Managing Time and Attendance for Distributed Workforces in 2020

The daily commute to and from the workplace, often taking several hours a day, has always been something of a grind and a challenge for employees.

The Ford European Commuter Survey of 5,503 commuters in Barcelona, Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, and Rome actually found that for commuters, ‘the journey to work causes more stress than their actual jobs (or even the dentist)’.

According to the State of Remote Work 2020 report, meanwhile, 32 per cent of respondents said that the ability to have a flexible schedule was the biggest benefit of working remotely. This year, in light of COVID-19, there was an additional option added to the list of benefits of working remotely - ‘not having to commute’.

The results of both reports would go some way to explain why many people have, to date, chosen to work from home over any other location.

While working from home was previously classed as something of a luxury, the arrival of COVID-19 means that for many, it’s now a necessary and everyday occurrence – and one which will probably remain the only option for the foreseeable future.

This seismic shift in working practices means that many employees are now seated at a kitchen table or study at a desk from nine to five, technology to hand.

Others, however, have had to introduce more flexible working patterns, with parents in particular having to build their working day around home schooling and now, as lockdown eases, around the daily school runs.

While this change in working practices has proven beneficial for many employees, there’s no doubt that the entire process has proved to be something of a nightmare for employers, particularly when it comes to employees’ time and attendance.

For a start, if staff aren't in the office, on-site time and attendance systems prevent employees from physically clocking in, as they are at home. This causes issues for both payroll and human resource departments in that they have an incomplete picture of the time worked by their employees during the week for those staff working from home.

Since it’s estimated that many companies’ current working practices are likely to continue into 2021, it’s vitally important that businesses find a way of resolving this issue – and quickly.

And that’s where TimeKeeper comes in.

TimeKeeper can quickly - and easily - resolve any problems regarding employee time and attendance through it's ability to record employee clock ins via devices staff have to hand, both on-site and at home. To date, TimeKeeper has provided employees with the ability to clock in on their mobile, an on-site tablet kiosk but recently launched our new web clock in facility allowing staff to clock in with the click of a button in their everyday web browser.

Even better – those employees who are returning to work in the office can also clock in via the tablet kiosk on-site. This means that even though staff can be distributed between the office and home, time and attendance records remain perfectly in sync, making life that bit easier for your company's administrative staff.

Looking for a modern, flexible cloud-based solution to help manage time and attendance for your remote team? Try out our 14 day free trial at TimeKeeper