Tracking Employee Time

Whether you work for a small office or a large organization, tracking employee time always seems to be an issue.  As office managers, we do not have the time to baby-sit employees, yet if we don't monitor time, certain employees will take advantage.

I have worked for companies who use punch clocks, time-management software, timesheets where every billable hour must be recorded, timesheets with hours only, you name it.  There are issues with every single one of these options.  People are forgetful and don't punch in or out.  Some employees do not fill out their timesheets daily and then conveniently forget they were out for four hours three days ago.

Unfortunately, monitoring under any of these scenarios has to be done.  I do not condone waiting by the reception desk to see when people arrive for work.  This is not productive and does not create a healthy working environment.  If you have a problem employee, speak with them directly but don't punish everyone for one employee.

I firmly believe in documentation, that way there are no miscommunications between the office manager and the employee.  If someone is to be out of the office, have them send you an email and add it to the calendar.  I use Outlook and a paper calendar.  I set up my personal Outlook calendar to be the office calendar and give everyone access rights to view it.

At the end of the pay period, I review timesheets in conjunction with the Outlook calendar as well as my paper calendar and as can always be expected, someone has not documented time off.  I don't think anyone is purposefully deceitful, they just don't fill out their timesheets on a daily basis and I have to send out reminders almost weekly.

What do you use for your business and how is it working for you?  I would appreciate hearing some feedback and will do a follow-up to this article.