Understanding
Time Clock Fraud

Time clock fraud can start innocently enough: an employee stays late to chat with a colleague, forgetting to clock out until they’re actually walking out the door. Or perhaps it happens a bit more intentionally, with a team member running a few minutes late and calls from the commute to ask a friend to clock them in so that they avoid a late clock-in on their record. Whether accidental misclocks or intentional buddy punching (and everything between), employee time theft is a real challenge facing virtually any business with hourly workers.
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And frankly, the statistics are staggering.

According to areport from Robert Half International, employers lose an average of 4.5 hours per week, per employee to time theft.

The most common type of employee theft is “buddy punching,” a practice by which employees will clock other employees into work before they are actually present at the work site. In fact, the American Payroll Association estimates that 75% of American companies lose money due to buddy punching. But before we explore the different types of time clock fraud, let’s first understand exactly what constitutes theft of time in the workplace.