Post-Covid, companies are increasingly adopting touchless technologies such as smart attendance systems to make workplaces safer for employees and customers. According to Statista, post-COVID-19, the adoption of touchless interfaces such as facial recognition, touchless apps, etc., is on the rise.

In India, 82% of people expected touchless interactions at the workplace or with other organizations during the pandemic, and 48% of them still want touchless technologies at work now. As more and more organizations use touchless sensing devices like a smart attendance system using face recognition, the touchless solutions industry is growing at 17.4%.

It would touch $15.3 billion in 2025, more than doubling from $6.8 billion in 2020.

Why touch-based biometric attendance systems are a hazard?

Touch-based biometric systems’ dependency on human contact to function makes them a source of infection. Attendance systems that use attributes like fingerprint recognition, hand geometry recognition, or typing recognition require physical touch.

The surfaces of these systems accumulate germs, bacteria, and viruses with each touch and, at the same time, distribute them. In the wake of the risk posed by touch-based biometric attendance systems, the Government of Delhi advised suspension of biometric attendance systems in March 2020.

Physical risks and the touch-based attendance system also stress out employees. Because of the coronavirus scare, employees at the Maharishi Valmiki Hospital in Delhi reported “psychological unease” when using biometric systems. As a result, the hospital suspended the use of these systems as a precautionary measure.

Rise of touchless IoT based smart attendance systems

Touch-based biometric systems offer an enhanced way to deal with time theft and buddy punching, but relying on hardware sensors that require physical contact makes them less sensitive in case fingers are smudged in oil or grease, or if workers are wearing hand gear.

Post pandemic businesses have to adjust the existing infrastructure to minimize the need for contact. Solution providers utilized IoT or Internet of Things technologies to fill this requirement gap to offer touchless attendance systems. Many companies adopt IoT-based facial recognition attendance systems to automate logging and boost productivity.

Here are some examples:

• Tata 1mg adopted Truein to automate attendance logging across their 14 facilities within a couple of days. The company is using Truein to record the attendance of their 2000 employees in real-time across geographical locations.
• Godrej Lawkim Motors is another brand using Truein to automate attendance logging and employee tracking in real-time. The company uses Truein to keep track of its 700+ employees with geofencing and GPS technologies.

The far-reaching benefits make smart attendance systems a requirement rather than a choice in the post-pandemic landscape.

Benefits of smart attendance system

An efficient smart attendance management system can help companies improve their organizational ethics and work culture. The benefits go beyond attendance logging. The main benefits include:

1. Attendance tracking in real-time

Most modern touchless attendance systems are cloud-based. These systems log data in real-time. They can be used on mobile devices and personal computers; they help track employees for efficient management. Automatic attendance systems can provide direct payroll processing input to improve productivity further.

All the information is available in real-time, making it easier to schedule shifts, delegate tasks, and manage absentees. Manufacturing industries can use these systems to track employees scattered over a large area without additional hardware. Attendance systems like Truein work on smartphones seamlessly.

2. Fewer errors because of minimum human intervention

Manual attendance systems have a high error rate. As these systems entirely depend on human input, there are many issues. Sometimes employees can forget to log in their arrival time, and at other times, they willfully abuse the system by logging extended periods. With automated attendance systems, companies eliminate all these issues.

These systems function without human intervention; they record data with high accuracy. Companies can rely on their data to analyze workforce behavior and make critical management decisions. Touchless face recognition attendance systems like Truein collect and log data in real-time. Therefore, there is no scope for employees to meddle with the system.

3. Cost-saving because of lesser payroll error

Manual attendance systems are inaccurate due to human errors. Introducing highly accurate attendance systems saves companies much money lost through payroll frauds and mistakes. In the United States, businesses lose over one billion dollars every year due to time theft.

A smart attendance system using face recognition can not only eliminate time theft but can also increase the productivity of the HR department by automating a large part of payroll management. By adopting a smart attendance system, your organization can save up to $1600 per employee each year.

4. Ideal for the contractual and distributed workforce

Companies with distributed workforce require attendance systems customized for different time zones and locations. Smart attendance systems allow this customization feature to accommodate different time zones. You can also set various policies and payroll rules for employees based on their physical location. It makes it a lot easier to manage a distributed workforce.

5. More secure than a manual attendance system

Most IoT-based smart attendance systems have highly secured architecture. As the primary goal of these systems is to log accurate timing, they thwart any attempts of time theft, such as buddy punching, reporting extra hours, and longer lunch breaks. Biometric systems use unique individual physical traits that cannot be transferred or copied. Organizations where security is a primary concern use smart attendance systems.

6. Small to big data- all can be managed easily

As mentioned before, smart attendance systems use cloud-based infrastructure. One of the benefits of using the cloud is scalability. Companies can use these systems to store data of 10 or 10,000 employees with the same ease.

Cloud infrastructure extends as the requirement for data storage increases. Once you deploy a face recognition-based smart attendance system like Truein, you will never have to worry about upgrades to accommodate more employee data.

7. Automatic report generation for employees' working hours

A smart attendance system is cloud-based; it stores data in decentralized databases that can be accessed anywhere. The HR managers no longer need to go through tedious data sorting and manual timesheet retrieval to calculate salaries or overtime.

Smart attendance systems provide analytical report generation tools. It drastically saves the time and effort required to create business insights to optimize the workforce and productivity within an organization.

How can Truein help your organization with a smart attendance system?

Truein is a touchless face recognition attendance system that uses IoT technology and AI algorithms to offer a centralized and foolproof attendance system. It is a smart attendance system designed for employees, contractual, and distributed workforce.

Brands like Tata 1mg, Bajaj Allianz, and Titan trust Truein for their attendance management needs. Schedule a free demo today and try Truein attendance system that has extensive features like accurate face recognition even with a mask on, mobile/tablet-based operation, 50+ automated policies, real-time view, and multiple custom reports and analytics.

Conclusion

Smart attendance systems offer more than time logging. Modern-day face recognition attendance systems like Truein can be tailored to the specific needs of any industry. Automated workforce management, increased productivity, and satisfied employees are some of the benefits that make a smart attendance system a worthwhile investment.

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