Biometric devices are becoming increasingly popular and the International Biometric Industry Association estimates that sales of all biometric hardware will increase from $100 million (about R1 billion) in 2001 to more than $500 million (R5 billion) by 2003.
The time and attendance and access control markets have experienced significant growth in the use of biometric devices over the last decade. When used in conjunction with labour management software, biometric devices can make a significant contribution to the reduction of labour costs in an organisation.
"Biometric technology automatically measures an individual's unique physical characteristics such as their fingerprint, voice, iris or hand-geometry," explains Glen Buchner, senior account manager at CS Systems Integration, a division of JSE-listed CS Holdings. "In a typical biometric-recognition application, the device will take measurements from one of these characteristics and using various algorithms, convert this measurement into a biometric template."
When an employee is scanned at a T&A or access control device, the reading is then compared to the template that is stored in the device memory for that employee. If the stored template and the new reading matches, the individual's attendance transaction is accepted or they are given access into a zone.
"By using biometric technology together with labour management software, a company's line management can now eliminate card fraud and also monitor its staff's attendance in realtime. The supervisor can now run a report at any time to determine which employees arrived late or are absent and follow up accordingly. In this way, persistent offenders can be identified quickly and easily and the appropriate disciplinary measures taken," explains Buchner.
Data management
Running the payroll interface at the end of the pay period now produces a better result, with only productive hours reflecting in the software. Employee queries have also been dealt with by the supervisors, thus eliminating problems at payroll preparation time.
Beyond being a time and attendance clock, the biometric reader also has data management keys that allow for labour cost transfers when employees punch. Thus employees' labour cost can be allocated to a new cost centre as they clock on duty. This is a useful alternative to time-consuming cost-centre reconcilliations after the fact.
Buchner points out that the full participation of line management is crucial to the success of a labour management system. "Line managers must utilise the system consistently to schedule staff more effectively, discipline time and attendance offenders and, where necessary, deduct remuneration for nonproductive time." In this way, substantial savings in time and money can be achieved."
CS Holdings, 011 205 7000
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