Remote work measurement

Who has to keep track of the time?

The timekeeping law obliges all companies to keep track of their employees’ working hours regardless of their size or sector of activity. It therefore applies to all employees of the organization including mobile workers, commercial, temporary and remote workers. Self-employed workers, cooperative workers and senior management are excluded from the time control. This regulation aims to put an end to labor precariousness, which has been favored by the amount of unrecorded overtime of workers with high workloads.

How do I sign in?

Although the Law does not specifically define which tools should be used to keep track of employee time and attendance, it does stipulate that the system must “provide reliable, unmodifiable information that cannot be manipulated a posteriori, either by the employer or by the worker himself”. It is recommended, therefore, to implement technological systems for time and attendance control, which allow the daily registration, entry and exit of workers.

What should the timekeeping report look like?

It must state:

• The name of the worker
• The date
• The time of entry
• The time of departure
• The time of breaks, both the breaks stipulated in the agreement (lunch) and the breaks not stipulated (smoking, coffee breaks, etc.).
• The length of the working day
• Overtime, if any

The difference between the hours elapsed between the start and end of the working day and the break time shall be considered as effective working time. The break time must be thoroughly documented, otherwise, the actual working time would be equivalent to the attendance time (start – end of working day).

The calculation of overtime, as stipulated in Article 35 of the Workers’ Statute, shall be based on those hours of actual work performed over the maximum duration of the working day.

How should time records be kept in flexible and teleworking environments?

With the pandemic, we have seen a boom in teleworking and everything points to its continuity beyond a certain return to normality. The Ministry considers that the mandatory control of working hours does not constitute an impediment or a brake on teleworking. It is more in the Law of work to distance, it is emphasized again the obligatory nature of taking a control hourly of the teleworkers. It is recommended to carry out the registration of effective work through telematic registers or similar.

How long does the data have to be retained?

The records must be kept by the company for four years and will remain available to employees, their legal representatives and the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate. If the organization has several centers or sites, employee timekeeping reports must be available at any center at any time.

What can happen if I don’t keep a time record?

It is worth noting that the time registration regulations have modified the Workers’ Statute and the Law on Infractions and Penalties in the Social Order (LISOS), and failure to comply with them can result in fines of between 626 and 6,250 euros for companies.

How does Time@Work help you comply with the Time and Attendance Law?

• Automatic time recording – Adapts to teleworking – Reports are always up to date
  Time@Work is an employee time and attendance software that collects data automatically and objectively. Data is recorded in real time. It provides reliable and unchangeable information. It automatically collects start and end times from the employee’s device so that the time is recorded whether the employee is working in the office or at home. It also offers a timekeeping app for mobile employees. The automation ensures that reports are always up to date and eliminates unnecessary administrative tasks for the HR department.

• Measures actual working time and calculates overtime
  Time@work measures actual employee activity (actual working time) and accurately calculates break times. It provides the Human Resources department with comprehensive time recording reports and overtime reports for each employee.

• Data preservation
  It is a completely SaaS application (in the cloud), it does not require costly investments in infrastructure, installations or special equipment. It generates reports in Excel, PDF and CSV formats, offering data security guarantees and information backup. Data is securely retained for 4 years.

• Data availability
  Data can be accessed from any location or work center at any time.

• Employees can access their data
  Employees can access their personal data, self-assess their own performance, optimize their time management and increase their productivity.

• Provides managers with information about the performance of their teams.
  Managers have access to data related to work activity and employee work schedules, to control and balance workloads, as well as to easily evaluate the performance of their teams and understand work dynamics.

It is important to keep in mind that an optimal timekeeping solution not only meets the need for labor control and legal compliance, but is also an effective solution for increasing employee efficiency and performance.

Employee timekeeping solutions, such as Time@Work, not only provide complete reports on the working day and working hours of each professional, but also offer data on the quality of work, facilitate self-management of time, improve productivity and encourage the implementation of new ways of working, such as flexible working hours or teleworking, providing transparency with totally objective and accurate information.

A solution that, in addition to complying with the time control law, guarantees the right of digital disconnection to workers, since it has a system of alerts that warn employees when they have reached the end of their workday, recommending them to disconnect from their device and from their work responsibilities. In this way, Time@Work promotes the reconciliation of work and family life, generating an appropriate balance.

The positive results generated by having employee time and attendance software for companies, eliminates the typical myths of time recording, which devalue its benefits. Implementing a software that manages the working day record is becoming more and more common and mandatory in organizations that want to improve their processes.

Whatever the reason companies have, it seems that the growing need to know information about the fulfillment of working hours, forces companies to want a time control of their employees to know their performance and promote their growth. The best solution is one that not only complies with timekeeping but also allows employees to manage and optimize their own time in the best possible way.