9 Team Timekeeping & Tracking Best Practices for 2024

Being a strong manager is more than leading your team. It’s also important that your workers’ time is tracked accurately. When time tracking for your staff isn’t done properly, this creates payroll issues, potential labor compliance issues, and frustrated employees. 

To avoid those headaches, save time, and help build an efficient organization, here are 9 best practices for time tracking with employees. 

1. Create Fair Clock-in and Clock-out Rules

Fair clock-in and clock-out rules are essential to make employees feel like they’re being treated with respect, fairness, and are trusted. 

Fair clock-in and clock-out rules may include details like:

• Start and End Times: Employees must clock in within a 5-minute window before their scheduled start time and clock out within a 5-minute window after their scheduled end time. Employees are paid to the minute.
• Grace Periods: A 10-minute grace period is allowed for late arrivals or early departures, but it is not paid time.
• Overtime: Employees must obtain prior approval from their supervisor to work overtime. Unauthorized overtime is not compensated.
• Breaks: Employees must clock out for unpaid meal breaks of 30 minutes and clock in when they return. Breaks are mandatory and required. Short breaks (up to 15 minutes) are paid and do not require clocking out.

Document this in your time clock policy in your employee handbook. The rules need to be easy to find and follow, so employees can abide by them.

Lastly, make sure these rules align with any labor laws or regulations your region has for clock-ins and clock-outs.

• Canada Federal Labour Standards
• US Summary of Major Labor Laws

Recommended Reading: How to Handle a No Call No Show Policy

2. Use Strategies to Encourage Time Clock Usage

To encourage time clock usage at work, it’s best to simplify access with easy-to-use tablets or mobile apps and clearly communicate the benefits, such as accurate payroll. 

Address the main employee concerns, usually around privacy and trust, by emphasizing that tracking is for operational efficiency, not micromanagement.

Make it easy for staff by providing training on the policy and tie incentives for consistent use to motivate and encourage time clock usage and uptake.

Encouraging time clock usage is an on-going process, especially if you’ve just begun rolling out staff time and attendance software. 

3. Follow Laws and Regulations & Set Up Alerts

Compliance with labor laws and regulations is non-negotiable. Get in trouble here and you could be facing severe legal action and fines. In order to avoid issues, it’s best to set up alerts or notifications that flag when an employee is:

• Working overtime;
• Working over union-specified work limits;
• Not receiving proper breaks;
• Not taking off required time-off.
• Etc.,

Or, there may be laws and regulations about how time clocking or time tracking of employees is done. For example, an employee may only be encouraged to use a time and attendance software, but not mandated due to current union agreements or local regulations. 

Lastly, keep detailed records of employee punch times for several years, so if you need to perform a time audit, you can. Again, the best way to do this is with a SaaS that can store all this information to avoid the hassle of internal document management. 

4. Ditch the Spreadsheets and Paper Timecards

With all the tech options available these days, it’s time to move to a proper software to help you track and auto schedule employees. 

Not only does it help the business automate manual processes, these softwares ensure a much better experience for your employees. 

Staff shouldn’t be filling out paper timesheets at the end of their work week. A study by Intuit found that 13% of employees forget to track hours or submit their hours. 

For managers or payroll teams, it can be easy for numbers to get missed or paper to get misplaced. Data can be entered wrong by accident, causing trickle down effects that lead to wrong payouts and payroll complaints by your staff. This also puts added pressure on your HR team. 

For example, employees can clock in using biometric data, reducing the risk of buddy punching. Digital records are also easily accessible for audits and reviews, ensuring that all timekeeping data is accurate and up-to-date.

Recommended Reading: What to Look For in a Time & Attendance Solution

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5. Prioritize Employee Privacy

When it comes to employee personal information, it’s important you keep their time logs, clock-in and out times, or any biometric or GPS data private. If employees are submitting paper timesheets to managers or payroll teams, make sure it’s not left in the open for others to view walking by.

If you’re using something like GPS tracking, use it only for roles that require location verification and inform employees about how their data is being used and stored. 

Transparency and privacy are two key aspects to abide by.

6. Offer Flexible Time Tracking Options

Offering various methods for clocking in and out, such as mobile apps, desktop interfaces, and biometric clocks, can improve compliance and reduce frustration. When employees have convenient and reliable options, they are more likely to adhere to timekeeping policies.

Flexibility in timekeeping and schedules can significantly enhance employee satisfaction and compliance. Evolia’s system provides multiple clock-in and clock-out options, such as mobile apps and desktop interfaces.

For example, mobile workers can clock in via the mobile app, while on-site employees can use stationary time clocks, with biometric options. This way, employees aren’t hesitant or annoyed by the time & attendance software.

Make sure all employees, even those with disabilities, can equally use your clock-in and clock-out options.

7. Conduct Regular Audits and Reviews

Regular audits of timekeeping records help identify patterns of misuse or discrepancies. Across an organization, frequent manual adjustments to time records or repeated tardiness can indicate underlying issues. Addressing these issues will not only save time for payroll staff but also alleviate managers of troubling situations. 

8. Integrate Timekeeping with HR and Payroll Systems

Integrating your timekeeping data with HR and payroll systems ensures smooth operations and reduces administrative burdens. For example, overtime hours logged in the timekeeping system can directly influence payroll calculations, reducing manual adjustments. This integration also ensures that all employee records are consistent and up-to-date across systems.

9. Proactively Identify and Address Timekeeping Issues

Regularly analyzing your timekeeping data helps identify and address recurring issues and patterns such as frequent lateness, unauthorized overtime, or obvious buddy punches.

Address these issues proactively by investigating the root cause and implementing corrective measures. For example, if certain employees frequently clock in late, consider moving the stationary time clock, adjusting start times, or addressing individual timeliness issues with employees. 

A big mistake made with employee time tracking is avoiding feedback from staff on areas of potential improvement. Employees may find it hard to punch-in if the wifi was down and the geofencing for the mobile app was non-responsive. Or if the system doesn’t let them clock in because shift swaps are never reviewed in time, this is good feedback to know. 

Final Thoughts

Implementing these best practices in time clocking and time & attendance management can significantly reduce the risks of time theft, buddy punching, and other time clock issues. 

By addressing these issues proactively, you can improve overall operational efficiency, enhance employee trust, and protect your organization from the financial impacts of inaccurate timekeeping.