Implementing a time and attendance system can save you a significant amount of time when it comes to timesheets and processing payroll.
Currently, automated time and attendance solutions, such as NoahFace, are leading the way in facial recognition biometrics.
But, there are some unique features to consider before rolling it out.
This article tackles everything you need to consider before implementing an automated time and attendance system in your workplace.
Before delving into the nitty-gritty of employee time and attendance systems, it's worth having a foundational understanding of the term "biometrics".
Biometrics is the measurement and statistical analysis of an individual's unique physical and behavioural characteristics - and is commonly used for identification and access control.
Organisations commonly use biometric time and attendance systems to track when employees are clocking in and clocking out of work.
Some organisations also use biometric management software to control access to restricted areas of the business, allowing for a level of security.
For example, a licensed club may be interested in restricting access to their cash room. Biometric software would be useful for allowing only certain employees secure access to the cash room.
Fingerprint readers are the original version of biometric time and attendance systems.
Obtaining fingerprints have had applications in law enforcement dating back to the nineteenth century. Since the late nineties, it has been rolled out for commercial applications - in particular being used to record time and attendance events using a fingerprint scanner.
While fingerprints are sufficiently unique, there are some practical issues involved in using fingerprint readers as an employee time and attendance system.
For example, they are to dust and grease.
What's more, the level of precision required to obtain an appropriate scanning match means that fingerprint scanning methods are prone to bottlenecks such as requiring all employees to clock in at the same time.
Emerging biometric time clock systems have also explored the use of heart and brain signals as well as scanning finger veins for proper identification - all of which provide sufficient uniqueness to be a positive form of ID.
But, unfortunately, these emerging techniques have limited applicability in a commercial setting - they are expensive, intrusive, can lead to latency and staff bottlenecking.
Leading the pile commercial employee time and attendance systems is facial recognition.
It is a widely accepted technology in many commercial settings because it has the added benefit of being comparatively low in cost.
Here's how it works:
Facial recognition has proven itself time and time again, even in uncommon cases such as identical twins, facial hair growth and other changes to features.
Facial recognition presents the best opportunity to implement an employee time clock system for identification.
The benefits of facial recognition in comparison to other biometric time and attendance solutions include:
There are growing concerns amongst consumers over privacy - and employees are no exception.
Facial recognition as a employee time clock system has been previously embroiled with social media scandals on the invasion of privacy and user data.
As a result, you're likely to have employees that would be hesitant to consent to it as a time and attendance solution.
However, there are ways to mitigate privacy concerns when introducing this time clock software into the workplace:
How the time and attendance device is set up is an important consideration. Users should consider:
Due to the various heights of different staff members, it is recommended that the kiosk be installed at approximately 150cm (or 5ft) from the ground. The chosen wall mount should offer security features such as a lockable enclosure and non-core features such as an iPad home button covered to prevent manipulation.
Lighting is also a consideration. Indirect light yields the best performance when face matching given direct light can cause a blur and distort the result. Look for the software itself to allow for variable settings of ISO and Shutter Speed.
A fixed shutter speed will work well in a fixed, mounted location. A variable shutter speed will perform better where the iPad is used in different locations.
An ISO setting will allow you to adjust the lighting of the camera to allow for fixed light conditions, typical of being indoors.
Consider the role of the background in preventing fraud selfie matches. Simple backgrounds e.g. a white wall works well for letting the algorithm learn what background to expect. As a result, a foreign background may alert to a mismatch and be cause for an investigation of a time theft attempt.
An employee clock management system works great when maintaining Australian payroll compliance.
Some considerations for including facial recognition with your payroll system are:
Modern cloud based payroll apps allow for a roster to be sent out automatically, and will normally compare rostered (expected) start and end times to actual (facial recognition based) start and end times.
Employee time breaks can be captured in the same way.
When deciding what to use, a timesheet can “round” to be within a tolerance threshold of the roster.
For example, an employee may clock in at 8:47 am if they like to get to work early, but their roster is rounded up to 9 am as being within a 15-minute tolerance of the rostered start time. This means less amendment required at the time timesheet approval stage.
Some time tracking and attendance management software such as Microkeeper will even go one step further and allow automatic approval for timesheets matching within a rostered tolerance.
The best employee time and attendance tracking systems will include a syncing feature of employee records on a fixed schedule.
Generally speaking, the source of truth for employee records is the payroll system. Pairing your facial recognition with a modern cloud payroll system will allow staff to self maintain their own records, such as their mobile numbers and email adresses. This will yield the best results and mean a frictionless interaction with the time clock software.
In Australia, many industries need to capture shift conditions as part of the timesheet record to ensure compliance. So, you'll need to consider if your biometric time clock system allows for an easy interface to allow staff to interact with pay conditions.
For example, a construction scenario may need to capture:
The best time and attendance software will capture this level of detail to ensure that you meet your payroll compliance requirements under a Modern Award or Enterprise Agreement, even for assessing Fair Work salary employees.
Pairing your time tracking software with modern cloud based payroll apps will give you an added benefit of maintaining shift conditions through rule-based interpretation.
Your cost centres (or locations, or departments, or jobs) can be captured at the same time as the clock event, regardless of whether the kiosk is associated with one cost centre or a set of options captured at the time of the clock event.
The resulting timesheet is then recorded in the payroll system and able to provide an actual split of cost centres, rather than relying on percentages and estimates.
A change in either a shift condition or a cost centre shouldn’t require clocking out and simultaneously clocking back in.
Biometric time clocks systems allow a successful match followed by a series of buttons or options on the screen. This should effectively splice an existing timesheet into two, meaning the capture of penalty conditions and allowance is based on real workplace conditions.
Having multiple kiosks in physical locations means an employee can clock in and out at each location - providing an extremely accurate (to the second) cost centre breakdown.
Time clock systems can be used to specifically track direct labour hours to a job.
If you're going to use time clock software for job costing, you'll also need to consider the following:
A time and attendance app equipped with these features will be extremely efficient for tracking accurate direct labour to a job or manufacturing process.
There are other factors to consider including:
The use of facial recognition is not just limited to payroll.
Interactions with customers are becoming increasingly common and facial recognition is an invaluable tool that can be used in a business-critical context to improve customer experience.
Simply having an identifiable event can have a massive impact on business processes outside of payroll software.
For example:
The applications of a biometric attendance system are limited only to your imagination.
It shadows other biometric methods for ease of use, affordability and tight integration with modern cloud based payroll apps.
It also has uses beyond payroll and can be used for door access applications or any event registration, visitor registration, childcare and more.
At Pay Cat, we're agnostic payroll experts that specialise in matching organisations' payroll and time and attendance needs with the right cloud based solution.
We also offer an automated employee time and attendance solution called NoahFace, which captures the start and end of shift times using an Ipad or the NoahFace Go phone app. The data is synchronised with your payroll software, making payroll a breeze and compliance guaranteed!
We save you time by implementing, training and supporting you through the process of migrating to a cloud payroll software or the best time and attendance system.
To find out how we can help you, get in touch with us today!