Nobody likes the idea of having Big Brother looking over their shoulder, and you are not going to win any popularity contests by implementing a GPS tracking system into your company’s field operations. But the bottom line is that a lot of people will behave differently in an unsupervised work environment than they will when they know that the boss is (or could be) watching, and while changing a business culture can be painful, the overall benefit it brings often makes it more than worthwhile.

Take the example of a demo we did for a West Texas municipality recently. They took us up on our offer to borrow one of our battery operated GPS devices and put it into an employee’s vehicle that had been turning in overtime hours on every timesheet for months. They told the employee that he was participating in a pilot program, and that there was now a monitoring device on his vehicle that would be used for a variety of things, including timesheet verification. The employee was not very happy about this new arrangement, but was told that this was not a voluntary program and he had to live with it.

After about six weeks we got a call back from the supervisor. “You are not going to believe this”, he said, “but every timesheet that has come in from this guy since we started the demo has had no overtime reported whatsoever.” In fact, they were able to show an overtime reduction of over $400/month for this one employee’s payroll alone, and that was the easy thing to measure. There was also a decrease in mileage and engine hour usage on his vehicle, leading to measurable savings there as well.

And what did the supervisor do to make this happen? Other than tell the employee that the device was in the vehicle, the supervisor did practically nothing. Sure, he looked at the monitoring history occasionally, but he soon realized he did not have to. “As soon as the device was in the vehicle”, he says, “the guy’s behavior changed. It was that simple.” The reality is that quite often, very little effort has to be put into the service to get a good return on the investment, because the simple act of putting the device into the vehicle will make an employee think twice before padding a timesheet or using the company vehicle for their personal errands.

Of course, there are a lot of opportunities to get even more out of a fleet monitoring system. Our services range from basic, self service tracking to a full service option where one of our staff experts can serve as your outsourced fleet management supervisor, keeping an eye on all of the incoming data and distilling the information into comprehensive reports that you can use to better manage your operations. Any of our fleet monitoring solutions

can be deployed on as few as 2 vehicles, and can be scaled up to cover literally thousands of mobile assets in the field. With no equipment to buy and no software to maintain, this service allows organizations to implement the very latest fleet monitoring service without the risk of purchasing hardware which may quickly be out of date.

Sound interesting? Give us a call and we will be happy to tell you more about this exciting program. You can always find more information on this, or any of our line of GPS Tracking devices by visiting www.worldtrackingsolutions.com.

One of the key topics that we discuss with business customers early on is the potential productivity gains and costs savings surrounding improved timesheet verification of their employees out in the field.  For some organizations, this topic can be very uncomfortable. Not only are you bringing into question the trustworthiness of your employees, but perhaps even the integrity and loyalty of supervisors and payroll staff.

If human emotion was not a consideration, the cold, hard numbers would make any effort to improve timesheet verification a favorite topic for business owners. Saving just a couple hours a month per employee can have a significant impact on the bottom line, representing an opportunity to delay the hiring of additional staff, improve profit margins, and market competitiveness.

But rarely is the question of timesheet validity a simple clerical issue. Aside from the potential criminal implications (many states consider timesheet fraud a form of larceny) and civil repercussions (ie. having an employee sue in civil court), any attempt to implement an improved verification system runs the risk of disrupting the status quo in the organization. If employees are used to padding their timesheets with a few extra hours of overtime every paycheck, or taking time off during the day to run personal errands, it may be that they consider the extra pay an entitlement that they deserve. After all, they may have been doing this for years with no consequence whatsoever. And supervisors may have grown accustomed to looking the other way as well, seeing it as an opportunity to reward their staff and keep them happy.

It is important to remember though that the morale issue cuts both ways. For those employees that do not pad their timesheet, this behavior among their coworkers can be perceived as an unfair, even immoral activity leading to resentment towards both the coworkers who are taking advantage of the situation as well as of the employer who allows the behavior to continue. Left unchecked, even the most honest and loyal employee will eventually begin to question why they should not take advantage of the “fringe benefit” of padding their timesheet, or perhaps even leave the company in an effort to find a work environment that meets their higher sense of work ethic.

As tough as this problem can be to tackle, it is imperative for any organization with employees in the field to insure that the hours being paid to each individual accurately represents their contribution. While the traditional “honor system” or “supervisor verified system” can insure that the majority of the timesheets submitted are accurate, the addition of a tool like GPS fleet monitoring can significantly reduce the potential abuses in both systems. Fleet monitoring provides an exact record of where each vehicle was in over the course of the week, making it very risky for an employee to claim they were working when there is a record showing the vehicle was at home or at the mall, and supervisors will no longer have to choose between ignoring an extra hour or two on a timesheet vs. a confrontation with a coworker/friend.

If you have been considering the implementation of a fleet monitoring solution, be sure and ask us how GPS tracking can be used to improve the productivity of your field staff and level the playing field for your honest employees.

About Sageplan
Sageplan is an international technology consulting company providing services in GPS tracking, fleet management, and general technology consulting. Our fleet management services help organizations cut fleet operating costs and increase employee productivity through the application of environmentally sound and field proven technologies. Our free, no obligation consultation can show you how to reduce fuel consumption, lower insurance rates, and reduce wasted employee hours on the job. For more information about the company and their services, visit www.sageplan.com or www.worldtrackingsolutions.com.