The surprising case of the former Chief Pilot for the Jackson, Tennessee, Police Aviation Unit caught my attention recently. He is currently under investigation for timecard fraud, having allegedly stolen thousands of dollars in unearned wages by logging hours for the department while he was actually working for his private business. Between May 2021 and August 2022, Terry Hopper was supposedly “training” with neighboring law enforcement agencies to get an advance aviation certificate. During this time, he collected over $23,000 in unearned wages and an additional $6,000 in payroll benefits.
He has been indicted on one count of “theft of property over $10,000” and the case highlights a crucial issue: employers need to ensure that their remote employees are genuinely at their designated work locations. Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, Jason Mumpower said, “Employers should do their best to verify that employees are present at their assigned work location each day. Failure to do so increases the risk that errors or intentional misappropriations will occur and remain undetected.”
Since 2020, working remotely (from home or another location) has become commonplace across the country. Employers benefit by saving money on permanently occupied office space, while employees enjoy more, balancing work with family responsibilities and appointments. This flexibility can also leave the door wide open for fraud and theft, as the story above demonstrates.
Your company can add another layer of confidence to your systems by using Gusto to track your workers’ hours…and where they are when they log them. Using Gusto’s time-tracking features, system administrators can require employees to share their location when they clock in or out, so you can be sure they are working from authorized workplaces.
While this can be a cost-savings feature for many companies, it can also work as a legal safeguard for some. For companies handling confidential information, geofencing can document and confirm that sensitive work isn’t conducted from public spaces like coffee shops, where privacy may be easily compromised.
If you want to learn more about Gusto’s geofencing and how it can enhance your remote work tracking, please call Southern Payroll & Bookkeeping today at 423-207-2497.