New DOL rules will take effect soon. To manage these new higher payroll costs, your supervisors must keep careful tabs on hours work and have documentation to back it up to properly manage employees time.
Common mistakes to avoid include:
Casual Overtime – employees should have approval to work overtime, if they don’t have it, they shouldn’t work it. It is imperative for supervisors to know when their staff are working over. Maybe you have an employee that wants to wrap up a project, but it’s after 5:00. They decide to stay anyway. If 5:00 is quitting time, the supervisor should be observing their staff to ensure they are not working. If they are the supervisor should approve the overtime OR agree to allow the employee to reduce their hours on another day in that week OR explain to them they can’t keep working.
IMPORTANT – Even if the employee is working unauthorized overtime, the company is required to pay them at the overtime rate.
Miscalculation of Hours – Managers need to check the math on the employee’s timesheets. If a timeclock is used, hours should be compared for accuracy. All documentation used to figure employee hours must match. If they don’t, you are opening yourself to lawsuits and possible DOL audits.
Remote Employees – When working remotely employees are to be paid for every hour worked and should be tracking their hours. The managers and remote workers should have a reasonable signed agreement regarding their work hours. While difficult to ‘watch’ those in remote locations, the manager should be gauging output. For instance – If your employee is suddenly recording 20 more calls per day, could they be working unauthorized overtime? What if they are recording 20 less a day, are they putting in their hours? There may be logical reasons for both. Either way it is time for a conversation with the employee about their hours.
If you have questions regarding the DOL rules or want a review of your timekeeping and payroll policies, give CyQuest a call today!