How to Prevent Unauthorized Overtime Pay
Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation in the UAE, unauthorized overtime pay could be draining your resources and keeping your company from growing. Of course, overtime may be necessary during a busy season, but abuse of the system leads to lower employee productivity and lower profits.
If unauthorized employee overtime impacts your bottom line and affects company culture, use these tips to reduce the abuse.
Empower Your Line Managers
Line managers are often in direct contact with employees working under them. When employees clock in early and leave late, they may feel like they don’t have the authority to bring this up. Without a mandate from upper management, they may think reporting the issue would end up looking like micromanagement.
Empowering managers and communicating that unauthorized overtime is a problem that’s affecting the company will help line managers take the initiative. Communicate this policy across the company, so all employees know that there will be consequences for people who abuse the system.
Choose Smart Attendance Tracking
A great way to better understand what’s going on is to make your time attendance solutions smarter. Many companies still use outdated methods such as punching in a time card or using manual timesheets that can make it difficult to keep track of overtime abuse.
Instead, use employee time management software solutions that track employee data digitally. This works in two ways—first, digital data is much easier to manage and track, so you can pinpoint exactly when and which employees have abused the system. Second, using biometric systems, you can prevent employees from timing in and out for each other.
Require Approval for Overtime
One simple but often overlooked technique to control overtime is to require authorization for overtime pay. This will ensure that employees who truly are contributing to the company are staying late. An approval process will ensure that each manager approves the overtime through a written record.
Although you’ll still have to pay overtime, it will deter employees who are using overtime without justification. Additionally, it also creates a paper trail for managers to stop people who chronically work overtime.
Choose a Smart Employee Time Attendance System
If you’re looking to implement a robust employee time management system, DLI-IT offers turnkey products for enhanced time and attendance monitoring. Our access control and attendance solutions include facial recognition systems, card and fingerprint systems, and even a mobile app that can take note of your employees’ geolocation when they clock in and out.
For more information, reach out to us now.