printer friendly version

Alleviating buddy-clocking and fraud issues in the retail sector

The retail and wholesale industries, characterised by multiple sites and large staff complements, have placed unique requirements on access control and time and attendance solutions, where the control of buddy-clocking and fraud have become critical for managing labour costs.

Retailers with large staff complements have found it critical to manage the movement of staff, control time and attendance (T&A) as well as access to and within multiple sites. A real issue, which is costing the retail industry millions of rands in inaccurate wage payments and theft, is that of `buddy-clocking' and unauthorised access. In terms of wage payments, the use of proximity card readers costs the retail sector millions in terms of salaries paid but not earned as one employee clocks in for another, despite not having come into work at all for that day.

Card readers also fail to provide the ultra-secure access control necessary to safeguard areas where large volumes of consumables are held. Card-based systems are susceptible to fraud and abuse as they can be easily lost, stolen or forgotten, making it easy for unauthorised personnel to enter secure areas with someone else's access token. There is also a high cost of maintenance associated with card-based systems due to the frequent replacement of lost and damaged cards.

The reliance on card and PIN-based systems is indeed costing retailers in wage fraud through incorrect T&A clocking data. The need for a modern access control solution which precludes problems associated with buddy-clocking could facilitate a more efficient cost control procedure. An increasing number of retailers, wholesalers and manufactures are fast realising the benefits that a biometric-based access control and T&A system offers over traditional access control systems.

Of the various biometric alternatives available, fingerprint technology is paving the way for use in all future retail applications. From securing access into sites, providing fully integrated T&A solutions to providing tracking and monitoring of staff, a fingerprint-based access control and T&A solution eliminates fraudulent T&A transactions and increases productivity. Sagem's fingerprint technology, distributed throughout southern Africa by the Ideco Group, is a popular choice among large retailers to secure multiple sites.

The technology can be used to significantly lower the losses caused by unauthorised access, T&A fraud and buddy-clocking. According to Gary Jones, manager of Ideco Biometric Security Solutions: "The use of fingerprint readers allows for better control over all staff T&A requirements. Fully integrated biometric access and T&A solutions allow one to not only reduce losses associated with unauthorised access, but also achieve much higher levels of productivity. These systems help companies identify and retain productive employees as well as detect and react to problematic employees. Biometric-based access and T&A systems offer such a strong return on investment that they essentially pay for themselves over a relatively short period of time."

Retailers need to identify and process a large workforce at very high speeds. Sagem's ability to manage large staff complements across various sites using biometrics alone eliminates the dependence on access cards, keys and PINs. The systems are able to quickly and accurately identify a person within two seconds against a database of 48 000 on each unit.

Share this article:

Further reading: