How to Prevent Time Theft Without Creating a Culture of Mistrust

Time fraud can be an uncomfortable topic, but it is also a very practical one. A few minutes added here and there, a colleague clocking in for a friend, a long break that never gets recorded. Of course, honest mistakes exist and none of these actions feel dramatic on their own, yet they quietly eat into margin and create tension around pay and fairness. How do you counter this?

Research drawing on American Payroll Association figures suggests that time theft can amount to several hours per employee per week, adding up to thousands in extra wage costs each year. Especially for a small business, that is money that could have gone into growth, salaries or new hires.

What time fraud really looks like

Time fraud is rarely a Hollywood style scam. It is usually small habits that add up over time:

• Clocking in a colleague who is running late

• Rounding up at the end of a shift

• Staying on the clock during an extended break

A recent workplace theft study found around a quarter of workers admit to overreporting or manipulating their hours, with average stolen time of around four and a half hours per week for those who do it. That is more than an extra working week per year per person.

There is also a human cost. When honest employees see others bending the rules, they can feel taken for granted. Trust in the system and in management starts to erode.

Start with clear and fair rules

The first defence is clarity, not control. People are much less likely to test the system when they understand the rules and feel they apply fairly to everyone.

Set out in plain language:

• What counts as working time and what does not

• How and when people should clock in and out

• How breaks, overtime and flexible working are recorded

• What happens if someone repeatedly breaks the rules

Make sure managers apply these rules consistently across teams. Nothing undermines a policy faster than favourites or exceptions.

Use light touch checks that still protect you

After the rules are clear, you can add simple checks that protect the business without making people feel watched. For example.

1. Give each employee a unique way to identify themselves, with a personal badge – or even better, fingerprint authentication - when they record their time and make it clear that sharing credentials is not acceptable

2. Ask managers to review and approve hours before they go to payroll

3. Look at time records regularly for obvious patterns such as frequent late starts that never appear on the timesheet or repeated corrections for the same person

Articles in business press emphasise that the most effective way to tackle time theft is to combine reasonable controls with a culture of fairness, rather than relying only on heavy monitoring.

Talk about fairness, not suspicion

How you frame these changes matters. Present accurate timekeeping as part of running a fair workplace where everyone is treated equally and paid correctly. Explain that reducing time fraud helps protect jobs and keep the business healthy, rather than simply cutting costs.

Invite questions and feedback. If staff understand why accurate attendance data matters, they are more likely to support the process and to raise concerns early if they spot a problem.

In simple terms, tackling time fraud well gives you three things. Better control of payroll costs, fewer awkward conversations about hours and pay, and a stronger sense of fairness in the team.

Find Out More

TimeMoto Cloud helps small businesses reduce time fraud by giving every employee a clear, consistent way to record their hours while giving managers and HR a reliable overview of who worked when, with an auditable log of all corrections made to clock-in data. That means fewer chances for buddy clocking, fewer disputes and more confidence that your payroll is based on accurate data. Try TimeMoto Cloud for free at www.timemoto.com/free-trial.