BIOMETRICS FOR

WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT
ATTENDANCE, PAYROLL & HUMAN RESOURCE

BAYOMETRIC
MARCH 10, 2017

Written & Compiled By

Danny Thakkar
CEO & Co-Founder

Losses due to time
thefts average 2.2% of
the gross payroll and
account for a large
chunk of employee
related costs.

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 BIOMETRICS FOR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
A biometric-based time and attendance system
seems a viable solution as they are extremely
reliable, secure and provide a high level of
identification accuracy. It provides real-time
auditable attendance data and can be
implemented in workforce of all shapes and
sizes. Biometrics is the only effective means of
eliminating the issue of time theft as it directly
links the individual to his or her personal
attendance record.
Employee time theft is a major cause of
FACTORS THAT ARE DRIVING BUSINESSES TO
concern for U.S. companies and costing them
ADOPT BIOMETRICS IN WORKFORCE
around $400 billion annually in lost employee
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
productivity. A study by the American Payroll
According to Nucleus Research, losses due to
Association (APA) revealed that around 75% of
time thefts average 2.2% of the gross payroll
U.S. businesses are affected by time theft and
and account for a large chunk of employee
43% of employees admitted to committing time
related costs. So, what exactly is employee time
theft. These numbers are staggering enough to
theft? It occurs when an employee gets paid for
demonstrate that an efficient system for
the time that they have not actually worked.
managing workforce is crucial to business
Time theft happens when employees
profitability and efficiency. The critical success
inaccurately record their work time or when
factor for such a system is that it should be
they get someone else to clock them in the
able to address the key factor affecting
time and attendance management system. This
performance i.e. time theft.
practice of one employee clocking time in or out
for another employee is known as buddy
punching and is one of the significant causes of
time theft.

Thus businesses are constantly looking for

workforce management solutions that can
address the issue of time theft. Biometrics is
one such solution which is considered highly
reliable and accurate due to its inherent
characteristic of identifying individuals based on
their physiological or behavioural traits. These
traits are unique to the individual and help to

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1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
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identify him/her from the entire global
population. Some popular biometric modalities
that can be used in workforce management
systems are fingerprint, finger vein, palm vein
etc.
Image 1: A fingerprint based access control unit
Of all these modalities, fingerprint recognition is
widely employed due to its ease of use,
familiarity and affordability. Integrating
biometrics in workforce management systems
will eliminate the issue of time theft and
increase the accuracy and security of time and
attendance management systems. Companies
employing biometric identification systems will
benefit significantly in terms of greater
employee accountability and increased
productivity that will ultimately boost business
profits.
Traditional time tracking systems such as paper
based systems, swipe cards, passwords or PINs
that were used to clock in and out of
attendance systems and access company
networks have now become obsolete. For paper
based systems, a lot of resources had to be
expended in manual reconciliation of
attendance records and re-entering the data in
payroll system. Passwords or PINs are often
BIOMETRICS FOR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
lost or forgotten and swipe cards easily
transferred between employees leading to
buddy punching and decreased employee
productivity. Again company resources need to
be spent in replacing lost or stolen cards and
resetting forgotten passwords. This goes to
prove that traditional workforce management
systems prove inefficient in todays highly
competitive business environment.
Biometric time and attendance management
systems that require a fingerprint for
authentication provides irrefutable attendance
records to business owners. Biometric systems
effortlessly authenticate an individual based on
who they are (i.e. fingerprint) as opposed to
what they know (i.e. password) or what they
have (i.e. swipe card). Fingerprints are unique
to each individual and cannot be shared like
passwords or cards. Even identical twins have
different sets of fingerprints. Fingerprints are
extremely difficult to duplicate under normal
conditions and hence one employee cannot
punch in for an absent or late co-worker.
A biometric fingerprint identification system
directly links the employee to his personal
records and ensures that only the authorised
individual can access the record. It protects
personal information by eliminating swipe cards
and privately identifying the employees clock-in
and clock-out time. Thus a biometric system
can help overcome the limitations of traditional
workforce management systems and provide
tangible benefits to business owners by
consistently providing accurate, reliable and
auditable employee data.
Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk
1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

HOW DOES FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION
WORK?
For fingerprint recognition to work, employees
need to be enrolled into the biometric system.
In the enrollment process, the fingerprints of
employees are scanned and only the specific
characteristics of the fingerprint are filtered and
stored as a digital template. These specific
characteristics determine the uniqueness of
each fingerprint. The actual image of the
fingerprint is never stored and it is impossible
to reproduce the original fingerprint from the
digital template. Hence fingerprint recognition
is secure and highly reliable method of
authenticating individuals.
When employees arrive at the workplace, they
can effortlessly check-in with a simple scan of
their fingerprint. The scanned fingerprint is
matched with the existing fingerprint templates
and on a positive match the employee
successfully clocks into the system. The whole
scanning and matching process can be
completed in less than a few seconds which
makes fingerprint recognition an extremely fast
process. For companies with extremely large
workforce, fingerprint recognition can help in
significant time saving where a large number of
employees need to check into work. Fingerprint
scanners require very little maintenance and
can be very easily cleaned with a simple wipe
over.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INTEGRATING
BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY IN WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS?
Deploying biometric fingerprint recognition in
workforce management systems can have
manifold benefits. Businesses no longer have to
BIOMETRICS FOR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
depend on lost passwords or forgotten access
cards, rather a more reliable identification
factor such as fingerprint which is part of the
employee himself. Business owners can now
save on the costs associated with lost cards or
buddy punching.
Biometrics is not some futuristic solution. The
technological advancements in biometrics have
promoted the widespread use of biometric
devices and the cost of biometrics has also
fallen significantly over the last few years.
Fingerprint recognition is now an affordable and
accessible solution for workforce management
systems. Let us look at some of the benefits
that can be achieved by implementing biometric
fingerprint recognition in workforce
management systems.
Increases operational efficiency and accuracy:
Things such as forgetting of access cards or
passwords lead to time delays and are
hindrances in increasing employee productivity.
The employee has to wait while the manager
provides an override for a forgotten swipe card
or the IT help desk person resets the password.
Such delays add up and decreases efficiency. A
biometric time and attendance system does
away with the need of passwords or access
cards and decreases staffing overhead. It
captures real-time and auditable attendance
data which the payroll department can use for
efficiently managing operations. Biometric
clocks work great in the case of hourly
employees too as it ensures that the employees
get paid for the actual hours that they have
worked.
Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk
1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

A manual payroll process is time consuming,
tedious and prone to errors. Attendance data
collected with the help of biometric attendance
systems are automated and highly reliable. This
data can be extracted and sent directly to
payroll processing which not only saves a lot of
time but also boosts the operational efficiency
of payroll processing by providing timely and
error free attendance data. It helps to eliminate
the payroll and other administrative costs that
are incurred due to the errors made in manual
payroll calculation.
Eliminates time theft and increases
accountability: The most evident benefits of a
biometric workforce management system are
the elimination of time theft and buddy
punching. Fingerprint recognition makes it
impossible to defraud the biometric workforce
management system. Fingerprints are inherent
to an individual thereby implying that only the
employee can punch in or out of the system.
Thus it reduces the possibility of intentional or
unintentional human error more than any other
traditional attendance tracking methods. Since
biometric systems are able to provide a
concrete audit trail of employees, it helps to
increase the accountability of employees as well
as encourages them to act ethically.
Boosts return on investment (ROI) by loss
prevention: The organizational costs that
companies have to bear due to buddy punching
and time theft are enormous and in millions of
dollars. A biometrics enabled attendance
system completely eliminates time thefts and
buddy punching and thus justifies the
investment on such a system. It also eliminates
BIOMETRICS FOR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
the administrative costs and inaccuracies of
traditional time and attendance management
systems. Thus a higher ROI can be achieved by
integrating biometric fingerprint recognition in
workforce management systems.
It provides greater security and convenience as
compared to traditional attendance
management systems. Security concerns
regarding shared passwords or lost access
cards do not exist with a fingerprint enabled
workforce management systems. Employees
also find it highly convenient as they no longer
need to remember any complex passwords or
carry their ID cards. They now get
authenticated based on their fingerprint.
Biometric workforce management systems
provide non-repudiated and concrete audit trail
of all employee transactions thereby ensuring
regulatory compliance and increased savings by
avoiding the fees on any legal actions or
penalty.
INTEGRATING BIOMETRIC FINGERPRINT
RECOGNITION IN WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
With Touch N Go, integrating and maintaining
fingerprint technology in workforce
management systems is simple. It is very easy
to implement as there is no learning curve for
developers. The unique nature of the
integration methodology of Touch N Go allows
fingerprint integration instantly into existing
management systems within few minutes and
with no prior experience. It is an expandable
biometric solution and allows for seamless
integration with workforce management
systems.
Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk
1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

With Touch N Go biometric solution, the
integration of fingerprint recognition into
existing workforce management systems does
not take months or hours but can be
accomplished with just four lines of code. It is
developer friendly, affordable and provides a
best fit solution for systems such as workforce
management that require high levels of security
and accuracy in identifying employees. The
user interface is pre-developed and ready to
use and hence developers do not need to spend
any time on this component.
Image 2: The integration is super-fast. With just 3 lines of
code.
Touch N Go is flexible and has support for
multiple programming languages with inbuilt
applications and sample source codes. It has a
very high level of security and all client server
communication are encoded and encrypted. It
is a high performing solution with support for
all leading fingerprint scanners. It has inbuilt
features such as smart enrollment and
BIOMETRICS FOR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
duplication checks. These features ensure that
only the best quality fingerprints are enrolled
and no duplicate fingerprints get enrolled
reducing the false acceptance and rejection
rates. This makes it a biometric solution with
high performance.
CONCLUSION
We have discussed the integration of biometric
technology in workforce management systems
and its advantages. Businesses can benefit
greatly in terms of improved productivity,
higher ROI, ease-of-use and greater employee
accountability.
Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk
1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
 BIOMETRICS FOR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

AUTHOR

DANNY THAKKAR
CEO & Co-Founder
Danny Thakkar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bayometric,
one of the leading biometric solution providers in the
world. He has been in the Biometric Industry for 10+
years and has extensive experience across public and
private sector verticals. Currently, he is chief evangelist for
Touch N Go.

Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk
1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
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REFERENCES
1. Biometrics: High-value Workforce Management - Acuity Market Intelligence
2. What is Buddy Punching And How Do You Stop It? - FingerCheck
3. How Software Can Reduce Payroll Losses IndustryView | 2015
4. Employee Time Theft Facts & Stats - EPAY Systems
5. The rise of biometrics in Workforce Management - Labour Solutions Australia
6. The advantages of integrating biometrics with workforce management solutions - Biometric
Update