The biggest problem is typically that your clocking solution is terribly out of date. Just because your team is still clocking in like they did 30 years ago doesn’t mean you still have the right tool for the job.

In modern environments, a time clock kiosk can fully upgrade your time tracking solution and offer your team an experience they can enjoy when arriving for the day, catching a break, and wrapping up to go home.

What is a Time Clock Kiosk?

A time clock kiosk is a service kiosk with a touch-screen display. The touchscreen offers a smooth, seamless time tracking workflow that makes it easy for your employees to quickly log in, check leaving or arriving, and enjoy the rest of their day hassle-free.

The kiosk itself is three to four feet high, just high enough that it’s easy to interface with, but not so high that your shorter employees will be unable to reach the screen.

When they approach, each user will be able to log into the system using a specialized code and clock their own hours with optimized speed and perfect accuracy.

Common Time Clock Problems

Many employers experience regular problems getting their team to clock consistently and accurately. Some of this is a backflow issue because the team is having problems with the time clock itself. Some are issues with time clock management that have been solved by the latest technology since your original time clock hardware was installed. There is a good likelihood that you will see your own problems reflected in these common issues.

Fingerprint Scanners Don’t Always Work

One of the most popular ways to track time a few years ago was fingerprint scanning. Scanners were even added to old time clocks in a desire to upgrade the function. Fingerprint scanning is a good way to ensure personal authentication for hours clocked, but not always the most efficient when starting or ending a shift.

For one, those scanners don’t always work the way they’re supposed to. While it would be great if fingerprint scanners worked like they do in the movies, team members often must try multiple times to get their fingers to scan. Dry skin, hand damage, the wrong angle, or just a bad day for the scanner can make a process that should take a few seconds take minutes and back everyone else up at the same time.

Self-Tracked Hours Aren’t Always Accurate

Self-tracked hours occur when your team keeps notes on when they stop and start each shift. Ideally, self-reporting hours could be done with the same transparency as the time clock, but you likely already know this isn’t the case. Most people will conveniently round up on their hours and may fudge the numbers to cover arriving late or leaving early. Some people just need to see their times line up perfectly on the page, even if their arrivals and departures are not so perfectly aligned. In other words, you can never fully trust self-reporting because there is an inherent risk of inaccuracy compared to the time clock.

Buddy Punching is a Constant Problem

Another common issue is buddy-punching. This is when a buddy “punches the card” of a friend so that they appear to have clocked in on time. buddy punching is a common way for shift workers to express friendship, even when it’s not necessary. But this, too, leads to inaccuracies that are reflected in the payroll.

Old Time Clocks are Hard to Use

The fact of the matter is that most old-time clock systems are difficult to use. Whether you have fingerprint scanners, punch cards, or just old software, these aging systems pose challenges to both the employees and managers.

Clocking In/Out Early or Late

Lastly, with traditional timeclocks, overtime and overlapped breaks are calculated with very little control on the part of workers. Those who want to decide when to take breaks and when to clock overtime are often disadvantaged.

How the Time Clock Kiosk Works to Solve These Problems

Time Tracker’s time clock kiosk seeks to solve all these problems one by one and has been successful. Once a kiosk is installed, your team will delight at the ease of use, while managers will appreciate the absolute protection against both slow punching and buddy-punching.

Easy-to-Clock Process

The time clock kiosk allows employees to log in with a simple yet personal 4-digit pin. No more struggling to get a fingerprint or a worn old badge to be acknowledged by the system, getting started and clocking time is easy to do.

Clock In/Out Photo for Review

When a time entry is clocked, the kiosk takes a quick picture of the person using the device. This can be quickly reviewed by managers to ensure buddy punching does not occur.

Overtime Alerts

The time clock kiosk also keeps track of time through a management dashboard and can send alerts to either workers or managers when overtime is at risk. This can allow the team to make intentional decisions about overtime instead of going over by accident and increasing department costs.

Break Reminders to Start and Stop

Your team also benefits from break reminders, both reminders to take their breaks at legally mandated times and reminders to come back from break before the time clock marks them as late, all from their phone.

Multiple Kiosk Locations

Finally, you’re not limited to just one clock-in, clock-out location. You can install multiple kiosks at convenient spots around the property so that your team can clock in and out at the appropriate moment when they re-enter the work area and are ready to begin.

Discover Time Tracker’s Time Clock Kiosk

If you’re tired of the constant hassle and management challenges that come with an outdated time-clocking system, it may be time to upgrade. Time Tracker by eBillity can help you install one or more adaptive and easy-to-use time-clocking kiosks to empower your team and management. Setup a 14-day Time Tracker trial and see for yourself how easy a time clock kiosk can be.

The post What is a Time Clock Kiosk and Who Should Use It appeared first on eBillity.

What is Cross-Functional Team Collaboration?

Cross-functional team definition can best be explained by bringing together people from different departments to achieve a common goal. Many companies have silos that divide teams based on task or workplace location. These separation gaps might be further widened by teams using different tech stacks, applications, or processes.

Cross-functional collaboration supports a more unified working environment by bringing together different teams. This kind of intentional grouping might be an essential solution for teams with hybrid or remote teams. Cross-functional team collaboration is designed to solve a specific problem, and it can be a temporary or permanent process.

Benefits of Cross-Functional Team Collaboration

There are three main reasons cross-functional collaboration is valuable for a company.

Bigger Company Perspective

When you pull perspectives from different departments and teams, you get solutions that are department agnostic. Ideally, your company will make choices that aren’t just in the best interest of one department, and cross-functional collaboration can help bring together perspectives that provide different viewpoints.

Knowledge and Data Sharing

Understanding how other departments operate or the data available can help your teams work more efficiently as a whole. Cross-functional collaboration makes it possible to build more trust and empathy within your team. Getting everyone on the same page can boost productivity.

Increased Innovation

When different minds with different perspectives come together, innovation is often the result. Your teams have different jobs and see different aspects of your customers’ needs. By bringing together teams for cross-functional collaboration, you enable your company to solve problems in new ways. The diversity of thinking can help challenge preconceived ideas about how workflows or projects should go.

Tips to Increase Cross-Functional Collaboration

Here are some quick tips to get cross-functional collaboration started within your workplace.

Get Leadership on Board

If your company leaders don’t see the value of cross-functional collaboration, you may experience head butting and some toes being stepped on. Your leaders need to understand why this initiative is valuable and how you plan to bring it about.

You may find that your leaders are strong individuals who struggle with other leadership styles. It’s important not to make your executive leaders and managers feel like the rug is being pulled out from under their feet.

Assign Cross-Functional Teamwork Tasks

Start small so you don’t overwhelm your team. Look for cross-functional team tasks that aren’t a big stretch. For example, marketing and sales might be a natural fit in examining how leads are labeled and handed off. If you already have this kind of basic cross-functional collaboration in place, then you can try a task with a further reach.

When establishing initial cross-team assignments, think about the natural alignment of teams based on personalities and working styles—not just department function. Choose teams that will work well together because the professionals within those teams are naturally well-liked and inspirational. By establishing success early on, you can increase the buy-in for future cross-collaboration teamwork.

Include Remote and Hybrid Workers

Do you have a dispersed workforce? This is the perfect opportunity to help your remote or hybrid workers experience more of your company culture. Rather than let those individuals be siloed because of their location, use the cross-functional collaboration initiative to draw them in.

When creating cross-functional collaboration tasks, choose teams that have a mix of in- and out-of-office workers. Use communication tools like Zoom and Slack to help strengthen connection and discussion among your teams. Choose a project management tool with communication tools designed to support small team management.

Provide Training and Ramp-Up Time

When you are asking your teams to learn new processes or software, it’s important to give them enough space to do so. Planning for a less productive start will help your team be successful. While it might feel like you are taking a step backward in expecting less productivity, you are really setting the stage for a big leap forward for future growth.

Starting with a lower expectation takes some of the pressure and stress off your teams. You can create a happier team culture when your employees don’t feel burdened by expectations for a quick changeover. Provide time for hands-on training and a slower ramp-up schedule that gives employees a clear idea of when you expect productivity to return to full capacity.

Establish SMART Goals

It’s not enough to have an established idea of what you want to accomplish. In order for your cross-collaboration efforts to be productive and efficient, you need to set SMART goals.

• Specific: Use numbers, percentages, or other details to help define what your goals are.
• Measurable: Choose the KPIs (key performance indicators), metrics, and outcomes that will show success or failure for each goal.
• Attainable: Choose goals on projects that are within your grasp or control (for example, you can’t control the economy or buyer trends).
• Realistic: Set goals that aren’t too far from your current position (and established after taking a baseline measurement so you know your starting point).
• Timely: Set checkpoints and deadlines so goals aren’t open-ended—choose a time to evaluate and reassess.

Set Clear Workflows

With cross-functional collaboration, it’s extremely important that employees know who is responsible for which task. Using Time Tracker by eBillity, you can see what employees are working on and how they are spending their time on cross-functional collaboration projects.

When setting up cross-collaboration projects, you need a tool that helps you see your budget and how allotted hours are being used. Set up a workflow structure and tools before starting cross-functional collaborative teams to avoid confusion during the project.

Get Started with Time Tracker by eBillity

Whether you are working on cross-functional team collaboration or just want a better way to manage projects, Time Tracker can help. Time Tracker enables company leaders to achieve clear project management and better employee oversight.

Getting started only takes a few minutes. Start your free trial now to experience how eBillity can help your business grow and increase profits.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Cross-Functional Collaboration appeared first on eBillity.