What is a Biometric Time and Attendance System?

Biometrics is the identification of people based upon their physical characteristics; most commonly their fingerprints, hands, eyes, or facial features. While time and attendance systems are used to manage employee attendance, scheduling, and associated payroll tasks.

Within time and attendance, biometric devices are often used as a punch clock in order to add an extra layer of security, accountability and efficiency.

How Does Biometric Time and Attendance Software Work?

Step 1: Biometric Devices: Using biometric time and attendance systems allows employees to clock in and out using their fingerprint, retinal scan, etc. Often times this process is also accompanied by a PIN (Personal Identification Number) which must also match the fingerprint or other scan.

Step 2: Time and Attendance Software: Pairing your biometric device with a time and attendance software allows for more efficient payroll and attendance processing. Rather than spending hours adding up manually submitted clock-in and clock-out times, your biometric time and attendance software will allow you to automatically import data into your payroll software. This will significantly cut down on processing time and will eliminate errors derived from manually inputting information.

Different Types of Biometric Devices

Fingerprint Scanners are probably the most common type of biometric time and attendance device, simply because they are easy to use and are generally quite accurate (reputed 99% accuracy). (See end for availability)

 
Hand Punch Scanners record and store the 3D shape of an employee’s hand in order to compare and verify the individual. These biometric devices are generally more expensive than a fingerprint scanner, however they can be more accurate as they analyze more than just the fingerprint. (See end for availability)

Retinal Scanners use a technology that captures an image of eye patterns in order to compare them to previously recorded images. These systems are also quite accurate for time and attendance, however they can be harder to find, as fingerprint scanners are usually more common. (See end for availability)

Voice Recognition Devices record a series of verbalized words and compares the patterns to previously recorded clips. The level of accuracy on voice recognition devices may sometimes be lower than fingerprint scanning, however they are often times quite accurate. (See end for availability)

Benefits of using Biometric Time and Attendance Software

• Accountability: By using a physical characteristic rather than simply using a swipe card or PIN, ensures that the employee is actually present. This avoids issues such as “buddy punching”, a term used to describe when other employees clock in and out for one another.

• Efficiency: Using a biometric time and attendance software allows for increased efficiency in multiple areas. First, employees don’t have to worry about remembering to bring in a punch card or remembering a PIN, so there is less time spent on recovering lost passwords and manually inputting an employee’s clock-in time. Second, when it comes to payroll, it is much easier to track in and out times by simply downloading the data from your biometric scanning device, and inputting it into your time and attendance software.

• Profit: A natural bi-product of increased accountability and efficiency is increased profit. By making employees more accountable to attendance times, you will increase productivity and only pay for time actually spent working. The same is true for increased efficiency. Creating a smoother process by using a biometric time and attendance system, will allow HR employees to work on more tasks.

For more information on how to start using biometric devices with time and attendance software, contact us at 1-877-689-7977, or try our time and attendance software free for 30 days.

*Fingerprint Scanners are fully integrated and supported for immediate use when using digitalPersona U.are.U 4500 Fingerprint Reader.

**For Handpunch Scanners, Retinal Scanners and Voice Recognition Devices, authentication and integration into TimeWellScheduled is available for customization, provided your vendor provides a publicly-available and supported API.