Employee time tracking involves monitoring and recording working hours, serving as a proven method for effective work hour management. When consistently and accurately done, this approach helps cut labor costs, enhance productivity, and elevate employee engagement and performance. However, not all employees document activities and some companies omit time tracking. Despite available apps and tools, just 17% of people track time, leaving employers unaware of their employees' work status.
There are many issues with ineffective employee time tracking. Expecting employees to log time for tasks deliberately is impractical and time-consuming. Manual systems are error-prone; employees may forget to clock in and out, especially during busy periods. Relying on an honor system invites time theft, missed breaks, and buddy punching. Untrustworthy individuals who take advantage of ineffective time tracking can erode trust and cost a company thousands.
Buddy punching occurs when an employee has someone else clock in for them, falsely showing that they're working. This often arises when an employee is late or wants extra time off. It's stealing from the company, as they get paid for time not worked.
Buddy punching impacts businesses in the following ways:
In many cases, buddy punching stems from broader attendance problems, not just the issue itself. So examine your attendance policy closely. If employees frequently misuse the timekeeping system by clocking in for others and struggling with punctuality, there might be an underlying concern that needs addressing.
Nearly half of US employees (49%) who track time confess to time theft. In the US, this results in more than $11 billion in yearly losses for employers due to buddy punching. Approximately 75% of employers experience the impact of buddy punching and similar time theft practices. Beyond the evident payroll rise, these practices decrease ROI, productivity, and profit margins. Furthermore, they hinder the capacity to provide additional benefits for employees.
Facial ID time tracking, also called facial clocking, employs facial recognition tech to record employee attendance. It captures and analyzes facial features for identity verification and time tracking. These digital time clocks use cameras or specialized devices with facial recognition algorithms.
To clock in and out, an employee shows their face to the clock, which compares it to registered faces in the database. The timestamp is recorded by the time and attendance software, digitally tracking work time. This accurately monitors clock-ins, breaks, and other time actions, ensuring correct record-keeping.
In contrast to conventional time clocks needing cards or manual input, employee time tracking software like Push Time Tracking offers a contactless and streamlined approach to documenting employee attendance. Here are 7 benefits you derive from facial clocking:
Facial ID tech offers accurate identification, lowering the chances of error from manual or traditional clock systems. Face recognition clock-ins log each event’s date, time, and images, establishing an audit trail for attendance. This fosters transparency and responsibility. If disputes arise over hours, the system can validate attendance, resolving discrepancies.
Facial clocking uses distinct facial traits for individual identification, curbing impersonation, and identity fraud. The system matches captured facial images with stored templates, ensuring authorized clock-ins or outs. Moreover, facial biometrics can track unauthorized personnel in the system for site-wide tracking. In case of incidents, facial recognition software supplies investigation evidence through scanned images of individuals who entered the area.
Facial recognition for time tracking creates a user-friendly process, eliminating the need for physical cards or passwords. A simple camera glance suffices, minimizing work interference. This lessens issues from forgotten or lost credentials, maintaining a smooth workflow and quick onboarding.
Using facial recognition for time tracking lets employees easily log work hours by looking at a camera. This simple process enhances productivity and reduces errors from manual entry, creating an efficient work environment. Additionally, this method reports attendance, absence, and overtime quickly and accurately.
Monitoring employee clock-ins and outs allows management to maintain detailed time records. This generates immediate insights into login times, locations, and durations. Employers can track tardiness and calculate actual task time. Incorporating time tracking in an audit trail enhances user accountability, automatically recording and linking actions. This discourages misuse. Audit trails also provide process visibility, avoiding data corruption issues.
A time tracking software can quickly scale to suit a growing workforce, eliminating the need for extra hardware investment. This flexibility fits various business sizes, from small eateries to large restaurant chains. It also helps streamline people management in multi-restaurant operations. No extra hardware simplifies setup, letting management prioritize growth over logistics.
With facial recognition time tracking, you only pay for hours worked. This eliminates buddy punching, inflated hours, and missed clock-outs. This alone can save your business thousands. But there are additional cost-saving benefits. Automation reduces manual data entry, lessening admin tasks. This directly lowers labor expenses, allowing staff to focus on valuable work. Error risks from manual input also drop, boosting accuracy. Beyond efficient payroll, this streamlines operations, optimizing costs by allocating resources to core business tasks.
With Push Time Tracking, you can:
Ensuring accurate employee time and attendance is crucial to run a restaurant successfully. Investing in the right employee time tracking software like Push is essential. A dependable system is needed to precisely log working hours for payroll, attendance, and performance management. Learn more about our time tracking software by scheduling a demo with Push today.
“In the labor numbers, we were reporting about a $300 to $400 difference than what we were getting through Push!”
-Tara Hardie, ZZA Hospitality Group, 16 locations
