- Ease of Use
In buddy punching, an employee either types a tardy employee’s PIN or swipes the tardy employee’s badge earlier than he arrives to work or after he leaves work. The organizational costs of this kind of time theft can be enormous. The company loses money a few minutes at a time compounded across departments and locations. Biometrics makes it almost impossible for employees to defraud a time and attendance system.
Other returns on investment can be gained through the use of the biometric system as a security access monitor, as well. In this case, the biometric system is used to grant or deny access to restricted areas. The cost of purchasing and maintaining magnetic or proximity identification cards, which do not prevent fraudulent access, can be eliminated.
- Is Biometric Attendance Verification Right for your Organization?
Several factors can help you determine whether to invest in biometric time recorders. First determine whether there is a need for biometric technology in the workplace. Then consider the potential return on investment. Finally, make sure that the work environment is physically suitable for biometric devices, and that employees can accept and use the technology.
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1) Evaluate the need for authentication or identification. As mentioned earlier, a
workplace with employee time fraud problems, like buddy punching, can benefit greatly
from the use of biometric time recorders. A need to control security access to portions
of a building can be answered with biometrics, as well. Alternately, a workplace with no
security concerns or hourly workers may not need biometrics to maintain accurate
employee time and attendance records.
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2) Consider the cost/benefit ratio. If there is a need for biometrics, consider the cost. For a smaller organization, the cost of biometric equipment may be greater than any gains from the elimination of time theft. However, the price for biometric technology is dropping as technological advances are made and adoption becomes more widespread. Economies of scale and sophisticated engineering continue to lower the cost of biometric devices. Lower cost biometric time clocks have begun to enter the market, and may be an option for many organizations. Your time and attendance provider can help you weigh the benefits of installing biometric time clocks.
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3) Assess the compatibility of the biometric technology with the work environment. It is essential that biometric readings be as accurate as possible. For this reason, the environment in which biometric sensors are used is crucial to ensure good reads of employee biometric characteristics. An environment that is too humid or dirty can obscure the fingerprint on a finger reader platen (or reading surface), making it more difficult to correctly scan the finger.
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A noisy environment can disrupt the proper collection of voice data.Persons being scanned with the biometric device can also impact the suitability of that device. For example, a retinal scan requires that a person gaze into an eyepiece. Without cooperation, this type of scan could be difficult. Individuals with worn finger whorls and ridges, due to years of welding or other occupations, may not be able to successfully use a finger reader.
- In any environment, a small percentage of the population cannot use the biometric system, for example, 3% of people cannot use finger readers, so it is imperative that the device has an alternate method for interaction. For time recorders, this method usually involves the entry of a PIN and pass code instead of the biometric scanner.
- 4) Be sensitive to the concerns of employees. When considering the purchase of
biometric time recorders it is important to address the privacy concerns of employees.
For example, explain to employees that a finger or hand reader does not store or
recognize employee fingerprints—it uses hand or finger measurements to create a
template for the employee. These measurements are used only for in-company
authentication and security access. They cannot be used to recreate biometric data
such as a person’s actual fingerprint.
Furthermore, you can emphasize that employee privacy is enhanced with biometric
time clocks. When an employee accesses his benefit time balances using a biometric
time clock, no other employee is privy to these records, increasing the security of his
personal information.
Employees may also be concerned about the potential health impact of using the
same finger or hand sensor that many other employees use. To answer these
concerns, assure employees that the sensor is no more used than a door knob or
ATM. Furthermore, antibacterial materials are now being developed for some time
clocks.
- What Does the Future Hold for Biometrics in Time and Attendance?
Improvements are in sight for the feasibility, consumer acceptance, and price of biometric identification. The possibilities of biometrics for employee authentication are endless. Experts attest that biometric technology is likely to be used in “almost every transaction needing authentication of personal identity.” Biometrics are in all our futures, and they stand to improve the ease-of-use of time and attendance systems, while bolstering corporate security and enhancing employee privacy.
