Facts and Stats to Tweet:

• 6 of the 10 fastest growing industries through 2020 are in health care or elderly care services. >>tweet<<
• Health care and elderly care will create over 2.1M new jobs by 2020. >>tweet<<
• Home health services will create over 871,000 new jobs by 2020. >>tweet<<
• Services for the elderly will create over 586,000 new jobs by 2020. >>tweet<<
• Private education service jobs will expand by 56% by 2020. >>tweet<<

By Vladik Rikhter

With the right phone time clock, you can have your employees check in online or over the phone from wherever they happen to be working. These systems not only allow for greater flexibility for your business, but the phone tracking feature also allows you to monitor your employees’ location when they check in. So, you don’t have to take their word for it that they’re at work. With the use of job codes, you can also evaluate how much work is getting done without having to look over anyone’s shoulders.

So, how can you have employees clock in via phone? Don’t worry; it’s easy. Just follow these simple steps.

1. Set up your employees in the system.
2. Employees call into a toll free number and input their unique user I.D. and pin. This clocks them into work. If you’re requiring employees to use voice authentication, they will be prompted to say their names here (this will help ensure that they’re clocking in for themselves instead of having a friend do it for them).
3. When the work day is over, your employees will call that same toll free number, input their user I.D. and pin and clock out of work. If you require that employees use job codes, they will enter the appropriate code now. They can also leave a verbal message for you about the shift, if necessary.
4. Sit back and watch productivity increase. From your dashboard, you’ll be able to see everything, including the phone number your employees called from. You can also run reports to make it even easier to evaluate performance.

If you’d like a little more control over where your employees call from, you can restrict them from calling in to only those numbers you allow. For example, if you’re running a team of home health aides who usually work from the same home, put that home’s landline number on the list. No more checking in from the traffic jam on the way to the job. You’re in control once again.

You might be wondering if you need remote employees to take advantage of this cool feature. The answer is no. You can have employees check in from their desks at the office. This way, your definition of “on time” rings loud and clear. If work starts at 9 a.m., that doesn’t mean you stroll into the building at nine and take a five minute coffee break before moseying on over to your desk. It means that you’re ready to work the minute your workday starts.

Regardless of where your employees show up to work, you have more control when workers check in by phone.

By Vladik Rikhter

1. Use online attendance sheets to track your employees’ progress. This way, you can easily run reports and configure the data in different ways. With physical attendance sheets, you would have to do a lot of manual work in order to get the same result.
2. Setup job codes for all major tasks. If you’re running a mechanic shop, maybe a common task is changing a carburetor. If you manage a team of home health aides, a common task might be physical therapy. Have your employees log their time according to corresponding job codes.
3. Get better at managing time and staff. When your employees are using job codes to track time, you’ll have the ability to evaluate each job. So, you can easily see how long each task takes to complete on average; this will help you identify your top employees and any underachievers. Once you’ve identified the employees that are having trouble, you can help them find ways to improve.
4. Use shift reports wisely. Not only will job codes help you identify your best and worst workers, but they’ll also help you evaluate what’s happening on the jobsite in any given day. So, in addition to evaluating how long an employee takes to perform a given task, you can also see how many tasks are performed during a shift to get a better picture of each employee’s true value.
5. Evaluate overtime hours. If you have a lot of employees logging overtime hours, you may be wasting money. Instead of paying for 25+ hours at time and a half, you might be actually save money by hiring another person. By the same token, if all of your employees are consistently taking longer than they should to complete their work and/or leaving early, they may not have enough to do. In this case, you may save money by cutting back your staff.

No longer do you have to deal with quoting jobs and coming in over budget. You’ll know exactly how long it takes and your team will know that you’re keeping track, so they’ll do their best to work quickly and honestly. Now, you’ll know whether you have the right number of people on staff to handle your company’s workload. At just a glance of your attendance software, you’ll be making smarter and more savvy decisions.

By Vladik Rikhter

1. Free time for you. With a good time card system, you don’t have to spend your entire workday calling around to your team just to make sure everyone is where they say they are. The right time card system will allow you to track where your employees are when they check in, so if they’re not at work, you’ll know.
2. HR gets a little easier. When it’s time to do payroll, you just have to run a simple report. That report will have everything you need to get the weekly work history into the system and set your employees up for payment. You don’t have to worry about human error or employees who will take advantage. Time card systems don’t lie.
3. Lose the dead weight. Employees who are only there to do the bare minimum (or less) are not only a drain on your budget, but they bring everyone else down with them. That’s why the impact of keeping dead weight on staff is much greater than you may ever even know. Modern time card systems allow you to run reports to easily evaluate employee productivity. When you identify employees that need to step up their game, start by talking it out. If that doesn’t work, lose the dead weight. You may find that the resulting boost in productivity is a lot greater than you expected.
4. Instant morale boost. Because you’ll have a better look at your employees’ productivity (and potentially cutting out some bottom performers), you may think morale will decrease. It doesn’t have to. Use your new insight to reward your best employees on a regular basis. This way, everyone has a fair shot at “employee of the month.”

Okay, so the bottom line is that time card systems, old school or new, are extremely beneficial for tracking employees’ time spent working. But, the more modern online time card systems come with features that allow you to also track productivity and remote employees. So, if you’re running your business without any time card system at all, you’re taking a big risk.

By Vladik Rikhter

1) Mentoring – Moms are great teachers, but you should be too if you want to be an effective leader. Yes, you only hire people who are qualified for the job, but that doesn’t mean they know absolutely everything there is to know. If they did, maybe they would be in your position already. Some people are really great at learning technical things, but they don’t have naturally good people skills. Don’t be afraid to spend some time teaching that employee how to be a little more social or friendly with customers and other associates.

2) Patience – When you’re a kid, you have no idea how much patience it takes to be a mom. Kids’ minds just don’t work that way. But if you think back to some of the stunts you pulled, you’ll probably realize that mom was pretty darn patient. As a team leader, you can’t fly off the handle whenever someone does something dumb. Mistakes are going to happen. Learn to have a little patience and work through the “oopses.”

3) Caring – Running a team isn’t about barking orders. Your employees need to feel appreciated or they won’t produce their best work. Mom knew this when she offered rewards for doing things you didn’t want to do. She was showing that she cares about your feelings too.

4) Tough love administering – Most of us remember every dose of tough love that mom administered. Why? Because it was effective. When you’re managing a great team, it’s easy to think of your staff as friends, and in some cases they may truly be, but you can’t let things slide. It doesn’t matter how well you know these people, if you act like a pushover, they’re going to push you over. When it’s time for discipline, it’s time to get serious. If you really care about your team, you’ll want to nip bad behavior in the bud before you find yourself needing to take more serious disciplinary action.

5) Creative – Here’s where the mom analogy gets a little dicey. Some people have moms who are completely overbearing. If that’s the case for you, don’t take this page out of mom’s playbook. Give your team their space; just find creative ways to track their productivity. Instead of constantly nagging them about their progress, ask that they use an online time clock to track their work by job code. This way, you can log in at any time to see how much of their tasks they have completed.

Just because you need to borrow some qualities from mom to effectively manage your team, doesn’t mean you have to baby them. Of course, they are all adults and should be responsible for their own actions. But do remember that you’re probably spending more time with these people than you do with most family members, so treat them as you would want to be treated (another great lesson from mom) and you can expect great results.

By Vladik Rikhter

Choose the right web-based time clock. A good system will allow you to control where employees check in from and allow them to track a job’s progress with codes. It’ll also have a very user-friendly interface where you can check progress and run reports at any time.

1. Setup all of your employees in the system. Your web-based time clock should come with easy-to-follow, intuitive instructions that show you how to enter or import your employee’s info, such as name, address, employee number(s), etc., so you can be up and running in no time.
2. Set boundaries. Just because you’re moving to a web-based system doesn’t mean you have to give up control. You can still monitor where your employees are when they are checking in for work. You can even limit the phone numbers they’re allowed to use to check in with. Hint: you probably don’t want it to be their cell phones (unless they are using GPS-enabled company phones).
3. Hold a meeting. Remember that this isn’t just a transition for you. Your employees will have to get used to the new web-based clock too. Schedule a half hour meeting on the first morning they are expected to use the new system. Have everyone check in from the office during the meeting, so you can talk through any issues they may encounter. In addition to learning how to use the system, they should also know that you’ll be able to see where they are when they check in. Whether you’re checking or not is up to you, but they’ll be less inclined to try to beat the system if they know it can get them into trouble.

The transition from the old way to the new way isn’t really that difficult at all, but it does help to be prepared. Set aside a little extra time to monitor employees’ use of the web-based time clock and to help them if they have difficulty. By the second week, everyone should be up to speed and running more efficiently.

By Vladik Rikhter

1) Speed. How long does it take you to run payroll? If you’re spending more than sixty seconds to get your employees’ hours and information together, you’re wasting valuable time. To figure out exactly how much this extra time is costing you, divide it by your hourly rate. Then, think about the list of a million other things you could be doing with that extra time. With an employee time clock, all you have to do is run a fast and simple report that will show the hours each employee worked that week.

2) Organization. You can easily use the same report you ran for payroll to monitor your employees’ time. Is it up from last week? If so, is there a reason? More time equals more money, so you’ll want to know whether those hours were used wisely. You can also require that your employees use job codes to log time spent on a specific task, such as changing linens or engaging in physical exercise with the client. This way, you can keep track of how much time your employees are spending on one task over another. Just keep in mind that the more job codes you use, the more your time your employees will have to spend checking in.

3) Compliance. Missouri is among the first states to pass a law that requires home health care companies to keep digital records of visits. An online time clock can help keep your company compliant. But even if your state hasn’t adopted such a law yet, it’s a good idea to keep records. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people out there. You probably already employ some good interview techniques that help weed those applicants out, but sometimes rule breakers can be rather cunning. If someone like this has found his way onto your team, he can get your company into a lot of hot water. As you can probably imagine, it would be very easy for an employee to say she cared for an Alzheimer’s afflicted patient all week when, in fact, she only showed up once. Not only does this kind of fraud cost you money, but it can also cost your company its reputation. With a good employee time clock, you’ll know that your employees are exactly where they say they are – because you can require that they check in from a landline at the jobsite.

These are very serious issues, but the right employee time clock can handle them with ease. So, that’s the good news. The bad news? Well, your competition may already be using one. It’s time to safeguard your business by tracking your employees’ time the easy and efficient way – with software.

By Vladik Rikhter

1. Manage your social— Get your assistant to manage your Twitter and Facebook profiles. He or she can use any of your social feeds to promote deals, build a dialogue with your customers, and help people get to know your brand. And remember, social networking can be a great customer service tool. Carefully monitoring your Twitter feed or FB wall can tune you into issues before they spiral out of hand, and allow you to publicly step in and deal with a customer service issue proactively.
2. Make 5 cold calls a day— Schedule 5 cold calls a day that your assistant can make to find new leads. Consistency is key, so keep it on the docket every day and you’ll be sure to get some hits.
3. Write thank you cards to big customers— With some customers, the casual world of social just isn’t enough. With these higher-profile clients, make sure that your assistant is staying on top of certain protocols and niceties. A thank you card after a big sale, for example, is always a good idea.
4. Monitor the discussion in your niche— Have your assistant look through all your trades every day, both online and off, so that you both can stay on top of what’s happening in your niche. You can also have him or her visit online forums or even the social profiles of competitors to keep up to date on the general conversation. Ask your assistant to brief you on any changes he or she senses might be in the work, or even give you a daily bullet list of observations.
5. Blog posts— Have an assistant who loves to write? Your assistant probably has a great sense for your business and what you’re trying to do. You might want to have him or her write up weekly blogs for website. If you want your own distinct voice in there, consider having him or her run initial drafts of your blogs— you can always circle back and infuse them with your own point of view later on. And don’t forget to have your assistant update your social feeds with links to any new blogs.
6. Article Marketing— Another natural fit for an assistant who likes to write can be article marketing. Carefully crafted (and carefully placed) articles can give your business an important presence and relevance in your niche, as well as turn some new people on to your business. Have your assistant do a little research on viable places to post articles online that resonate with your business, and then give it a try.
7. Cost-Saving Research— Have your assistant take a few hours each week to brainstorm and research some ideas on products or protocols you might implement to bring your operating costs down. Is your printer the most energy-efficient one out there? Is your employee time clock saving you on labor costs? Are there in-house practices that you can implement that will help you save some time and money? Have him or her take a look around and get a little creative.

Do you have thoughts on any of the ideas above? Some of your own that you would like to include in the conversation? Just chime in below in the comments and let us know your thoughts.

By Vladik Rikhter

To get a handle on your true labor costs, learn to manage from the top down. Here are some tips to get you started.

Use an employee time clock to evaluate the current situation. You should be able to run reports that will tell you who is logging the most hours.

Evaluate all overtime hours. Now, you’re trying to determine whether it would make more sense to hire another person, if even part time, to help cover the work instead of consistently paying your employees overtime.

Determine an average completion time for common tasks. If your employees are using job codes to log their work in their employee time clock, you should be able to run a report and determine the average time it takes them to complete a common task.

Make a list of employees whose work consistently falls outside the average completion time. You might be tempted to just call out the ones who are taking forever to complete a simple task, but fight that urge and make note of everyone who is considerably above or below average.

Reprimand and reward. No, we’re not developing split personalities. You need to reprimand those who are taking too long to finish their work, and reward those who are doing a great job in a short amount of time. If you have employees who always take an extra half hour to complete a job that most finish inside an hour, there’s a problem. Maybe she isn’t qualified for the job, and maybe he’s taking advantage.

Reevaluate labor costs quarterly. Your employee time clock will prove to be an invaluable tool. Run reports quarterly, and you should notice that you’re managing your business more efficiently than ever before.

By addressing problem employees, the average time it takes your staff to complete a job should continue to plummet until you reach a true average. At this point, there won’t be a major difference between the fastest and slowest employee: That’s when you know you’re managing labor costs efficiently.

Here is where many employers falter. They think their work is done and get lazy. If you believe in a top-down approach to management, you know that when you get lazy, so will your employees. To stop quarterly reports would be like telling your staff that they’re free to slack off again. Instead, continue to reward the employee with the best stats each quarter. This way, everyone knows you’re watching, and they have something to strive for. Everyone is happy, and your business is running smoothly.

By Vladik Rikhter

Basic Admin— Checking and responding to emails, keeping up on general correspondence, planning trips, setting a schedule for the week, sending out company-wide memos… all basic administration tasks that are also very time-consuming. With the “remote” office being what it is these days, you can have a virtual assistant who can cover all these basics without the additional overhead of an in-house, full-time employee.

Appointment Scheduling— If you don’t want to go all the way and open up all the intricacies of your business to a virtual assistant, you can at least outsource your appointment scheduling. There are plenty of individuals and services that will take care of your schedule for you, eliminating a tiresome and distracting chore from your task list. They can do everything from contacting all parties to finding an appropriate meeting place and time. One less headache.

Invoicing/Accounting— Remote accounting services can answer your bookkeeping needs while saving you thousands a year in overhead costs. They can give you all the dedication and detail of an in-house department at a much lower cost. If your business is smaller in scope, you can consider hiring an individual freelancer to take over these duties, as well, and save even more on your bottom line.

Payroll— Outsourcing your payroll not only saves you money, it also helps to ensure that you’ve done everything above the board when it comes to the IRS. Statistics show that 40% of small businesses in the States pay a penalty to the IRS for mistakes on payroll. An outsourced payroll professional is much more likely to make sure that everything is kosher than you and your team might on your own. As a supplement to outsourcing your payroll, consider upgrading to a web-based employee time clock— it will streamline payroll and make it easier for you to share and access timecards with your external payroll service or provider.

Marketing and PR – Putting on a good public face for your company isn’t necessarily about throwing down a big retainer at a marketing or PR firm anymore. Both marketing and PR have become more fluid and more accessible, and there are plenty of independent professionals and freelancers that can get the job done. Instead of having an in-house department or even farming the work out to a large-scale firm, keep on the lookout for an independent freelancer who can leverage the Internet effectively and get the job done for less.

Lead Generation – You can also consider outsourcing your cold calling and lead generation to a freelancer. These preliminary efforts in sourcing and collating leads can easily be handed over to a competent outside professional; when the stakes get higher, you can step in and take over the sales cycle to make sure that it progresses in the way you want. You can find great phone professionals at a minimal cost who can run a high volume of calls and drive in a lot more leads than you and your staff could cull on your own.

So, those are our ideas? Got any of your own you want to share? Let us know in the comments below.

By Vladik Rikhter