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How to track and settle remote working time
Remote work was a topic rarely discussed in the office community not so long ago as most of the employees functioned daily in the company office. The rules have changed with a coronavirus epidemic. Many corporations, companies, universities and schools have been forced to switch to remote work.
A quick adaptation to the current situation was required but the requirements for employees remained intact. The question is how can we track the working time while working remotely? The following article will try to provide answers to bothering questions.
Remote work and the labor code
Pursuant to the provisions of the new regulations in Poland, the employer will still be able to unilaterally send the employee to home office work during the state of emergency, epidemic threat or epidemic state and for 3 months from their cancellation. The employee also has the option, based on a request or in an amicable manner agreed with the employer, to switch to work performed remotely. The agreement between the parties to the employment contract may be concluded before or during employment time. Each employee may apply for remote work.
The same applies if the employee or employer wants to return to stationary work. On this basis, the time to return to working in the office is up to 30 days.
Remote work and costs incurred by employee
The Act, and more precisely its draft, also specifies the obligations of the employer towards an employee performing remote work in terms of providing the employee with materials and work tools, including devices necessary to work remotely.
In addition, there are costs for the service, installation, operation and maintenance of the working tools. Interestingly, the employer is also responsible for covering electricity costs and telecommunications costs such as the Internet. The employer and employee can also determine whether the employee is to perform their work using work tools or using their own private tools. Thanks to this, it will be possible to replace the employer's obligation to provide materials and tools with a lump sum or equivalent payment.
Home office - pros and cons
In most cases, the main advantage for a remote worker is flexible and adjustable working hours. Performing one's duties at home may result in more effective work. Additionally, the employee benefit is time and costs saved on the way to the office.
He or she can use this time at home for other purposes, like self-development or time spent with family which increases employee satisfaction.
The advantage for employers is that they may use home office solution to attract specialists in specific fields from all over the country. This gives the possibility of further development of the company, which affects the progress and achieved financial results.
The main con of remote work is certainly the combination of work and private life. The work-life balance of other household members may be disturbed as not everyone may be able to perform their duties within a given time frame. Some of the family members may be forced to fulfill their duties in unregulated working hours, which may affect relations and health.
Another matter are distractions, especially when remote work is not performed in a separate room.
For employers the main disadvantage may be difficulties in tracking the time of remote work.
Some techniques providing control over employee working time may cause huge discomfort. Employees do not feel confident and safe when controlling systems are used.
Remote work and timesheets
In Poland, Article 3 par. 6 of the Act of March 2, 2020 (special solutions related to the prevention, counteracting and combating COVID-19 and other infectious diseases) says that the employer may instruct an employee who performs remote work to describe and report on the activities performed. Therefore, the employee must record how much he worked, when exactly he performed a given activity and what was associated with it. In addition, the employer may require the employee a few other pieces of data.
Nowadays, many employers rely on trust in their employees. Appropriate conclusions are drawn based on the effects of employee work. However, it may still not be 100% accurate, especially when the timesheet is completed once in a while.
So how can a problem of data reliability be solved?
Flowgres - a home office solution
Flowgres management platform will help us to solve these problems. Flowgres will allow you to safely store data related to the working time performed by an employee. In addition, you can use reports to verify the implementation of the work entrusted to the employee. Using the desktop application, the user can record the working time during the project implementation. Flowgres Time Tracking application is a non-disturbing and easy to use tool.
Flowgres allows you to define each project on specific topics, which enables even more detailed information of performed tasks. Simplified communication as well as the speed of the application make the employee able to facilitate their daily work with this tool.
Flowgres also offers reporting of working hours of each employee, which allows to verify in detail the effectiveness of the work of team members, as well as to improve the processes taking place in the company.
Summary
The employer is obliged to keep records of the employee's working time - regardless of whether he works at the workplace or remotely.
The employee performs remote work in accordance with the provisions agreed with his employer, at the same time being obliged to return to stationary work within 30 days from the decision of the supervisor.
In accordance with the arrangements, the employee must fulfill his or her duties and report on performed tasks.
The method of tracing and settling working time is solved by Flowgres platform. There we can save all files, arrangements, record working time and generate reports.
Check on Flowgres website and give a try the trial version!
