US Department of Labor Free iPhone App for Time Tracking Hits 14,000 Downloads
After nearly two years of availability, a free iPhone app called DOL-Timesheet created by the US Department of Labor has been downloaded 14,000 times, according to XYO.net. The point of the app is not at all to replace standard time sheets used by companies, but to allow workers to track their own time. In a case of an investigation or audit, then an employee would have her or his own hours documented and could provide evidence of time worked, with dates  and having used a respectable method. A free app like this could come in especially handy if an employee's work hours are recorded by someone other than the employee, such as a manager.

The link to the app is here.

Being able to track hours using a portable personal device must be an advantage, because of the ready and constant accessibility. Especially during field work, when an employee might not have access to a company desktop or laptop and is working odd hours, such an app might serve a critical purpose. The app does not handle things like holiday and weekend pay, tips, or commissions. This new Department of Labor app might have some serious ramifications. For example, a company's own timesheet tracking might not easily be accessible to employees, automated adequately, or employee timesheets might not be tracked and stored properly. Employers could be in the embarrassing position of having less reliable timesheet data than their individual employees using this Department of Labor app.  

Contract Employees are Replacing Some Full-time Workers
A recent survey from CareerBuilder found that 40% of companies plan to use contractors this year. A little over 30% of new jobs in the private sector created after the recession ended were contract positions. Before the recession, the number of new contract positions was only about 2%. The reasons for this major shift are obviously related to cost-cutting by companies that are trying to survive. Recruiters who don't work with contract workers and help them with their timesheets (usually Web-based) could be left behind by a shifting economy. Additionally, staffing companies surveyed predict that 40-50% of all employees will be contracted staffers by 2020. If this were the case, a great many corporations would need to have extensive cloud-based timesheet systems to track these contract workers across the enterprise.

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