Speaking of 'wage & hour', one of the big questions that arose since the start of the pandemic and change in how your employees work is, "are they actually working when they are working somewhere other than 'at work?" I mean, "how do you know they are actually working 'for you'?"
Flexible, remote and hybrid work environments have really produced an ever demanding requirement for the ability to track employee time and attendance. It's no longer possible to do a spot check of who is 'in the office', when essentially everyone isn't work in the office as a result of changes you put in place due to the pandemic. If you didn't have an effective attendance and timekeeping solution prior to implementing a 'remote work' environment policy, you have little way of knowing if your personnel are actually performing their assigned duties in a timely manner.
Since all indications are that the changes we have seen in work environments could very well become a 'new normal' in which at least there is far greater flexibility regarding employees working from locations other than 'the office', or formal hybrid work environments in which employees have assigned times in which they essentially come into the office and then occupy a 'shared workspace' rather than a dedicated office, the only way to 'clock' all of the work activities of these personnel is with something far more sophisticated than the traditional 'time clock.'
As a result of this anticipated new normal, App Designers are building far more sophisticated solutions that not only allow you to know when and for how long an employee is actually working from any location, but upon exactly what projects and tasks, for what customers or clients, and how much actual progress they made toward accomplishing assigned goals or objectives during each work setting. And of course this information will either directly integrate with, or link-to your payroll system for purposes of compensation so that no double entry is needed. In fact, if you currently use a 'contract payroll provider or system' you should contact that provider or system manager to inquire if they offer a newer attendance management system.
Source: ActivTrak
ActivTrak Employee Time Dashboard
For example, ActivTrak is a keen tool for workforce productivity and operational efficiency. It provides managers of remote employee teams with insights to guide those teams to success while providing visibility into employee and teams' work time behavior. This solution provides insights concerning each employee's work duration and trends both remotely and in-office. From a management standpoint you get key insights of where and how each employee and team is performing, and how they can increase performance. This solution also allows you discover behaviors among all your employees that are compliance risks (risky behaviors) that potentially threaten your business. By the way, ActivTrak integrates directly with Xero, and also hundreds of other connectivities via Zapier.
ActivTrak is but one example of the type of new workforce analytics that can give you attendance and actual work performance information like you have never had before. If you aren't going back to the 'same old grind' of 8 to 5 in-office, and intend to stay with flexible, remote and hybrid work environments for your operations, you probably should consider a totally new type of workforce solution to go along with your new workforce operations. There are plenty on the market... maybe we will even consider running an 'App Compare' in the near future.