where one employee clocks on for another
• Eliminate costs associated with physical ID card production and proximity fobs
• Facilitate accurate reporting – in the unfortunate event of an emergency supervisors have an up-to-the-minute view of exactly who is onsite/where they are located

Visit our website today for more information on our Biometric Time and Attendance systems.

Or feel free to join in the conversation on our Facebook page and Twitter.

Failure to comply with Fatigue Management laws costs Perth Truck company - how are you managing Fatigue?

Industry Search reports that a West Australian truck company has been fined $20,000 for failing to comply with fatigue management laws for its drivers.

Holm, trading as Cockburn Transport, employs drivers to transport freight across Australia on journeys that can take more than two weeks.

In July and August 2008, WorkSafe inspectors investigated the company's fatigue management practices and found it had failed to keep records of work time, breaks from driving or non-work time for trips undertaken by two drivers, and did not ensure that drivers observed fatigue management regulations on three occasions.

Interestingly, the company had been convicted of two similar charges and fined $10,000 in June 2007.

Acting WorkSafe WA commissioner Lex McCulloch said it was "disappointing" that some companies are still failing to comply with laws that have been in place since 1998.

Workplace fatigue is not isolated to the transport and logistics industry. Regardless of what sector you operate in, fatigue can significantly affect a worker’s ability to operate effectively, with side effects including reduced performance and productivity, and greater potential for workplace accidents.

Automated Time and Attendance systems can assist organisations with effective fatigue management, enabling them to proactively monitor staff work and break hours.

Employees have the ability to clock in/out or on/off jobs via wall mounted devices at the depot, head office or manufacturing plant, or via the Internet and mobile or wireless devices for remote staff. This attendance data is recorded and Supervisors and HR are sent an alert when an employee is approaching their work hour limit, enabling them to adjust rosters and shifts accordingly, and enforce minimum break times.

In addition, and automated Time and Attendance system can accommodate current workplace legislation and modern awards, as well as any organisation-specific work rules, and can easily accommodate any new legislative changes. This ensures that your staff are only permitted to work if they satisfy all the associated rules, providing you with ‘peace of mind’ that they are alert to perform their duties in a safe manner.

By automating annual reporting and maintaining a complete audit trail, an effective Time and Attendance system will also arm you with all the information needed in the unfortunate event of legal action.

Ask yourself, how does your fatigue management plan stack up? If you haven't got the processes in place maybe it's time you took a look at a system that will help safeguard your employees and your business. 

To find out more about how an automated Time and Attendance system could help you apply Fatigue Management procedures within your organisation check us out online, email sales@mitrefinch.com.au or call us on +61 2 8762 7888

Aussie Workers are being forced to work extra hours without compensation, how could a Time and Attendance System help you avoid a potential lawsuit?

A backlog of projects to get through, and pushed to deliver them within the required timeframes?

If this sounds like your workplace, it may come as little surprise that many Australian employees are being forced to work extra hours without being compensated, as revealed by a new ACTU survey. 

The poll of 42,000 employees, believed to be one of the largest ever conducted with Australian workers, has found that many are under increasing pressure at work.

ACTU President Ged Kearney told ABC Radio, "We have in fact what we call a productivity squeeze which means businesses are achieving productivity (gains) through a great deal of pressure on workers,"

And what's more worrying is that there is a large amount of unpaid work being done - "We are being told by our members that they are working harder than ever, longer than ever and not getting paid for that extra work," she said.

HRMorning.com in their recent “Unauthorized OT: One big pitfall for supervisors” article, also found that many supervisors are cutting corners to avoid racking up an expensive overtime bill, by either not properly recording employees’ over time hours or simply not paying employees for the extra work.

But if one of those employees decides to notify Fair Work Australia, it’s going to end up costing a lot more than a little overtime pay, as a number of companies have discovered of late (See our previous Blog Post).

Kearney added that, a large number of respondents, particularly those in casual or part time positions, feel obligated to put in the extra hours for fear of not getting shifts or additional work when they may need it.

"This survey shows that workers are working harder than ever and that in some ways they're getting exploited even though the legislation is there to protect them."

So what can you do to avoid costly workplace lawsuits?

Labour and Employment Law Expert, Bill Pokorny from the Wage & Hour Insights Blog (which is a  great read BTW) advises supervisors to:

• Ensure employees are compensated for all hours worked 
• Set realistic expectations i.e. they can’t pressure employees to “just get it done” by working off the clock 
• Verify employees’ time records regularly to make sure workers are properly reporting their time – as even where employees don’t keep accurate time records, companies could still be on the hook for unpaid OT, if a supervisor knew about it.

Could an automated Time and Attendance system help? 

An automated Time and Attendance system would provide a complete, up to the minute record of all employee time and attendance data, giving an accurate insight into how long employees are spending at the office, or on specific jobs and projects. 

For salaried staff, this would allow you to ensure they are compensated for extra hours worked outside of their normal working day (may be in the form of Time Off in Lieu etc..). 

By analysing overtime data and work records, you may also find that it could be more cost effective to bring in additional resources or contractor staff in times of high demand as opposed to paying high overtime rates.

In addition, with mobile and web-based Time and Attendance applications, you could introduce flexi-work arrangements and work from home initiatives, which enable employees to record their start and finish times, as well as allocate time to specific jobs/projects - regardless of their location. 

Continue to our website to find out more information about Time and Attendance systems as well as other workforce management alternatives that may help you address overtime issues within your organisation.

Alternatively feel free to call us on 1300 884 831 (Australia) or 09 363 9557 (NZ) 

Use of Project Contractors Skyrockets – How are you keeping track of your Contractor Staff?

In what might be a sign of the current economic climate, HC Online reports that many companies are now opting to keep a limited team of full time-permanent staff, and bring skilled contractors on board for special projects as they are required. 

An annual survey by Resources Global Professionals canvassed the opinions of Australian senior consultants who work on a project basis across a range of sectors. While the results revealed that senior project workers are increasingly in demand, 75% of senior project consultants admitted that they needed to be flexible with their pay rates for the period ending July 2011. 

62% of project consultants also indicated their services had been more demand than in the previous year. The financial services and resources sectors continue to offer the most project work, and despite the apparent decline of the Australian manufacturing sector, 28% of those surveyed predicted there would be project opportunities for them within this sector. 

The top three reasons given for businesses engaging contracted project professionals over the past 12 months were: 

1. Staff shortages causing inability to execute projects; 

2. Large scale projects requiring additional people; and 

3. Lack of in-house expertise 

Are you having trouble keeping track of your contractor staff? 

Struggling to keep track of paper timesheets and work records? A web-based time and attendance management system could be the answer to your problems.

A web-based time and attendance management system can easily track your contractor or consulting professional’s time. Workers simply log in and out electronically or via a smart mobile device, and assign their time to specific projects or tasks - providing management with valuable insight into a contractor’s daily activities as well as completed work, pending work, and the amount of time spent on certain projects. 

Sound like the system you’ve been searching for?  

Contact Mitrefinch today for more information on web-based time and attendance and other innovative employee management solutions

Mitrefinch Web-based Time and Attendance System - Online Timesheets