Employees need to learn what they need to do to be compliant with the FLSA so that companies can avoid overtime lawsuits. The basics of wage and hour best practices can be found here. Once familiar with that, you’re ready to train your employees.
Training for Hourly Employees
1. Choose a time tracking system
Time tracking is required for hourly employees. Choose what type of time tracking system to use – online solutions are the easiest to deal with – and then get everyone logging in. Online systems are more accurate than spreadsheets and cheaper than physical punch clocks. They offer a lot of handy features and the ease and portability helps make the transition comfortable for employees. Clocking in and out online isn’t hard but remembering to clock in requires forming a new habit.
2. Record all working time
Hourly employees must be on the clock at all times while working, even while working at home and at night. They may enter their time manually on a spreadsheet or with a time tracking service but every single minute they’re working must get recorded.
3. Record all travel time and waiting time
Even when employees aren’t doing their regular duties, they still need to get paid while they are performing work or even being idle for their employer’s sake. Hourly employees must be paid for travel time, waiting time, and on-call time.
4. Maintain flexibility
Some salaried employees enjoy the flexibility that goes along with their salaried status. They don’t have to track time, so they can work as much as is necessary to complete a project and at nonstandard times. Hourly employees, on the other hand, need to track all the time they work. Having an easy way to track their time wherever they are offers them some of the flexibility that salaried employees have. With an online time tracking app they can work evenings if they want to and clock in with their phones.
5. Learn the overtime policy
Overtime accumulates after 40 hours in a week (not 80 hours in two weeks) so if your company doesn’t want to pay overtime, you have to inform your employees that they need to quit working – finished or not – after 40 hours. Employers have to pay overtime to employees that work over 40 hours even if the overtime is not authorized (in most cases) so make this policy very clear. And if employees disobey your rules, you need to discipline them in ways other than by withholding pay. Withholding pay could result in an overtime lawsuit that you really don’t want to deal with.
Get started tracking time with Timesheets.com
