- Keeping track of attendance
- Accuracy and responsibility
- Guaranteed security
- Employee self-service
Every organisation faces challenges when it comes to maximising employee productivity. These days, there are more ways to avoid responsibility than ever before – and more distractions, too. However, biometric technologies present an intriguing solution to one particularly onerous productivity issue: time theft. Time theft is when an employee tricks their employer into thinking they are present, and gets paid for hours that they did not work. Biometric sensors make this far more difficult, by using an employee’s unique human characteristics to register when they enter and exit the workplace.
Keeping track of attendance
The Biometric Attendance System (BAS) provides HRM staff with irrefutable data about which employees are, and are not, showing up for work. It will register if they leave the office – be it to grab lunch, go shopping, pick up their children from school, or take a nap in their car – and provide insight on areas affecting overall workforce productivity. BAS integration would effectively make the processes of attendance monitoring and time tracking automatic, by centralising all of the information into a single location for review. This, naturally, saves a lot of effort in terms of labour costs, and by extension, saves the business money in data-gathering alone. This gives HRM staff more time to focus on developing employees and facilitating their productivity, as opposed to manually gathering and processing timekeeping data.
Accuracy and responsibility
Using BAS will also prove beneficial for processing payrolls, as concrete information will be available at the outset about hours worked – no extra investigation necessarily required. Spreading awareness about how BAS works will encourage employees to take greater responsibility for their own timekeeping, and remind them of the risks posed to the company by things like consistent lateness and time theft. Furthermore, it encourages accountability – employees will recognise that they are responsible for their actions within the workplace, and that there are consequences attached to abusing the company’s timekeeping policies. Employees who display persistent negligence towards these policies will be flagged to HR so that they can develop an appropriate response. As a result, BAS is a useful resource for disciplinary measures – the information it records is virtually impossible to dispute because it is unique to an individual and locked into global time via the internet.
Guaranteed security
BAS integration is also a powerful resource for security, ensuring that unauthorised people can’t enter or exit the building. After all, it is impossible to fake somebody else’s fingerprint. Once employees are set up on the system, their fingerprint data is stored in a centralised location, which is particularly difficult to hack or otherwise gain unauthorised access to. This security also extends to employees – it is impossible for them to abuse the system, as its means of input cannot be forged, and the time data it captures is inextricably tied to the moment of biometric input and cannot be modified. Biometrics can even be used by remote workers, which is particularly beneficial for protecting a work device in the event of theft. A criminal may ‘acquire’ the device, but they will have no ability to access its data.
Employee self-service
One interesting sub-development within the BAS ecosystem is employee self-service (ESS), which allows employees to manage their own timekeeping records and make amendments where necessary. If a potential payroll issue arises, they will have agency to address it themselves. This takes things out of the hands of HR almost entirely and prevents the development of feelings of resentment. It would, after all, be easy for employees to feel resentful about being monitored so intensively by their bosses. With ESS in place, they are responsible for managing their own records, bolstering their sense of agency, and placing the duty of monitoring attendance and timekeeping upon themselves.
Closing thoughts
Naturally, there are costs attached to installing a BAS in the workplace. Although the price varies depending on the particulars of the business, the workspace and its needs, subscription options are also available to manage its affordability. Furthermore, it is widely perceived that over the long run, a BAS will more than pay for itself, saving HR vast amounts of time and effort, mitigating time theft, and maximising the productivity of the workplace. Although there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every workplace, BAS integration makes a valuable proposition that every business should consider.
