From running an online business with a roaming workforce, to a company over several locations or even managing an offshore project, labour management is your biggest and least controllable, expense.
Many companies still use paper time cards, which are frequently inaccurate and go missing, or other imprecise methods to keep track of their workers’ daily hours. Some Managers still waste time and money driving out to multiple job sites to collect timesheets. Overall these dated and costly methods suck the profits out of companies every year.
With technology moving on so quickly and the focus of our lives being on convenience there are now a range of different solutions available on the market that can rescue companies from the perils of these painful, outdated tracking methods. The same technologies that have become part of our everyday lives are changing the face of staff tracking and we should be making the most of them to makes our lives and our businesses run smoothly.
Smart phones
An obvious game-changer in outdoor workforce tracking is the computer in everyone’s back pocket, the smartphone. A smartphone or tablet is a great way for employees and supervisors in the field to track work accurately, from the minute they arrive to the minute they leave the job site and the exact activity each worker is doing all the way through the day.
Among the many apps available our research found a few top rated that cover a wide range of needs for companies with mobile staff.
StreetSmart is a complete employee location tracking service. The platform offers a huge number of features that should make your workers visible, more productive and, above all, safe.
Turtler is an excellent GPS tracking and location sharing application with a big focus on personal data privacy and security, which is crucial these days.
myGeoTracking is another powerful workforce management app. It offers a lot of features including real-time employee location tracking.
Roaming workforce software
These days a lot of companies offer customers the personal touch with a large roaming workforce.
Mitrefinch – offer both hardware and software options to support companies and their staff. Their workforce management system is a fantastic tool if you have 50+ mobile employees. It keeps a consistent check and control on your workforce. The software gives you a high level of accountability and makes sure that the employees can perform to their potential.
Offshore
A long distance offshore project requires very specific management and the one that we felt was the best tested and covered all potentials needs was the Searoc Seahub.
This software has been specifically designed for continuous remote offshore operation even if you can’t always guarantee frequent service, but still need cost effective, secure communications.
The SeaHub provides complete communication capabilities for remote, offshore locations that are outside the range of shorebased transmitters. The SeaHub can be deployed on a vessel or on a fixed offshore structure and uses satellite communications to provide a ‘backhaul’ link to shore.
The SeaHub supports Handheld Terminals, Mobile Terminals, Satphones, 4G/LTE networks and really any other platform you might need.
So whether you choose a robust, construction-friendly app, a reliable offshore management software or software time clock to replace paper time cards, you can rest assured that your profit margin will change for the better when you streamline your payroll process and start paying only for time actually worked.
