In any place of work each employee will have to report to work at a particular time, and leave at a stipulated hour. There will also be cases where workers get to work extra hours. These have to be duly recorded as ultimately the worker has to be paid accordingly. In many cases there is a certain element of uncertainty with regards to whether the worker has been truthful or not, especially if there was not a supervisor or a system to track down the time he or she truly spent at work. Due to this there has been the development of time tracking software so as to prevent deceptions and lies. There are various systems and packages to choose from including Severa, 5PM and 1DayLater amongst others.
This tracking software comes in different forms and mechanisms. However the notion is always the same, that is, the accurate recording of the number of minutes the employee spent at work. Time clocks and related systems are placed at specific points of entry and exit in the firm’s premises. In past years employees simply used a punch card and swiped it through such a system.
Nowadays the system is more advanced. Whenever the employee enters or exits, the information is sent to a main database and recorded there. Needless to say, this is extremely useful for payrolls and it is also very accurate and cannot be tempered with.
Moreover this database easily generates useful reports and relevant data that management can utilize to plan and take corrective action if deemed necessary. The main intention is always to minimize costs and wastes.
The system usually comprises a bar code reader or a magnetic strip reader. In more advanced systems the employees also have to place their hand on a reader which then compares their fingerprints with the digitally stored image.
Needless to say such a method is very accurate and prevents deceiving the system. With just a card it is easy to cheat by giving it to another worker to punch through. But with the fingerprint identification this is evidently not possible. There are even more advanced systems which read the employee’s eye iris.
These systems help to avoid untrustworthy employees and reduces losses resulting from excessive labor costs. Although one might argue that such a system is expensive to purchase, install and maintain, it is worth noting that in the long-run plenty of savings will result if it is properly used. Furthermore if the system is connected to the payroll system, there will be less need to spend hours computing from manual time sheets. Hence savings will be generated in such a way as well.
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