When you are running a business, one of the biggest sources of lost revenue comes from employees improperly punching in and out from their job. For example, there is a a scam called “buddy punching” that involves a person punching the time card of a friend who is late for their job, or has called off completely that day. Employees will often punch themselves in early, before their shift actually begins. Even if a person only punches in five minutes early each day during a standard work week, the employer will end up paying the employee for 100 minutes of time each month that they were not working. Obviously, situations like this can have a crippling impact on a company’s bottom line. Fortunately, new technology is constantly being developed by companies like Allied Time to prevent employees from taking advantage of the time card system. Here are some reasons why companies should install a modern time and attendance system.
No more buddy punching
With many of the time and attendance systems available today, it is physically impossible for buddy punching to occur. This is because biometrics are used to verify the identity of the person punching in. When an employee is hired, their thumb print is scanned into the time and attendance system. They will then use their thumb print to punch in and out at all times in the future. Obviously, this type of identity verification eliminates the possibility of an employee punching their friend in. There are also systems that employ facial recognition and retinal scanning software.
Real time updates
Another feature which employers are excited about involves real time updates for their staff. For example, let’s say that a business owner is out of town, but he still wants to see what is going on at his business. Rather than picking up the phone and calling the manager, the owner can log into the network of the time and attendance system. The owner will then be presented with information concerning the schedule of the business, including all of the employees currently punched in, when they punched in and the employees who are late for work. This allows business owners to make last minute staffing decisions depending on their current amount of business, employee call-offs and weather conditions.
Email and text updates
A business owner can set a modern time and attendance system to send an email or text notification when a certain hourly threshold is close to being reached by employees. This will prevent accidentally paying overtime unnecessarily.
