Regular attendance and punctuality are vital attributes for all employees. It is imperative for employees to attend work regularly and to arrive at work on time, because failure to do so detrimentally affects employee morale and productivity.
Excessive and unauthorised absenteeism or tardiness is liable for disciplinary action by an organisation, up to and including termination of employment.
Organisations may have leave of absence policies to describe an employees’ responsibilities for reporting absences from work. It is also significant to have guidelines in place for reporting leaves of absence or for calling work if an employee will be late for work.
It is responsible to note that in any organisation, employees that are unaware of the requirements of reporting leave of absence should always inform someone who is of a higher position, a supervisor, for example in advance.
In some organisations, attendance is of upmost importance that if an employee fails to notify the organisation on his/her absence for 3 consecutive work days, it will be seen as job abandonment and may result in termination of employment.
What is new in Time and Attendance tracking?
In this modern era, businesses have been growing, developing and reaching higher levels of productivity. This is mainly due to modern innovation and technology, that have led to new advancements that greatly benefit businesses.
One type of technology that many businesses have or are planning to adopt is the biometric technology. Biometric based attendance and time terminals are becoming more and more popular as many businesses are able to understand and see the many benefit it offers.
When biometric terminals are in place, it will be able to automatically read each employees’ unique fingerprint, hand shape, iris or face shape. The input of any preferred form is very simple and fast to implement using the biometric terminal.
This simple yet unique feature brings about many advantages to a business. For example, tracking of attendance using fingerprint prevents the ability for employees to clock in for one another, reducing cases of employee time theft.
Advantages of Biometric Time and Attendance System
Elimination of “Buddy Punching”
As mentioned above, one of the biggest benefits of biometric attendance is that employees will not be able to clock in for one another. This type of time theft can cost companies tens of thousands of dollars (or more) each year.
Biometrics characteristics such as fingerprints cannot be duplicated. As such, this prevents workers from punching in other co-workers who are not present for work.
Increased productivity
With biometrics attendance, the need to manually track time and attendance is eliminated. This saves the organisation time, reduces staffing overhead and provides an accurate picture of labour data to the payroll department. As a result, this helps to effectively manage the overall business operations.
An Accurate option
Biometric credentials are unique for everyone making it nearly impossible to duplicate or forge. This makes biometric identification the most accurate option to identify an employee. This unique feature helps businesses accurate track employees’ attendance and time.
Reduce errors
Implementing a biometric terminal removes the need of manual tracking. This reduces the risk of human errors and ensures an orderly approach in addressing operations without confusion.
Time and Attendance system have proved to have an accuracy rate of at least 99% as compared to manual systems by eliminating errors in data entry and calculations.
Increased Return on Investment
A positive return on investment will be received when a biometric time and attendance system is implemented. This is largely due to the reduced in amount of unnecessary expenses, such as labour costs, costs from time theft and buddy punching.
A study done by Axsium Group reported that organisations save up to $1,600 per employee after implementing automated time and attendance system.
Enforcement of Company Policies
Inaccurate records from manual time and attendance errors are costly and can cause organisations huge money in overtime payment. This might also lead to violation of laws resulting in expensive legal defence and fines.
Using an automated time and attendance system removes these additional expenses, reinforcing an increase in return on investment as mentioned above.
Efficiently create reports
Any organisation knows the importance of generating reports. Time and attendance software is able to quickly generate reports of all planned and unplanned absences of any employee, department or group.
With just a few clicks, other reports on time worked, absences, schedules and job details can be created. This is a good method of tracking a particular employee’s schedule, if needed.
Enhanced Job Satisfaction
There are many situations whereby employees are needed to work overtime. After hours and hours of overtime, even the most dedicated and loyal employee can wear down especially if the worker is unsure if all their hard work is even noticed.
A biometric time attendance system will give employers the ability to recognise excessive overtime situations and make changes to balance the workload. This helps employees to not feel like they are being overworked and gives them confidence that it will be noticed if overtime is required.
What is the role of Million Software?
Million software is known to make use of modern technology and developments to allow businesses to grow and develop as a result. Just like the advanced payroll software it offers, Million Software also offers a unique Biometric Time and Attendance System.
Million Payroll software is well associated with Time and Attendance system. With the payroll software, time and attendance features can be used and managed at the same time. It helps in leave calculation, payroll generation and overtime.
This would mean that Million Payroll Software includes both features from Payroll Software and Time and Attendance software, making it a very reliable and effective tool for businesses.