Systematic timekeeping and reporting are essential to any organization, particularly in the healthcare industry. For those in behavioral health and human services, accurate and dependable timekeeping systems ensure efficient operations and effective patient care as they track employee work hours.
Comprehensive records include the time an employee spends on different tasks, the duration of breaks, and the time spent on specific projects or with patients. With accurate timekeeping data, behavioral health practices can track employee productivity, allocate resources effectively, and make data-driven decisions.
Here, we’ll discuss some of the timekeeping challenges medium-sized and larger behavioral health and human services (BHHS) organizations face. We’ll also review how using broader human capital management (HCM) software with timekeeping functionality impacts employee satisfaction while driving recruitment and retention. Plus, we’ll offer tips on what to look for when planning an upgrade.
Navigating Timekeeping Challenges in Health Care
Healthcare organizations face unique obstacles in managing employee work hours, compensation, and rights. For long-term success and growth, employers not only need a comprehensive understanding of these challenges but they also need to implement robust timekeeping solutions.
For example, healthcare organizations must comply with U.S. labor laws and regulations that govern various aspects of employee work hours, compensation, and rights. These include, but aren’t limited to, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
Moreover, some challenges are unique to BHHS — like varying pay rates due to shift work, program funding, or reporting requirements — which means more flexible timekeeping solutions are necessary. Here’s a closer look at how to navigate some of these challenges.
Overtime Policies
Healthcare employers should have clear overtime policies in place to prevent pay period violations of the FLSA. This includes determining employees' eligibility for overtime, setting overtime rates, and establishing procedures for approving and tracking overtime hours.
Record-Keeping Requirements
Healthcare organizations must maintain accurate and up-to-date records of employees' workday hours, wages, and other relevant information. Attendance systems can ensure compliance with labor laws and protect the organization from potential disputes.
Wage and Hour Lawsuits
Failure to comply with labor laws and regulations can result in costly wage and hour lawsuits for healthcare organizations. Employers should regularly review their timekeeping policies, train managers and staff, and consult legal professionals to minimize this risk.
Diverse Shift Patterns Among Employees
Many employees in behavioral health work different shifts, such as day, evening, or overnight, with some rotating between shifts. Such variation calls for a flexible and robust timekeeping system that can accurately track work hours across various schedules to minimize the risk of data entry errors and ensure that employees are paid correctly.
Employees With Varying Pay Rates Based on Programs
Behavioral health workers often receive different pay rates depending on the specific program they’re working on. Instead of a chaotic system of multiple spreadsheets, employers need a unified timekeeping system with configurable templates. This way, organizations can efficiently allocate and calculate the appropriate pay rate for each employee based on their role and responsibilities within the company.
Multiple Funding Sources
Behavioral health organizations often receive funding from different sources, including government grants, private donations, and insurance reimbursements. As such, they need a timekeeping solution capable of tracking and allocating employee work hours to the appropriate funding source. This type of functionality ensures compliance with financial reporting requirements and helps to maintain funding.
How Does Accurate Timekeeping Boost Employee Satisfaction?
ContinuumCloud’s 2023 Behavioral Health Industry Trends Report reveals that 91% of BHHS organizations continue to face challenges in recruitment and retention, experiencing a minimum turnover rate of 20%.
This situation presents a substantial opportunity to enhance workforce management by leveraging technology. Doing so can increase employee engagement and satisfaction while reducing the costs associated with the continuous cycle of recruiting, hiring, and training new staff.
When choosing technology, look for features that offer the following benefits:
- Simplified tracking of training hours: A cloud-based HCM software solution with employee timekeeping capabilities can make it easier to track when an employee attends scheduled training. This automated process can reduce manual paperwork and errors, ensuring employees are appropriately compensated for their time.
- Monitoring continuing education progress: HCM software should help behavioral health professionals keep track of their continuing education requirements for credentialing and promotions within the organization. The system can provide alerts and reminders to help employees stay on top of their educational progress, reducing the risk of missed deadlines and non-compliance.
- Enhanced communication and collaboration: Look for HCM software to facilitate improved employee communication and collaboration by providing HR tools to deliver pulse feedback surveys, receive notifications, manage PTO or time-off requests, share updates, and promote best practices.
- Streamlined administrative tasks: By automating HR workflows like employee scheduling, attendance, and benefits administration, HCM software can save employees time and effort, allowing them to focus on providing quality patient care.
- Transparency and fairness in compensation and promotions: An HCM system can help ensure transparency and fairness in compensation and promotion decisions by tracking employee performance, accomplishments, and continuing education progress.
Transform Your Workforce With HCM-Integrated Timekeeping Systems
With the increasing complexity of scheduling, compliance, and payroll processing, a comprehensive solution can help you meet these challenges head-on.
ContinuumCloud offers an integrated human capital management solution that combines robust timekeeping systems with other HCM functionalities to transform workforce management for behavioral health organizations. Let’s take a closer look at these HCM-integrated timekeeping systems.
Streamlined Workforce Management
By integrating timekeeping systems with ContinuumCloud’s HCM platform, your organization can centralize employee information and automate critical processes like time tracking, scheduling, payroll processing, and benefits administration. This streamlined approach reduces administrative burdens, eliminates manual errors, and allows managers to focus on strategic decision-making.
Enhanced Compliance and Risk Management
Compliance with state and federal labor regulations is crucial for behavioral health organizations. An HCM-integrated timekeeping system automatically tracks employee hours, manages overtime, enforces meal and rest break policies, and ensures compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This comprehensive approach mitigates the risk of fines and penalties while maintaining a compliant work environment.
Better Employee Engagement
By offering access via mobile devices and self-service options, ContinuumCloud gives employers and employees more flexibility. Mobile workers can clock in and out from any web-enabled device and self-manage their schedules while geofencing and IP restrictions ensure they only do so from approved locations. Increased autonomy enhances employee engagement, leading to stronger retention rates and a more productive workforce.
Real-Time Reporting and Analytics
The integration of timekeeping systems with an HCM platform gives employers access to real-time data and analytics. This valuable information enables managers to track employee hours, monitor overtime, identify labor trends, and make informed staffing decisions. By leveraging these insights, organizations can optimize their workforce, control labor costs, and enhance productivity.
Seamless Scalability
As your behavioral health organization grows and evolves, your workforce management needs also change. With ContinuumCloud, you can easily scale your operations to accommodate new employees, locations, or services. This flexibility lets you adapt quickly to changing demands while maintaining efficient personnel management.
Empower Your Workforce Today With Advanced Timekeeping Solutions
Implementing advanced timekeeping software solutions is essential for BHHS organizations to effectively manage employee hours, work schedules, and time-off accruals. The right software can streamline employee management and ensure compliance with labor laws by utilizing features like digital timesheets, mobile app integration for clocking in and out, and real-time attendance software.
ContinuumCloud’s HCM-integrated timekeeping system offers a comprehensive approach to tracking work hours and PTO, ultimately improving overall efficiency and productivity. By embracing this technology, you can revolutionize your approach to workforce management and create a thriving work environment for employees. Connect with us today to see how our technology can help you meet workforce challenges and deliver a better employee experience.
