Myths about a Biometric Time Attendance System Debunked

Singapore is amongst the top countries in the world for technological adoption and breakthroughs in the workplace. Though changes in workplace procedures generally produce positive results for the Singaporean companies, employees may occasionally still resist them. So whenever employers plan to introduce process changes in the workplace, they need to start with accurate information. If you are planning to install a biometric time attendance system in your business premise in Singapore, it’s even more important to focus on the facts. Here is a list of the most common myths concerning biometric time attendance technology, we will attempt to debunk them and hopefully, help you improve your workforce.

Myth: Installing a biometric attendance system means the company does not trust its employees

Fact: Installing a biometric system in workplace is not about trust but more about accuracy and efficiency. Biometric time attendance systems have been created for more than just employee time theft prevention. A biometric system eliminates ID card punching errors, such as misplacing a card or punching in other’s card. Unlike traditional method of filling attendance registers or card punching, employees can punch in and out in seconds using a biometric scanner. With an integrated biometric attendance tracking and payroll software, employees can rest assured that they will be paid appropriately for all hours worked. So, a biometric time attendance system is not only beneficial for employers but also provides a number of benefits to employees as well.

Myth: Biometric devices store employees’ physiological characteristics, which is against their privacy

Fact: This is a common myth which most employees have about biometric time attendance systems in Singapore but biometric devices do not store employees’ physiological characteristics that can invade their privacy. When employees are first enrolled in a biometric device, the system captures the unique features of the individual's hand, finger, iris or voice. The device then converts this captured feature into mathematical file which came to be known as biometric template. Any time attendance system relies on multi spectral biometric capturing technology which captures the unique physiological characteristics of the employees and records this as a numeric string. This numeric string is then used to verify a person's identity whenever he or she punches in and out of the premise.

Myth: A biometric attendance system is expensive and hard to manage

Fact: Employers can easily purchase a biometric time attendance system in Singapore at affordable rate from a reliable supplier of biometric devices and attendance tracking software. There are different modalities available, such as facial recognition, fingerprint scanner, iris and voice recognition. Employers can purchase a biometric system with the best modality that suits their budget and organisational needs. Biometric attendance tracking systems are easy-to-use and can be managed remotely. With a cloud-based biometric system, employees can be automatically enrolled into the system the first time they punch in at the terminal. So you don’t need to have an extra staff to enrol your employees or manage the biometric system.

Employers who are looking to adopt biometric time attendance system in Singapore can avoid resistance from their employees by choosing the right biometric system and providing proper information to their employees about this new change in the workplace. Being transparent about how biometric systems work can significantly reduce employee resistance, while also helping you capture accurate attendance data and prepare payroll without any errors.

How a Time and Attendance System Helps Employers to Comply with the Employment Law

The relationship between employer and employee in Singapore is regulated by the contract of employment between them. Any employment contract must comply with the Employment Act of Singapore. The Employment Act is the country’s main labour law and it provides for the basic terms and working conditions for all types of employees who are under a contract of service with an employer in Singapore. Foreign employees holding a work pass are covered by the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

The Employment Act extends to the entire employment process, starting from the appointment, compensation to termination. All businesses, in their capacity as an employer, need to comply with the employment laws when hiring, paying and terminating employees. While hiring and terminating employees can be easily done by the HR department but compensation needs an automated data tracking and managing system for accurate payroll calculation. An effective time and attendance system in Singapore can be significant a great time saver for attendance tracking and payroll calculation.

Biometric Time and Attendance System and Payroll

Biometric time and attendance systems use the biometrics (such as fingerprint, iris or facial recognition) of each employee in order to clock in and out of the system during the day. The payroll department can generate attendance reports for compensation, without any errors and in less time. The HR department can calculate total hours worked by each employee, statutory holidays and manage overtime. Your time and attendance system can be configured to meet those requirements and ensure that you are in compliance with the Employment Act.

With biometric time and attendance systems, organisations can cut the amount of time spent on payroll each period. The payroll department is no longer required to keep files of paperwork or spend time scanning the documents into the system in order to prepare payroll. The payroll department can create a 100% accurate report within minutes.

A biometric time attendance system also eliminates time theft by employees. This indirectly benefits the payroll department as they can accurately determine the total work hours of each employee and compensate them accordingly.

Proof of attendance is very important during an audit by the Singaporean Ministry of Manpower. A biometric time and attendance system in Singapore can make all the difference when dealing with such audits. Biometric time attendance systems include attendance tracking software, payroll software and absence tracker software. You can easily pull records of individual employees to show them to the auditors.

Singaporean companies dealing with attendance and payroll issues should consider switching to biometric time and attendance system to eliminate these problems and comply with Employment Act.

Three Places where a Biometric System Door Access System Adds Security

Biometric authentication is recently starting to be used by a number of private and government organizations in Singapore as well as globally, with the growing security concerns. In 2006, the Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) started using biometric technology with its enhanced-Immigration Automated Clearance System (eIACS) to provide efficient and secure immigration clearance at ICA checkpoints. Manual tracking or use of passwords is a great source of frustration and also sacrifices security. Biometric systems are touted as a secure way of restricting access to certain areas. The physical or behavioural attributes which are used in biometric systems are unique to an individual, so it is difficult to compromise the safety features of biometric systems. A biometric door access system provides a convenient method of authentication for a wide variety of applications. If security is involved, biometric systems can make tracking, transactions and everyday work both convenient and safer. Here are three places where deploying biometric door access system can prove beneficial:

1. Financial Institutions: Among the most mainstream applications of biometric technology is verification and authentication in the financial space, which helps to make banks, shops, and accounts departments at companies to be secured and accountable. Physical access control using biometric solution can help to prevent security compromise in the financial organisations or departments.

2. Government Organisations: Not just financial institutions, biometric door access systems are also a great option for government organisations. Many government organisations in Singapore are now using facial recognition system or fingerprint scanner as a means of restricting access to certain areas of high security and protecting their physical assets. Not just for security, a biometric system can also help to track employee time and attendance. A biometric door access system integrated with attendance management solution and payroll software makes it easy for you to track and compile attendance data and prepare payroll reports, without any error. It can easily assist employers in auditing of movement and time and attendance of staff.

3. Healthcare Facility: Biometric access control system brings security and convenience in the field of healthcare facilities too. Health records are the most valuable personal documents that must be kept in a secured place. Doctors also need to get quick access to these documents. Biometric door access systems restrict access to sensitive areas, thus increasing safety of record keeping rooms and improving privacy of patients.

Biometric door access systems are becoming more widespread in different industries and increasingly sophisticated when used as part of security and surveillance system. Whether it is your business premise in Singapore or healthcare facility, a full-proof identification system like biometric door access system can ensure high level of security for individual identification as well as greater convenience for tracking movement. However, make sure you analyse how a biometric machine can complement your surveillance system and fit your industry’s security needs before you buy and install a biometric door access system in Singapore.

How a Biometric Machine Can Act As Your Attendance Management System

The working conditions in Singapore are covered by the Employment Act of the Ministry of Manpower. In the Employment Act, working hours have been laid out differently for employees and shift workers: eight hours per day for employees and twelve hours for shift workers. Therefore, it becomes necessary for employers to keep track of employee attendance or total man-hours of workers. Accurate timekeeping of employee time and attendance will not only help employers to comply with the Employment Act, but it will also help them to increase employee productivity; control labour costs and reduce payroll errors.

A biometric attendance system can act as your employee attendance management system. It can help you keep track of employees' real-time data, such as entry time, exit time, break time, shift schedule, leaves, on-duty times and more. Singaporean companies that are using old punch-card system or just filling out their own time sheets might be missing a lot of employee work hours. Employees often engage in time theft activities because they know manual record keeping system can be easily compromised. In such cases, a biometric attendance system can prove to be beneficial in getting your employees clock in and out at right times.

Biometric Attendance Machine as your Attendance Management System

A typical biometric attendance machine will have a fingerprint, face or iris scanner and a screen interface to show the attendance data. The first step in overall biometric attendance management is to get employees enrolled in the machine using the scanned data of their fingerprint, face or iris. The next time when an employee clocks in and out, the biometric machine can match the data with the stored data from the database. This entry and exit data of each employee is valuable in the sense that it will help to quantify the number of hours spent by each employee at the workplace. A biometric time attendance system helps you to automate attendance management at your company. What does this mean for your employees? This means employees at your company can no longer cover for them selves and others. Whether they are coming back to office after a long holiday or reaching late on Monday morning, they cannot ask their colleagues to punch in or out for them. You can get an employee’s entire work history right from the day he or she joined. So, you can keep track of what your employees are doing as far as their attendance is concerned.

In Singapore, biometric time attendance management in private and government organisations has resulted in increase of man-hours, employee productivity, greater accountability and high payroll efficiency. If introducing biometric attendance system sounds like a big leap for your company, then you will be surprised to know how easy it is for you to implement the system. Implement a biometric attendance system at your business premise in Singapore, and see how you can get your employees back to work faster, which will ultimately help you save more time and money. Contact a reliable biometric time attendance system provider in Singapore and get it installed at your office today!

Want a Better Return on Your Labour Investment? Deploy a Biometric Solution

Labour costs make up the greatest percentage of a company’s operating budget, that's why managing labour cost is so important. Biometric time attendance systems are the best way to control labour costs for any organisation, regardless of size or industry. With manual time tracking, companies put themselves at risk as they fail to comply with workplace compliance requirements and it also reduces their profits. Here are the ways by which a cloud-based biometric attendance machine can help you get a better return on your labour investment.

Better Time Tracking and Eliminates Payroll Errors

A biometric system takes the complexity out of tracking employee attendance. It simplifies every part of your business operation, such as calculating total work hours of each employee, late arrivals, early departures, extended breaks and total leaves taken. The average payroll staff spends at least seven minutes per employee during each pay period to calculate their payroll pay. Since everything is automated with a biometric integrated solution, you can eliminate payroll errors, enhance operational efficiency and save money on labour costs.

Better Leave, Overtime and Absence Management

With the right timekeeping system in place, you can measure exactly the time worked, wages earned by employees, and save thousands of dollars in wasted labour time each year. A biometric machine for attendance tracking can reduce the administrative headaches and compliance risks associated with leave and overtime management laws. Analyse overtime, leaves and absenteeism trends through your biometric system and integrate the biometric solution with payroll and recruitment software for efficient management.

Real-Time Analytics

Empower your operational heads and department managers with real-time data obtained from biometric attendance machine. They can examine attendance trends and patterns, and allocate resources accordingly. It makes it easier for your executives to drill down into attendance and have the data to take appropriate action.

Reducing labour costs is a good way to boost your bottom line. Businesses can’t afford any type of wasted labour costs, which is why it is essential for you to switch to an advanced biometric attendance system to augment your current timekeeping solution.

Top 3 Reasons to Switch to a Biometric Time Attendance System

For any employer, time is money. Managing the time attendance of employees is one of the biggest challenges for organisations. Since managing and record-keeping attendance data manually is complicated and there are chances of inaccuracy, employers need technologically advanced systems. A biometric time attendance system is a proven technology for workforce management and can help employers meet their entire authentication, verification and identification needs. It is far better than your manual attendance keeping system and reliable than personal identification cards, keys or passwords. Here are the top three reasons why you should switch to a biometric time attendance system.

Prevents “Buddy Punching”– Buddy punching is a nefarious practice where one employee clocks in or out for another employee. Now more and more companies are finding out that time and attendance technologies like Personal Identification Numbers, ID cards and manual punch clocks are less expensive, but in the long run, they can be exploited and are susceptible to buddy punching practice. Biometric technology is a more viable solution to prevent buddy punching. A biometric time attendance system also makes employees to act ethically and be accountable for their actions. Adopting biometric technology in your establishment will not only help employers to prevent buddy punching activities but can also strengthen accountability among your employees.

Boosts Operational Efficiency– To define it in simple terms, operational efficiency is the ideal combination of employees, organisational procedures and technology that creates maximized value for any business. A biometric time attendance system will help your payroll department to become efficient as it will eliminate the need to input attendance data manually and reduce payroll errors.

Enhances Physical Security– A biometric system can act as the second layer in the security of your physical structure or assets. A fingerprint, iris or facial recognition based biometric system can tighten your access control process. Once you have the biometric technology in place, it will allow only individual access to a restricted area, thereby safeguarding your inventory and important data against theft.

A biometric time attendance system is a completely digitalised platform that involves no paper work and manual recording. You can track the activity of each employee in the premise with accuracy, prevent buddy punching activities, enhance security and boost operational efficiency. Biometrics can help maximize your return on investment as a secure authentication technology.

How Biometric Door Access System Encourages Adherence to Workplace Rules

The use of biometrics is increasingly becoming a leading tool in workforce management in Singaporean organisations. Many companies in Singapore are shifting towards a biometric door access system, and the main reason behind this is to eliminate time theft by employees and increase security and accuracy.

Any workplace that requires employees to be physically present at the location is the best candidate for biometric door access system or attendance technology. Construction sites, retail stores, industries, manufacturing units, or private organisations, these are just some of the workplaces where employees need to work according to a set schedule. From multiple overlapping shifts to payroll disputes, there are many problems that can arise when you use a manual process to record employee attendance. There is where can biometric technology make a difference in improving workplace rules.

Automated Workplace Rules

If your organisation needs to monitor entry and exit of workers in order to restrict unauthorized access by other people, then a biometric door access system can help you do so. If the nature of the workplace is such that it requires high levels of security because it contains sensitive information, then a biometric system can be considered to help secure the premise. Biometric access control security system verifies the unique data associated with the biometric features of a person, such as iris, facial recognition or fingerprint scan.

If your company that uses flexible time schedules for employees, then the biometric system can automatically record entry and exit timings of employees and help the HR department to monitor employee attendance. Since buddy punching is not possible with such systems, so you can rest assured that employees cannot do time theft with you.

A biometric system accurately records employees’ arrival and exit times, so they will be paid accurately. Not only will there be a reduction in overpayments, but your payroll department will also have a solid paper trail of log in and log out times and never have difficult disputes over these times again.

Companies in Singapore that installed biometric door access system have found their employees to be more accountable and responsible. They have even noticed further benefits like reduced absenteeism, break timings and tardiness among their employees.

To put it simply, by implementing a biometric door access control system, businesses in Singapore can encourage greater adherence to workplace rules among their employees and also reduce unnecessary administration costs. It will also eliminate employee time theft, buddy punching, and other payroll problems, thereby enhancing bottom line.