The number of mobile and telecommuting employees have continued to skyrocket. One exception to that rule is nonexempt employees. It has long been thought that it is too risky to have nonexempt employees telecommute because of the fear that they would work overtime hours or violate the FLSA.
However, if you follow these guidelines, your nonexempt employees could enjoy a greater degree of flexibility.
Spell out overtime expectations.
To prevent unauthorized overtime, the most important thing companies need to do is lay out their overtime policies. Some tips for this are to:
- Have an overtime policy in place that prevents workers from working longer than 40 hours a week without getting advance written permission. Make sure employees sign that they understand the policy.
- Enforce a written policy that bans off-the-clock work or misreporting hours worked. Have employees sign that they comply with the policy.
- Be prepared to take corrective action if employees do not meet the terms of the outlined overtime policies in place (you will still have to pay out the overtime).
Promote clear outlines of what constitutes “hours worked”.
It’s important that your employees understand what tasks they should be compensated for. Your company should have procedures in place prohibiting any work before or after set work hours to discourage nonexempt workers from performing off-the-clock work.
Employees should also fully recognize the expectations related with recording their payable work hours, including how to properly record meal and break times. (As a general rule, breaks of 20 minutes or under are paid, while full meal breaks of 30 minutes or longer are unpaid, assuming absolutely no work is performed during the break.)
Utilize time tracking systems that can be accessed remotely.
One of the most important parts of having an effective plan for letting your nonexempt employees work out of the office is to have an accurate and robust time and attendance system that can be accessed remotely. Although you should not be expected to micromanage your nonexempt employees, having accurate time and attendance of employees is a must. Real-time time and attendance systems equipped with features like geo-tracking, geo-fencing and GPS capturing can help you keep an eye on remote workers from afar.
With these guidelines in mind, remote work for nonexempt employees shouldn’t be out of the question.
EPAY’s mobile time and attendance option, Mobile PunchTM, prvides and affordable and easy to use option for managing time and attendance work a workforce in motion. Watch the video here.