Most time and attendance software systems are based on old technology. There are fundamental flaws in the attendance tracking that we are fixing with Time Doctor.
Here are some of the problems:
Breaks are not automatically accounted for
If an employee takes a three-hour break there is no way to automatically track this in most time and attendance software systems. Attendance software should be able to detect exactly when an employee is ‘at their computer’ or ‘away from their computer’ and be able to categorize such time as ‘away from the computer’, as ‘break time’ or as ‘work time’.
Clocking in and out does not mean employees are productive
Time and attendance software is based on the principle of an employee clocking in at a certain time and then clocking out when finishing work. This does not correspond to actual productivity. Staff can easily ‘clock in’ but spend the entire day chatting with their friends on Facebook.
Attendance software does not work effectively for telecommuting employees
If the software is based purely on punching in and out then it is totally ineffective for work-at-home employees. For this category of employee you need a system that brings more accountability to the work day. You need to know exactly when the person was working and what they were doing throughout the day. You need ways to confirm that they were working effectively rather than wasting time.
We developed Time Doctor as a solution to all of these issues
Time Doctor tracks break time automatically. You will know exactly when breaks started and finished. Time on and off the computer is automatically tracked. This means that you will know if the person is working productively on their computer or if they are in a meeting or out to lunch.
Time Doctor also includes monitoring of websites visited and applications used on the computer to help improve focus and efficiency at work. For example you will know exactly how much time employees spent on Facebook or on different applications on their computer. Time Doctor works very effectively as an employee monitoring software for employees in an office and employees working from home.
Rob Rawson is a co-founder of Time Doctor which is software to improve work productivity and help keep track of what your team is working on, even when working remotely.