Time theft typically refers to the practice of employees falsifying or manipulating their reported work hours to receive pay for time they haven't actually worked

This can occur in several ways:

1. Rounding up hours: Employees may round their start and end times in their favour, adding extra minutes or even hours to their workday.
2. Padding hours: Workers might add extra time to their timesheets, claiming to have worked longer than they actually did.
3. Buddy punching: An employee might record time for a colleague who is late or absent.
4. Misreporting breaks: Employees may underreport or omit to record their break times, effectively getting paid for the time they weren't working.
5. Early clock-ins and late clock-outs: Workers might record earlier start times or later end times than their actual work hours.

The use of paper timesheets makes it easier for employees to engage in time theft due to the lack of automated tracking and verification

This type of theft can be costly for businesses, with studies showing that the average employee steals about 4.5 hours per week, which can add up to nearly 6 weeks of wages over a year

This practice can have serious repercussions for businesses, leading to:

• Decreased productivity
• Higher labour costs
• Reduced profits

To help understand this issue, we identified the 9 main causes of employee time theft, along with their associated implications:

1. Long Breaks 🤔

• Impact: Taking extended or excessive breaks can lead to lower productivity levels and inflate labor costs.

2. Socialising with Coworkers

• Impact: Spending too much time chit-chatting can detract from focus and efficiency, ultimately harming overall performance.

3. Internet Surfing

• Impact: Browsing the web for personal reasons wastes valuable work hours, reducing productivity and concentration.

4. Inaccurate Clocking In/Out 🤔

• Impact: Failing to properly log work hours can result in overpaying wages and inflated labour costs.

5. Falsifying Time Sheets 🤔

• Impact: Altering time sheets to reflect more hours worked than actually completed can lead to significant financial losses for the company.

6. Extended Lunches 🤔

• Impact: Taking longer lunch breaks than allowed drains productivity and increases labour expenses.

7. Unapproved Time Off 🤔

• Impact: Taking time off without proper notice can result in workflow disruptions and heightened labour costs.

8. Personal Tasks at Work

• Impact: Engaging in personal projects during work hours negatively impacts both productivity and focus.

9. Personal Phone Use

• Impact: Distractions from personal calls and texts can significantly decrease productivity and concentration.

Conclusion

Interestingly, at least 5 of these issues ( 🤔 ) can be effectively tackled by implementing a digital time and attendance system like MyTimesheets. By adopting such a solution, businesses can better manage employee time, enhance productivity, and reduce labour costs.