Why field service is now affected as well
Working time tracking is nothing new in many industries. Whether hospitality, commercial cleaning or the construction industry – recording hours worked has long been a mandatory part of the daily routine in these areas. The ruling by the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) from September 2022 makes it a topic in every area.
On the basis of a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Justice, the Federal Labour Court requires all German companies to record their employees' working hours. It requires break times and rest periods to be recorded as well. That includes companies whose employees do not work in the classic location- and office-bound way.
Does working time tracking have to be digital?
Until now, the highly industry-specific rules on working time tracking were fairly open and left plenty of room for interpretation. The requirements set by the ECJ, on the other hand, are considerably stricter. The key points are reliability, objectivity and accessibility.
Reliability
Pen and paper usually make for a simple solution to time tracking that seems uncomplicated at first. Start and end of work, and breaks too, are entered by hand into pre-printed tables and handed to the boss at the end of the month. Unfortunately this solution is not only frequently inaccurate, it is also easy to manipulate. The ECJ therefore requires every change to the recorded hours to be traceable.
Objectivity
A second important point in the ECJ ruling is that all times must be recorded objectively. In other words, entering hours by hand days after the job, without the people involved agreeing on them, is to be prevented. Meeting this requirement therefore calls for an ‘objective’ recorder – ideally a digital tool.
Accessibility
Every authorised party must have access to this data. That can be the works council, but of course also supervisory authorities as well as employees and employers themselves.
Mobile time tracking – recording hours regardless of location
Working hours now have to be recorded everywhere – in the office, at home, on the job site and in a hotel. But how, if pen and paper do not meet the requirements? The answer: mobile time tracking.
The digital version of time tracking systems – recording via app – lets people clock in and out on their phone. With the right tool, hours can even be recorded offline and are passed on to the admin later. That way not a single minute worked is lost, wherever it was spent.
It is exactly this independence from location that Benjamin Pape, owner of Hausmeister Ben's Service, values in his day-to-day work:
“I really try to do everything digitally, because sometimes I am in the office and sometimes at home. I need to be able to access everything from anywhere – that does not work with paperwork chaos.” – Benjamin Pape, owner and managing director, Hausmeister Ben's Service
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Digital time tracking can do more than clock people in
With the right tool, digital, mobile time tracking does not just mean being legally compliant. With many further features, providers give you the option to digitalize other work processes and make them more efficient.
Alongside simple time tracking, some solutions also allow travel time to be recorded and people to clock in on different projects. This makes it possible to produce more accurate invoices and to secure proof for the customer.
But separating travel time and project hours is not the only way to secure customer records and cut down on bureaucratic processes.
- Digital project files holding all the important information replace heavy ring binders.
- Documenting projects directly in the app makes communication between employees and the office easier – documentation where the work happens.
- Recording all relevant data makes for better costingon the projects that follow.
Data protection is a question many people ask as soon as digital time tracking comes up. We have written a separate article on the subject. You can find it here.
Be not just legally compliant, but smart
In field service, mobile time tracking can therefore even improve many workflows through automation and digitalization. That cuts the administrative effort in the company and with it the time it takes.
We have worked it through for you with an example: with 15 employees and an average hourly wage of €18, you save up to 1,265 hours and €22,770 a year in your company!
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