Missouri Providers are Struggling with Employee Retention

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Missouri workers providing care for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities make less than a Walmart or Target worker, even after a pay increase that went into effect last month. 

The low pay is the main reason about half of Missouri workers quit each year, according to Missouri Developmental Disabilities Division Director Val Huhn.

Starting wages now range between $9.50 and $10.50 an hour thanks to Missouri state lawmakers appropriating $20 million more in general revenue to providers. But advocates worry this isn’t enough to address the chronic worker turnover that affects the quality of care people with intellectual and developmental disabilities receive.

“It’s just devastating, not having that reliable staff,” Huhn says. “Can you imagine constantly training somebody on how to brush your teeth if you can’t do that? I mean, just you’re just constantly teaching people how to help you.” 

Crisis levels 

Travis Anderson has spent about a year trying to find a personal care assistant. He’s 45, has a disability, and uses a power wheelchair to get around. 

Anderson works as a receptionist and self-directs his care, meaning he hires a worker and the state pays for it. While Anderson is looking, his aunt has stepped in. But she’s almost 70 and Anderson says he’s not sure how much longer she can do this. Travis Anderson interviewed five people for a personal care assistant job the day KCUR spoke with him. Anderson said once they found out the pay, none of them were interested.

Every time he thinks he’s found someone to hire, there’s an issue. Sometimes they can’t work the hours. Anderson needs help getting ready in the morning and then the worker would have to come back in the evening to help him get to bed. Other times they don’t pass the criminal background check. 

Nationally, the direct support workforce has reached crisis levels, according to a 2017 report by the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

“Not only does the crisis facing this workforce threaten people with intellectual disability and their families; it also undermines the stability, efficiency and ability to grow much needed long-term services and supports and, therefore, undermines the overall U.S. economy,” Jack Brandt, the committee’s chair, wrote. 

It’s been almost a year since Anderson’s aunt said she could help out for three months. Without his aunt, Anderson doesn’t know what he would do. He says his service coordinator wants him to consider going to a nursing home. 

“I don’t think I would fit very well into a nursing home,” Anderson says. “…When you envision how your life’s going to be, I mean, nursing home doesn’t even come up right now. But I’m really struggling to find good staff.”

The Developmental Disabilities Division doesn’t “encourage placements in nursing homes,” Debra Walker, the director of public affairs, said in an email. “ That being said, sometimes there are circumstances when a nursing home would be an appropriate placement.”

Walker said Anderson’s support coordinator is from a private organization and not a state worker. Walker said the state can’t speak to the specifics of the case, but generally, it’s “certainly important to have a support coordinator that is helpful and seeks out all the options.”

Anderson is two classes short of a bachelors degree in psychology but he said he’s had to put his future on hold. 

“I can’t very well get back in school when I literally don’t know from week to week or month to month how I’m getting out of bed,” Anderson says. “I mean, you have to prioritize.”

“You have to really like this” Pagi Bowls and Rojai Morris both work at White Oaks, a residential home for people with developmental disabilities.CREDIT AVIVA OKESON-HABERMAN / KCUR 89.3

Rojai Morris got a pay raise because of the additional state funding. She works at White Oaks, a residential home for people with developmental disabilities. It’s run by the Center for Developmentally Disabled in Kansas City. CDD increased their starting wage for workers from $11 to $12.25.

The additional $1.25 an hour isn’t enough for Morris to quit her second job. Between her two jobs, she says she works 70 hours a week to get by. She says she loves her job but the long hours take a toll. 

“It kind of makes you want to second guess working in this field,” Morris says. “Is this really for me because of what I’m going through? I’m only 21 so I kind of look at it like I’m stressing going through this now. Is this where I see my future?”

Nationally, high turnover has been an issue for decades but a strong economy means workers can make more money at less demanding jobs, according to Amy Hewitt, the director of the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota. Hewitt says an aging population also means workers are serving people with more complex needs. 

“We continue to place higher expectations on this workforce,” Hewitt says. “So it really is a highly-skilled workforce. But we don’t talk about it that way. And we don’t support it as a highly-skilled workforce.”

“It’s heartbreaking” 

David Earls took care of his son Edward, who is nonverbal, for about thirty years. 

“I like to think of myself as one of the shallowest, insignificant, heartless people ever created until I started caring for my son,” Earls says. “And luckily, my son has an enormous amount of patience. And so he’s been working with me for 33 years now.”

Earls was getting older and he wanted to make sure Edward would be taken care of, so about three years ago, he moved Edward to a residential home. Almost immediately, he noticed issues with turnover. 

“When you become attached or very fond of a staff member because you’ve seen this person interact with your son for three, four, five, six months, and then all of a sudden, they’re gone. It’s heartbreaking,” Earls says. “Because you know that there’s a relationship being formed there that positive for both Edward and the caregiver.”

Avoiding Buddy Punching

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Close to 75 percent of small businesses in the U.S. are affected by what is known as “time theft” each year. Put simply, time theft occurs when an employee accepts pay for time they didn’t actually work. Staying clocked in during breaks, not clocking out to run errands, or checking social media during work are all examples of time theft.

However, the biggest cause of employee time theft doesn’t happen solo. It’s called “buddy punching.”

So, what is buddy punching?

Buddy punching is when a coworker punches your timecard (aka clocks in) in your absence.

Say you’re running late for work and you won’t be able to clock in on time. You send a quick text to a coworker asking them to clock in for you. Or you need to duck out a few minutes early and don’t want the boss to know, and you ask your coworker to clock you out at the actual end of your shift. Maybe you can’t show up for your shift at all. So your buddy does you a favor and punches your timecard by clocking in/out for you—thus the name, buddy punching.

Life happens to all of us. However, a few minutes here and there of coworker buddy punching can certainly add up on your payroll. According to the American Payroll Association, three-fourths of employers lose money to buddy punching, with employees getting 4.5 hours worth of un-worked wages each week.

In the U.S., the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. If your workers are part-time and earn minimum wage, 4.5 hours of buddy punching equals a little over $30 per worker in stolen wages each week. That may not sound like much, but over a year, the average cost of buddy punching could equal close to $1,560 per employee. Since the majority of small businesses employ less than 20 people, multiple employees using buddy punching could cost your payroll upwards of $30,000 annually.

No small business owner wants to give away $30,000 in stolen time. Here’s how you can prevent buddy punching and get a handle on your payroll.

How to prevent buddy punching at work

Create a zero tolerance policy

The cheapest and quickest solution to buddy punching is addressing it head-on. If you don’t already have a formal buddy punching policy in place, now’s the time to put one together. Make it clear that there’ll be zero tolerance for anyone touching another worker’s timecard or using your timekeeping system under a different name—for any reason.

You don’t need to call out specific employees, but announce the buddy punching policy to your team as a group so everyone’s aware. Then print out a copy of the new buddy punching policy and post it where all staff can see it. If you catch an employee buddy punching, it’ll be grounds for termination.

Use passwords

Simple, but effective. Using passwords for employee timekeeping can be a low-cost obstacle to buddy punching. Set specific standards for passwords—including long sequences, numbers, symbols, and capitalization—that make them harder to share or input by another coworker.

Next, educate. In a time when personal data hacks are becoming more common, make sure your employees understand that sharing their timekeeping login could also mean sharing their personal data. If they give a coworker their password, they might be giving them access to personal information.

Get technology on your side

Outside of creating new workplace policies, new tech also provides business owners and managers more resources to prevent buddy punching. Most options are available with little added effort or cost. Instead of using their phone to ask their buddy to clock in for them, built-in features on employees’ devices can keep them clocking in when and where they should be.

1. GPS tracking

With today’s timekeeping software and mobile GPS, you can track an employee’s location as well as their hours. Similar to other smartphone apps, many timekeeping solutions come with GPS tracking and/or geo-fencing, which GPS-stamps an employee’s location on their timesheet when they clock in or only allows them to clock in when they’re within a certain radius of your business.

Depending on the software, employees are typically able to clock in once their GPS is activated or their mobile. Some timekeeping apps even continue to log employees’ locations and send updates to you throughout their shifts. That means you’ll see where employees are when they clock in, and in the case of geo-fencing, make it impossible for them to buddy punch when they’re off the premises.

2. Geo-fencing

Geo-fencing relies on GPS, WiFi, and cellular data to create an invisible “barrier” around your business. You decide how close employees need to be to clock in, whether it’s the parking lot or the front door. Once the barrier is set, an employee can only clock in after their device signals that they’re inside the perimeter.

And like GPS tracking, different mobile timekeeping apps provide different geo-fencing options. Employees either have to be within a certain distance to manually clock in on the app, or they’re automatically clocked in once inside the barrier. They can’t clock in at all away from work or be clocked in by someone else, thus eliminating buddy punching.

3. Biometrics

Turns out, there’s nothing quite like the real thing. Just like thumbprints and facial recognition ensure it’s actually us using our smartphones, the same biometric requirements can be used to confirm it’s the right employee clocking in.

Only 3 percent of employees who commit time theft are able to do so using biometric clocks. Biometric timekeeping eliminates buddy punching by using a unique fingerprint, handprint, or even retina scan. It can be an (almost) foolproof way of keeping employees from abusing your timekeeping system.

However, biometric time clocks can come with higher upfront costs and legal responsibilities. Several states have passed laws protecting employees’ biometric information and stipulating how their information can be used. In some cases, you must have employees’ written consent to collect and store their biometric data. Additionally, there are legal procedures for destroying data once employees leave and their biometric data is no longer necessary. You might also be responsible for notifying employees in case of a hack or data breach.

4. Selfies/Location Pictures

The latest version of Agency Workforce Management includes an all-new Web Clock system designed for smartphones that can require the employee to take a selfie or a picture of the location.

When the employee clocks-in, they will be prompted to take a picture to verify attendance. This picture will then attach to the attendance record and can be used for review. If a picture is missed, managers will be notified and can look into the missing attendance log. Not only does this option confirm that buddy punching is not taking place, but it is also EVV and HIPAA compliant.

Which came first, buddy punching or poor attendance?

Remember: in many cases, buddy punching is a side effect of larger attendance issues, not the problem itself. While you’re already having these conversations with your team, take the opportunity to have a closer look at your overall attendance policy. There may be a deeper problem if employees are regularly taking advantage of the timekeeping system, punching in for each other, and not able to make it to work on time.

In addition to updating your policies and timekeeping system, try out a few of these other low-cost attendance tips:

  • Test drive the quarter-shift method
  • Enforce your attendance policy consistently
  • Hold return-to-work interviews after unscheduled absences
  • Put together an employee attendance performance plan
  • Provide rewards and recognition for good attendance

To learn more about biometric fingerprint readers and how they can help prevent buddy punching at your agency, download our fact sheet.