You Could Grab Your Pipe and Magnifying Glass

There you are. Full time business owner, part time Sherlock Holmes ducking in the shadows and constantly looking over shoulders so you could keep tabs on your employees and make sure they aren’t engaging in time theft by arriving late/leaving early from work or taking longer breaks or lunch hours than they are allocated. Once an employee is caught, will the time theft problem go away with a few stern lectures, a slap on the wrist or maybe a suspension? Probably not. In the absence of supervision, what proof do you have that an employee came in late to work yet claims to have been there on time? How do you really know that they are stealing time? Chances are, the problem will only get worse because you do not have an adequate labor tracking technology which creates a firm review system.

When you hire an employee, you enter into a contract that in exchange for their time spent working for your company you will pay them a fair wage or salary. Your expectation is that they will arrive on time, work during their scheduled hours, take lunch or scheduled breaks during an agreed upon time and then work until the time they are schedule to leave. Pretty straightforward, right? In reality some employees abuse this contract by arriving late, taking extended breaks or lunch time and leaving before their scheduled shift ends. Employees that abuse the system and engage in time theft are empowered by the absence of a concrete time and attendance technology that ensures their time is closely monitored and identities verified at each punch in and punch out point in time.

What technology can a retail business use to know without a shadow of a doubt that an employee is who they say they are at clock in and clock out and establish a concrete labor tracking audit trail to monitor possible time theft?

Biometric PC Based Solutions Gaining Favor

Businesses that seek to establish a fail-safe labor tracking system that cuts down on time theft and holds employees accountable for time and attendance are turning to biometric PC based solutions. Unlike a biometric time clock which tends to be cost prohibitive, cumbersome and expensive to maintain, biometric desktop solutions work seamlessly with any PC that has a USB port.

Desktop biometric solutions can help to eliminate “buddy punching,” a time theft practice where one employee clocks in or out for another employee who may be running late or has to leave early but doesn’t want to lose hours. It is a problem that most organizations face, but it is often difficult to establish proof of the dishonest conduct or to determine its financial consequences. It is estimated that up to 75% of companies lose money each year due solely to buddy-punching.

In addition, biometric desktop solutions designed to fight time theft are more secure and efficient than ID cards or PINs which can be swapped or stolen. Using biometrics for labor tracking also cuts down on the resources needed to manufacture and replace barcode cards, positively impacting the environment.
Biometric desktop time and attendance solutions also offer more potential to achieve a higher return on investment (ROI) than other labor tracking technologies, with some businesses realizing triple digit ROI within the first year of deployment.

Act, Don’t React

Even if you don’t perceive a problem with employee time theft, proactively seeking a biometric desktop labor tracking platform is a smart way to ensure that it will never become a problem in the future. Biometric technology can help to boost accountability among your employees, helping to retain quality staff that otherwise may not want to work for you due to lack of discipline for enforcing time theft.

Removing the ability for employees to steal time also leads to increased productivity which can immediately pay dividends by maximizing labor per hour input and makes certain that staff are fulfilling their end of the contract originally agreed upon at the outset of your relationship.

Spend time evaluating your options when searching for a time and attendance solution that curbs time theft and provides a solid labor tracking audit trail. Biometric desktop solutions deserve a closer look.

*This post was written by John Trader, Communications Specialist at M2SYS Technology.  M2SYS provides technology that makes biometric software affordable, simple to integrate, and inexpensive to support, while enabling customers to easily utilize the right form of biometric technology for their needs. Our software accelerates the adoption of biometric technology, leading to a faster and more widespread delivery of its many benefits.