If you are reading this then you might not know what ‘buddy punching’ is, or you do and you want to know how to stop this behavior in your company, if so then read on. Let me start by telling you what it is. At its core, and with no language filter ‘buddy punching’ is time theft,…

If you are reading this then you might not know what ‘buddy punching’ is, or you do and you want to know how to stop this behavior in your company, if so then read on.

Let me start by telling you what it is.

At its core, and with no language filter ‘buddy punching’ is time theft, no excuses. Employees steal time by not arriving at their scheduled time or at all. They ask someone else to sign them ‘in’, faking their presence at work. This behavior is usually unknown to the company because they have no way of telling it’s happening and end up paying for the missed time.

Let me describe a different scenario for you, one employee is late and calls his friend at work to say “hey can you please sign me in, I’m just stuck in traffic be there in five”.

What do you think? This seems harmless, in the end, who’s being hurt, it’s only five minutes.

Well, the problem starts small and will snowball, it’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Five minutes could turn into ten and by the time the person starts work it’s already thirty minutes, especially before they start being productive.

Let’s calculate that delay, at thirty minutes, at least once a week, over a year it all adds up, especially for a small business, that’s about $2500 per person, per year for an average wage. Proper procedure would be to call the admin, let them know but ‘buddy punching’ is so much easier. Time theft and money aside, inherently this type of behavior causes inefficiencies in your business. The employees will not have enough time to finish their allocated jobs in that day unless they stay late to make up the lost time, and let’s be honest, not many employees do that.

It’s not fair to trick your employer and potentially end up putting your own employment on the line because being late is not the problem, it’s using other means to cover it up that is. ‘Buddy punching’ can get quickly out of hand, you can either surround yourself with 100% perfect employees or you can do something about it.

Would you pay $2500 to stop buddy punching? Give us a call today, on 08 9277 2226 and forget about ‘buddy punching’ for good.