Managing Lab Staff: How to Crack Down on Employee Time Theft

Chances are that at least some of your employees are stealing from you every day. What they’re stealing isn’t necessarily money, equipment, or supplies, but a different kind of resource: time. And in this economy where technicians, nurses, and other lab staff are in short supply—not to mention, extremely expensive—time theft can be crippling to your business operations.

By the Numbers: The Cost of Time Theft

If you don’t think that time theft is a serious operational issue, consider these sobering numbers compiled by the consulting firm FinancesOnline:

• 20 percent: How much of each dollar earned by US companies is lost to time theft
• 43 percent: The percentage of hourly workers who say they exaggerate hours worked during shifts, according to a 2015 survey; and
• 75 percent: The percentage of US employers who experience time theft issues

The 6 Faces of Time Theft—And How to Snuff Out Each One

“Time theft” is a broad term that incorporates several different practices. There are six common forms of time theft you should be on the lookout for.

1. Rounding Up Hours Worked

Timecard theft occurs when employees deliberately adjust their time sheets to increase the number of hours worked. Perhaps the most common pattern is rounding up minutes worked, such as where a lab employee who works from 9:10 to 4:52 lists 9:00 to 5:00 on the timesheet to ensure a full day’s pay. Another variation on the theme is where an employee finishes early and stands around waiting for the clock to tick down to the official shift-ending time. While rounding up typically occurs in minutes-long increments, over time, it can cost your lab a lot of money, especially if many employees engage in it.

What To Do: The most effective way to stop timecard theft is by using technology, with options ranging from software that forces employees to punch in manually to more sophisticated solutions like keycards that gather time and location data on individual employees, global positioning system (GPS) trackers for employees who travel frequently, and biometrics. However, you must make sure your use of these technologies doesn’t violate lab workers’ personal privacy rights.

2. Buddy Punching

Buddy punching is another common and especially expensive form of time theft. It typically involves one employee agreeing to clock in for another. Example: A lab employee running late calls a co-worker and asks her to punch his timecard or sign the time sheet in his name. Buddy punching is pattern behavior. In many cases, the buddies return the favor with the absent and punching employees changing roles. Even if you use swipe cards or employee codes, employees may end up sharing them.

What to Do: Again, technology is probably your most effective defense against buddy punching, especially time-keeping systems that use biometric technology like fingerprint or retina scans to validate a user’s identity; but these solutions expose you to the risk of grievances and legal challenges because they’re privacy-invasive.

3. Unauthorized Breaks

Employees may try to slip out after they punch in for work, especially in large, busy labs where absences are likely to go unnoticed. The risk is especially great with telecommuters and other employees who work offsite or drive company vehicles. Employees don’t have to actually leave. There may be plenty of places at the site where they can play hide-and-seek with their managers. The resulting productivity losses may be massive by the time you discover these abuses.

What to Do: Digital surveillance technology like GPS and tracking software enable you to keep tabs on your employees at all times. But as with biometric systems, their use raises significant legal questions, especially in states that ban or require employers to adopt written policies disclosing their use of such systems and the data they generate.

4. Break Time Abuses

Paid breaks are fertile grounds for time theft. Unauthorized breaks are the most blatant example; but it can also happen when employees take scheduled breaks early and/or end them late. While stealing a minute or two here or there may be no big deal, unauthorized break extension tends to become habitual, resulting in significant wage and productivity losses.

What to Do: Establish clear break times, monitor when employees start and end their breaks, and consistently take disciplinary action against those who don’t comply. Also recognize that break extensions may be a product of your own making if you’re not giving your lab employees ample break time.

5. Unauthorized Napping

In a 2021 Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)/Washington Post survey, over half (55%) of the 1,327 frontline healthcare workers surveyed said they felt “burned out,” while 62 percent said COVID-19-related stress or worry has negatively affected their mental health. But while it might be understandable, the risk of falling asleep on the job creates enormous challenges of not only productivity but also patient and workplace safety.

What to Do: Although sleeping on the job constitutes time theft, you should be prepared to address it as a symptom of the larger challenge of helping employees preserve their mental health and manage their workload.

6. Goofing Off

The risk of employees goofing off and engaging in unproductive activity has existed as long as the workplace itself. But while the problem may not be new, it has become magnified thanks to the internet, smartphones, and other digital distractions, enabling employees to do everything from shop online to establishing their own personal corporations during work hours.

What to Do: Implement clear, written policies on acceptable uses of the internet, company computers, and mobile devices that employees bring to work. Those who engage in social networking and other impermissible uses during work time should be subject to discipline in accordance with the procedures of your progressive discipline policy.

Takeaway

You should also implement a clear written policy on time theft so that employees understand your expectations. There’s a template policy on the Lab Compliance Advisor webpage that you can adapt for your own lab.