touch screen time card on computer monitor

How to Secure and Simplify Time & Attendance

The Trouble With Time & Attendance

Buddy punching, the practice of clocking in for a coworker who is not actually working, is one of the most pervasive types of fraud — and a costly issue for manufacturers and other organizations. According to Nucleus Research, up to 2% of a company’s payroll is lost to buddy punching.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to combat the practice of illegal clock-ins without adding any additional hoops to jump through. Linking a company’s time and attendance system to its access control system is one best practice. If employees are already used to carrying around their company identification badges while at work, it’s convenient to use this same ID to clock in and out.

Besides combating buddy punching, linking a secure authentication solution to time and attendance helps address payroll errors, other types of time theft, unauthorized time off, ineffective labor reporting and compliance with local work regulations. The ease of simply swiping a badge or mobile phone to record an employee entering or leaving school or work is a positive user experience and helps maintain productivity.

Beyond the Smart Card

Other ways to make your time and attendance systems even more secure include adding:

  • Mobile access (the provisioning of an ID credential onto a mobile phone) — The same person who might be tempted to hand over their ID badge to a coworker to clock in might think twice about handing over their smart phone
  • Biometric authentication — Using your finger, face or unique behavior to confirm identity
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) — A combination of something you have (card/token/device), something you know (pin/password), and something you are (biometrics)

Want to dive deeper into the power of connecting multiple business systems? Check out our executive brief, Experiencing the Connected Workplace: Seamless, Secure and Predictive.

Todd Seeley has been with HID since 2007. During his tenure at HID, Todd has supported developers and end users implement innovative authentication technologies ensure trust in their solutions. Todd has had multiple customer centric roles and responsibilities spanning Engineering, Field/Sales Engineering, Consultation, Strategic Business Development, and Project Management disciplines. Todd looks forward to working with you to ensure that you can identify the user of your solution quickly and securely.