How to Monitor When Employees Take Breaks

Are you an employer and want to find the best way to monitor when employees take breaks? Breaks are essential for your workers to perform well at their job, and there are several ways to track them.

You should always have a clear employee break policy. Time-tracking apps and devices can help you monitor employee breaks. Wolfeye can also help you with remote screen monitoring to see if employees use their work computers for personal reasons when they are on the clock.

Time tracking employee breaks is a legal obligation for employers. Reading this article will help you learn why keeping track of your employees is necessary and how to monitor when employees take breaks.

How to Use Time Pilot

Time Pilot is a system that monitors employee breaks. Work breaks can encompass paid time, meaning there is no need for employees to check in and out for breaks. You should monitor employee breaks to see if they take more time than they should. It will give you an awareness of who is time-wasting and who is working up to their potential.

When you add the total sum of time your employees spend on breaks, there are a couple of ways you can do it:

Not include the total number of minutes your employee spent off the clock
Not include the total number of minutes they take beyond their set break times

Time Pilot will have you set up break monitoring and break penalty, which will keep track of your employee’s breaks. Your employees must clock out and clock back in when it is break time.

To Track Break Times

If your objective is to track your employee’s break times without penalties, you will need to set the number of minutes during break monitoring to be longer than the time allotted and keep the number of minutes less than the specified break time.

Time Pilot allows you to create a new shift or edit an existing one. If appropriate, you can save the shift and include it in your employee’s profiles. In this setting, you may see whether your employees took more time for their break, but they will not be penalized.

To Penalize the Whole Time for Extra Long Breaks

If an employee takes too long on breaks, the times they clock in and out are recorded as specified, but the total number of minutes is not counted toward the employee’s work time.

This scenario means that if your employee takes two minutes longer than their allotted 15-minute break, it will deduct 17 minutes from their time, which means they are not compensated for their break plus the extra two minutes. This method will not win you any popularity contests for being the world’s most incredible boss, so the following method is preferable.

To Penalize the Extra Time Only

This method allows you to pay the employee for their break, but you take off for the extra time. It is a combination of break penalty and break monitoring. The only time that time will be taken off their work hours is if the employee does not return past the specified number of minutes set. If the break is supposed to be a half hour for lunch, you can set the break monitoring to 31 minutes and the break penalty to 41 minutes.

If the minutes taken exceed the 41-minute break penalty window, the software will take off the full 41 minutes from their work time. However, if your employee takes 36 minutes, it will ignore the two break transactions because it was not the full ten minutes beyond the break.

Can Wolfeye Help with Employee Break Monitoring?

Wolfeye is a company that specializes in employee monitoring. You can find out if your employee goes right from their lunch break to playing games on the computer, as the program allows you to view what they view on the computer. Screen monitoring is a feature that helps you see what your employees are doing during company hours.

You can use Wolfeye in addition to employee break monitoring to see which employees are performing up to company standards. You can also find out more with remote screens, such as which employees are willing to stay late to complete the job.

What Are Some of the Advantages of Wolfeye?

There are advantages to utilizing Wolfeye to help you monitor when employees take breaks. There is more to this software than a few cool features. It also helps your employees function at their best. Some advantages:

Motivate employee engagement
Increase employee productivity
Improved security for your business
Creates a smoother working process

When you monitor employee breaks, you are improving your business overall. When you hold your employees accountable, they can learn to do their job better. As an employee monitoring software, Wolfeye may be the solution you are looking for.

How To Monitor When Employees Take Breaks

Could you imagine working without breaks? Employee breaks are not mandatory but an essential component of the work culture. Breaks help us eat, rest, regroup, and get ready to get our heads back in the game. Breaks help workers prevent errors that can affect the whole company due to burnout.

However, some employees take advantage and take longer breaks than company policy allows; it is unfair to the other workers or the company. So, what is an employer to do? There are tracking programs that can help you monitor employee breaks, as well as other ways you can make sure everyone receives a break that will make things straightforward for you and your workers:

Timesheets

Timesheets can be an effective tool for tracking employee breaks. Small business owners like to use timesheets, as they are substantially customizable. Using a timesheet helps determine if your employees are taking the required breaks and getting enough rest. A timesheet will let you know if your employee pay is accurate and if you are being compliant with labor laws.

However, the downside to using timesheets is that it is not a very reliable system for recording payroll. It requires much time and work on your part to make sure everything adds up. Manual timesheets may not be ideal for tracking employee breaks, personal time off, and overtime.

Wolfeye Remote Screen

Wolfeye remote screen can help you monitor when your employees are on the computer checking e-mails, checking their social media, or doing anything non-work related. You can also see when they sign in and out of their computer programs. Wolfeye also helps you monitor business transactions, preventing fraud.

Time Tracking Apps

You can use time-tracking apps on mobile devices, which is very convenient for your employees since everyone has a cell phone, and it comes with you everywhere you go. Utilizing and integrating with payroll software is simple, making it an employer asset. The best time-tracking apps:

Deputy
Clockify
My Hours
TimeCamp
Toggl Track

Different time-tracking apps have their attributes. According to Forbes magazine, the best overall time tracking app is Clockify, while Toggl Track is a great free plan. The best time-tracking apps generally have features like real-time tracking and time-tracking reminders.

Employee time tracking tools are essential to help improve productivity, see how much time a project needs, and create billable hours reports. Tracking apps can also help you to organize information more efficiently, like breaks, overtime, and overtime pay.

Mobile time-tracking apps are also effective because you can send your employees reminders when their shifts are about to start and make it easier for them to switch shifts and submit time-tracking requests, making it easier for employers to do their job.

Biometric Time Clocks

Biometric clocks allow you to keep a more accurate track of time. They also help with business security. Also, typical time clocks are easy for employees to misuse, as mistakes can easily be made. Time clock abuse can be uncontrollable if you do not use a biometric time clock. Biometric time clocks have special features:

Iris scans
Fingerprints
Facial recognition
Palm identification

Using biometrics can save costs and prevent time theft. A biometric clock requires that an employee proves their identity every time they use it. Biometric authentication is a very sophisticated concept.

Time Tracking Devices

Time tracking is a way for companies to track the hours their employees work to ensure they are paid accordingly. It gives the company higher-ups information about employee absences, lateness, and worker productivity.

Time tracking for employees is a legal requirement. The Fair Labor Standards Act was produced to protect workers from being taken advantage of monetarily. It was beneficial during the Great Depression to help ensure that workers were fairly paid. Time tracking is still important today.

Your workers can use time-tracking devices to clock in and out for breaks. This device allows the tracking process to be regulated by the employee rather than the employer. Time tracking can be broken down into three steps: time entry, approvals, and reporting.

Web-Based Time Tracking Software

Timesheets and other methods of tracking employee breaks can easily lead to mistakes, rendering the process unreliable if not careful. “Buddy punching,” such as when employees punch in and out for each other, can create incorrect paychecks. The following includes some assets of web-based time tracking:

Employees clock in and out with their PIN
Time-tracking system instantly logs in hours
The system notifies you about timesheet mistakes
Data can be exported to third-party software

With web-based time tracking, you can manage payroll from the timesheet dashboard. It is convenient to be able to double-check accuracy before the paychecks are even created. Buddy punching is strictly prohibited.

Have an Employee Break Policy

Setting clear rules for when, how often, and how long the breaks should be, taking the guesswork out of employee break monitoring. It may sound like a no-brainer, but companies should enforce an employee break policy more.

Explain the consequences of break-time abuse and how it is unfair to fellow employees to take breaks for longer than they should. For example, if you manage a restaurant, explain how a lack of available staff can cause problems for your business. Some of the possible ramifications of break time abuse:

Loss of later break time
Issuing a warning
Write-up

If none of these tactics work, more serious disciplinary action, such as job termination, should be taken. Make sure everyone comprehends the rules and is willing to follow them. If you still need to, it may be time for you to find employees who will.

Create Solid Working Relationships

When you have good working relationships and communication, it can help you monitor when employees need a break. If an employee is stressed and needs a break, you can tell them it is okay to rest for a few minutes. Being fair to your employees and giving them breaks when needed will help them be more productive. Your employees will respect you, and you will get to exercise your role as a leader.

Change Lunch Break Time

Every company has different rules concerning how long and how often break time should be. This time includes lunch. Many companies give their employees an hour-long lunch break. However, if your employees are clocking in late from lunch, you have the right to change lunch break time.

You set a new company rule: lunch breaks only last half an hour. This rule will discourage employees from leaving the building to run errands during lunch or straying too far from work to return in time. You can have your employees leave half an hour earlier as an incentive.

The Importance of Employee Breaks

Breaks are necessary in the working world for employees to relax and unwind. With breaks, employees may be able to do their job because they are tired or hungry. The following includes some of the reasons why employee breaks are essential:

Breaks Make Employees More Productive

Regular breaks make employees more productive. If someone works an eight-hour shift without a break, they may be hungry, thirsty, or too tired to complete tasks. Ensuring your employees are taken care of is important—workers who have food in their bellies and are well-rested and energized perform better.

However, they should take only a short break, as long breaks could make them lazy. A half-hour lunch and several 5 or 10 minutes peppered in is sufficient. If you feel generous, you can have your employees take an hour for lunch. Many employers believe that giving ample lunchtime helps them perform better throughout the day.

Breaks Decrease Stress

Regularly skipping breaks or lunch can lead to stress. Employees may have a stressful issue, and if they do not walk away from it to rest and regroup, it can cause a lot of anxiety for them at work. Even if they must visit the break room for a few minutes to clear their mind, that should help.

Breaks Protect Health

Sitting at a workstation all day makes you more likely to develop obesity. People who take regular breaks and walk around have an opportunity to stretch and get a little exercise. Some other health concerns linked with sitting at a desk all day include high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, and an increase in LDL cholesterol.

Sitting at a workstation all day without getting up is bad for your back, especially if you have poor posture. It can also weaken the leg muscles, making the body susceptible to injury. If your employees do not take advantage, breaks are necessary to protect their health.

The DOL Covers Breaks

The United States Department of Labor covers breaks. As a general rule, coffee and water breaks lasting less than 20 minutes need to be paid. These breaks are a part of your worker’s total work hours. However, employees who take longer breaks than permitted by company policy are not entitled to paid work breaks.

Sometimes, your employee must be paid, even when taking a lunch break. This includes times when they are called back to work during their lunch break. If your employee is on the computer, and your Wolfeye screen monitoring shows they are legitimately working during their lunch break, you must pay them. They should also be paid for dealing with customers during their lunch break.

Conclusion

There are many ways to track when employees take breaks. Time Pilot is an example of a system utilized to monitor employee breaks. There are time-tracking devices and apps, all of which are useful to employees and employers. Breaks are necessary for your workers to be productive. Always make sure your employees are fed, well-rested, and paid fairly.

Sources

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