Paying your temps on a timeclock?

CAHR

This may seem like an odd question, but wondering how others may handle this. At times, we have 30-40 temps working (plant environment) and they keep track of their hours by using our timeclock. This is fine, however, I have now found out that OUR payroll person spends quite a bit of time every Monday morning going over their time cards and recording actual hours worked, etc. and then giving that information to the temp agency for their payment of wages. I cannot understand why WE should be doing that - considering the "markup" we pay on these guys! When I called the temp agency, they gave me the "run around" and said that is how many of their employers do this. My feeling is that we either fax them the timesheets (however, my rep says they have a lousy fax machine and is afraid it won't make good copies) or the agency sends someone out to the plant to pick up the timecards... Just wondering if any of you do something else (those that have alot of temps working with timeclocks)?

Irie

We are a manufacturing environment as well and have about 50 agency temps at our establishment. These temps do use our timekeeping system because our cost accounting department needs the time information to perform costing for the jobs.

Our payroll department gives a computer-generated time sheet to HR and the temp employee's time is recorded on a time sheet that is faxed to the temp agency. We have been told that agency temp employees should not be using our timekeeping system for recording hours and payment of wages but they should have their own system. (This is in accordance with the Microsoft case awhile back and the association with temps and regular employees.) We do not want to do this because it would be duplication of timekeeping.

HRCalico

Nope - not an odd question. There's a funny line between theirs and ours when it comes to temp employees, and I'd guess that CA complicates matters. :>) We have our temps use our time clock and computer labor tracking system. Then every week, I make a copy of the time card (usually adjusting the copier to a darker setting, mind you). Then I take a magic marker and write in the total number of hours for the week, my name and company (etc.) and drop it on the fax then put it in a file. Luckily, all they need is the total number of hours. I tend to agree with you - in fact, I would probably say that their lousy fax is NOT MY PROBLEM. This is delving into office equipment a little far, but does your copier also scan? Perhaps after you copied the cards, you could just scan them through the document feeder and e-mail them over?

Keep in mind that I do have very few temps - and none right now. My way would take a while for 50, but it's better than wasting your payroll people's time.

mwild31

Hi CAHR

Remember, the temp agency is YOUR vendor. You set the rules - not them. We have about 50 temps working for us & they use our labor program to input hours (it's how we can track hours to work orders - strictly for accounting) AND the temps enter their times on a timesheet & fax the paperwork to their agency. My agencies know that it's their responsibility to get the time for the employees - not mine - after all, they are their employees. Call in your agencies and lay the groundwork - there's many more things you could be doing than spending time on this admistrative sinkhole. Good luck!

ray a

We do something similar to MWild. The ee's from the temp agency turn in a time sheet, just like our own ee's do. The time sheet is used to enter the time into our MRP system for accounting purposes, then the supervisor logs the total time for each day on to an excel spread sheet which is faxed to the temp agency. We've never had more than 15 temps, so it wasn't a major task.

System

CAHR,
One of the companies we own is a temp agency and I can tell you that we would NEVER expect our client to calculate the the hours worked by our temps. If they ELECT to do so for auditing purposes of our invoices, or for their own labor tracking and/or job costing purposes, so be it. The only thing we ask our clients to do is verify the hours worked on the time sheet in the event there is ever a dispute about someone's paycheck or number of hours worked. The excuse about a bad fax machine is as lame as it gets. We use both our own timeclocks as well as client clocks, but let the client determine that. Our sales people would drool over the opportunity to provide you a quote for better service.

Dutch2

We seldom use temp's, but when we do they are responsible for their own time. We allow them to use our time clock to record their time or to just write their time down and turn it in to their er which ever their er wants them to keep track of their time. The ee is responsible to turn in their time to their er and the er computes the amount.

babies2

The agency we deal with wants the temps' time sheets on a daily basis. The supervisor signs them after reading what the temp has written. The temp then faxes their timesheet that day. If it isn't sent, it is on the temp. However, our supervisors only deal with 2 to 3 temps at a time. Good Luck!