Make sure that any system you look at can offer you diverse ways of recording your employees’ clocking times. You should have many different options to choose from as your business needs change, and you should be able to use multiple options, not just be limited to one type.
Some of the options that are available include employees being able to record their times in ways such as:
- Using a T&A card reader or a biometric T&A terminal
- From an icon on their computer desktop
- Calling into an automated telephone system
- Via SMS
Controls should be put in place to ensure that employees are not able to abuse any of these features. For example, you should be able to restrict them to clock in at certain reader(s), or only be able to clock in by phone from a particular number.
Telephone clocking can be very useful for companies that have multiple client sites where the cost of installing a reader at each location for a few employees would be prohibitive.
With telephone clocking, the employee simply calls the automated telephone system from the client site, and the number they call from is logged along with the employee number of the caller. In such cases, this not only helps you keep track of your employees and the hours they work, it also gives you concrete information for your clients, with proof of the time on site, perhaps even with automated billing!
If, for instance, your business is a cleaning or nursing company with staff or contractors working in various offices or homes around your local area, and someone calls to suggest that no-one has been, you are able to provide evidence that your representative was on-site – the record of a call made from the physical landline within their office or home.