Tracking your employees? location may raise eyebrows, but utilizing GPS technology in a correct and legal way is often a great way to keep track of your employees? whereabouts and save time driving to different locations to check on your staff members. When considering GPS tracking, it?s important to understand the legalities behind this activity, the best methods for employee location tracking that don?t leave your information vulnerable, and how to introduce this topic to your staff.

Our article answers these important questions and gives you the details on everything you need to know when it comes to tracking your employees? locations.

Why Should I Track My Employees? Location?

Even though some individuals may cringe at the idea of employee location tracking, however, it can actually be a very useful tool when it comes to ensuring the whereabouts of your employees, their field locations, and their overall safety. It?s essential to keep tabs on employees that work out in the field, those that work construction, or those that are in more dangerous jobs, as this will help you prevent issues and redeploy employees into the field as necessary.

Tracking your employees? locations will also help save you time, as you will not need to drive between locations to check up on employees, nor will you need to spend all of your free time double-checking that employees around you are performing their jobs as expected.

With the increase in remote work over recent years, tracking your employees? locations and keeping tabs on their clock-in and clock-out times often helps ensure that all employees are focused and on task during the workday.

You may also find that tracking your employees? locations makes it easier to bill clients for work performed, as you will have an accurate sense of when employees were at certain job sites and for how long. This simplifies billing procedures and ensures a less stressful billing and payment process for your staff and your clients.

Is It Legal To Track My Employees? Locations?

A common question when location tracking is brought up is whether or not it is legal to track your employees? locations. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 is a federal law that prohibits employers from secretly tracking their employees? locations. Tracking employee locations with consent and proper awareness of the location tracking is the only way that this activity is legal.

You must inform your employees if their location is tracked during the workday, if they are using devices such as laptops or phones that are work-issued and have location tracking installed, or if they are using a company car with GPS tracking devices installed on it.

Refer to the legal details on employee location tracking for more information about best practices and to ensure that you adhere to all federal and state laws regarding tracking employees? locations.

Best Methods For Employee Location Tracking

There are several methods that you might use to conduct employee location tracking. We give you an overview of these methods below so you can start your research regarding safe employee location tracking.

Once you?ve tracked down your employee?s location, you can also use a reverse address lookup, like the one here, to find out where they are spending their time when on the clock.

It?s important to note that scams are common when it comes to location tracking. So you should only use apps and software with plenty of positive reviews and look legitimate. Accidentally using a less-than-verified location tracking solution may result in compromised information for both you and your employees or fraud.

How To Introduce Employee Tracking To Your Staff

If you have recently decided to engage in employee tracking and want to introduce this concept to your staff, or if you are hiring new staff and need to receive their consent and understanding for location tracking, you must approach this topic professionally.

Many employees might bristle at first at the idea of having their location tracked or using items that have location tracking devices installed, so it?s important to be ready to explain why this is necessary, answer questions, and keep your employees informed every step of the way.

Helpful ways to introduce employee tracking to your staff and put their worries to rest include:

• Speak with your employees ahead of time before rolling out general location tracking policies. This will help you understand how location tracking might be received and will give you ideas to craft your policies surrounding location tracking.
• Set clear policies regarding employee location tracking and make sure that all employees understand how their data is to be collected, stored, accessed, and used. It?s important that employees also know what the consequences of violating location tracking policies might be.
• Obtain consent from your employees to start utilizing location tracking methods. This is an essential step in this process, and you cannot skip it, or you might be dealing with serious legal consequences. Never install location tracking devices or software on employee devices without informing them and obtaining consent.
• Protect employee privacy by ensuring that data is not accessible by others, is only utilized for business purposes, and is not vulnerable to being stolen. You may also need to train employees on how to use location tracking software to make sure all employees are informed and up to date on how their location data might be collected and accessed.
• Keep tabs on your employee location tracking policies, software, and devices in order to make adjustments as needed. It may be helpful to conduct check-ins with employees during the initial steps of your location tracking policies to ensure that all individuals are informed and confident in the employee location tracking being conducted.

Remember, you can only track your employees with their consent or awareness. Installing software or location tracking devices illegally will result in major issues for you if discovered. That being said, if employees do not consent to location tracking, it?s up to you to decide whether or not you can keep certain employees in the workforce that don?t wish to adhere to location tracking rules.

Utilize A Dedicated Employee Tracking Software

Several companies specialize in creating employee tracking software that also doubles as a timesheet and provides real-time GPS locations. Out of all of your employee location tracking options, this is one of the best and most reliable ways to obtain your employees? location without violating any laws and with the utmost accuracy.

Examples of dedicated employee location tracking and managing software include Hubstaff and QuickBooks Time. Again, as with all employee location tracking activities, you will need to inform staff if their participation in location tracking is required as a part of the job.

Issue Devices Or Vehicles With Location Tracking Devices

Employer-issued devices, such as vehicles, phones, and laptops, are a good way to keep track of your employees? locations without tracking the employee directly. By installing tracking software on these devices, you will be able to gain a sense of where your employees are, their mileage and other trips, and how long they use their devices in each location. This is often very helpful information when it comes to billing clients and ensuring company safety and compliance.

Ask Employees To Use Timesheet Software

Timesheet software is an easy way to keep track of employees and their locations, and it is especially helpful in remote working situations. By requesting that employees sign in using clock-in and clock-out software, you may easily track how long they work and the GPS locations that they sign in and out from.

A helpful software that lets you achieve this is Timesheet Mobile.

Keeping Track Of Your Employees

Keeping track of your employees with location tracking software doesn?t need to be the overwhelming or sketchy-sounding process that you might think of when you first consider this activity. Employee location tracking can be incredibly helpful when it comes to employees that work out in the field and multiple crews of employees spread around your city or even the country. With the help of reliable employee location tracking, you can keep tabs on your employees and ensure that all work is conducted as expected and that your employees are safe while on the job.

Make sure that you adhere to all federal and state laws when establishing employee location tracking policies for the best results.

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