The ECJ and BAG have long been concerned with the issue of employment periods and the protection of employees. It became apparent that without a measurement of working time, employees often work more than required, and the resulting strain on employees is already showing its alarming effects in companies. This new law now calls the careful use of human labor into the foreground. This is because the recording of working hours ensures greater occupational safety and curbs the escalating working hours, a trend that has been trickling silently but steadily into the working world. In many sectors, time tracking is part of everyday life, but a large number of the approximately 45 million employees in Germany work under the trust-based working time model; an achievement that enables modern, flexible working. With the new law, it is clearly defined that the trust in the work of each individual remains, as well as the flexibility of service provision, supplemented only by the documentation of the actual time worked. But how is this actually implemented? Employers can delegate the recording of working time, but are obliged to make a suitable system available to employees. This can be recorded in paper form or online, and must record start, end and break times. It is important that the chosen solution is audit-proof and practicable for the employees.
For Germany’s European neighbors, time recording does not pose a major change, as it has already been firmly integrated into the work process. On average in Europe, time recording is mandatory in 69% of companies. Germany ranks second to last with 49%, as determined by a 2019 survey. However, the recording of working hours, especially in digital form, has long been established in our company, and has many advantages in addition to its legal requirement. Integrated into a homogeneous corporate landscape, modern software solutions for digital time recording streamline absence management, provide transparency across all employee groups and enable fair and direct payroll management. Complementary functions such as flexible approval procedures, user group-specific templates, configurable company rules for time management or compliance monitoring reduce administrative activities and thus costs. Rethinking and breaking up crusty structures in human capital management presents companies with an opportunity to create new ways of working that are attractive and characterized by due diligence.
Recording working time is a control tool, that is beyond question. However, and this is the serious difference from its use in the past, for the protection of employees. Integrated into holistic solution concepts, a digitized solution ensures greater transparency, security for each individual and profitability for companies – a win-win situation for everyone.
Author: Sabine Rudolf
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