As companies have transcended from legacy solutions – like a punch clock or access cards – a competitive market of attendance tracking innovations has emerged on the horizon. But what are the key features to look for when it comes to a new time and attendance management solution? We summarized 5 useful tips that can help you make a decision.
Attendance systems, as an integral part of companies and organizations, serve to record employee attendance, which forms the basis for calculating wages and other work-related benefits. In the past, attendance systems primarily relied on entrance cards or other tokens that employees had to scan at a reader upon entry (and again when leaving or during lunch breaks). These systems are still suitable for certain operations (typically manufacturing companies), although the entrance cards are gradually being replaced by other types of tokens, such as biometrics.
However, attendance systems are evolving, and new trends are emerging that reflect the times. A very common phenomenon today is remote work and flexible working hours. For this type of work, it is clear that traditional clocking in is no longer needed—or even feasible. Attendance can now be recorded without it, using modern technologies.
How to decide for the best attendance management system for your company?
1. Look for flexibility
Implementing a new tool can be a challenge in every company, as employees require a good motivation in order to adapt to a new system. However, if the new solution increases their comfort, is more user-oriented, effective, accessible 24/7 with a user-friendly interface and without strict rules, its benefit can override the discomfort of the learning curve. Employees should not feel tracked or controlled but supported and unburdened from unnecessary tasks. Hence, flexibility is a crucial aspect of any attendance management solution.
The flexibility may include various things:
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Generated Attendance: One of the options for tracking attendance is automatic generation based on various parameters, such as employment type, typical working hours, contract type, and so on. At the same time, this data can be supplemented with information from other systems, such as the company’s information system, activity tracking in a project management tool, or even from a camera system.
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Mobile Devices and Computers: Another option is for employees to download an app to their mobile phones that records their arrivals and departures—either through a virtual terminal or automatically using GPS location.
Other features for flexibility:
- easy supervision of subordinates
- different forms of shift regimes and adaptation to various business types (people work differently in offices, at call centers or in retail stores)
- support of different types of employment, outputs for different payroll software
- but also small gadgets such as role delegations during vacation, or modification of the interface according to the employee’s preferences.
2. Empower your HR department
Look for a tool that not only records the time & attendance of employees, but also empowers HR leaders in the area of time tracking management and beyond. In a good attendance management solution, the HR department can access real-time reports, up-to-date guide on labor law and legislation compliance, automatic quotas and overtime calculations, admin rights to fix input errors and many other features to unburden them and cut down on the chance of inaccuracies.
HR can also have full control over the system setup and in case the system automatically checks the legislation while the supplier takes responsibility for its updates, the HR department is completely relieved of this exhausting part of their work.
3. Go for a cloud-based solution
The days when employees were punching timeclocks and filling out paper timesheets are long gone. Attendance tracking – like many other HR functions – has gone digital. Nowadays, companies have multiple options to digitally track the attendance of their employees, but the most preferred solution is to do it in the cloud.
Considering also the disruptive changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020, the request for digital time and attendance tracking grew rapidly and soon became a must-have necessity. The biometric timeclock systems are also starting to lose sense for many businesses, as they suspended their usage to prevent the spread of the virus – in India or the USA, such as the New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York Police Department, to name a few. Due to their safety and reliability, cloud T&A solutions are the no. 1 choice.
Other factors, such as data storage on the provider’s side, no required installation and availability from any device, just add to the advantages of using the cloud.
More advantages of non-terminal attendance systems:
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Simpler for users: No need to connect to any device—just tap a screen or press a button.
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Reliable: Since they don’t rely on additional hardware, there’s no need to worry about devices, wiring, maintenance, etc.
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Cheaper: Non-terminal systems are usually less expensive, as there are no costs for terminals, cards, servicing, and more.
4. Prioritize regulatory compliance
Even a global time and attendance tool can be compliant with country-specific, local regulations. Putting up with basic approvals of paid time-offs followed by monthly manual controls by the HR department can be avoided if you choose an attendance management system that can revise balances, attendance quotas and legal requirements, complies with GDPR and has automatic legislation updates. Sophisticated solutions also allow the set-up of a different labor condition for each employee separately within one department, which is advantageous for companies with multinational teams.
5. Seek extra features for elevated user experience
Some of the global platforms can offer time and attendance tracking as part of a complex holistic solution with supporting processes, such as:
- payroll data exchange and payslip distribution
- benefit management
- business trips management
- onboarding, document workflow, helpdesk and more.
They allow to manage the attendance and other HR-related tasks within one system. Integration is a practical feature when a robust program is needed for each of the processes. However, in order to ease the work of everybody, HR department included, key to success lays in one flexible and customizable solution to manage numerous tasks and areas.
As you could have guessed, TULIP is the right kind of global time and attendance management solution with availability of all mentioned features and advantages. If you’re looking for such attendance tracking tool, request more information about TULIP platform or live presentation of the system. We are ready to help.
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