Each country, state, or region has its own set of regulatory requirements regarding working hours, compensation, and time off. By using a digital system to keep track of attendance, the audit process will be straightforward.
What does attendance management mean?
The attendance management system tracks employees’ working hours, breaks, login and logout times, and other time off. To help manage their workforce, businesses have turned to various approaches, including punch cards, databases, and automated attendance systems with biometric devices.
Technology and Attendance management
Maintaining an efficient working environment is a crucial factor. Employers must keep track of their employees’ schedules, including work hours and personal time off. Data collection was complex without an attendance management system. As a general rule, tracking was accomplished through a spread sheet or attendance records. These are prone to environmental errors and are incapable of labelling and recording accurate attendance for multiple shifts.
To maximize profitability and thus survival, many businesses seek out new sources of revenue rather than exploring their internal resources. But it does not have to be that way. Companies that adapt to modern technology can not only reduce stress but also make their employees healthier. A recent survey by Wasp Barcode Technologies has shown that 20% of small businesses plan to purchase productivity-boosting tools for their employees this year. According to Select Hub’s survey results, 57% of companies plan to buy new HR software within the next 18 months.
However, with technology progressing at a breakneck pace and businesses facing large, distributed workforces, attendance tracking tools must keep up. Dedicated software has been developed to track employee time, which can be installed locally or in the cloud and includes a range of advanced analytics and automated schedule configuration. Cloud-based attendance management systems offer the advantages of flexibility, cost reduction, and ease of access. Because they possess a range of features, tools like these are essential for today’s businesses.
How has technology shaped the Attendance management system over the years-
The evolution of time-attendance systems has occurred over the decades with the
advancement of technology. Before modern computers, business organizations had to do
with simple, manual keeping employee attendance records. The most popular method of
tracking time spent at work for employees was manually recording their time in registers.
Nonetheless, because any manual process can have mistakes, this attendance
documentation is subject to errors. Inaccurate attendance records cause erroneous salary
payments. This produces much mess when it comes to accurate and error-free records of
attendance. Since its conception, the attendance record-keeping system has evolved
dramatically.
The attendance system used to be simple to operate with a register to keep track of entry
and exit times. It has evolved to time clocks and time cards. It was time to improve the
management of the workforce, and with new forms of tracking employee hours in and out
of the workplace, that’s precisely what happened. The same problem remained with these
methods as well, however: the issues of inconsistency and inaccuracy. Despite the presence
of the many difficulties that concerned employers about employee attendance, they
persisted. Biometric systems for tracking employee attendance became possible due to
advances in technology. The technique mentioned above has only been improved and is the
most reliable method for collecting data on student attendance.
But let’s break down the reasons for the development of the attendance marking system in detail.
Mistakes Made by People
The data associated with manual attendance systems were vulnerable to tampering. Often,
employees have manipulated their attendance records to cover up their lost hours.
However, HR professionals were known to alter attendance records in the payroll software.
Mistakes like this are often overlooked, but they still harm the company and employees in
the form of incorrect pay. This added to the time-consuming task of having to collect
employee attendance for HR staff manually. This led to the development of biometric
attendance systems because humane errors were a significant contributor.
Proxy Punching
Punch cards and time sheets were quick and easy to transfer to others. Employees often
used malpractices such as time theft and maiden punching to such easy methods of marking
attendance. Unfortunately, due to poor attendance, one of the worst problems faced by
organizations is friend punching. They could mark their colleagues’ and friends’ attendance
with their punch cards or timesheets while keeping track of their own. An automated and
biometric-based attendance management system was introduced, and it helped solve the
problem of people entering multiple times with a buddy.
The time required to process the transaction is too long.
Another primary reason for the growth of biometric attendance systems is timesheet and
time clock inefficiency. Due to the error-prone nature of these methods, these tools are
very costly and time-consuming for the company or organization to use. Furthermore, with
the rise in the global business environment, the number of employees has risen
dramatically. Because of this, a manual method of managing employee attendance details
for a small number of workers was still feasible. Despite this, managing the attendance of a
large number of employees was challenging. The outcome is inaccuracy.
The advantages of a comprehensive attendance management system
Even if you’re a startup or an enterprise, time tracking can be improved by the right
attendance management software.
Following are eight good reasons why your business should consider implementing an ideal
attendance management system. a system for managing attendance:
Build customized, graphically appealing reports.
Provide insights on time-off patterns and shift settings for employees.
Influences the success of the organization
Guarantees both accuracy and consistency in the administration of attendance
records
Significantly boosts worker productivity.
ensures that the organization’s rules and regulations are implemented
Avoid time theft and human error
Here are five characteristics that you should look for in any attendance management software.
- Online attendance control system
HR managers can eliminate spreadsheets and paper files by installing a web-based
employee attendance tracking software that keeps track of, stores, and shows updated
timesheets.
Web-based timekeeping software can replace manual punch clocks and minimize employee
attendance records by keeping accurate records. The time spent doing payroll processing or
retrieving employee working hours is saved because HR staff does not have to pore through
piles of timesheets.
This web-based system shows all relevant attendance information in a single interface,
reducing the time and effort required to track all attendance records by hand. - Remote office work
Organizations can satisfy modern workers who don’t want to be bound to an office cubicle
by using cloud-based attendance management software. Millennials working in the
workforce have come to accept remote working as a part of everyday life. So, companies
can no longer get by only using in-house attendance tracking software.
An on-the-go, cloud-based attendance management system that tracks clock-in and clock-
out hours is what they need. Time and attendance software should serve multiple purposes,
including employee monitoring. Employers can make and maintain rosters, send
notifications about overtime, missed punches, and more with the ideal solution.
Cloud-based timekeeping software enables organizations to track an employee’s time even
when they work from home. Managers and HR staff could access the collected data at any
time and from anywhere. Cloud solutions are also more cost-effective, simpler to use, and
free of software installation and upgrades. - Requests for leave
An excellent attendance management system will incorporate a plan to keep track of leave
time. An employee’s time away from work is just as crucial to monitor as is their time spent
working and present at the office. Whether you’re requesting sick time or time off for a
vacation, it should be simple to review, monitor, and accept or reject requests quickly.
The art of delegation is a critical component of human resource management, and it directly
affects the financial health of a company. Lack of staffing due to poor time-off management,
employee dissatisfaction, and decreased productivity result from inefficient use of manual
tools to track vacations.
- Compliance with policy and reporting
Organizations can ensure compliance with policy and regulation by installing an automated
employee attendance management system. Every employee is guaranteed vacation time,
time off, and overtime pay, according to company policy. Business owners must take steps
to ensure that their employees can unwind and relax during their working hours.
Organizations will face wage theft allegations of this nature if they fail to address the
problem. To ensure that time tracking and leave-taking processes are kept up to date and
that compliance mishaps are avoided, companies must automate their timekeeping and
time-off processes. Managers will be able to make changes to work policies more quickly if
they use effective timesheet management solutions. - Integration and reporting capabilities
An efficient employee attendance tracking software will be seamlessly integrated with
payroll, accounting, and other HR systems. When your attendance manager integrates easily
with other apps and avoids data discrepancies, the HR staff can cease the time-consuming
task of double-checking manual data.
This approach will be achieved by saving time and improving data accuracy, preventing
payroll errors, and preserving data confidentiality. SMBs can avoid losing data to process
gaps, even if they use an all-in-one HRMS as many businesses do. No human intervention is
required to make changes that affect all other apps.
