Labor-Recording, Time Sheet; Job Cards; Operation Card 

1.1 Introduction

Whichever incentive scheme is used by a particular organization, there is need to establish a system to collect labor data and determine the labor cost. This calls for an organization to record information pertaining output, wage procedure, job evaluation and merit rating and the personnel function. The following are the requirements for establishing of the cost associated to labor. 

1.2 Labor Records

For the firm to be able to capture the accurate labor data, recording of relevant information pertaining each individual employee is paramount. The record cuts across various labor spheres such as personal data and employment performance background.

Under the personal details, the firm need to capture the name of the employee, sex, day of employment, and other related information. On the other hand, the employee labor related details may entail several aspects such as,

Labor attendance records.

Time worked for per day.

Wage rates.

Employee incentive scheme applicable to each category of labor or specific firm.

Terms and conditions of work engagement.

Job Cards, Time Sheets And Operation Cards

The information pertaining to a particular employee or a group of employees is captured either using time sheet, job card operation cards.

2.1 Time Sheet

2.1.1 Definition

Time sheet is a document where a track record is indicated showing how the particular employee has utilized the available time. This is usually helpful especially in sorting out the actual time worked, time lost due to either machine break and also idle work which in actual sense need not to be paid for. The time sheets may be used to capture working time per day, week or on monthly basis.

A time sheet is used when there is only one employee to be captured in the system. Again, it is used in cases of recording activities pertaining to small jobs.

Time sheet approach is not very accurate but the good thing is that it does not require a lot of clerical work.

2.1.2 Advantages of Time Sheet

1. Helps in reducing time wastage especially time lost which is associated with the labor.
2. Billing of the cost to be paid is well fitting using the time sheet.
3. Improves management of projects. In other words, it is possible to track time spend on a particular project.
4. Economical for the approach helps in identifying the exact time spend by employees to accomplish a job and this saves company money.

2.1.3 Disadvantages of Time Sheet

1. Kills the employee psyche to work.
2. External factors may make the employees become anxious over the system.
3. The approach does not fit well for intangible products such as service provision.
4. Suffer from human error.

2.2 Job Cards

2.2.1 Definition

A job card is job description pertaining a particular task which help the concerned on how to plan and schedule information.

Job card is more appropriate when the worker is dealing with one big job. Further it is more appropriate to a case where the workers are several or many. The approach of recording of work data using job cards is not suitable especially when the job is of the long period coverage nature.

2.2.2 Advantages of Job Card

1. Ensure no cases of over or under estimation of the cost of production.
2. Help in tracing the right employee for a particular job or task.
3. Help in establishing the right procedure for hiring workers.
4. Provides a guideline on how to evaluate performance of workers.
5. Helps in identification of need assessment for training and employee development.

2.2.3 Disadvantages of Job Card

1. Problem of human error.
2. Lost time through theft of working hours by the employees.
3. Time consuming when tracking the time utilized for it is done manually.

2.3 Operation Card

2.3.1 Definition

Operation cards are also referred to as piecework tickets. They are cards used for recording the progress state of the whole job in each stage so far, the process has reached. Each job stage of process is therefore assigned an operational card. Such that if a particular process has five stages, every stage has an operation card, translating to five (5) of them in number.