| In business there's probably not much more | | | | Not having an iron-clad method of authenticating |
| important than the time it takes to complete a | | | | an employee's time is a problem. In time and |
| task. Tracking employee time has a long history. | | | | attendance tracking, having an employee's friend |
| Check the history of time clocks in Wikipedia, | | | | punch his time card when he's late or leaving early |
| you'll learn that the founding companies of IBM | | | | is a real problem. And at the end of a week or |
| made the first mechanical punch time clocks, and | | | | time period, employees can sign fraudulent time |
| later there were more sophisticated devices like | | | | cards or that of their buddy. And they have little |
| proximity, badge swipe or biometric time clocks. | | | | incentive to do a good job here. The more lax |
| What it does not tell you is the how slow the | | | | they are punching the clock, the more they and |
| marketplace has been to adopt new "technology" | | | | their supervisors have to initial time cards with |
| in time tracking. Why? Because what's tried, true | | | | corrections, and the whole process grinds down |
| and proven is difficult to replace from the | | | | to become slower and more costly. What's |
| standpoint of 1) cost 2) risk and 3) inertia. | | | | worse, with more lapses in punching clocks in real |
| Today, after fifteen years of the Internet | | | | time, employee and supervisor memories become |
| revolution, the next wave, "web-based" | | | | more severely tested. Fraud is not always the |
| technology, is calling your name. But before you | | | | culprit. Accuracy starts to suffer. In the United |
| begin to evaluate where web-based applications | | | | States, physical signatures carry a lot of weight |
| are appropriate or sensible, we need to ask some | | | | legally. But beside providing legal cover, they often |
| questions about how your manual data processing | | | | foster an environment of white lies and fibbing |
| is working (or not) for your organization. | | | | that gets further endorsed by managers who |
| Data collection: | | | | have little choice but to go along with the system. |
| Why are you using manual data collection | | | | |
| methods? What are the advantages? Are there | | | | 3.Processing: Policy and Rules |
| data loss problems? | | | | Many organizations rationalize that they manually |
| Authentication: | | | | process policies and rules because they are so |
| Are there data forms or other documents being | | | | variable and complex. Generally, these approaches |
| used and do they require signatures? In manual | | | | do not scale well and do so at great expense. |
| systems, signatures legally provide data | | | | Another problem with manual rules processing is |
| authentication. But from an operational standpoint | | | | that it often takes place in payroll departments |
| does a signature truly authenticate data? What | | | | after supervisor approvals. |
| are the risks and costs of unauthenticated data? | | | | 4.Approvals/Rejections, Review, Oversight |
| Processing: | | | | Manual approval of time cards requires |
| In your organization, does the processing of time | | | | supervisors to monitor employee overtime or |
| and work data lead to somebody getting billed, | | | | double time in their heads, if at all. Or worse, they |
| paid, costed, fined, suspended, or terminated? | | | | might not be able to monitor more complicated |
| Given that one or more of these can result, is | | | | rules or calculations at all. With manual time cards, |
| business as usual okay? | | | | it is time consuming for supervisors to monitor |
| Reviews and Corrections: | | | | time and attendance daily, often opting for end of |
| Does this data require reviews and approvals? | | | | week reviews of time cards, initialing corrections |
| Does it require rejections or corrections? What | | | | for the "missed punch," the "I forgot to punch" |
| are the costs to review this information manually? | | | | and other incidents that need to be corrected. Of |
| And what happens when managers have no | | | | course, memory failure at the end of the week |
| bandwidth to do so? What data falls off the | | | | often conspires to hurt attendance accuracy. |
| table? What gets missed? What decisions do not | | | | 5.Sending It Somewhere Else |
| get made? | | | | After all is said and done, time, attendance and |
| Where Does It Need To Go: | | | | task data is collected for various reasons, all of |
| Does the data need to be sent somewhere else | | | | which are very important. Manual processes |
| on a scheduled basis or to meet a deadline? Are | | | | require certain "built-in" inefficiencies to work |
| there "built-in" corrections and adjustments that | | | | properly. Most payrolls build in three to four days |
| are unavoidable because the process is slow? | | | | of slack because of slow data collection, slow |
| As you probably know, there are several areas | | | | approvals, and double data entry. Some even |
| of pain in manual time tracking. | | | | have employees "guesstimate" their hours for the |
| The Five Pitfalls of Manual Time Tracking | | | | last two to three days of a time period creating |
| 1.Data Collection: "Slow Is Unsteady and Loses | | | | even more need for corrections. |
| The Race" | | | | Conclusion For This Post |
| In the physical world of manual time keeping, data | | | | At every step of a manual time tracking process |
| integrity problems come in the form of lost, | | | | there is inefficiency: data loss or distortions, lack |
| damaged or destroyed time cards or timesheets. | | | | of authentication, arduous administrative |
| There are unavailable fax machines, busy signals, | | | | processing of rules and policies, supervisors having |
| faulty delivery at the other end, snail mail or | | | | to spend time babysitting time cards more than |
| worse. You might think manual data collection is | | | | managing, and extra cost and effort to process |
| inexpensive, but it has hidden costs in time and | | | | payroll more slowly. |
| money. Problems in the beginning (time data | | | | We should expect that web-based automation of |
| capture) infect later stages of the process such | | | | time tracking will be helpful. But the actual benefits |
| as.... | | | | when understood within this framework will be |
| 2.Authentication: "Buddy Punching" Problems and | | | | quite surprising. |
| John Hancock | | | | |