
Most people are familiar with employee time theft, but people often underestimate the impact of it. Studies have found that employee time theft can increase the gross annual payroll costs for a United States company by as much as 7%! Considering how bare the margins are for some businesses, that can mean the difference between failure and success!
Of course, a problem that big has attracted a lot of attention. Experts put their heads together to devise several systems to help successfully manage employee time theft.
Learning more about these proven solutions to time theft can help you decrease unnecessary business costs. Read on to learn all about these proven ways to successfully deal with employee time theft at your company!
1. Prevent Time Theft With Clear Rules
Sometimes, time theft is not fully intentional. When rules are unclear, people will often start to bend them. You can reduce instances of bent rules by making rules as clear as possible.
That means giving a clear definition of time theft to your employees. Once people know exactly what constitutes time theft, they will be less likely to tell themselves that they can engage in a time theft practice without it truly being time theft.
Make sure to be detailed in your definition of time theft. Provide clear examples and check to make sure that your employees understand them.
2. Check up on Your Employees
Once your rules are in place, you can help reduce time theft by occasionally checking if employees are following the rules or not. If employees know that you may check on them, they will probably not want to risk the chance of getting caught.
3. Apply Powerful Software Tools to Reduce Time Theft
Time theft is easy to commit with old-fashioned technology. Employees can always have someone else insert their timesheet for them.
However, modern software does not allow for this kind of gaming of the system. You can use software that only allows employees to clock in with a cell phone, for example.
No matter what your business situation is, there is probably a software solution that can help you prevent time theft.
The more that you understand about the cost of employee time theft, the more you might want to prioritize figuring out how to deal with employee time theft within your own business. Setting up a consistent time theft policy with clear consequences for stealing time at work can make sure that everybody in your business is on the same page.
One of the advantages of biometric attendance systems is that they can disincentivize stealing time at work and allow for fair time theft punishment.
Understand the Most Effective Ways to Avoid Employee Time Theft
We hope that learning more about preventing employee time theft has been helpful for you. Sometimes, the things that are costing a business the most are the ones that are the most subtle. Time theft often goes unseen, which can make it very difficult to figure out why a business is not flourishing more than it is.
Check out our other articles to learn more about other business insights.