While time theft doesn’t seem to be a common problem, lots of businesses are affected by it worldwide. Its effects are usually not enough to bankrupt firms, but they can certainly be measurable. There are lots of strategies to fight against time theft, with one of the best ones using time tracking software.

In this article, we’ll cover how you can use time trackers to prevent time theft effectively. We’ll also dive deep into the topic and explore a few common types of time theft.

Understanding time theft: what is it?

Time theft is a simple concept. It is the act of employees misleading their employers into paying them for non-working hours. Both hourly and salaried workers can take part in the practice. But, it can be easier to detect in businesses that calculate payroll hours. 

Stealing time is so simple to do, even by accident, that it will continue to happen pretty much indefinitely. But, the type of time theft that happens accidentally isn’t the one managers may be concerned about. There are a lot of ways employees can steal time from their employers, with many methods having endless variations. 

Different types of time theft

While there are many ways of stealing time, we’ll explore three of the most popular types.

Inaccurate clock-in and out times

Clocking in and out while not at work is one of the most popular types of time theft. It is pretty easy to do at businesses that use manual time cards. But, even companies that use electronic timesheets are still susceptible to it. The most common way employees spoof their start and end times is by asking a coworker to clock in or out for them. This practice even has its own name: buddy punching. Businesses can lose quite a lot of money from buddy punching, especially if it’s used to add significant amounts of time.

Extended breaks and personal time

Taking breaks is an important part of the work process. Without it, professionals wouldn’t be able to perform their best for long. But, making sure these breaks are recorded accurately can be just as important. Many workers will steal time by recording their break times inaccurately, making them appear shorter than they are. Depending on the severity of this difference, this form of time theft can affect businesses significantly as well.

Unauthorized overtime

While the two previous forms of time theft added time during the standard work day, this one does so during overtime hours. If your business doesn’t offer paid overtime, you won’t have to worry about this one. But, if you do offer it, unauthorized overtime is something you should watch out for. Thankfully, due to its nature, this strategy can’t be used to steal significant amounts of time. This is especially true if you have an overtime limit that doesn’t allow your team to work for too long. Its impact can still be felt, especially if your team earns more during overtime than their standard rate.

Fighting time theft with time trackers

Time trackers can help identify time theft in two key ways: tracking time and helping you verify tracked hours with additional data.

Tracking time accurately

The first way time trackers help with time theft is with their core functionality. By tracking your team’s work hours on a computer, you will be able to see when they started working and when they left. This data will be much more accurate than manual timesheets, helping you detect stolen time easily. Time tracking can even work for the cleverest of time thieves by helping you detect suspicious behavior with extra monitoring data.

Verify with additional data

While time trackers seem basic, they can often do much more than tracking work hours. Most high-quality apps like WebWork offer a variety of productivity monitoring features. These will collect data from your staff while they work, providing you with performance insights. You can then use this data to verify your team’s tracked hours, along with their progress on tasks. Verifying data is invaluable in detecting time theft.

Why does time theft happen?

After exploring time theft types and how trackers can fight the practice, you might be wondering why it happens in the first place. Put simply, it comes down to two things: dishonesty and job dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, you can’t do much about the first one. But, the second is something that you can improve in a few ways.

Preventing time theft with time trackers

Apart from detecting time theft, tracking software can help you prevent it as well.

Offering flexible working hours

As mentioned above, one of the key reasons for time theft is dissatisfaction. An excellent way of improving job satisfaction is to offer in-demand benefits, such as flexible working hours. This perk is particularly suited to teams that use time tracking software. You can track how much your employees work and let them complete their tasks whenever they wish. They can do so when they feel the most productive, leaving the rest of their days for personal errands and activities.

Enhanced employee engagement

Professional engagement is directly linked with job satisfaction and is an important metric for all firms. Improving employee engagement can make staff more invested in their positions. This will incentivize them to perform their best, which will boost your team’s performance in the long run. Importantly, high professional engagement will also reduce the likelihood of time theft. If your staff like their positions and workplaces, they’ll be less likely to steal time themselves or help coworkers with the practice. Lots of engagement boosting strategies can help you against time theft. According to research, providing feedback on career growth can be particularly effective.

Choosing a time tracker to prevent time theft

There’s an endless number of time trackers available on the market. They all offer different functionalities, some of which are more important for preventing time theft than others. Let’s explore what you should look for in a time tracker to fight against time theft effectively.

Automatic time tracking

Automatic time tracking can be an invaluable tool in your fight against time theft. It can eliminate the need for your team to clock in or out manually, along with declaring breaks on timesheets. For it to work its best, you should use time tracking on dedicated work devices. This way, the app will start tracking time when staff turn on their work devices. Automatic time tracking can be difficult for teams that use remote working or teleworking. But, allocating the resources for work-only devices may be worth it in the long run.

Monitoring and management features

As mentioned previously, extra features can help you verify your tracked time data. Using information like activity levels, you can ensure that your team members started working when they clocked in. You can use the same data to make sure they didn’t leave early. Many time tracking apps even offer project and task management functionality. Apart from preventing time theft, managing your team’s tasks can help you boost productivity. 

Because of these, you should look for a time tracker with a lot of features. An excellent example of this is WebWork, which can be a powerful productivity tool thanks to its functionality.

Concluding thoughts

Time theft can affect businesses measurably. It can increase payroll costs and make it difficult for smaller firms to grow. But, you can fight and prevent it effectively with a time tracker. Monitoring your team’s work hours and verifying this data with extra tracking features will be vital in your efforts against the practice. Eliminating it will enable your business to reach its full potential and speed up growth.