Time and attendance programs provide both benefits and efficiencies to companies that use them. They also considerably help with solving the problems associated with buddy punching. There have been numerous cases were employees were found cheating on their managers by clocking the wrong working hours in order to get paid for work that they did not perform, in order to get more pay. A lot of companies have introduced time and attendance programs in order to combat this and many other issues.

To get the most benefit out of their time and attendance programs, they should be covered in the company policy and employee manuals. Company policy and employee manuals should clearly indicate to the employees that time and attendance programs are being used throughout the organization so the employees are aware of them and are aware of the benefits and requirements. The company policy should also identify consequences and penalties for the employees should they deviate from the company's requirements and policies. Employees should be provided with an orientation and/or training program, free of charge of course and which the company should facilitate, in order that they are clearly shown these company policies. This orientation/training program should clearly incorporate the areas covering the time and attendance software too. The training sessions should cover all aspects, attributes and uses of the time and attendance programs that are used in the organization in detail. This way the employee is fully advised of all the benefits and obligations of the time and attendance system and later on can't complain that sufficient information was not provided to him/her.

There are a lot of benefits to be gained by covering the time and attendance programs in the company policy and related training in a company. The employees will respect and understand the time and attendance software system and use it more effectively and efficiently. Employees become aware of the benefits and will be much more punctual which in turn leads to a lot of benefits such as timely production of payroll, efficiencies in the job costing area, assistance to the clients or customers, appropriate data handling, increased quality and detail of information and hence more profits.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of including the time and attendance programs into the company policy and employee orientation training is that the employees will fully understand their duties and obligations and thus avoid any potential misunderstandings in the future. A well informed and trained group of employees will be happier in using the system and disagreements and law suits will be avoided. It has been proven time and time again that proper company policies that are clearly communicated to the workforce produce a healthier company and a healthier workforce.

Remember: It takes time to properly prepare and write the company policies and to incorporate the coverage of the time and attendance systems but that time is well spent and will reap many rewards, if done correctly. While it appears that this time is being spent away from the core focus of the company this is time that is extremely valuable and beneficial to the organization.