We realize that many companies are still learning about using employee attestation. Fundamentally attestation is defined as asking employees to attest to certain information. Capturing attestation responses can be extremely valuable. OnePoint offers flexible employee attestation configurations that can empower employees to proactively manage common workplace issues easily through self-service.
Everyone is busy and we all know honest mistakes happen all the time. Attestation configurations run on rules that prompt employees to confirm something happened, and provide a reason. There are many business cases for attestation. Three of the most common reasons to use attestation configurations are related to compliance, employee engagement, and health and wellness information (i.e. COVID-19). We look at four ways to use attestation configurations in OnePoint to resolve issues quickly before they snowball into a serious problems.
Wage and hour Attestation Configurations
The origins of business using attestation questionnaires goes back to the early 2000s, and the introduction of legislation regarding meals and rest breaks.
Check out this article from SHRM for rest-break and meal-break basics.
Businesses needed a way to collect irrefutable proof that an employee did or did not take their rest or meal break. For example, if an employee attempts to punch in early from their break, how do you know? Is the early return voluntary? Has a manager requested that they come back?
OnePoint attestation tools provide the ability to trigger questions to an employee (via clock or webclock or self service) when there is an exception to the rules. Asking these questions helps document exceptions and gather reasons for why the employee did something. In practice our HCM platform will recognize the act of punching in early from a break, as an exception. But Attestation tools will trigger the question as to “why” the employee is not taking the allotted time.
If the employee came back early, voluntarily, and reports that, then the meal penalty does not apply and there is a record of the action. If the return is manager-initiated, the meal penalty does apply, and will need to be compensated. Attestation information protects the organization from compliance risk and avoid paying fines like a meal penalty every time an employee returns too early.
The return on investment for implementing attestation can be immense. In the example below the math shows the potential cost savings of almost half million dollars. When 50% of the meal shorts are waived as a result of an attestation response analysis. Attestation is a great way to keep a record of rest and know precisely where you fall in terms of compliance.
Simplify employee attestation of hours worked
Employers are regularly subject to lawsuits claiming that employees were not paid for the work that they performed. And without adequate proof a he said she said can go either way. Employee attestation tools greatly support wage and compliance by asking employees to attest to time sheet data.
Employees can receive attestation prompts at the end of their scheduled shifts or when submitting timesheets at the end of a pay period. Notifications automatically alert employees of any missed attestations to keep compliance efforts on track.
If there is an error in the timesheet data, the employee can simply reject the timesheet by selecting the appropriate response to the prompt. The manager is automatically notified of the rejection and can make any necessary edits before resubmitting the timesheet for employee attestation. You can even enable employees to enter comments or additional details as needed.
Pandemic Health Screening Questions (COVID-19)
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an entirely new use case for OnePoint attestation tools. Employers needed a way to minimize the risk of virus transmission in the workplace. And what better way to leverage a unified system than prompting health screening questions when employees are punching in.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Attestation and their workflows are an excellent tool for empowering employees and easing stress on managers bogged down with workforce-related tasks.
The employee perspective:
We are all busy and mistakes happen. So an employee forgets to punch in after returning from lunch. At the end of the shift as the employee punches out at the time clock, the system will prompt that there is a missing punch for the day. Using attestation tools the employee can provide an answer for the missed punch to correct her mistake. Employees who can submit their own missed punches will gain more control of their timecard — this is a preferable scenario in some states. Instead of hoping that the manager fixed their timecard, the employee can be proactive and tenter the change. Workflows route those changes to the managers to approve the missed punch correction to make the transaction final. \
Manager at the front lines of wage and hour:
Your managers are busy and the last thing they want to do is chase after employees for something as simple as a missed punch. Correcting these minor, usually unintentional errors is a huge time suck. Automating simple corrections and routing for manager review saves time. No chasing employees at the end of a shift. The system handles the exception including auditing the request and the approval. The information is then ready for reporting in the future. Attestation reports also allow for managers to review all missed punches to investigate the reasons employees are missing them to spot trends and make corrections.
Easily Report Employee Attestation Responses
Attestation reporting organizes employee survey response data about activities so that managers can monitor trends, demonstrate compliance to rules and policies. Moreover, attestation response reporting provide easy and seamless proof of compliance should governments enact more stringent and required compliance measures into place.
Conclusion
Since the introduction of employee attestation surveys into our HCM platform, we continue to receive feedback and new use cases. It has been great to work through enhancements that continue to streamline processes like health screening responses or employee engagement tools to deliver further value within our system. The end result is better information and reporting to protect against common compliance risk.
Contact the OnePoint team to discuss implementing employee attestations configurations to help your business stay compliant.
