This article written by Allied Time
Traditional “punch in” time clocks in office settings have their limitations. There is the potential for employee fraud, since it is easy in many cases for a friendly co-worker to clock in or out for someone who isn’t at work by simply entering a code or swiping a card on an electronic time clock. Unless a supervisor is willing to monitor the time clock machine vigilantly, it’s almost impossible to know if a person really clocked in if a traditional machine is being used.
One way for employers to combat this is through the use of biometric time clocks. Instead of relying on a code or a card, an employee checks into and out of the system by the use of physical characteristic that is unique to them. This makes it virtually impossible for “buddy punching” to occur.
The three main types of biometric timeclock readers are:
Fingerprint Readers: Fingerprint readers take advantage of the fact that a person’s fingerprints won’t change throughout their lives. When employees are first hired, they scan their fingerprint into the system. This is saved – not as fingerprints but as binary information that reflects unique characteristics from a fingerprint such as specific ridges or valleys. When an employee uses the fingerprint reader to log in or out, it compares the key points on the scanned fingerprint to find a match.
Hand Readers: Hand readers use a similar concept as fingerprint readers but instead of placing just their finger onto a reader, they place their whole hand into the machine. In this case, the reader doesn’t scan a person’s fingerprint. Instead, it takes a 3D scan of the dimensions of the employee’s hand — such as width of the palm, length of the fingers and the span between fingers. These machines are even advanced enough to evolve and still recognize employees if they gain or lose weight — including in their hands.
Facial Recognition Systems: Time clocks that rely on facial recognition technology are among the most advanced pieces of human resources equipment. Some facial recognition systems perform retinal scans, where the machine scans a person’s iris. Like with fingerprints, patterns within a person’s iris are unique and cannot be duplicated.
Other facial recognition systems take pictures of a person’s complete face and match it against a stored image. Both of these systems are reliable while also avoiding physical contact with a reader. This can help restrict the spread of illnesses throughout a company that lead to sick days and lost manpower.
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This article written by Allied Time. Allied Time provides businesses with a wide range of time clocks and punch clocks including Lathem time clock models.