How do you track remote employees hours?

[greenburg]

We are a team of Seven engineers. Four engineers are based on hourly salary. At the end of each 2 weeks, they sent me the number of hours they worked, then I pay them.

Upwork has a nice time tracker software that lets employees log in, track the hours, and send me screenshots of the their screen along with total hours. But, I am not using Upwork anymore.

Is there any similar software that let me do that? How do you usually go about tracking employees hours?

[Jaruzel]

You don't. You track by task, not by time. You also assume that as professionals the remote employees are not taking the piss unless proven otherwise. This is where the task tracking comes in. As long as the engineers complete their assigned tasks on time, and to an agreed level, then it's irrelevant how many hours they worked. You've already budgeted and committed to paying them a working week, so if they manage to do their tasks in 4 days instead of 5, who cares?

If the engineer is failing to meet the task deadlines, THAT'S when you start asking for hours worked proof.

IT will never be considered a 'Professional' industry until we stop viewing employees like McDonald's staff.

[aqsis]

Spot on, came to say exactly the same thing. If you don't trust the people you hire, then don't hire them.