Time Bandits Attack your profit margin every day
This is the wild South and it's likely that your company is under attack from time bandits
Read time – 6 min
The South African economy is brutal, as it is in most parts of the world. Margins are tight, contractors and suppliers often feel bent over a barrel. They get it in the ear from unions, price changes, logistics problems, supply shortages, time frames… you name it.
By Craig Fussell
Craig is a self-confessed Time Bandit whose business & sport adventures have driven him to manage his and his family's time very carefully over his 30+ working years in the construction and private business industries. He is now imparting experiential insights from as far afield as Honduras, Europe, South Africa and the Americas to combat Time Bandits that cost companies millions by paying for work not done due to inaccurate time & attendance data.
Driven by critical path mentality, his experience lies in managing people who deliver successful projects intact, on time and within budget. His Civil Engineering and Project Management qualifications have exposed him to both developing and 1st world business cultures, including construction, manufacturing, design, procurement and sales functions. All of which are vulnerable to Time Bandits within the workforce.
Craig’s mission is to provide simple cost-effective solutions that avoid unnecessary spending on work not done and allocating that to margin.
Craig hit his first construction site in 1983 and quickly learned how wasted minutes convert into wasted hours, days months and years, resulting in costing companies millions.
The makings of a Time Bandit (Stealing Time)
I have sat at board level as contracts manager and I’ve also swung hammers as an engineer, carpenter and tradesman from Hermanus to Honduras.
If there is one thing I’ve learned about a business that has employees , it's how much time actually costs when it’s lost.
You plan to start work at 07h30 sharp with the best intentions, but you clock in a few minutes late, change into your work clothes, have a chat with Fred at the store, then make a quick cup of coffee and you’re surprised to see it’s already something past 08h00! You were actually supposed to be at your place of work, with your work clothes and your coffee at 07h30 and not at something past 08h00!
That’s the makings of a time bandit right there! And to make things worse, you leave your place of work early in order to return your kit to the store, have another chat to Fred, and change into your civvies, just in time to clock out of your shift at the exit gate. You should still be at your place of work working when clocking out, not at the exit gate! If you’re paid for your time and you waste that time you are not keeping your end of the bargain
HR experts call it ‘time theft’ and whether it’s intentional or not, these Time Bandits seriously rob the profit margin. This is why you need an accurate accountability system in place!
How to Jippo the system
There are many loopholes for Time Bandits who are not held accountable.
There’s Beating the Clock: Time bandits know you get a few minutes grace with most clock-in systems and they milk it. It defaults to the time they were meant to be there and not the time they actually arrived or left.
Then there’s Buddy Punching, getting clocked-in by a mate when you’re running late or feel the need to be somewhere else. Who’s to know? Nevermind natural tendencies to Goof off, Zone out, Socialise or take Personal Calls on the company clock.
Other clocking-in systems that are a waste of time and are Fudging the Worksheets are those that are inconsistent or allow for too much leeway.
If you can write whatever time you want in the ledger with impunity or clock-in remotely from your bed when you’re miles offsite, or maybe you just know the supervisor will turn a blind eye to the odd 20 minutes of tardiness here and there, then the clock-in system does not work!
The harsh reality is that it’s a free-for-all, and even if your workforce arrives exactly on time how do you measure their productivity after that without supervision? It’s as simple as a Time Bandit arriving on time and then finding a nice warm spot in the sun out of sight to take a long lekker snooze, and then YOU lose.
Do you still work in the Dark Ages?
High tech does not always solve the problem
It’s difficult to build digital infrastructures around a mobile workforce – it’s much more sensible to build a simple infrastructure that works from inside their pockets.
So, electricity, internet access, delicate hardware and other tech-based resources that use expensive biometric and time auditing systems aren’t truly portable or easy to set up and use. Plus, these finicky computers and systems don’t cope well in a harsh and messy environment that usually comes with being mobile. This all needs to sit in the cloud and not be dependent on anything except common sense and a normal mobile phone that’s likely to spend the day in your pocket.
Also, these systems lack the personal touch. People are not robots, they are human beings that need interaction, motivation and to be held accountable. It’s human nature to do as little as possible if you feel like you can get away with it. These expensive “solutions” are a lost opportunity to engage with and monitor staff. The best solution is to have your system sitting in the cloud, collecting sensible data through normal day-to-day devices, your mobile phones, your tablets, your iPads!
How much money are you losing to Time Bandits?
There is no way of knowing unless you measure it. With real-time data, you can manage your labour expenses daily, before it’s too late.
Look at it this way, based on the assumption that the average worker costs R0.50/minute.
If a worker wastes only ONE minute per day, that equates to over R11.00 per month and R130.00 per year. No big deal, right?
But what if they waste roughly 10 minutes per day as I did in my example earlier just making coffee or any other time bandit tactic? That’s R1,300.00 per year.
Now, if you have 100 or more workers clocking in late or out early, abusing coffee breaks, taking a call and having a cigarette every day for just ten minutes then that quickly escalates to a cost of over R11,000 per month and R130,000.00 per year. Scary stuff!
I’m sure there’s a lot you could do with an extra R130,000.00 per year by just managing 10minutes per day better! Do the Math across your entire company and the numbers will scare you! Add your salaried staff to this and you will get an even bigger fright!
Mobility, accountability and productivity without much money
You don’t need expensive impractical systems that work with difficult-to-use facial recognition and fingerprints that don’t read well through thumbs covered in calluses, dust, concrete, or fish and chips from lunch. You need a system that is truly mobile, inexpensive, accurate and definitely one that is easy to use. You also need a system that the workforce is unable to Jippo and one that proves without a shadow of doubt that they were at the right place, for the right amount of time every day. You need a system that is truly mobile, inexpensive, accurate and definitely one that is easy to use. Big and small businesses should not have different setups or measurement criteria, they should, in fact, have exactly the same system and neither should require setting up all!
What about accuracy? Accounting and administrative queries can be a real pain in the backside if you don’t have a system that allows for accurate data collation in formats that are suited to payroll systems in real-time. You also need real-time cost reporting from anywhere in the world to truly manage your day-to-day people costs in your business.
The more time spent doing admin the less time spent supervising the critical path of the business.
If you are familiar with any or all of these challenges, then I know that you’ve been through some rough times. Maybe it’s time for Better Times.