Automated Systems

Organizations of all sizes use time and attendance systems to record when employees start and stop work, and the department where the work is performed. However, it is also common to track meals and breaks, the type of work performed and the number of items produced. In addition to tracking when employees work, organizations also need to keep tabs on when employees are not working. Some organizations also keep detailed records of attendance issues such as who calls in sick and who comes in late. Arun Antony Raja, Indian Excellence Centre, ISS Facility Services India Pvt. Ltd gives an account on the time and attendance system of an organizational architecture.

A TIME and attendance system provides many benefits to the organizations. It enables an employer to have full control of all employees working hours. It helps control labour costs by reducing over-payments, which are often caused by transcription error, interpretation error and intentional error. Manual processes are also eliminated as well as the staff needed to maintain them. It is often difficult to comply with labour regulation, but a time and attendance system is invaluable for ensuring compliance with labour regulations regarding proof of attendance.

Companies with large employee numbers might need to install several time clock stations in order to speed up the process of getting all employees to clock in or out quickly or to record activity in dispersed locations.

Depending on the supplier, identification method and number of clocking points required, prices vary widely. A time and attendance system protects a company from payroll fraud and provides both employer and employees with confidence in the accuracy of their wage payments while improving productivity.

Attendance problems remain because there is not a standard format for the attendance register, making the manual analysis of it inconvenient, time consuming and inaccurate. Automated attendance systems can use a variety of technology such as: electronic tags, barcode badges, and magnetic stripe cards. Electronic attendance systems enable more effective and efficient monitoring of attendance as well as allowing the identification of longer-term trends in absence. An electronic solution is a more effective mechanism to for collection, processing, storage and production of attendance reports and long-term analysis.

Automated attendance system is not only used for recording attendance of official personnel but is also used for security purposes.

Automated time and attendance systems which employees touch or swipe to identify themselves and record their working hours as they enter or leave the work area. The recorded information is then ideally automatically transferred to a computer for processing although some systems require an operator to physically transfer data from the clocking point to the computer using a portable memory device. The computer may then be employed to perform all the necessary calculations to generate employee timesheets which are used to calculate the employees’ wages. An automated system reduces the risk of errors that are common in a manual system, and allows the workforce to be more productive instead of wasting time on tedious administrative tasks.

Advantages of Automated Attendance Systems

1) Reduce errors
Time and Attendance software reduces the risk of human error and ensures and easy, impartial, and orderly approach in addressing specific needs without any confusion. In fact, Time and Attendance software has been shown to have an accuracy rate of more than 99% versus manual systems by eliminating errors in data entry and calculations.

2) Increase security
The software may be used to control employee access to certain areas within a facility and track employee entry. Access data collection devices eliminate buddy punching and also help reduce costly liabilities, including theft of equipment or property.

3) Increase productivity
Productivity increases because the process is seamless and makes day-to-day operations more efficient and convenient. Eliminating legacy practices frees up employees time, decreases staffing overhead, and provides supervisors with timely labour data to more effectively manage their operations.

4) Save money
Implementing a technology based time and attendance solution with biometric devices will immediately help to reduce your labour costs. Manually collecting, managing, calculating and processing time data to process payroll can take a lot of time, but with an automated solution, companies are able to increase efficiency and save money.

5) Eliminate fraud
Curbing “buddy punching” and fraudulent clock-ins with a manual time and attendance tracking system is nearly impossible. However, advances in photo auditing capabilities are allowing companies to keep a close watch on their time clocks. Some cloud-based time clock solutions maintain a photographic record of clock-ins, so that employees cannot clock each other in.

All of this data can be made accessible to managers in real time and as historical data, discouraging employees from cheating on their timecards. Even if time clocks are not used, an automated time and attendance tracking solution can be configured with internal controls and policies on the back-end, which helps minimize policy violations like missed lunches and unauthorized overtime.

6) Noncompliance and lawsuits
Without proper documentation, organizations may spend significant resources preparing for compliance audits. Poor time tracking leads to duplicated efforts, poor project execution and audit failures. Companies fail to comply with wage-and-hour regulations, mostly due to inaccurate time tracking, employee misclassification and a lack of accurate workforce data.

Solution

ISS Facility Services India Pvt. Ltd uses a solution of QR (or Quick Response) code It’s a two-dimensional barcode that consists of small black dots arranged in a square pattern on a white background. It can contain alphanumeric information. The QR code is detected and scanned as a 2-dimensional digital image by a semiconductor image sensor and is then digitally analysed by a programmed processor; its versatility allows it to be used over a much wider range of applications.

Information about employees such as name and employee number is translated into a QRcode by a QR generator, which is then displayed electronically or in printed format. Decoding the information is done with any image sensor. The solution using QR technology consists of generating, printing and distributing of individual QR code (including name and
Emp number) for all ISS Employees. QR code is printed on any surface, from paper to the back of ISS Employee card. A Mobile with QR image sensor is placed in the entrance of the venue, waiting for employees to place the QR code in front of it to declare their presence before gaining access. That QR image sensor is responsible for sending the collected data to the attendance server. And the App takes a real time pic of the employee and stores in server to compare the actual pic of employee and ensure the right punch.