Buddy punching is a very common problem in the construction industry. Read ahead to learn what buddy punching is exactly and how you can prevent it.
Buddy punching is simply time theft by construction workers at the job site. It happens when one employee asks his friend or “buddy” to punch in or out for him if they are not there.
Buddy punching occurs when an employee asks another to clock in or out for them, usually to avoid facing repercussions for being late or absent.
One thing about buddy punching is that construction project managers or HR managers can’t measure this accurately with the current tools and systems in place.
The employees may ask their “buddy” to help them with the following scenarios:
1. Employees who are late to work and don’t want to lose any money ask for the help of coworkers to punch in for them.
2. Employees who don’t go to work at all for the entire day but at the same time do not want to lose money ask someone else to punch in and out for them.
3. Someone who wants to leave the job site early may ask his friend to buddy punch him out once the shift ends.
A lot of construction businesses have difficulty in dealing with buddy punching; some suspect it is happening but do not have an organized way to address buddy punching.
Buddy punching directly leads to loss of productivity and extra labor costs. Using biometric time clocks is an effective method to deter this kind of fraud.
It’s time to get more efficient with employee time tracking.
The face recognition technology of MobiClocks can easily detect dishonest employees who want to punch in/out for their friends.
This technology identifies employees at the moment of punch. Typically it takes less than three seconds to recognize an employee when they punch.
With face recognition technology and photo verification, one employee cannot punch in/out for his friend as they can easily be detected when their face doesn’t correspond to the employee’s location record in the database.
Moreover, the Flag Alert System inside MobiClocks will send instant alerts for abnormalities such as buddy punching. The alerts are simple and are clearly visible on the dashboard screen.
Geo-Fencing and GPS Tracking are two features that also work together to prevent labor fraud, such as buddy punching.
For a specified geographic area, a geo-fence creates determined virtual boundaries based on the coordinates of your job site. You can use this feature to create a geofence around any job site you wish. This is a great way to ensure that employees are on the site, as nobody can punch in/out when they are outside the geo-fence.
MobiClocks has a personal app that can be used on employees’ phones to track them while they are punched in. The GPS tracking starts working after the employee clocking in and moves from one job site to another. This is also convenient for multiple employees that switch job sites often so that you can cost code their labor to the correct job site.
Many of these features can work independently and can be enabled or disabled anytime by the system administrator.
Now let’s see what you can do to prevent buddy punching by implementing policies.
As a manager or an owner of a construction company, you should clarify to your crew that stealing time is employee time theft and is unacceptable.
Strict policies that don’t tolerate buddy punching will make employees unwilling to engage in such activity. Written warnings or certain types of penalties will make your crew responsible for their actions.
On the other hand, you want to create an environment that encourages punctuality. Small incentives like awards are an excellent way to show that you respect those who are always on time and ready to work. This can positively impact your company culture and make employees more aware of the buddy punching policy and buddy punching rules in place.
There are a lot of ways to deal with no call, no show employees. The policies you enforce will depend on the type of manager you are.
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