Contract Hours
The Contract Hours module is designed to help employers manage compliance regarding various requirements around employees working hours that are different from their contracted hours (sometimes known as regular pattern of work). Giving businesses peace of mind that their employees have agreed to the hours they are working, help manage labor and manage the communication with their team around their contractual obligations & variations to those obligations. This is a digital and paperless way to track employee shift variations.
Contract hours can help manage labor (depending on your set up) by:
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Automating recording requirements for employees working outside contract hours (e.g. regular pattern of work and agreement to vary)
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Automating overtime entitlements if an employee needs to work outside contract hours
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Providing real-time workflows to ensure seamless electronic recording
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Minimizing any unnecessary overtime associated with contract hours requirements
How do I enable the Contract Hours module?
If you would like to find out more about turning on Contract Hours and any associated fees, reach out to your Account Manager.
Overview
Employees need to be using the SuitePeople Workforce Management phone app, and punch-in using SuitePeople Time Clock on iPad/Android.
Contract Hours are configured per Wage Agreement and employment status.
Once contract hours are enabled & configured, managers will talk employees through their contract hours. Managers enter these into Workforce Management - employees will login & accept the contract hours in Workforce Management.
Once an employee agrees to the Contract Hours entered by their manager, the process is complete. The process goes as follows:
1: Employee Agrees to their Contract Hours
The above screenshot shows their agreed Contract Hours are on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays every week at those times.
2: Manager is aware of the employee Contract Hours during scheduling and alerted to issues
When entering shifts, managers can visually see when an employee is required to be scheduled for these Contract Hours:
The dotted line with arrows at the end (showing the employee Contract Hours) will disappear once you draw the shifts in for the employee.
You can schedule other shifts for these employees - a button will appear in the phone app where employees can agree to work each extra shift or extra hours.
Workforce Management will run compliance checks and alert managers when publishing if there are any missing Contract Hours or extra hours in addition to their Contract Hours
3: Employees whose published shifts differ from their Contract Hours will get a notification to agree to the variation on the Phone App
All employees will receive a push notification with their shifts. If they have shifts outside of their contract hours, these shifts have the option for employees to agree to the shift. Once they press agree, this will appear as a “variation” to their Contract Hours - meaning the employee has agreed to work additional/different shifts to their Contract Hours
If employees haven’t agreed to this in the phone app, they’ll be presented with a similar screen when they punch-in to SuitePeople Time Clock.
4: Employees will agree to variations as they punch for work on SuitePeople Time Clock if it is different to their current agreed Contract Hours
If employees punch for their shift early or late, they’ll receive a similar message indicating they’re punching in different to their agreed variation to Contract Hours - and will need to agree to the variation message. They’ll also see this message if they punch-out early or late. If employees take a break at a different time to their contract or agreed Contract Hours variation, including for a different break length - this message will pop-up when they punch out for their shift.
These messages appearing when employees punch-in differently to their Contract Hours can give you confidence that you are being compliant to clauses in your labor agreements (once you have configured the parameters correctly based on your legal advice).
You’ll notice employees have the option to Decline next to the agree button at all stages. If employees decline at any point, there’s a different action depending on what stage Decline is pressed.
5: Check variation messages and icons while doing approvals
When an employee is scheduled for a Contract Hours shift & works the shift as normal - you won’t see any extra messages.
When an employee has agreed to a variation - either agreed based on the scheduled shift, or punches in & out different to their scheduled shift - and agrees to it, these will appear on the approved shift as “Agreed Variation”
If an employee declines a variation to a scheduled shift, the shift will appear as “outside of contract hours”. Note that when you create a shift outside of their contract hours, it will show as already show “outside of contract hours” until the employee agrees to it.
If employees decline a variation - either from the schedule or when they punch in/out, this shift will show “Outside of contract hours” and trigger overtime (if you’ve set the rule up).
