This is why employers should rely on time tracking in home offices

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Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil has presented a draft bill for the "Mobile Work Act," which would establish a legal right for full-time employees to work from home or work remotely for at least 24 days a year. Digital time recording should also become mandatory in the home office. We believe that correct time recording is essential, especially in the home office! We will explain the reasons to you:

Background of the draft law
Due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases and the threat of a second lockdown, the topic of home office is once again becoming the focus of many employers. While employees had to switch to home office abruptly and Cell Phone Number Database unprepared last March, there was a lot of discussion about productivity while working from home. Experience over the last few months has shown that employees usually work more in the home office than on-site at the company - for example in the evenings or at weekends. For this reason, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is planning mandatory digital time recording. According to the draft law, employers who do not comply with this recording obligation can expect a fine of up to €30,000.

Breaking news: Time recording becomes mandatory
The issue of working time recording has been the focus of attention since the European Court of Justice's ruling last year, which required EU states to introduce a mandatory law on systematic working time recording for all employees. Even though the ruling has not yet been implemented into national law, companies must address the issue in order to comply with the ECJ in the future.

You can find out what the ruling specifically means for time recording in everyday working life and what requirements the corresponding system should meet in our eBook.
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‍home office working hours
This is why both employers and employees benefit from correct time recording in the home office:



Office workers usually have fixed working hours during which they are on site. Employers therefore have an overview of when these employees have been working. However, this is more problematic when employees are working from home. Many employees who work from home feel that they have to be available at all times in order to signal to their supervisor that they are working as agreed and not disappointing their trust.

They often underestimate their own work performance and work overtime. Especially when you don't have fixed attendance times like in the office, you quickly lose track of how much work has actually been done. However, time tracking in the home office not only gives employees a better overview of the times they have already worked, but can also be used to analyze their own productivity. A study commissioned by DAK has shown that 56 percent of employees who regularly work from home rate their work in the home office as more productive than in the office.

Systematic time recording can prevent unintentional overtime and prevent the blurring of boundaries between work and private life - with positive effects on the health of employees. According to the DAK study, the proportion of employees who never or rarely feel stressed rose from 48 to 58 percent as a result of working from home. Regularly working from home could therefore have a significant impact on the frequency of stress-related illnesses such as burnout.

But time recording also brings advantages in situations where overtime has been agreed and intended by the employee: The time is recorded as overtime and can be paid appropriately.

Time recording in the home office is an important measure to achieve a clear separation between work and private life , which many employees have so far complained about. Ideally, progressive employers should therefore already be looking into a solution for digital mobile time recording. With clockin, employees can easily record their working hours using an app. At the same time, the employer always has an overview of who is currently working on which projects. The best thing: At the end of the month, clockin creates the timesheets completely automatically.