Time is one of the most talked about concepts – some of us want more, some want to speed it up, and others just want to turn it back! So, it’s no surprise that time makes its way into the payroll conversation, especially when a caregiver says: “Oh, I forgot to mention that I picked up that case last week,” or “I forgot to record my time on this visit.”

The world of post-acute care is filled with caregivers who are dedicating themselves each and every day to those who need their help the most. Due to the hustle and bustle of serving their clients’ needs, caregivers will sometimes forget or incorrectly submit hours. This leaves payroll admins with the challenge of not only ensuring that caregivers are ultimately compensated correctly for their time but also that their records are updated appropriately so they remain compliant with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The Payroll Archive Reopened

Imagine a caregiver who worked extra hours during a busy period. Tired at the end of a long week, they failed to submit their hours properly, causing their following paycheck to be lower than they deserve; an honest mistake caused by their focus on their responsibility to their clients over their responsibility to themselves. But once this is brought to the administrator’s attention, it’s their responsibility to retroactively calculate and compensate for these missing hours correctly. While this may seem straightforward at first glance, manually performing these tasks is a bit more complicated than it may first look.

Take Back Time

Just like any other manual calculations, having to go back and apply retroactive adjustments to payroll is prone to error. To calculate these payroll adjustments, admins must take the full context of the pay period/week for the original compensation that was owed. This only gets increasingly challenging as you begin dealing with different pay rates for different shifts, odd hour pay differentials, overtime, and any other laws that may be applicable in your state or city. This entire process can be incredibly time-consuming, causing the cost of performing retroactive pay adjustments to skyrocket. Especially as your business grows larger, having to manually apply adjustments becomes increasingly cost prohibitive and may even begin negatively impacting other areas where your admins need to be spending time. With an automated solution, you can streamline the process, saving your business valuable time and money that can be better spent on other essential tasks.

Setting the Record Straight (Again)

One of the most significant advantages of utilizing an automated retroactive pay feature versus having to manually make adjustments is that it helps you stay compliant with labor laws, specifically the FLSA. Even if the employee underreports their hours initially, they are still owed their compensation for the work they performed. As the employer, you have to calculate and compensate these hours properly, taking into account different pay rates for different shifts, potential overtime, and any other variables that would have been considered if the hours had been submitted properly the first time. It’s critical that this is done correctly because if not, when faced with an audit, incorrectly correcting these pay issues could leave your business facing fines or backpay liability.

Beyond Employee Satisfaction, Total Pay Confidence

Possibly the most overlooked benefit of having a retroactive pay solution is the effect it will have on your employee satisfaction. At the end of the day, if a mistake is made regarding compensation that’s not resolved quickly, the employee–employer relationship is at risk of deteriorating. On the flip side, if an employee makes a mistake in reporting their hours and your business quickly resolves it for them, their gratitude for your prompt response will only improve your relationship. In an industry plagued with retention and recruiting difficulties, retaining your star caregivers and making them feel valued in every way that you can is critical. While it may only be one part of the puzzle, having a payroll software that includes automated retroactive pay can help your business establish itself as a place people want to work at.

The Self-Winding Watch: Viventium

As your business grows larger and you begin optimizing the entirety of your payroll process, automation becomes less of a quality-of-life feature and more of a necessity. At Viventium, we understand the need for automated retroactive pay. Our retroactive pay feature allows you to not have to worry about any of the headaches involved with going back and fixing payroll errors. Our goal is to leave payroll struggles out of your mind so you can focus on the rest of the hustle and bustle that is involved with running your business.

In it with you time and time again, Viventium.