Implementing an attendance management system offers numerous benefits to organizations, including improved productivity, reduced costs, and streamlined attendance tracking. With its advanced features and robust reporting capabilities, organizations can effectively manage employee attendance, enhance operational efficiency, and foster a positive work environment.
What is an Attendance Management System?
An Attendance Management System is the art of managing employees’ attendance on a day-to-day basis. Attendance quite simply means showing up for work. And the AMS tracks it.
I want to hire employees who arrive late,” said no boss ever.
It is the process of preventing employee time theft by tracking employees’ working hours, login-time, breaks, time-off, etc.
Organizations use different methods for accurate attendance capture ranging from punch cards and spreadsheets to biometric devices.
A cloud-based attendance management system offers benefits of flexibility, cost optimization, and the liberty to access it across various platforms. And the tools available in them are in demand by modern tech-savvy organizations.
Signs that your company needs an Attendance Management System
Keeping track of employee attendance should be a straightforward process. However, without any proper system, several issues can occur. With HR receiving emails, texts, calls, or in-person visits on unpredictable schedules, errors are likely to occur more.
All these tedious issues of absence management can be removed with a cloud-based attendance management system.
Here are some key indicators stating why you need to move from your antiquated absence management processes
1. Productivity issues in the HR department
It is a Key HR Responsibility but if your HR team is spending hours going to emails, messages, memos, or voicemails to track and record the attendance details, they are wasting their valuable time as well as your company’s’.
The HR department has several jobs at hand to handle such as employee training, recruiting and hiring, analysis, etc.
If they spend their productive hours doing tasks that can be replaced with an attendance management system, it is a choice you should opt for.
2. Minimum Attrition
Low sales are not the only reason for your company to fail. Employee attrition is also in the top 5. Absenteeism or tardiness can play a major role in this. ATS can thus give you a toll in hand to manage them and see they work efficiently.
Here is a detailed article on 7 reasons why your organization needs an Attendance Management System
Features of an Attendance Management System
1. Clocking-in and out
A very essential feature of an attendance management system is clocking in and out. Your employee should be able to clock in, schedule punch-in break times, and then clock out at the end of the day.
This can be done either through a biometric device or through mobile applications on their phones.
2. Leave Management
This is another base that your attendance management system should cover. A missed day should not be automatically registered as “absent”. Instead, employees should be given the liberty to take a half-day and punch in accordingly or apply for a leave.
3. Payroll Integration
If you have an Payroll Integration within the ATS that your company is using, compensation is calculated as per the time the system records, reconciling any leaves or half-days and ease the process of Payroll Management. A diversified ATS will not only calculate your daily payroll but also support hourly compensation and flexible payments.
4. Automated Communication
Any attendance management software should be able to communicate with access control devices and time attendance regularly, with absolutely no manual intervention. The devices may be located at different geographical locations and your system should still be well-equipped enough to be able to communicate with them.
5. Notifications
Every organization should have a system in place that gives them updates and notifications of important events. The cloud-based attendance management system has the option of notifying its users (auto alert) with important updates.
For eg:- When an employee has clocked in later than the given hour, the system sends a notification to the immediate superior, notifying them of the same. Automated alerts will inform about these anomalies to the managers/employees, requesting immediate action.
6. Employee Self-Service
If you want your attendance management system to stand out, self-service is the feature you should look for. It is an absolute game-changer. Your employees no longer have to clock in at the office, they can mark their attendance or log in using an app or web-based attendance management system.
Leave requests, corrections to attendance records, and any sort of self-compliance can be performed without the intervention of the HR managers.
7. Calendar Integration
An ideal attendance management system can be synced with digital calendars like google calendar, Outlook, and the like. This will help everyone know in your team when you are available or not. They are especially useful for remote teams where you can check a persons’ attendance while simply checking the shared calendar.
8. Biometric Attendance
If you have a large workforce within your organization and have a specific clock-in and clock-out time then biometric integration with a biometric machine is a must need feature and the biometric attendance feature is the right call for you. It eliminates the risk of fraud by using the fingerprint of a particular employee on the device for attendance authorization.
9. Advanced Analytics
A smart attendance management system is powered with advanced analytics that offers granular visibility into the attendance patterns of your employees, giving you a clear picture of those putting in extra hours or working overtime. Such practice can help you differentiate from productive employees to unproductive ones with accurate attendance reports
10. Employee requests
Special attendance requests are made by employees at times to correct their attendance in cases where they either forget to punch in or log out at the right time , or they are field workers. Once the attendance is approved by the manager, the attendance is automatically updated in the system.
Benefits of an Attendance Management System
1. Authentic Accuracy
Traditionally attendance was recorded manually which led to a lot of errors and issues. For instance, most of the time employees forgot to clock in or they deliberately abused the system by extending their clock-out time.
Automated attendance management systems have eliminated these issues, known for their reliability and accurate attendance records.
They collect and log in data and update employee attendance records in real-time reducing the chances of the employees interfere with the systems. They even notify the companies if the employees clock-in in early and punch out late or vice versa.
2. Increase in Productivity
Manual track of the employees’ attendance can be cumbersome when calculating the salary. Can you imagine the amount of time you will waste in doing so?
Since manual tracking has a higher chance of errors, calculation of salary can also be exposed to them leading to payroll errors.
With an automated tracking system, you can drastically save time and the chances of errors. You can use the time you saved by working towards the goals of your company and increase its productivity.
3. Cost Reduction
A paper-based attendance system can lead to inaccurate tracking and can cause payroll errors during salary calculations.
A high-quality ATS reduces tardiness and absenteeism, resulting in you saving a lot of money that would have otherwise been lost due to payroll errors.
Also, one of the biggest reasons for financial losses which is human errors is reduced with these systems.
4. Legal Compliance
Did you know keeping inaccurate data results in the company exposes it to litigations and fines?
Manual tracking can thus cause you a lot of trouble. Installing a cloud-based attendance management system will ensure that you record the data correctly and follow all the regulatory compliance and labor laws efficiently.
How are attendance records used for Management Decisions?
Report data from the attendance records are used by managers for increasing efficiency in labor-management and accuracy in reports. This is one of the most powerful tools of time tracking systems for attendance tracking, projects, integration with payroll, and other factors related directly to attendance.
Accurate report data helps managers make cost-effective decisions to optimize the workforce or determine the best practices that can be followed if needed. If an organization follows different methods to record attendance such as biometric fingerprints, scanners, time clocks, web login/out, etc., there is flexibility and assurance in knowing that nothing is missed out as far as attendance is concerned.
Digital attendance management systems that automate data by using time tracking software eliminates the chances of human error or duplication in errors.
Instead, it gives the managers a chance to look at employees who have put in extra working hours, authorize formal leave requests, if any, make hiring projections, and schedule shifts.
Comprehensive data reports and analysis help in making sound managerial decisions which is always a good thing for a company.
Why should you track Employee Attendance?
You can see many differences between today’s workplace and one of three decades ago. But the most striking difference is the policy regarding working hours. Flexible working hours are more than a benefit and it’s now a standard.
This is a great trend for employees and the company as a whole. Employees don’t arrive at work tired or sleepy, they can manage their time better, run their own errands and work according to their natural productivity flow. Flexibility in work hours is a key to improving the quality of life and ensuring everyone’s happiness.
Although giving employees total freedom about when and how long they work may seem like a great idea and will increase their job satisfaction, there are compelling reasons to at least keep track of the time they spend at work.
Let’s now look at five reasons you should track the attendance of your employees, even if they have flexible working hours.
1. Accurate Payroll
It is important to keep track of over time and attendance. This is easy to do with employee sign-in and out software. This will allow you to compensate your employees for extra work and time.
2. Follow Regulations
Fairness is associated with keeping an eye on employee’s attendance. This extends to employment law and regulations. Many countries around the globe have laws that require employers to keep records of employees’ hours of work as part of an initiative to protect employees against mistreatment, such as overtime uncompensated.
3. Forecasting Schedule
You need to know when employees arrive at work in order to organize your team’s schedule. The employee sign in and off software includes a handy feature that lets you see the clock-ins at a team level. This will let you know when all employees are present so you can make sure you have a clear picture of who is there, Employee scheduling software can help you in task management in your team’s work schedule
4. Managing Remote Teams
While it may seem that this rule doesn’t apply in every company, many allow remote workers for at least a few days per month. It doesn’t matter if you are part of this group or if you work in a permanent remote team, it is a good idea for you to keep track of their online attendance. This will ensure fairness and proper payroll.
5. Showcase the efforts to Clients
We’ll also mention a practical benefit to having accurate and current employee attendance timesheets. They can be used as proof of work by your clients. If your clients ask for proof that your employees are working on their project and you don’t have the time to provide it, you can share your attendance records/employee hours from either your employee sign-in and out software or another tool or source. You don’t need to do extra work or compile reports.
Conclusion
Digital attendance management systems can transform the way you manage your workforce. These platforms have many functions that are essential to employees’ daily workflow. Digital systems can prevent errors that could lead to compliance problems and month-end headaches.
Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Qs)
1. What is Attendance Software?
Attendance software, also known as attendance management systems track attendance of employees’, students’ or people in general in an institution/ organization.
2. Why should I install an automatic attendance tracking system?
Installing an automatic attendance tracking system will ensure the accuracy of your employees’ records and comply with the labor laws.
3. What are the benefits of the attendance management system?
Attendance management systems track hours of work and attendance of employees which helps in assessing their payroll, tasks at hand and maintain statutory requirements.
4. How many types of attendance systems are there?
There are more than five attendance systems like biometric systems, RFID tracking, muster roll tracking, excel sheet and timesheet tracking system, software login tracking systems and so on.
5. What are the disadvantages of the attendance management system?
The different types of attendance management systems have different kinds of disadvantages. The basic disadvantage is the absence of a robust attendance tracking system which leads to miscalculation of payroll. On the other side, employees can be dishonest about their attendance without an appropriate tracking system for attendance.
