How to choose the right Time Attendance Devices?

Time Attendance Devices are required to effectively monitor employee attendance. The need for a time attendance monitoring system grows with the number of employees you manage. But choosing the right devices may be a difficult task, unless you are an expert.

Let’s go through a few points that will help you with choosing the right time attendance devices for your requirement.

1. What type of time attendance devices are you looking for?

a. Proximity Card Readers (RFID Devices)
b. Biometric Devices (Fingerprint, Retina scan devices)
c. Hand Punch Devices

2. Do you also require access control?

Time attendance devices can also work as access control devices. In this case, the devices will control entry/exit to your company, thereby providing accurate data for tracking employees.

In this case, you will need a device for each door that is used for entry/exit. So, the number of doors used for entry/exit is to be determined. Also, you may need only access control to certain area in your company, a server room, for example.

3. How many employees are expected to be punching at the same time?

If you have too many employees punching at the same time, you require a device that is fast in identifying. Some biometric devices may consume a few seconds for the identification process, which may result in a long queue if you have too many employees rushing in at the last minute.

4. Storage Capacity of the device.

Time Attendance Devices can store only a limited number of transactions. If you have lots of employees, you should choose a device with large transaction storage capacity.

For eg. If you have 1000 employees, and on an average your employees punch 5 times a day, there are 5000 transactions in a day. So if you choose a device with a storage capacity of 50000 transactions, you will have data for 10 recent days.

5. How many locations/branches do you have?

If you have different locations and you want to monitor employees from a centralized location, then you need devices that support TCP/IP communication. In this case, you also need a software like ‘Attend HRM’ to collect all the attendance data into one centralized location for processing.

6. Which device manufacturer to choose from?

Well, if you already found a few devices with the criteria above, it’s time to pick the right manufacturer. Feel free to speak to the time attendance experts at Lenvica and we will suggest the best devices for your specific requirement.

Stop Late Comings - Motivate Employees

As an HR person, you always had this difficult problem of managing latecomers. And many times you tried convincing yourself that some employees are too hard to change, no matter how you motivate them.

Here are some points to stop late comings forever, with guaranteed results.

1. Track your employees with an accuracy of minutes

The first and foremost thing to do is to record employee in/out times accurately. As a human, it’s impossible for you to track an employee every time he comes in or goes out. You can automate this by using a time attendance device. If you don’t have one, buy a new one; it doesn’t cost much.

2. Attendance tracking, with an option for manual editing

Time Attendance devices are very accurate in tracking your employees. But as a manager it should be possible for you to add, delete or edit data coming in from time attendance devices. Sometimes, one of your employees is late because he was on a client visit. Your time attendance device will indicate it as a late coming, but as a manager you want to change the data to include the fact.

3. Consolidate and analyze your findings

So you had been tracking employees for some time; now, consolidate your findings. Create employee wise monthly or weekly reports on latecomers. Also create department wise reports on latecomers. Analyze how many hours were lost because of latecomers.

4. Present your findings to your employees and management

Send monthly attendance summary reports to each employee, at the end of every month. Let the employees know that they are being traced. Send department wise attendance reports to department managers.

5. Implement new company policies

If your company doesn’t have good policies on late comings, create new policies. For eg. If an employee is late for more than three times a month, he loses salary for a day.

6. Motivate your employees. Find employee of the month.

As you have accurate attendance data, find the employee with the best attendance record for the month. Display the information in your notice board, publish it in your internal website, and motivate other employees.

Just imagine doing all these manually; it’s nearly impossible. You really need a software that can automate all these. A good HR software can do the following for you:

1. Interprets data coming in from a time attendance devices
2. Allows manual editing of interpreted time attendance data
3. Generates consolidated employee, department wise reports
4. Sends consolidated reports to employees and management each month end.
5. Processes salary considering your attendance rules and company policies.
6. Generates attendance summary to find the employee of the month.

Try a free software

Lenvica offers free attendance software AttendHRM which can be downloaded from  https://www.lenvica.com/download-attendhrm/ and be used in small firms with up to 30 staff members. The software packages are available separately for Attendance HRMS and Payroll and also as a standalone system with these modules integrated. Desktop, Web and Cloud versions are also offered depending on the size and requirements of organizations.