Time Clocks: Hands-Free Ensures Your Employees Health and Safety

As a result of the current pandemic, are you rethinking how your employee’s clock in and out of work?  

Traditional workplace time clocks can be touched quite a bit throughout the business day. As we have all experienced these past few weeks, it is believed that some bacteria and germs can transfer from person to person via transitional surfaces such as your time clock.  

Regardless of whether you decide to be hands-free or not, your workplace time clocks greatly benefit from regular upkeep. By adding clock maintenance to a cleaning schedule you can extend the life of your time clock and keep readers functioning at a high level.

What Are Your Options?

If you currently have a time clock in your business that requires employees to either punch in, via a keypad or biometric fingerprint reader, there are plenty of options for you.

Proximity Card Readers

For example, most biometric clocks can be converted to be proximity card readers. The switch to proximity cards means that your employees would clock in and out of work via a badge. Each employee would have their own personal badge. Prox card readers work by reading the magnet inside the actual card and just need to be passed close to the actual reader device. The time clock would not need to be touched.

 

Facial Recognition Clock

Another completely touch-free option is a facial recognition clock. This clock allows the employee to approach the clock, turn their head at the front of the clock and be punched in\out. Facial recognition takes the measurement of certain features of your face, i.e. the distance between eye orbits, and then turns these measurements into a mathematical algorithm. These clocks work well in high security, low volume workspaces.

Group Time Management

Have crews coming in for shifts with dedicated managers? A good time and attendance system can be configured for “group” or “gang” punches. This allows one person, the manager, to punch his entire crew in\out\on break and of jobs all at once. Thus, you’ll only have one point of contact for the clock, which will result in a lesser chance of contamination.

Mobile Time Attendance

By allowing employees to use an app on their own personal cellular devices (iOS or Android), you can eliminate cross-contamination, and further spreading of germs. Time and attendance apps come with some added features that a manager might find helpful.

 

GeoFencing

First, the ability to use geofencing with your time and attendance application. This is a great option for people with workers who travel to different work sites, i.e. a catering company or an in-home repair technician. With geofencing, you can allow employees to punch in only when they are on the actual work site or designated geographic area. Geofencing helps to eliminate scofflaws who punch in from home or on the road. Be sure to check your management’s policy for use of your own devices.

GPS Tracking

If allowing employees to use their own device and app to punch in-out of jobs, as a manager you can also use GPS punch tracking. This enables a manager to see exactly where a punch is made at the time it is entered. This is a nice feature for companies who do onsite services-where the workplace changes daily or often throughout the day.

 

What You Can Do

These time clock changes will work well paired with other workplace smart-sense action items. For example, encourage your sick employees to stay home and employees with allergies to sneeze into their elbow. At the end of the day, everyone’s health and safety are what needs to be prioritized, especially during the pandemic we’re currently facing. Let’s do our part by staying smart, safe, and healthy.

Call Sierra today to learn how to switch out your traditional workplace time clock to a hands-free time clock or reader today!