Top Ways to Track Your Employees’ Attendance to Save Money and Time

Even before the pandemic, businesses were already moving towards using the internet and various forms of technology to connect team members and keep the ball rolling. When Covid-19 rolled around it simply turbocharged this process, and in a matter of weeks businesses had no other option but to facilitate employees working remotely. Even customers that needed goods and services had to be able to adapt to the rapid changes taking place within businesses.

In a remote environment, it is difficult to keep track of employees and their work. Large firms that have the budget to hire external service providers were outsourcing their HR departments even before the outbreak of coronavirus. Since late 2019 even small businesses have had to resort to some kind of outsourcing to keep the HR department functional. If you are struggling to properly manage your human resources, and you want to ensure that your employees are being monitored properly while they work, here are some cost-effective solutions.

Timesheets

This is the most basic form of employee management, where you have the employees simply sign in on a sheet. The timesheets show the time that the employee started work, when they stopped for a break, and when they got done working for the day. There are some major considerations with using timesheets, and even today it is a solution that works well for many businesses.

The main advantage of timesheets is that it is a quick and easy solution to implement, and it is cost-effective. However, it is easy to manipulate and also quite prone to human error. If an employee simply forgets to write down the time when they started working, this leaves the employer with virtually no information for that day, particularly in physical businesses where there aren't many devices to refer to for the work carried out that day.

Time Tracking Software

For both physical and digital businesses, time tracking software can be a good option. This is a slightly more expensive solution than a simple timesheet, and it is more complicated to implement, but once you have it up and running it is quite self-sufficient. For instance, you can see when the employee logged on, how long they were online, what they did, and when they closed the session. You can even use this on mobile devices since Zenefits also tracks GPS location and tells you where an employee is while their work device is active. You will notice that this solution is geared towards digital workers rather than physical workers. The main advantage is that you get a very comprehensive range of tracking information.

GPS

GPS tracking is all about monitoring the location of an employee while they are at work. This can double as work attendance tracking in businesses where employees are constantly on the move. This is a solution that works well in industries such as trucking, private vehicle rentals, freight forwarding, and even travel and tourism. The main advantage to using the GPS-based attendance system is that this information can be used in multiple ways. For instance, trucking companies can use this information to optimize the routes that their drivers take, logistics companies can use this information to give their customers the option to track their orders, and it gives businesses better insurance over the goods that they are transporting. With 4G and 5G and cost-effective GPS systems, this is a very accurate and cost-effective system to use.

Biometrics

Many businesses are still operating out of physical workspaces and more than having systems to track devices, they need solutions that will track on-site employees. For this task, biometric attendance systems are a good solution. With a single biometric verification step, the business can log all the required information, and it can be processed digitally to eliminate the possibility of human error or attempts at deceit.

The most common biometric system is the fingerprint scanner. Some companies may prefer facial recognition or even an eye scan to register this information. A good strategy is to use the biometric scan to grant an employee access to the business premises or to a certain part of the business premises. This way the company gets all the information that they need while also improving the security of the place.

For companies that have a slightly larger budget, it is a good idea to combine a few of these systems. For instance, there can be a biometric scanner at the front door that logs when people come in and then a software tracking system to monitor how they are carrying out their work. This will give an accurate picture of how much of the time the employee spends on the business premises is actually used productively and how much is spent on other activities.