Highlights
- Time theft occurs when employees are paid for time they did not work. This may include buddy punching, using work hours for personal activities, and other ways of stealing company time.
- Implementing robust time and attendance systems and developing clear timekeeping policies can help companies prevent time fraud at work.
- EPAY is a leading provider of time and attendance solutions for the distributed, hourly workforce. Get a free demo today to learn how we can help your business!
Do you know how much time your employees are really working? Time theft is more prevalent than you think. From subtle distractions, like taking an extended lunch break, to fudging their hours on timesheets, employees find ingenious ways of stealing time from work.
Learn how to recognize the signs of employee time theft and take action.
What Is Time Theft?
Time theft occurs when an employee is paid for work they have not actually done, or for time they were not actually at work. With today’s growing mobile workforce and easy access to the internet, time theft is a bigger issue for employers than ever before. So big, in fact, that it’s costing billions of dollars in lost productivity annually.
According to a Robert Half International study, employers lose about 4.5 hours every week per employee to time theft.
Employee time theft is not confined to one type of person, title, or industry. Some of the most common ways employees steal time from work include:
- Fudging their time on timesheets or waiting to punch out
- Buddy punching
- Taking long lunches or extended breaks
- Using company time for personal activities
- Spending time on the internet
- Starting late
7 Common Time Theft Tactics (and How to Stop Them)
1. Beat the (Time) Clock
It’s not uncommon for employees to fudge their time or round up their minutes when completing paper timesheets. In fact, it probably happens more often than not. Some employees even find ways around basic electronic timekeeping systems—like waiting to punch out until the next quarter hour.
How to prevent it:
- Invest in a robust time and attendance system that can track employee time accurately, including start and end times, breaks, and overtime.
- Establish clear timekeeping policies. Outline expectations for punctuality, attendance, and break times in your employee handbook. Ensure employees understand and adhere to these policies.
- Regularly review time and attendance records to identify any discrepancies or unusual patterns.
2. Buddy Punching
Buddy punching is a big problem for many employers. It’s when one friend punches in for another—even those with time clocks. It’s often as easy as one employee giving his swipe card to a pal so they can punch in on their behalf.
The problem is even worse for employers that track time via paper timesheets, as it’s almost too easy for one employee to sign in for a friend.
How to prevent it:
- Invest in advanced biometric time clock systems that use fingerprint, facial recognition, or hand geometry technology, making it difficult for employees to clock in for others.
Check out EPAY’s cutting-edge time and attendance solutions, featuring biometric time clocks and a mobile app with GPS equipped with facial recognition technology and fingerprint readers.
3. Long Lunches and Extended Breaks
Extending authorized mealtimes and breaks is another common form of time theft. A 30-minute lunch can easily turn into a 45-minute lunch, especially when employees are not required to clock out for their lunch breaks.
Particularly costly are smoke breaks. According to a study by Ohio State University, each smoker costs employers an average of $5,816 more than non-smokers, largely due to breaks and lost productivity.
How to prevent it:
- Implement break policies. Clearly define the duration of lunch breaks and other breaks in your employee handbook.
- Use a robust time clock software that tracks employee start and end times, as well as break durations.
4. “Goofing Off”
Employees face a wide variety of temptations throughout the workday, which can amount to lost work time. This includes:
- Too much socializing/chatting
- Excessive personal phone calls
- Unauthorized or extended breaks
- Napping on the job (29% of workers report falling asleep while at work, according to a National Sleep Foundation survey)
To minimize unproductive behavior in the workplace, consider the following strategies:
- Clearly communicate expectations regarding workplace behavior and productivity. This includes creating specific guidelines for phone usage, social interactions, and break times.
- Build a positive and engaging work environment that motivates employees to be productive (starting from leadership!)
- Implement time-tracking software to monitor employee activity and identify potential productivity issues.
5. Beware of the Internet
The Internet creates unique challenges for employers, as many employees are tempted to misuse company time for personal activities. Too many employees spend too much time:
- Checking personal email
- Online shopping
- Playing games online
- Operating another business on company time
- Using social media
Social media is a major employee distractor and a popular form of time theft. Productivity drops by 1.5% when staff can access Facebook at work, according to a study by Nucleus Research.
How to prevent it:
- Define acceptable internet usage policies and communicate them to all employees. This involves specifying what websites and activities are allowed and which are prohibited during work hours.
- Use internet monitoring software to identify excessive browsing, social media usage, and other unproductive behaviors.
- Block access to non-work-related websites, such as social media platforms, online shopping sites, and gaming websites.
6. Swipe Card Shenanigans
Time clock swipe cards are supposed to be a time-tracking tool. Ironically, some employees use their swipe cards as a tool for not being tracked.
If you’re using time clocks with swipe cards, your managers probably hear plenty of excuses like this:
“I forgot my swipe card.”
“I lost my swipe card.”
“I didn’t commit time theft; the time clock just wouldn’t take my swipe card.”
“So-and-so lost their time card, so I loaned them mine.”
Here’s how to address this issue:
- Invest in biometric time and attendance systems, eliminating the need for swipe cards and reducing the potential for time theft.
- In the meantime, restrict the number of swipe cards issued to each employee, and require employees to report lost or stolen swipe cards immediately.
7. Hide and Seek
When employees are on the move—drivers, landscapers, home health aides, for example—it’s especially difficult to know if they’re really where they’re supposed to be. They could stop at Starbucks for a few minutes, go home to let the dog out, or not even show up to work at all. If you don’t have checks and balances in place, it’s easy for workers to disappear off the radar. Often, employers don’t find out until a customer complains, or it becomes painfully clear that the work isn’t getting done.
To effectively monitor and manage remote or mobile workers, consider the following strategies:
- Use GPS tracking systems to monitor the location of your mobile workforce.
- Implement a time and attendance system with geo-fencing capabilities. This technology can automatically track employee locations and verify that they are within designated work zones.
- Develop clear time clock guidelines for remote and mobile workers, including expectations for productivity, timekeeping, and adherence to company policies.
Preventing Time Theft: Best Practices for Employers
Time theft can significantly impact your company’s bottom line. Understanding its root causes is key to mitigating this issue.
Here are some best practices for employers to prevent time theft:
- Make sure employees are clearly aware of the rules. While it may seem common sense that clocking in for someone else is inappropriate, it’s never a bad idea to remind employees that such actions are not allowed and can result in disciplinary action.
- Set expectations. If employees are not working when they should, it may be that they do not clearly understand their responsibilities. Downtime can be used in a variety of ways such as cleaning, organizing, checking in with clients, etc.
- Follow through with disciplinary procedures. While it’s okay to let minor hiccups slide every now and again, it’s important to not allow consistent time theft to go unchecked. Following through with disciplinary procedures can prevent bad behavior from turning into a habit.
- Set a good example. People and employees tend to replicate the behavior of those around them. If, for example, employees see management consistently taking extended breaks, they may see that as the norm. Setting a good example will instill the proper standards of behavior in the work environment.
- Implement robust time-tracking solutions. Using time-tracking and attendance software can help automate many processes for tracking employee work performance and can be an indispensable tool for remote employees.
Is Time Theft Costing You? EPAY Can Help
The true cost of time theft extends beyond the increased labor costs associated with fraudulent hours or minutes reported by employees. Employee time theft can damage employee morale, hinder workforce productivity, and impede your business’s ability to achieve its goals or serve its customers.
EPAY offers advanced time and attendance solutions for employers with distributed workforces—the ones that are the toughest to track and particularly vulnerable to time theft. Our innovative technology, including biometric time clocks and mobile apps with GPS tracking, ensures accurate timekeeping and accountability.
Take control of your workforce. Schedule a demo to see how EPAY can help you optimize your time and attendance processes.
