Detecting Time Theft: A Hidden Business Cost in the Food Service Industry explores the ramifications of time theft and strategies to help reduce it.
Time theft happens any time employees misrepresent the actual amount of time they’ve worked and been paid for, intentionally or otherwise. Detecting and reducing time theft usually requires an automated workforce solution, which can help monitor and identify unusual payroll activity. In other words, beating time theft demands data visibility.
Whatever the causes and remedies, time theft is probably costing your company money. If your staff isn’t working when they’re meant to, your guest experience, efficiency, and bottom line will suffer. Punching in early or punching out late, even by a couple of minutes, is perhaps the most common kind of time fraud. Because of rounding rules, an in-punch or out-punch that’s only two minutes outside the scheduled time can result in 30 extra minutes of paid time per day.
Other ways your company may be losing money due to lack of visibility into time and attendance records include:
- Taking an extended meal period and not recording the full time
- Reporting working off the clock without doing any work
- Intentionally not clocking in when arriving late, to be able to later manually record a full day’s schedule
- Clocking in or out for another employee — otherwise known as “buddy punching”
Download this informative UKG™ (Ultimate Kronos Group) article to learn more about time theft in the food service industry, the five steps for reducing time fraud and system gaming, and why automation is the real time fraud game-changer.