Clock-in Cheating
Vel Marie Santillan 7th Mar 2017
Monitoring employee activity can be tedious. Even with expensive attendance systems, employee clock-in cheating can’t be avoided. If you’re an SME, employee clock-in fraud is a scenario you need to pay close attention to. Here are some of the scenarios you need to be aware of:
Buddy Punching
Stella is running late and calls Mary to clock her in on time so the tardiness isn’t recorded. Andrew needs to leave a half hour before the closing shift ends because of a date, and Marco agrees to clock him out at the right time. Leslie is still eating her lunch but asks Dennis to clock her back in when the hour is up. These are just some of the examples of buddy punching, which is the hardest form of time clock fraud for you to monitor.
Employee Break Fraud
It isn’t easy to monitor employee breaks. When employees are required to clock out for a 30 minute or 60 minute lunch period, it’s important to make sure they actually do so. It’s easy to cheat the system by not clocking out, or by clocking back in after they get their food and then proceeding to use the rest of the hour to eat it. This is why you should be aware of which employees are on lunch at any given time, and whether they are clocked out of the system.
Employee Misuse of Time
One of the biggest ways employees cheat the time clock is simply by using their paid time to do things other than work. If you have workers who use computers, there is software that you can install which will monitor their activity and let you know if they’re surfing the web instead of working. Otherwise, it’s important to set strict guidelines when it comes to personal time during the workday. No matter what kind of timekeeping system you use, it will work better when there’s a culture of honesty in the workplace.
What to do?
Attendance systems such as RFIDs or biometrics can address employee clock-in fraud but these will most likely cost you more money to install. You need a payroll system that also acts as an attendance system. But until that happens, you’ll have to stay hyper aware of where your staff is and what they’re doing, and that can be difficult for even the most diligent. You’re trying to run a company, not babysit.
Credit: Modified photo from c_kc_k | man run