Time Theft: How to Know if Your Employees are Stealing Time

It’s a brand new workday. But do you know where your employees are?

If they’re not at their desks, maybe they’re at the water cooler having a conversation, taking an extended lunch, or simply running late.

The perfect employee doesn’t exist, but there’s a line between running late for work a few times a year and taking advantage of the time card system. When this happens, you have a case of time theft at your organization.

Depending on your industry or the size of your business, it can be hard to avoid time theft in the workplace. While implementing absence management software to keep track of employee absences and sick leave can help, you should also know the signs and the ways to prevent time theft.

How do employees commit time theft?

There are many ways your employees can commit time theft without you even realizing it. Keep an eye out for the following types of time theft from your team.

Abusing a flexible schedule

Remote teams and mobile workers are becoming increasingly popular across varying industries. While there are many advantages to remote work, doing so can make tracking an employee’s productivity and efficiency harder than if they were in the office.

Because a remote team has a more flexible schedule, where they don’t have to commute to or from work, they may choose to use this flexibility on non-work-related tasks. Your company must keep track of the hours logged by remote employees so the hours billed are as accurate as possible. 

While this is most common with hourly workers, if you have a salaried employee logging 40 hours a week, is the work reflecting the time put in? Time trackers plus proper communication can go a long way in ensuring remote employees are using their time wisely.

Falsifying time cards

If your company uses a time card system, an employee can falsify their card by providing inaccurate information about their working hours. This can occur when an employer uses a manual timekeeping system, like having their team fill out their time in a spreadsheet or timesheets. Falsifying a time card can be as simple as rounding the amount of time spent on a project from 22 minutes to 30 minutes.

Buddy punching

When an organization utilizes traditional time clocks or time cards, their employees could steal time through buddy punching. This occurs when one employee clocks in for another employee, even though they aren’t yet working. For instance, employee A is running a little late, but employee B is already at work. Employee A may ask employee B to punch in for them to still get paid for that time.

Using technology for personal use 

Technology is everywhere. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for employees to check their social media during work, make a phone call, or answer a personal email. While this is fine to do here and there, how much of it spills over into their designated working hours?

Make sure the systems or software your team is using aren’t promoting your employees to use their smartphones. For example, if the program used to log into a portal takes too long to load, they feel like it’s okay to check their favorite social media application real quick to kill the 30 seconds it takes for a screen to load. These 30 seconds could turn into a 10-minute scrolling session. 

Taking longer breaks

Everyone needs a break; in fact, a mental and physical break from work is encouraged as long as they’re no longer than the agreed-upon time.

If your company doesn’t require its employees to clock out before breaks, a 30-minute lunch could extend to 45 minutes or an hour. If the head of a department or an HR professional notices that an employee is taking advantage of not having to clock in and out around break time, be sure to address the situation before it escalates. 

The same can be said if an employee is taking long and frequent smoke breaks outside of lunch breaks. It’s up to the manager’s discretion to ask this employee to make up the time spent smoking at the end of the day. 

Socializing too much

You want your office to be a friendly work environment, as it’s always great to see employees forming friendships and feeling comfortable enough to be their most authentic selves at work.

Business owners should encourage socializing with team members inside and outside their department, but not so much of the workday where their employees are wasting a huge chunk of their day on non-work-related conversations. 

If you notice this occurring with a few members of your team, be sure to approach the employee in private, as it’s never a good idea to make a scene in front of others. If this is becoming a widespread issue with a large majority of employees, maybe you need to look at your team's overall stress management and if they’re using socializing to avoid job burnout. 

Personal activities during company time

From working on their side hustle, running errands, and even taking a nap, there are a lot of ways that an employee may perform time theft by doing something personal. While this may be okay once or twice, managers and HR professionals must communicate with their team that personal activities must be completed outside of work hours – especially when a team is remote. 

If something personal comes up and it’s unavoidable, be sure that the employee knows they need to make up for the lost time. 

Abusing the swipe card

If your organization uses a physical swipe card to keep track of hours, you may find that employees abuse their cards for time theft.

While forgetting your card at home can occasionally happen, if your employees are making a habit of using these excuses, your team takes advantage of this time tracking method.

Hide and seek

Depending on the type of industry your business operates in, you may have employees who are constantly on the move, like drivers, home health aides, or landscapers. When this is the case, it may be difficult to know where they are compared to where they’re supposed to be.

Maybe they’ve made a quick stop to get coffee, have gone home to let out their dog, or perhaps they didn’t show up at all. This form of time theft is called hide and seek. If you don’t have the proper system in place, an employee can easily fall off the radar, and you may not know unless you have a customer complaint.

How to prevent employee time theft

If you’re suspicious that an employee hasn’t been clocking their time accurately, there are some ways you can know for sure that it’s happening and work to prevent it.

Use the right software

In today’s digital landscape, the right technology within a company’s tech stack can go a long way in preventing employee time theft once and for all by promoting fairness and transparency within your company. 

In addition to utilizing absence management software to keep track of when employees aren’t at work, there’s also time and attendance software, which can simplify how your team handles time tracking. When these tools are in use, calculating hours worked, plus using features that handle clocking in and out, are all easier than ever. It also eliminates the ways an employee can commit time theft, making actions like buddy punching impossible.

Create clear time and attendance policies

If time theft is simply out of control at your organization, it’s time to make sure your employees are aware of your time and attendance policies. Or, perhaps they need to be completely redone to ensure that the time theft is eliminated. Make sure your team knows why you’re implementing these policies and what is expected from them. 

This allows employees to fully understand their responsibilities at work and what they should be doing if there is any downtime during the day. Don’t forget to add any of these changes in your employee handbook and let the current employees know of these changes. 

Educate managers on the signs

If a manager doesn’t know the signs of time theft, how can they ever help prevent it?

It’s crucial to properly educate and train managers on how an employee can commit time theft, so they know what to keep an eye on as they evaluate their direct reports. Not every single way will apply to every business, so narrow down the ones you believe are most likely to happen at your office and help managers understand how they can help eliminate time theft.

Managers shouldn’t feel like they have to monitor an employee’s every move or feel like they cannot get their work done because they’re constantly watching their team. This will only cause distrust, so make sure the training is subtle and not invasive. 

Follow through on disciplinary actions

It’s not fun to punish employees. Not only is it emotionally draining, but it can be costly, too. However, your organization needs to have preventative measures in place should you collect evidence that an employee is committing time theft.

Once you outline the details of time and attendance in the employee handbook, specify disciplinary measures, too. This could include a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, or even putting the employee on a performance improvement plan (PIP). If the matter doesn’t get resolved, you may consider escalating actions to either a suspension or employee termination. 

Boost employee morale to deter time theft

If your staff is full of disengaged employees, a burned-out team, or those questioning the trust of their managers or bosses, they may have a higher chance of committing time theft. Consider if your organization is suffering from an employee engagement issue and take some time to boost employee morale and improve company culture. 

When employees feel appreciated and their hard work and dedication are recognized, their loyalty and productivity may increase. Be sure to implement a system of employee rewards, recognition, or even roll out more flexibility in the workplace to reduce time theft. 

Top 5 time and attendance software 

HR professionals use time and attendance software as a way to simplify time tracking and reduce time theft. These tools manage company time and attendance data by seamlessly calculating all hours worked and when employees take vacation time, sick days, overtime, any personal time, and holidays. Plus, they also offer features for keeping track of when employees clock in and out with employee self-service portals to access timecard details. 

To be included in this category, a software solution must:

• Store all time and attendance data in one central location
• Feature tools to process all aspects of employee time and attendance, including holidays, overtime, hours worked, sick days, and paid time off
• Eliminate the likelihood of attendance-related payroll errors
• Inspect labor force metrics

*Below are the five leading time and attendance providers from G2's Summer 2021 Grid® Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

1. Paycom

Human resources professionals love Paycom because it's a complete HR suite in one easy-to-use dashboard. It handles everything. From hiring new employees to complying with regulations, Paycom has you covered.

What users like:

“I have personally worked with Paycom for over 4 years now and absolutely love the system! Recently, I started at the Akron Art Museum, and when there was interest in changing payroll vendors, I knew Paycom would be the perfect fit. Due to its user-friendly nature and superb customer service, this is the third I have implemented with Paycom. 

The implementation process is very smooth. They have it down to a science. In customer service, I would say 95% of the time, you get first call resolution. And you don't have to wait for hours on hold; the phone is answered right away. The feedback we have received from our employees is very good. Everyone is giving Paycom two thumbs up!”

- Paycom Review, Mary S.

What users dislike:

“While extremely helpful, I wish the Employee Self Service View was more functional. It is a feature that lets you access what an employee is seeing. But it functions more like a demo, so if you click on something, it may or may not work. This is limiting because I can't guide an employee exactly what to do if I can only see so much.”

- Paycom Review, Carlos S.

2. Rippling

For a team that needs to handle payroll, benefits, HR, and IT, Rippling is the right software solution. It makes onboarding a new hire completely seamless while integrating with your favorite third-party apps to be completely online and paperless. 

What users like:

“The backend user experience is incredibly straightforward where other tools can be overly complex. The system also continues to grow. I've worked with a lot of HR tools in the past, and ultimately businesses move away from them because they refuse to innovate and consolidate software. Rippling is literally a one-stop shop for HR, ERP, and IT services, so you can't beat that. Not to mention the company clearly takes an important approach to its overall design. A lot of HR tools out there look very aged, and the UX isn't well thought out, but Rippling challenges that, and I personally think that's what makes it a strong leader in the space.”

- Rippling Review, Jacob C.

What users dislike:

“The admin view is too complicated. Often managers in our company are dependent upon a higher level admin to perform basic tasks. Our ATS doesn't always feed candidates into rippling, so I have to enter candidates manually. Once you enter the candidates manually, rippling will find them, so basically, it's double work to start onboarding. Supremely annoying bug. Also, the support team either slowly or doesn't respond.”

- Rippling Review, Michael T.

3. RUN Powered by ADP

RUN Powered by ADP was created with small businesses in mind as a way to navigate all sorts of HR obstacles. As a payroll and HR solution, it helps save companies money, stay compliant, and better manage their team. 

What users like:

“Processing payroll is tedious, but ADP makes it easy. The website is very well organized and very user-friendly. The customer service is very friendly too and willing to help solve my problems.”

- RUN Powered by ADP Review, Emellie A. 

What users dislike:

“There are so many options it's a bit overwhelming! Also, accessing forms is pretty difficult. I will click forms, and it doesn't take me to a different landing page. It could be a pop-up, but that should be clarified if so!”

- RUN Powered by ADP Review, Holly S. 

4. Ceridian Dayforce

Ceridian Dayforce is a single solution human capital management tool that helps HR professionals and business leaders solve the complex HR process they may face by simplifying and streamlining all processes.

What users like:

“I like the fact that WFM flows right into payroll. You are not entering things multiple times like with ADP, and the system has so much to offer. The fact that it is really one system is a game-changer. Ceridian also puts a big focus on training and customer support, and engagement. Their yearly conference is a huge help, and networking with other clients is so beneficial.”

- Ceridian Dayforce Review, Stacy L. 

What users dislike:

“If I had to name something I dislike, it would have to be the complexity of the application. However, I understand that it has to be complex with a lot of what is happening in the background, and with experience and time, gradually understand how things are 'connected'.”

- Ceridian Dayforce Review, Michelle P. 

5. UKG Workforce Central

When you need an all-in-one workforce management solution for time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, and more, UKG Workforce Central is for you. It boasts of a suite of tools created to manage a company’s workforce on a mobile, scalable, and secure cloud platform.

What users like:

“Easy to understand! Many ways to get to one place! I love that even if you are a new user, you can most likely get around easily without making many errors. I am the ‘Kronos Teacher- at my organization. I have so much fun teaching the end-users the ins and outs of Kronos and teaching them how to easily navigate throughout the platform.”

- UKG Workforce Central Review, Jaimie B.

What users dislike:

“WFC requires my team to remote into an Internet Explorer, which is a major pain for Google seeing that we aren't allowed to have internet explorer on our machines. This causes a heavy lift from our team to do any admin in the tool. Furthermore, we were required to maintain an external ‘skin’ to layover WFC because the UI was so un user-friendly. This caused major issues on our end if we wanted to make any changes to the tool and required an additional level of config.”

- UKG Workforce Central Review, Matt K. 

Time is money!

At the end of the day, it’s okay if an employee takes a longer lunch with a client that renews their contract, or if they have car trouble causing them to be late. It’s when it becomes an everyday occurrence that it becomes an issue. Once you have a better understanding of the warning signs of time theft, how to prevent it, and the software you need in your tech stack, you can be sure that time isn’t being wasted.

Looking to boost the productivity of your organization even further? Make sure your workforce management strategy covers all of the necessary bases.