All of your customers and prospects are most likely challenged by the same problem. They’re overpaying for labor due to buddy punching.
Buddy punching happens when one employee punches in for themself and another employee who isn’t there. The result is that the absent employee gets paid for time on the clock, but time during which they weren’t actually working. In most cases, the employee does show up or has only left work a short while earlier, but it all adds up quickly.
Any business that thinks cases of buddy punching doesn’t happen to them probably hasn’t dug into their attendance data closely enough. According to the American Payroll Association, buddy punching – not time theft – buddy punching alone costs U.S. employers $373 million every year. Research from Software Advice found that 43% of hourly employees admitted to stealing time at work by overstating their work hours. A quarter of this group specified that they padded their shift hours between 76% to 100% of the time!
Time clocks with the right time clock software can go a long way to reducing time theft, but only a biometric time clock can be effective when it comes to buddy punching.
How Facial Recognition Trims Buddy Punch Cost from Your Customers Payroll
Each type of facial recognition technologies work differently in the details, but they all work based on the same broad strokes. When a face is first scanned, the facial recognition software maps it, measuring space between features, varying depths between points, and other geometric properties. It collects hundreds or thousands of data points during this mapping process.
It converts that data into an encrypted data string. This data string is the foundation of the biometric template used by the facial recognition software to authenticate a person’s identity.
A time clock with face recognition technology scans the employee’s face when they want to punch in or out. The data from that real time face scan is used to authenticate the employee by comparing it to the template created earlier. By using the stride80 with Only|You Face the authentication happens either through a verification process which requires the employee to use their template and another form of identification (badge, pin code, card) to use the clock.
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How Facial Recognition Time Clocks Can Lessen Buddy Punching and Reduce Other Forms of Time Theft
Facial recognition software on the time clock is a powerful tool on its own to cut down buddy punching and save companies from overpaying for labor. However, time clocks with facial recognition also motivate other actions that help reduce a variety of time theft methods, further saving businesses money.
Examine Time Tracking Software Data to Identify Time Theft Patterns
When a business gets serious about its efforts to lower buddy punching and reduce time theft, it starts looking more closely at the employee attendance data. Analyzing employee time tracking records can be revealing:
Signs of potential buddy punching:
- How often are the same two employees punching in or out within seconds of each other?
- Is there one employee who’s punches are often within seconds of another buddy, who can be different people at different times, but all on the same team?
Signs of potential shift padding:
- Are there employees consistently punching in or out at times outside their assigned shift scheduling?
- Are there employees consistently punching out late for break or returning early from it?
Reviewing attendance data helps the business identify which employees may be engaging in time theft, giving managers and HR the opportunity to engage these employees to prevent future time theft.
Having a No Buddy Punching Policy Sends a Strong Message
Using a face recognition reader is practically its own “no buddy punching policy.”
However, even the presence of a biometric time clock raises the security level and communicates a policy shift that the company takes scheduling attendance and time theft seriously. Employees, who use the facial recognition time clock every shift, get the clear message that time theft won’t be tolerated and that the company is taking concrete steps to start eliminating it. In this way, the facial recognition time clock can deter employees from engaging in time theft.
Deterrence becomes prevention when your customers also use the time clock software to run business rules that prevent employees from trying to clock in outside their scheduled shifts and enforce full break times.
Help Your Customers Address Buddy Punching Among Other Cost Saving Advantages
Time clocks with a facial recognition system decreases buddy punching, resulting in significant savings for your prospects and customers. Yet addressing buddy punching and time theft is only one way a facial recognition-enabled time clock can save companies money.
- Facial recognition can significantly reduce how often employees have to touch the time clock, minimizing the risk of the time clock as a transmission source for bacteria and viruses. Learn how a facial recognition time clock can reduce employee sick days, thereby boosting productivity.
- With a facial recognition reader, companies may be able to eliminate the need for physical credentials, which lets them avoid all the costs associated with managing employee ID credentials.
You can help your prospects and customers address buddy punching and time theft, saving them money along the way, by offering them a time clock with facial recognition. Our Facial Recognition System runs on our Android-based stride80 time clock. It can run alongside our time clock software or your own Android-based time tracking software.
Contact us today to learn more about how our facial recognition system software works, how easy it is to integrate with your business, and all the financial benefits that come with reselling this advanced time clock attendance tracking technology.