Employee Accountability Is Directly Linked to Efficiency & Profitability

May 15, 2020

This ‘A to F’ guide has been formulated from actual anonymized and accurate data collated in 10 years of providing WFM and T&A software for some of the UK’s biggest companies. We will illustrate productivity factors that play the key roles in eliminating time theft AKA ‘buddy clocking’, strengthening and adhering to compliance, creating efficiency and ultimately increasing profits. All of these factors have one thing in common – accountability. 

So here are just five considerations towards greater efficiency and profitability.

Accountability. Holding employees accountable for their actions directly results in improved efficiency and profitability. Every action made by an employee somehow affects your bottom line. Each individual employee is responsible for some aspect of your business, be it big or small. Together, employees must work efficiently like the parts of an engine to ensure the right service is delivered and profits are made.

Buddy Clocking. UK companies across the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors lose over £747m* per year due to time theft. Just a few daily minutes per employee can equate to considerable losses when viewed company wide and across the year. And these minutes can really add up, whether it be from accidental or consistent lateness, hanging on at the end of a shift to chat or to clock up minutes it can drain the payroll of non-productive expenditure and a negative effect on productivity.

Control. Did you know that almost a third of businesses fail due to their inability to manage costs and within this is usually the highest cost, money spent on staff wages. Companies who do not have the correct processes and reporting in place to manage their biggest and most costliest assets are always going to be challenged in a world that has the ever increasing cost of the Living or Minimum Wage. In short, lost time costs even more in a world where success is dependent on efficiency. 

Digitization. Manual processes are a danger to your business for multiple reasons. Firstly If your company is still using paper timesheets, our data suggests that there is a higher than average chance that you are losing 4% of your payroll every year. If you are using a FOB or PIN system, it’s 2% (as staff can still buddy clock) and both are also adding clerical errors or a disconnect in the delivery of potentially inaccurate data to your payroll.

Extended Breaks. Whether it’s 5 minutes back from a mid-morning/afternoon break or 15 minutes late back from lunch, they all add up. Imagine what just getting 30 mins a week extra per employee, just think what that could yield over a year. Employees taking just 15 minutes past their allotted time can equate to about an extra day of leave per month, every month.

Futuristic. Facial recognition sounds very ‘Star Trek’ but actually is often more cost effective than traditional cards, PIN’s or fobs as there is no losing, forgetting or swapping possible. Biometric, both fingerprint and facial is accepted as the norm for businesses that want to ensure an accurate, compliant and safe workforce. Here are just a few reasons why:

  • Biometrics eliminates identity fraud in time and attendance procedures. No one can steal or borrow a person’s biometric data, which means that employees can’t clock in or out for one another. 
  • Using biometrics in workforce management ensures that employees are held accountable and their actions will be held to a higher standard. 
  • Payroll staff experiences zero error rates and exceptions are corrected prior to running, resulting in more efficient payroll processing, less dispute resolution and increased savings. 
  • Employees have a renewed sense of responsibility that can carry over into other performance areas. 
  • Biometrics ensures a concrete audit trail for all transactions, resulting in higher strengthened compliance practices, decreased risk and increased savings by eliminating issues and potential HMRC fines.

In summary, the current economic environment post COVID-19 requires companies to swiftly and accurately identify methods to increase operational efficiencies, save money, maximize value, lower costs, and comply with HMRC directives and payroll procedures. Reviewing your workforce management and T&A practices and refining them to adopt tactics such as biometric technology can prove to be profitable, secure, extremely cost effective and efficient. 

Let us help you manage staff within your business with our employee scheduling software.

*UK companies across the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors lose over £747m per year due to time theft: https://www.thecaterer.com/news/foodservice/hospitality-workers-phantom-hours-cost-144m-a-week

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