As more companies grow nationally and internationally, the need for new technologies for time/attendance and payroll processing has become more apparent. Many managers face difficulties keeping track of their crew’s activities and accurately processing working hours; hence they need advanced tools to track hours worked for their workers.
If you’re managing a few construction employees, you can’t rely on the project manager to do a headcount and record it on paper. They might forget someone or might reduce a worker’s time on purpose. Particularly when you have a mobile workforce across multiple job sites, traditional methods just won’t suffice.
Employee time tracking devices that require them to input their pin number, fob, or RFID card can be risky. For example, if a construction worker knows they are going to be late to the job site, they can ask their co-worker to punch in for them.
To avoid any mistakes in counting construction crew and prevent buddy-punching, it’s crucial to incorporate advanced tracking tools in your construction business.
What are these tracking tools, and why are they essential in remote crew management in construction?
Read on to find out more!
Operational efficiency is the ultimate goal of any manager who wants a construction project to succeed. Instead of suffering from delays and unforeseen expenses, construction managers can ensure the entire crew benefits from higher productivity and improved safety with the right technology.
Here’s how tracking tools contribute to the construction industry:
No doubt, construction vehicles, and equipment are expensive. And the cost of replacing them can result in severe financial losses.
While installing a security guard to oversee construction employees can be a quick solution, the guard is no eagle. Employees can hide small tools in their pockets and trade with each other in secret.
Eventually, missing essential tools and equipment will stop the construction project’s progress, lead to the client’s disappointment, and worst-case scenario; the loss of the valuable client.
That’s why GPS location tracking is used on equipment to monitor their location and drive away thieves. You can also use these tracking devices to recover tools if the thieves were successful in stealing them.
GPS tracking technologies can be beneficial in keeping track of your labor. By requiring each employee to punch in at a designated location, the technology takes a GPS time stamp of where the punch was completed.
By using the same technology construction companies can optionally track their labor during work hours the same way. By requiring each employee to punch in at a designated location, the technology takes a GPS time stamp of where the punch was completed.
Safety is also a good reason to track employees. The mining industry, for example, is very dangerous and prone to collapses in which employees can be lost. But there would be no way of knowing where they are without a GPS tracker.
Apps are available for both iOS Android platforms, so make sure to teach your employees how to use these GPS tracking apps to streamline the whole punch-in process and ensure accurate data about their work hours gets back to the payroll department.
If your worker is driving to a supplier to collect goods and returning to the site a few times each day, taking a long journey could leave you with costs that can be avoidable.
Some GPS tracking units include sensors that keep track of fuel consumption. This will help you cut down on fuel expenditure by choosing more efficient routes for journeys.
There is also the common problem with workers pausing to chat while keeping the engine on while they talk. Your GPS tracking can notify you of engine idling times, which drain fuel unnecessarily and waste your money.
Construction companies can choose from a wide variety of tracking devices, from smartwatches to RFID tags. RFID or Radio Frequency Identification Tags are smart labels that store a range of information from serial numbers to short descriptions. These tags are used to track and identify people.
Though watches and tags are good options, anything that’s wearable can be lost or stolen. Thus, GPS tracking apps are more dependable since they involve software data storage and can quickly retrieve employee information.
What’s more, there’s another feature besides simple GPS tracking that will suit your needs, and that’s Geofence.
Imagine you have an employee who punched in through a GPS tracking app, but he’s slacking off outside his job site.
By activating the Geofence feature, you will ensure your employees punch in only when they’re within the location of their job site and not somewhere entirely outside the boundaries of their work location.
Geo-fencing draws a virtual barrier around the job site. It’s a highly useful tool for construction companies to maintain employee compliance with their job site work.
Here’s what additional benefits geofencing brings to the table:
Geofencing combined with Face Recognition ensures the correct person is on the job site ready to work.
All of your team’s billable hours will go towards actual work time, so you don’t have to worry about miscalculations in their payrolls.
You can’t rely on employees self-reporting their time at work, especially if there’s the option of staying overtime and earning more.
Tools like geofencing provide accurate employee GPS time tracking and prevent any discrepancies for the hours they worked.
GPS tracking tools prevent equipment theft, monitor construction crew, and provide accurate employee data for clients.
Geofencing is an additional feature that lets employees punch in whenever they’re on their job site, thereby making cheating harder.
Geofencing is also a powerful tracking tool for construction companies; it lets managers track their employees in real-time, record data accurately, and manage their business efficiently.
Though very useful, geofencing is still a new technology for many companies, and some might be hesitant to try it out.
If you’re not sure how tracking apps work, then head over to our Knowledge Base and Click on “Get Started” to learn more!
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