Time & Attendance Part 3: Authentication

Lay to rest any confusion or disagreements.  

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Using pin-codes or biometrics when an employee clocks IN/OUT is a simple way of defining which employee clocked IN or OUT.   GPS time stamps on all clock IN/OUT’s shows exactly what job site employees are working on.  

Having an authentication process in your time and attendance system helps both the employee as well as the employer.  We have all heard “Big Brother is Watching” and we do not like it.  However, there is more to using biometrics and GPS time stamps.   The documentation gathered from these technologies work in favor of employees, business owners, independent contractors, or anyone who wants to keep an accurate account of where they have been and what they worked on.  When everyone has the same information, discrepancies can be resolved the moment they occur instead of weeks, months or even years later. 

Help for the Employee
A good time and attendance system proves, through authentication procedures, that you were on the job site working hard.   It gives you undeniable proof of where you are and provides the "back up" you need when discrepancies arise.

Help for Managers
Know exactly who worked on what and where.   Having detailed information can minimize your company risk and even stop lawsuits before they happen.

Help for Independent Contractors
Like most people, you like to get paid for the work you complete.   Eliminate questions and get paid faster when you deliver a detailed billing statement complete with accurate, detailed time reports along with GPS stamps.  

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Prove It! Benefits of GPS

I wrote, in a past blog post, about the ethics involved in using GPS tracking with your employees.  You can read the post  here. 

The question of ethics comes into play when employees feel like “Big Brother” is watching.  However, the benefits of using GPS tracking go far beyond the notion of time theft.  In fact, there are many benefits for employees as well as businesses.  I will discuss them in this post and future posts. 

Have you ever had this happen?

Customer:  Wow!  This bill is huge!  I know we had you move that wall 3 times, but I can’t

believe it took this many hours. 

You: Well I had 3 guys here for 2 days full time.

Customer:  Prove it!

HOLD ON!  How do you “prove it?”  Show them scribbles on time cards?   Showing upset clients time cards can give you the upper hand in a negotiation, however it’s just writing on paper,  you will probably have to give up a few hours to keep your customer happy.

Is there a better way to handle billing questions like this?  Is there a way that leaves little room for questioning or negotiation? Wouldn’t it be even more convincing if you could actually “Prove it?”

Situations like this are where GPS and GEOFence Tracking are most beneficial.  Imagine showing your customers that your employees were actually on the job-site, working hard.  Let's try this scenario to show what this same situation is like when using a mobile resource management system that incorporates GPS Tracking as a feature.

Customer:    Wow!  This bill is huge!  I know we had you move that wall 3 times but I can’t believe it took this many hours. 

You: (Looking at your iPad) Well, you can see here that John, Jose, and Larry  were on your job-site from 8am to 11:30am.  Then they took a half hour lunch. But, you can see they clocked back into your jobsite at 12:05pm and worked until 5:00pm.   So the bill is accurate.  Unfortunately, it can be very costly to make these types of changes. 

Time records showing GPS coordinates, proving your employees were on the job-site when they clocked IN and OUT, are invaluable when trying to resolve a billing dispute.  As the old adage says “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight." When it comes to billing disputes make sure you bring GPS tracking to the discussion and eliminate the fight. 

Is using GPS to track your employees ethical?

A customer called the other day completely flustered over a situation with one of her employees.  The employee had refused to enable GPS tracking on their iPhone stating that it was a "violation of their civil liberties."  Understanding that allowing a company to track your movements, from a personal device, could be disconcerting to some people, the customer bought a company iPad for the employee.  The employee still refused to allow GPS tracking. This time exclaiming that it was "unethical to track a person."   Needless to say, our customer was at a loss.  She wanted to know first if it was a violation of civil rights.   Secondly, was there some validity to his claim or did he just not want to be tracked?

Hmmmm…. An Interesting Question….