While standard time clocks and punch cards are still being used to track employee attendance, they have long been subject to tampering, misuse and accidental recordings. Over the years, various technological resources have emerged to help companies better track employee attendance. Everything from electronic clocks to biometric tools can keep your records up to date and your employees paid on time. Here are some ways technology can help you track employee attendance.
Related articles:
Time and Attendance Management: Everything You Need to Know
11 Tips for an Employee Performance Review
Online Time-Keeping
There are multiple online services that are either free or come as part of a payroll and accounting package that offer the ability for your employees to track their time online. There are also employee GPS tracking apps, which are particularly helpful with any off-site employees or even contingent workers.
A downfall to this solution would be that you might be overwhelmed to the many software being used by the company. Employees will also feel overwhelmed and this solution may bring setbacks as it will take time of the employee instead of optimizing it. The solution to this would be to bring a solution such as PeopleSpheres to provide a platform to all the software where everything is easily found in one click.
Digital Time Clocks
These modern versions of the punch clock use electronic badges or PINs to track when employees clock in and out. Some may even use biometric data like fingerprints or facial recognition, which helps prevent buddy punching and ensures accuracy.
Mobile Timekeeping Apps
With the rise of smartphones, mobile apps for timekeeping have become popular. These apps allow employees to clock in and out with just a few taps on their phone, and they can often track location data to verify that employees are at the work site when they clock in.
Access Cards
Another popular tool for many businesses to track employee attendance is an entry keycard. It is used to access the building and then to exit and re-enter the building during lunch hours and breaks. This then records the information and provides it to the payroll department. It is much more reliable than time clocks, but still has some vulnerabilities.
RFID Scanners
A new version of the access card technology, which in the past often needed an imbedded antenna coil and capacitor to work, is RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. This uses electromagnetic fields to transfer data and doesn’t need to be waved in proximity to a reader. You can track employee attenance by simply ensuring employees have it on their person in the office.
Biometric Readers
Don’t you love in the movies when people use a thumbprint or a retinal scan to enter a classified room in their building? These things are no longer science fiction. They can be used in office buildings today to track the movement and attendance of your employees and, by default, track their time on the job.
Conclusion
There are many ways to track employees’ attendance. You have to know which one works for you company best. We are now in the age of software and constantly coding to simplify actions. Although manual access cards can seem cost efficient, they aren’t. There are many complications which can take an ample amount of time to organize. Organization is crucial to HR. Be ready to expect your employees to require and demand it.This small step can make a big difference.
This is why PeopleSpheres brings organization to the many software you are using. Through this you will be implementing a single platform to the many software you might have already. What you must know is what you need. What type of tracking works better in your organization.
