Efficient Time Tracking for Workforce Management

Effective time tracking extends beyond collecting employee clock-in and clock-out data. Instead, it integrates with a wide range of workforce management processes that can help your business improve productivity, boost project efficiency, better coordinate scheduling, and gauge individual vs. departmental achievements or areas for improvement. Gaining an understanding of how your employees spend their time on projects, tasks, and job responsibilities is just one part of the equation. With the right technologies, tools, and professional support, you can leverage time tracking data to make your workforce more efficient while adding convenience to their time & attendance practices on the job.

In this article, we’ll explore different time tracking methods, the major benefits of workforce software, and how time tracking can improve employee time management, productivity, engagement, and transparency for your business.

Time Tracking Methods

The size of your business, the industry in which it operates, and the composition of your workforce can all impact decisions regarding time tracking and other HR processes. Although manual time tracking or site-based time tracking may seem appropriate in certain circumstances, a digital and automated time tracking solution (suited for mobile, 24-7 use) often offers the most benefits. Let’s explore the pros and cons of each approach.

Manual Time Tracking 

Using this method, employees manually enter their work hours on paper documents or in spreadsheets. This is a “traditional” approach that is becoming increasingly cumbersome and obsolete for most businesses, particularly because it invites inaccuracies, disorganization, time theft, disputes regarding recorded hours, and is more time-consuming than other approaches. Often, it also detracts significant time from both employees and HR staff who must enter or process the data. It can lead to employee dissatisfaction due to the lack of a convenient time tracking option, and cause delays with preparing payroll (and subsequently making timely and accurate payments to employees).

Automated and Mobile Time Tracking

Using this approach, employees benefit from 24-7 access to a mobile, cloud-based portal that allows them to submit their timekeeping information from anywhere, or within certain “geofencing” parameters. This approach equally empowers employers, facilitating reports of historical data, easy integration with payroll and scheduling, productivity tracking, and much more.

What to Look for in Time Tracking Software

As you consider time tracking software options that would benefit your business, keep the following features in mind, which should be offered by any qualified provider:

• Intuitive platform – Any automated time tracking platform (software or app) should be easy to use, user-friendly, and require minimal training to begin use. Fundamentally, any time tracking tool should be streamlined to expedite the timekeeping process and allow you and your employees to focus on your existing and high-priority workflow.
• Customization Options – Remember to prioritize working with a provider that is capable of adapting to the specific needs of your business based on size, industry, as well as the jurisdiction(s) where it operates. This is particularly important if you need to build-in managerial permissions or compliance-based parameters that prevent issues regarding miscalculated daily hours, weekly hours, overtime, etc.
• Smooth Integration with Other HR Processes – Any time tracking software you implement should be easily integrated with your other HR processes like scheduling, payroll, workforce management, and much more. Rather than manually reentering employee data or other important information, HR integration from a qualified provider should make all of this data (and all of these processes) interconnected and seamless.
• Reporting Capabilities – A digital time tracking software or app empowers your business to generate reports with extensive historical data. This is essential for conducting productivity tracking on projects, departments, individual employees, and to monitor time and attendance trends more broadly.
• Mobile, 24-7 access – This is a foundational feature of any time tracking solution, which allows employees to log hours from any location with Wi-Fi access, granting your workforce greater flexibility, transparency, and convenience.

Major Benefits of Time Tracking

A comprehensive time tracking solution can help your business improve productivity and workforce management by leveraging historical data to conduct more accurate evaluations of projects, departments, employees, managers, and more – enabling you to make helpful adjustments for the future. The insights gained from reporting options can also help your business hone its project-based practices; analyze individual & group performance; and make more accurate cost estimates for future projects or ventures. All of these advantages ultimately lead to cost savings, more consistent fulfillment of deadlines, and more accurate estimates and billing.

How CAVU Enhances Workforce Productivity and Management 

In addition to the labor tracking, scheduling, and reporting benefits we’ve just discussed, CAVU offers a wide range of additional features to improve workforce management and productivity for your business. 

Our cloud-based, mobile platform offers all of the timekeeping features we’ve already explored, as well as the following specialized services and tools:

• Compliance specialization – Access to personalized support to assure compliance with local, state, and federal labor laws, including US Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations
  
  
• Direct Integration with Payroll – Reported hours flow directly into payroll processing without the need for additional systems or data entry.
  
  
• Platform Configuration Based on Workforce Composition – Whether you and your employees need to report hours remotely, on site, or at multiple or shifting locations, we help you configure your timekeeping to ensure accurate and integrated reporting.
  
  
• CAVU VoiceClock – This mobile app option allows your employees to clock in and out using a standard telephone. We also offer options for facial recognition, temperature scanning, and fingerprint entry (biometric time clocks).
  
  
• Increased Parameters and Insights – Whether you’d like to use geofencing to limit timekeeping entry parameters to certain locations, receive automated updates about hours approaching overtime, limit employee access to sensitive data, or explore labor trends by project, department, or job, CAVU provides the tools to accomplish each of these tasks.
  
  
• Streamlined Scheduling – CAVU’s scheduling tools make it intuitive and easy for supervisors or managers to set employee work schedules from any location, providing real-time information about employee availability to facilitate shift changes, shift trades, time-off requests, and enforcement of scheduling parameters for employees.

Simplify Time and Attendance with CAVU HCM

Ready to take control of your workforce management with efficient time tracking? Explore CAVU HCM's cutting-edge solutions tailored to your business needs. Click here for a free demo and discover how we can transform your time management strategy.