What is Geofencing?
Geofencing in Sage HR allows employers to check whether their employees are at their work location when they clock in. This is done by the employee sharing their location with the Sage HR app. Sage HR then recognises whether the employee is inside or outside a designated work zone. This work zone is an area on a map outlined by you.
What do I need for Geofencing?
To use this feature you need to:
Subscribe to the Timesheets module
Set up clocking in within your Timesheets settings
Set up geofencing as an admin
To set up geofencing, you need to create and assign employees to a work zone.
Set up geofencing as an employee
When your employer adds you to a work zone, you're be prompted to allow access to the Sage HR app to share your location. Whilst assigned to a work zone, you won't be able to clock in until this is done.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some common questions about Geofencing in Sage HR
How accurate is it?
Geolocations use GPS satellites, WIFI routers, and cellular phone towers.
In perfect conditions, it can be accurate to up to 5m-25m, but this can vary up to 1km. So if you're inside a building or if you're in the countryside with no WIFI router or cell phone tower nearby, this can negatively impact GPS reception.
📌TIP: Enable 'Precise location' in a phone's location settings to allow this to be as accurate as possible.
Where is location information stored?
The information isn't stored on the phone, it's sent to the backend and stored on our Amazon Web services hard drives.
What happens if there is no signal?
The user won't be able to clock in.
Does it just let me know where the clock in came from, or can I limit it to only allow clockin in from certain geo locations?
Two options are available:
Show when employees clock in outside work zone
Only allow clocking in within work zone
Can employees automatically clock in/out when they enter they enter or leave a work zone?
No, the employee must manually clock in and out.
Can I monitor where my employees are during the work day?
No, location is recorded only when the employee clocks in and clocks out. You won't have any knowledge of where the employee is than whether they were within or outside their work zone.
Am I notified when an employee enters a work zone?
No, work zones are only for allowing employees to clock in.
What happens if an employee doesn't enable location sharing on Sage HR app?
When an employee is assigned to a work zone, they won't be able to clock in until they allow location sharing with the mobile app.
Can I edit a geofenced clock in entry?
No, if an employee was assigned to a work zone at the time when they clocked in, you can't edit this.
📌TIP: If an employee forgets to clock in, advise them not to clock in using the mobile app, as you won't be able to edit it if it was geofenced.
You can manually enter their hours instead.
Does it allow users to estimate the travel time to a specific location based on their current geolocation?
We don’t show where the user is at any time, we just record if they are inside/outside the geofence. It's possible to set up 2 geofences at 2 different sites, and if the user clocked out of site A at X time and clocked in at site B at X time, you could estimate travel time between.
What data does geofencing collect? Are there any privacy concerns associated with using geofencing for employee tracking?
The only information we collect is longitude, latitude, altitude, and timestamp.
Employees have to consent to share location on an account and device level – we don't force them to do this
Employees will only have to consent to share location 'While using the app'
The only time a location is captured is at the point that the employee clocks in or out
The only information surfaced to users is whether they're inside/outside a work zone – the employee's exact location isn't recorded
Is there a way to limit geofencing to only be enabled based on the employee's scheduling?
You set up work zones and add employees to those work zones. So only employees assigned to a work zone will be ‘geofenced’.
It’s not linked to scheduling, but as a workaround, you can manually assign all employees in a certain shift pattern, timesheet group, team, etc., to a specific work zone if you only want to track these employees.
How wide is the geo-crashing range and can a customer easily adjust it?
Admin users can customise the geofence to be between 50 and 500m from a fixed point, within 50m increments. You can adjust the radius size, but you can't change the central point once you create the work zone.