Prevent Timecard Theft - Allevity

No doubt about it, bosses and employers see work issues differently than their workers.  What a boss sees as an opportunity, workers see as a bigger workload. When employees don’t feel recognized or rewarded for their efforts, they simply take a reward they feel they deserve—like time. This is known as timecard theft.

For instance:

Susan’s youngest daughter was sick at daycare and needed Susan to pick her up 30 minutes early.

“Go ahead and leave; I’ll clock you out,” a co-worker said. She was just being sympathetic to Susan being a single mom. After all, what’re 30 or 45 minutes? Susan often worked through her break times and had at least an hour of earned time coming to her. Susan agreed and left work 45 minutes early. It was no big deal. She’d only be clearing off her desk and getting her things together to leave for at least 15 minutes of that time. She wouldn’t really be “working” at all then. That extra 30 minutes? She would make it up later. It was a one-time extended break. Right? Wrong. That is timecard theft.

But that’s how employees see time. It’s a soft, quid-pro-quo thing, very flexible and give-and-take, only they often err more on the take side. Employers see the same incident as timecard abuse and outright stealing. After all, they’re the ones paying the bills. So when employees start falsifying their timecards, in the company’s eyes, it’s theft.

Set Boundaries

As soon as employees falsify their timecards once and get away with it, it can turn into a semi-regular thing. The more they do it, the more they might justify doing it. They start thinking, “Well, I cut my last break short yesterday, so I’ll just leave 10 minutes early today.”

It’s up to the employer to set the boundaries and the consequences for violating the rules. Remember: This is legitimately a form of stealing!

Timecard theft can become more than a payroll issue. If you’ve ever been sued by an employee over timecard issues, you’re all the more likely to lose subsequent lawsuits unless you can prove accurate time-keeping records are kept. If employees have the leeway to “fudge” their time, that will be impossible.

There are many reasons for having a zero-tolerance policy for time theft. And there are even more reasons for understanding why employees think as they do. Getting them to see your side of things while appreciating their needs, is critical to having a time-theft-free workplace.

A small chat here and there probably isn’t a big deal, but prolonged conversations on the clock may count as time theft.

Whether it’s 15 minutes or an hour, time theft is theft. It’s accepting payment for work that has not been performed. It’s falsifying a timecard. Any time a worker punches in or out for someone who is not there, it is theft. Even clocking in four minutes early and out four minutes late is time theft. Those eight minutes a day add up to 40 minutes of unauthorized overtime a week. If you don’t think that adds up when multiple employees habitually do it over time, check with your bookkeeper! Larger companies could hire additional employees for what timecard theft costs them in a year.

Timecard theft includes over-extended breaks, excessive socializing, personal calls, or running personal errands. Those 5-minute smoke breaks can easily turn into 20-minute gabfests.

Solutions to Prevent Timecard Theft

Ideally, you will have policies in place covering time and labor, with clearly defined rules on clocking in and out. Check to see if you have this, and other important policies, covered by downloading our HR Self-Audit. And make sure your employees are on your side by nurturing a trusting relationship—that has to start with you.

• Have a zero-tolerance policy for timecard theft and make sure employees know it.
• Have a clear policy in place for breaks. Spell out how you expect employees to manage their work and break time.
• Give concrete examples of what time theft actually is. What you see as time theft, employees often see as job perks, flexibility, or rewards for hard work, as in, “I stayed late last night to get my work done so heck, yeah, I’m taking an extra 30-minute break today.” Make it clear that when you pay employees overtime for a critical project, it doesn’t mean they can slow down the next day to “make up for it.”
• Make it clear when employees can and can’t receive or make personal calls, run personal errands, or talk to co-workers about non-work related items.
• Use time and labor management software for monitoring punch times of employees.
• Configure rounding to reduce unauthorized overtime.
• Use biometric time clocks, which use fingerprint or iris scans, or employees’ smartphones to prevent timecard theft and “buddy-punching.”

Allevity helps clients craft such policies!

Finally, make sure employees have a set amount of personal time, vacation time or other time available regularly to ensure they’re not tempted to steal time from you.