Geofencing

How does geofencing help enforce schedules and attendance?

Geofencing provides a way to verify where each employee clocks in and out through a mobile time clock. If the employee is inside a pre-approved geofence, all is well. If not, a manager is alerted. Geofencing makes it easy to confirm that employees are working where scheduled.

What are the benefits of geofencing?

• Improved productivity. Employees are where they are scheduled to work or are redirected there promptly.
• Time savings. Managers know where all clock activity occurs and focus on exceptions without having to be physically present.
• Job costing. Job related information can be collected at the clock and associated to the job location, creating a stronger audit trail for job costing.
• Social distancing. Employees use their smartphones for clock activity, avoiding shared surfaces and preserving social distance.
• Remote work. Geofencing provides a way to confirm that remote workers are where they claim to be.
• 24/7 access. Employees and their managers can review all punches 24/7 from anywhere, preventing payroll processing errors.

What are key controls that geofencing enables?

• Identify who clocks in or out beyond their authorized location
• Notification in real time if a punch occurs outside the fence
• Reports of punch times and locations for a specific employee or group
• Track employee hours for accurate payroll
• Retain employee timecards for FLSA recordkeeping
• Enforce time and attendance policies
• Ensure employees know they are at the correct location
• Track employee hours per project or job location
• Track employee mileage for company reimbursement

How is geofencing set up?

1. Identify where employees will work. For example, you may have a central office, a manufacturing facility and job sites that change over time. You might also have some remote employees working from home.
2. Create a geofence or virtual area surrounding each location. The geofence is usually drawn as a radius around an address on a map.
3. Assign employees to a geofence, either one by one or (more efficiently) by groups.
4. Instruct employees to clock in and out using timekeeping software on their smartphones. Each use of the clock triggers the capture of GPS location, which is automatically correlates with geofences to determine if the employee is out of bounds (location services must be enabled).

What’s the best way to introduce geofencing?

Make geofencing part of your formal attendance policy. The policy should address the following issues for employees:

• How do I punch in/out?
• What if I forget to punch in/out?
• Where do I see my schedule?
• Where do I see my timecard?
• What if I get to work a few minutes early—can I clock in?
• Can I clock out after my shift end time?
• Am I supposed to clock out for breaks and meals?
• What if I need to trade a shift?
• What alternative is there if I don’t want to use the timekeeping app?

Can employees clock into the wrong location?

All clock activity is recorded. If an employee is out of bounds, managers are notified. For additional time theft prevention, pair geofencing with schedule enforcement. Schedule enforcement restricts early or late punches. You will have two safeguards:

1. Geofencing restricts out-of-bounds punches.
2. Schedule enforcement restricts out-of-schedule punches.

See also

• Employee time clocks
• Employee timesheets

Additional resources

• Does Your Employee Timekeeping App Have Geofencing?
• Mobile Timekeeping: Avoid 5 Geofencing Pitfalls
• Profession Services Tech Use Geofencing to Track Remote Employees During COVID-19 Pandemic
• Improve HR Efficiency and Expand the Strategic Role of Your Human Resources Team
• 5 Must Have Features of Mobile Workforce Management Software
• Why Mobile Time Tracking is a Must for Food Trucks and Small Restaurants
• Time and Attendance: Timekeeping, Policies, Software, Compliance, Templates