How a State Farm Agent Blocks Early Clock-ins

We recently helped onboard a State Farm insurance agency.

Over the years we have worked with dozens of insurance agencies, all of whom generally operate the same way. Most have hourly staff working from an office, sometimes multiple offices, or sometimes remotely from home.

Since Webtimeclock is web-based, employees naturally clock in using a browser on their desktop, laptop, or phone. Rarely do we see insurance agencies use a physical time clock because most of their staff members already sit in front of a computer.

The problem

Like many employers, this particular agent struggled with how to handle employees who habitually clock in early. Employees know when their shift starts but still clock in early. To them, it is more or less a routine.

This practice can be costly for the agent. For example, if an employee earning $20 per hour clocks in 15 minutes early four days a week, the employer pays for an extra hour per week. That could result in hundreds or thousands of dollars over time.

The solution

Webtimeclock has a boundary rule called a startzone. This policy allows employees to clock in early but rounds their punch to their shift's start time.

For this agent, we created shifts with different start times that matched their normal business hours. Each shift includes a 15 minute startzone that allows employees to clock in up to 15 minutes early, but will round forward to the start time.

Then we applied those shifts to each employee on a recurring schedule. Since their business hours are the same each week, there is no need to update the schedule. For them, some days start at 8:30 AM, while other days start at 8:00 AM.

Is this policy legal?

Yes, but it depends on what state you are in. For California, the law is to pay employees for every minute on the clock. It does not matter when or why they clock in early.

If your business is in California, it is becoming increasingly recommended not to use rounding rules at all. Rather than using a time clock to manage employee schedules, some companies have resorted to submitting written warnings every time a schedule policy is broken. For larger organizations especially, that might be a safe plan.

But if your state allows rounding, startzones, and lockout schedules, Webtimeclock has the tools to prevent early clock-ins.