Punching a time clock will soon be as distant a memory as making mix tapes, thanks to job clock software packages that use GPS and your employees’ cell phones to keep an accurate record.
Hillrise Construction, in Camarillo, Calif., has been using job clock software for the better part of the past decade, according to company president Brian Hill. The result: more satisfied customers and the ability for the company to weed out those workers who are lax in getting to the jobsite on time.
“We have been using TimeSummit by Exaktime for 10 years now and it has been fantastic,” Hill says. “Portable time clocks about the size of a hockey puck are chained up at each jobsite. All employees carry key fobs and clock in and out each day. That information is downloaded to the TimeSummit software where reports can then be run.”
The system’s new upgrades do all this via a mobile service or Wi-Fi in real time, Hill says, without the need for someone to check each job clock at each jobsite.
Added Accuracy
For the past four years, Mosby Building Arts, in St. Louis has used Xora GPS TimeTrack, a real-time daily Blackberry-based program that uses the company’s Sprint cell phone service, according to company president Scott Mosby.
At least once a week 16% of workers arrive late for work Courtesy Harris Interactive Survey for CareerBuilder
“One of the benefits of Xora is that we can look up the location of our field folks for rapid response to a client emergency without having to bother them with multiple phone calls,” he says. “We seldom need it, but like it [for] when real emergencies do occur.”
Mosby was surprised by the system’s accuracy, which has increased paychecks by about 3%. “The field team’s previous paper-based timesheet weekly memory inaccuracies were underpaying them,” he says. “So the system was pretty well received.”
—Mark A. Newman, senior editor, REMODELING.
More REMODELING articles on how to encourage workers to get to the office or jobsite on time:
Do Call Us: A cell phone equipped with an app and GPS can save money in lost time and admin fees
