With a smartphone in nearly everyone’s pocket, companies are adopting a mobile-first approach to managing their workforce. This extends to how they track employees’ time on and off the clock. By allowing workers to punch in and out from the convenience of a mobile device, companies are giving their people the flexibility, ease and speed they crave. But here’s the catch. Employers still need to maintain a level of control and oversight.
Today, we’ll discuss a location-based technology called geofencing. You’ll learn what it is, why it’s critical for mobile timekeeping, and ultimately, how it helps businesses achieve that perfect balance between convenience and control.
What is geofencing?
Geofencing is a technology that uses GPS — a satellite-based radio navigation system — to create virtual boundaries around a specific location. While you might be familiar with GPS from consumer apps like Google Maps or Find My iPhone, it also has important applications in the business world. By using timekeeping tools with GPS-enabled geofencing, employers can pinpoint a worker’s location and, using location parameters they set in the system, confirm whether that worker is within an approved perimeter for clocking in or out. This provides oversight and timekeeping accuracy, as well as a number of other positive business outcomes.
How geofencing benefits businesses
As you know, the ability to track employee time correctly impacts the accuracy of payroll, which in turn, affects employee satisfaction, payroll processing efficiency, employer trust, compliance and more. Geofencing equips employers with a safeguard to prevent mobile timekeeping missteps and inaccuracies that can easily trickle into bigger problems. In other words, incorporating a timekeeping solution with geofencing capabilities offers numerous benefits, such as the below:
Reduced time theft
Time theft occurs when employees accept pay for time they have not actually worked. Time theft can come in a variety of forms, ranging from accidental over-reporting to buddy punching and other intentional timesheet scams. With geofencing, employers can ensure that employees are only clocking in and out when they are on-site. No more punching in and going back to sleep, clocking out from happy hour up the street, or accidentally punching in a few minutes early. Geofencing is that extra line of protection against accidental and not-so-accidental timekeeping errors.
Decreased labor costs
Reducing time theft has obvious implications on labor costs. That savings alone makes a pretty good case for geofencing technology. That said, think about the trickle-down benefit of having an automated way to prevent time theft. Managers no longer have to spend their valuable time policing employee check-in points or questioning the accuracy of clock-in and clock-out times. Instead, they can focus their efforts on more valuable, business-driving activities that will benefit the organization’s bottom line.
Administrative efficiency
Geofencing gives employers the power to manage workers, without actually being present. With a few quick clicks, managers can quickly set up a geofence in their timekeeping system. Even without an exact address, some timekeeping solutions allow employers to approximate a location, which is particularly helpful when employees are working at unmapped locations, such as a new construction site or a specific building. With certain systems, employers can just drag and drop a pin on a map — and go back to whatever tasks or people demand their attention.
Employee retention
Retention, retention, retention. It’s on the mind of so many businesses today. Geofencing offers a straightforward way to reduce employee turnover through transparent and reliable timekeeping practices. With geofencing, employees can feel confident that their work hours are recorded accurately and fairly, fostering a sense of trust. Geofencing also supports a healthier work-life balance by enabling employees to clock in and out from a range of locations, whether at the office, remotely or on multiple job sites. This flexibility minimizes feelings of micromanagement and helps create a more positive workplace culture. With geofencing, companies can focus on building a supportive environment where employees feel valued and respected, leading to greater job satisfaction and, ultimately, higher retention rates.
How B2E Solutions can help
As our B2E Solutions name implies, solutions are at the heart of what we do. Our human capital management (HCM) solution, UKG Ready, offers a Time & Labor product that helps businesses manage employee timekeeping, time-off requests, approvals, overtime, other pay rules, scheduling, reporting — and of course, geofencing.
Here’s what to expect with the geofencing capabilities available through our Time & Labor solution:
- Precise location control: Using latitude and longitude coordinates, employers can pinpoint an exact worksite location by dragging and dropping a pin. This allows them to pick a precise location without having an address. They can also make the worksite radius as big as desired, and if employees are within a tenth of a mile from that radius, they can punch in or out. If they’re trying to punch outside of the radius, they’ll get an error message.
- Easy switching between worksites: Employees can easily punch in or out if they’re working from various locations throughout the day. Once they enter or leave a designated radius, the closest worksites will appear within the app for easy and accurate selection.
- Offline punching: Employees can punch in and out from their mobile devices even if there’s no internet or Wi-Fi signal. But thanks to our geofencing capabilities, they can’t punch in from just anywhere; they still need to be within the specified radius. Once those employees are back within signal range, the system will automatically record their time data.
- Increased data insights: Employers can track and analyze employee hours in real time, giving managers better insight to manage, schedule and evaluate employees and efficiencies. Employee-specific or company-wide punches are viewable on a colorful, handy map for quick insights and easy oversight. Additional reporting can also provide visibility into details like punch time, source, status and more.
- Cross-system efficiency and accuracy: Since UKG Ready is a full-suite technology with one database at its center, all products within the suite work together seamlessly. For example, if employers track employee time using our Time & Labor solution, this information is used to accurately and easily inform payroll. Furthermore, employee data is stored within a single employee record, making it accessible across all products, reducing duplicate data entry and providing a single source of truth. Businesses can invest in the entire product suite — or individual products. There’s a ton of flexibility and room to scale.
- UKG Ready mobile app: Employees can take advantage of our handy UKG Ready mobile app to clock in and out from the convenience of their mobile device, while employers feel safe knowing they have the control and oversight they need through our robust geofencing capabilities. Talk about a win-win!
To learn more about how UKG Ready Time & Labor can improve the accuracy of your timekeeping practices. request a demo today.
