If point management raises headaches in your company, it is more than time to organize your information. The time tracking worksheet is a very useful tool to further fulfill this obligation under labor law. And in this article, in addition to valuable tips, we’ll bring you a role model for your business.
Keeping track of hours is a routine of paramount importance for businesses. Besides being a legal requirement, this activity gives transparency and reliability to the relationship between employer and employee.
It is this that makes it possible to manage various legal aspects of the business, such as overtime payment, regularization of the work day and compensation of hours bank. This means more security for both the employer and the employee.
However, more than an obligation, the company must see the management of entry and exit of employees on a daily basis as a useful tool, since the measure can also aid in employee productivity, generating a competitive advantage for the business in the Marketplace.
But how to put this into practice in the company? In this article, you will learn the key benefits of time tracking and how this management can be improved through an optimized spreadsheet.
Hourly control is the company’s obligation
Controlling and recording the hours worked of each employee are actions foreseen in the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT), valid for companies with more than ten employees. This measure must be carried out by manual, mechanical or electronic recording with an annotation of the time of entry and exit.
With the labor reform, in force since November 2017, the obligation of controlling hours is conditioned to a decision between companies and professional unions.
Even conditioned, this record is crucial for the company to maintain a transparent relationship with the employee. But for it to work, the employer must know the changes brought about by the labor reform, which directly affects the number of hours worked by employees.
After the change, for example, the employee can negotiate a journey of up to 12 hours per day, provided that the subsequent rest is 36 hours. Part-time work may go up to 30 hours without the possibility of overtime, or 26 hours with up to six extra hours, paid with an increase of 50%.
That is, many financial and legal issues are at stake when it comes to working hours. That’s why timekeeping is so important to both the employer and the employee. It is, therefore, an obligation which brings benefits to both parties.
Example of this is the payment of overtime. When the company does not keep track of employees’ routines, it is very likely to make mistakes when it comes to accounting for overtime pay. In this equation, someone is harmed:
- Mistakes that result in overtime in control will harm the company.
- Errors that result in fewer hours in control will harm the developer.
And when we talk about injury specifically to the employer, it may not be small, especially if the error extends to a large number of employees. In this case, the expenses are multiplied by each employee.
Well, then you may argue that this is a kind of misconception that would soon be noticed and that would hardly happen. Make no mistake, because when the registration is still manual, the controls are inefficient.
Thus, mistakes become much more common than any entrepreneur would like, especially if he does not utilize a reliable system.
If you have a small business, any mistake can affect the budget at the end of the month. Already in large companies, the damage can also be large, due to the high number of employees.
How Time Tracking Can Help Productivity
When a company treats hourly attention closely, it is helping to increase its own productivity. It’s not just a matter of saving money, but also of making better use of each employee’s time.
This is because, from the records, the manager can measure the performance of the company, as well as monitor the performance of each employee. He can check which employees are more productive or likely to work overtime. If someone is always past the scheduled time, there is something wrong.
All of this generates knowledge that can be transformed into process improvement and better resource utilization to increase productivity.
The employee also earns from this, since the activities assigned to him can be better planned according to the time available. As a result, the working day becomes less overloaded and, consequently, the employee preserves his production capacity.
After all, we know that working for many hours is not always synonymous with productivity. There is no use having a high workload if the employee has many distractions and can not handle the job.
Therefore, the control ensures that employees have moments of leisure and rest outside the work environment, helping them to maintain more concentration and productivity when, in fact, they are developing their activities in the company.
At the same time, when he has the tasks defined within the workday, he can plan the hours efficiently. In this way, it manages to account for all the work – which reflects the improvement of the processes of the company as a whole.
This better use of time is essential to improve delivery times for services. It is also crucial for the company to plan the production routine, execute it, and then check the results.
Think that with the control of hours, one possibility is to map the periods of the year with more work or the tasks that demand overtime.
You can do this planning before the services are delayed and in advance, arrange with the employees on the need to stay in the office a few more hours in a few days of that period. Thus, the whole routine of the company is more organized.
Also, keep in mind that motivated employees have higher levels of productivity. Nothing is better to generate satisfaction than a company that values employee well-being, ensuring that it only works within its workload.
Finally, time tracking helps eliminate staff shortages and delays, which would hamper staff productivity.
However, remember that productivity depends on a set of factors of the company, such as time management, motivation, and training of professionals.
Hourly control is security for employee and employer
Time tracking gives more security to both the employer and the employee as it makes information more transparent.
For example: if an employee has any questions about time and hours, you need to have the records accessible to prove the data to him. So be sure to give management and point control the attention they deserve.
And this is just one example of how this relationship can benefit in practice. See other timekeeping benefits for both the employee and the employer.
Employee Safety
Time tracking gives the employee more security in relation to his or her compensation. If there are discrepancies between hours worked and the value received, the employee can request more information.
Having these records, therefore, is a guarantee for the employee. In this way, any irregularity is recorded, and the employee has evidence in hand to demand his rights if he is facing exhaustive routines and without adequate remuneration.
In addition, more strict control of the hours avoids the wear and tear of a very exhausting working day, since the professional is encouraged to fulfill his workload without surpluses.
This company effort is perceived as a positive factor by the employee. The result of this, as we have already mentioned, is the productivity and motivation gain of the employee, who feels valued in the workplace.
Safety for the employer
One of the main benefits for the employer is the control of each employee’s workday. Thus, all calculations regarding overtime and vacation payments, for example, are made more securely. This is essential to avoid mistakes that could hurt the company’s budget and cash flow.
It is never too much to emphasize that this type of tool can be fundamental for the employer to defend itself from a labor claim, since the records serve as evidence, guaranteeing him legal certainty.
Also, do you remember productivity? Time control allows the employer to map the working conditions of the employees so that they can organize the productive routines according to the capacity and available time of each employee.
In the medium and long term, this is critical to more efficient organizational management. And there is no question that the evaluation of productivity is a strategic element to make the business more competitive in the market.
Time Control Worksheet
If you do not yet have an efficient method of time tracking, it’s time to organize this information. After all, informal control can be a headache for the company, from a legal point of view, or from the financial aspect.
The good news is that there are several ways to manage data such as electronic and biometric controls and point card for example.
However, our indication is the hour control worksheet, a very useful tool for storing information safely. Keep in mind that having control with the least rigor is essential.
With the worksheet, even though the employee record is done manually and the manager needs to catalog the data daily, you have a reliable instrument in hand.
If there is a mistake in completing the information, you can identify early, correct the data and anticipate a problem that could get much bigger.
To help you in the challenge of organizing the point management in your company, TranscendingWaves has developed and offers a free hour control worksheet. The suggestion is that you create a copy of the tool for each employee and store the files in folders on your computer.
By standardizing the action, it becomes easier to track the information and identify flaws. It also helps the entrepreneur to get ready for next month’s payroll costs by projecting his or her team’s work hours from the current records.
The filling of the tables available in the spreadsheet is easy and intuitive. You must indicate the total hours worked in normal or extra hours and the value of each employee’s time, fill in the fields for the entry and exit times, as well as exit and return of the interval.
The time tracking worksheet & daily planner online created by TranscendingWaves can be used in both the Excel program and Google Drive. In the latter case, the advantage is to store the information in the cloud, so you can access it from anywhere.
In addition, the spreadsheet already contains in its cells the formulas for automatic calculation. Just download and start filling in with your team information.
One of the main benefits, besides the hard control, is the centralization of information in a single location. When we talk about time control, it is critical that the data be organized correctly, otherwise, management is compromised.