Time Clock Software Best Practices

For what it's worth, here is a bit of insight from our perspective, echoed by the many thousands of users that have joined us in implementing Crew Console as a time-entry or time-tracking solution:

Cost to change:

It's human nature, people resist change! It's uncomfortable, unsettling, and full of unknowns. "if it ain't broke don't fix it' .. There is a healthy skepticism of software in the trades. You have likely dealt with this regularly in your role in IT. This resistance makes software rollout especially challenging. Keep this in mind when selecting a time-entry solution. Is there a trial period where you can fully evaluate the app before committing? What is the onboarding process like per employee? Does it require a lot of tedious executables or downloads on all devices? Is it simple to learn? Does EVERYONE benefit from it, particularly the field employees expected to use it? Time Clock Software should improve quality of life not degrade.

Cultural Impact:

This one easily gets overlooked when implementing a time-entry solution. It is very tempting from an administrative perspective to take a heavy-handed approach to monitor and control employees. There are many different features geared towards this: GPS tracking, Biometric Data collection, Geo-Fencing, Facial Recognition and more.. all in an attempt to force accountability. Employees CHAFE under a 'big-brother-is-watching-you' approach, it feels invasive to privacy and can lead to a toxic culture of trying to beat the system.. which is quite surprisingly easy to do with GPS location-spoofing apps. This is especially felt when switching from a high-trust system of paper timesheets. These features are sold to prevent employees from 'stealing' or 'cheating' hours.. if this is a problem in your company then it is a CULTURAL and VALUES problem, and not a problem that is going to simply be fixed with tighter process controls.

The most effective way to inspire & motivate accountability is to have a company CULTURE and VALUE system that rewards employees based upon merit and productivity. This is accomplished with a transparent and goal-oriented process, where everyone knows what 'winning' is and what is the progress towards the goals. In this way it is clear to employees what impact their actions, and those of their co-workers, are having on achieving company objectives. This inspires them to hold both themselves AND their co-workers accountable, especially if there is a nice bonus waiting if they hit their goals!

Actionable, Timely, & ACCURATE information:

In Crew Console there is a real-time system of checks-and-balances, where foreman can review and approve each of their employees time-entries, and administrators can review and approve the foreman's' submissions. They can also see total hours allocated to jobs and tasks on that job and compare vs. a goal that has been budgeted to that job/task. If at any time they are behind on pace or they exceed the hourly goal this is quickly brought to their attention while there is still time to address it in the field before it is too late.

Administrative burden:

Reconciling hours for payroll can be a behemoth task.. employees easily forget to submit time, they enter time to the incorrect job or task, and 'syncing' with offline systems can be a huge issue. Switching from paper to an app doesn't make this disappear! When selecting a time-entry solution look for features that take into account addressing these real-world situations. A system that facilitates a self-reconciling process cuts down on the office administrators from having to 'baby-sit' the field employees. We have many successful case-studies of taking construction companies with several hundred employees from barely able to make bi-weekly payroll happen with a team of staff, down to a weekly payroll with only one or two office staff!

Some relevant questions in this regard: How do jobs get added to the system? Does the process guarantee the job will already be there in the system when the employee goes to enter time? Is the task/cost code list intuitive and filtered to only the relevant tasks for that employee? or do they have to select from a huge list every time.. they will definitely mess that one up!

Hope this is helpful to you! If any of this resonates and you have any questions I would be happy to chat about any of this in more detail!

Time Tracking in Construction