Best Practices for Managing Hybrid Work Environments

Online time and attendance with employee scheduling will help you grow your business in a hybrid work environment. These solutions help you better manage a dynamic workforce, save time and effort and maximize your labor spend.

Here are some additional thoughts to consider as you contemplate how automated timekeeping and employee scheduling can help you with your hybrid work environment:

1. Time and Attendance
   1. Formalize collaboration policies. When are remote employees expected to be available? Which tools are they supposed to use? If they receive a work communication when they aren’t on the clock, how soon are they expected to respond?
   1. Provide multiple ways for employees to track hours. This includes a web portal, physical time clock, and mobile app. (Note: though many employers don’t track time for exempt employees, it is necessary if there is any question about the number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTEs) for ACA small or large employer status.)
   1. Use geofencing to track employees who are on the go and should be clocking in at a specific location. Affirm that you have the right employee at the right place. This is great for construction worksites or home healthcare where employees are traveling from one site to another.
   1. Clock prompts allow employees to assign work time to projects or clients.
2. Compliance
   1. Use schedule enforcement, meals/breaks settings, and supervisor alerts to comply with overtime rules, meals/breaks laws, and minimum wage.
   1. FMLA and PTO synced to time and attendance helps administrators properly allocate different types of leave.
   1. Automated recordkeeping and reporting ensure that employers can demonstrate compliance in the case of an employee dispute or DOL audit.
   1. Sync scheduling with certification tracking to ensure that shifts are filled by employees with the right skills. Alerts will warn managers if they need to assign a shift to an employee with the proper credentials.
3. Employee Scheduling and Shift Planning
   1. Cloud-based scheduling allows employees to take responsibility for aspects of their own schedule which helps relieve administrative burden and increase participation.
   1. Create shift schedules (showing work time and location) and publish them in advance on the mobile app so employees know when they are working. They will see updates in real time.
   1. Provide manager-moderated shift trading on an online trade board to meet employee scheduling needs while ensuring that all shifts are covered.
   1. Set manager alerts for missed punches. If the missed punch is due to a no-show, the software will present the manager with a list of qualified employees who are available to cover the shift. If the employee just forgot to punch in, the manager can correct the employee’s timecard before payroll submission.
   1. Let exempt employees (generally salaried) know if they are completely free to choose their own schedule or whether they are required to work core hours where all team members can collaborate in real time.

Each of these components are tied to a central cloud-based timekeeping solution that tracks everything in real time so employers can see exactly what is going on with their workforce.

Call 941 Payroll today at (877) 941-9419.