How to Track Employee Attendance Efficiently?
August 29th 2024
Tracking employee attendance is daunting if you don’t have a set framework.
In the post-COVID world, most companies follow a remote or hybrid setup. In fact, between 2015 and 2023, the percentage of employees working from home has increased from 7% to 28% worldwide.
In this setup, different employees may work in different time zones. Another common trend is to let employees select their working hours, even though they reside in the same location.
However, recording and tracking employee attendance often goes unnoticed. Some companies still rely on spreadsheets to track employees’ attendance, working hours, and leaves.
These lead to delays in payroll management and processing, payout errors, and a frustrated workforce.
But tracking employee attendance doesn’t have to be this difficult. The right attendance tracking method automates the attendance process end-to-end.
This article will help you track employee time and attendance. Let’s get started.
Why should you Track Employee Attendance?
Businesses should prioritise tracking employee attendance for the following reasons:
Process payroll accurately and on time
Nothing beats the joy of receiving an accurate salary on time. Recording employee attendance through spreadsheets is outdated as it only slows down payroll calculation. Process accurate payroll on time by automatically integrating attendance software with your payroll. This means building a productive workforce that works diligently to meet its goals.
Build an integrated culture of discipline and transparency
Both flexibility and transparency are essential when building a people system. While employees should be able to select their work shifts, they must also be held accountable. A structured attendance tracking method establishes both transparency and accountability among employees.
Stay compliant with labour laws
Tracking employee attendance has several legal implications. Recording employee attendance can help you comply with labour laws, minimum wage policies, overtime compensation legislation, and similar regulatory frameworks applicable to your state and country.
How to Track Employee Attendance?
There are different ways to track employee attendance in an organisation. Here are some of the most used ways:
Time and attendance software
A time and attendance management system streamlines workflow operations with flexible attendance policies, real-time attendance tracking, and automated payroll sync to process salaries with a single click.
Time and attendance software like Craze boosts HR productivity by freeing up time spent on manual attendance tracking. It also enables self-served attendance tracking to promote accountability among employees.
Some of the critical features of time and attendance software include:
Creating customised attendance policies and enabling clock-in and out, overtime, loss of pay, and self-attendance options
Tracking attendance and working hours on a browser-based software for easy correction flows
Automated timesheets to quickly search team members, date and download timesheets when required
Automatically sync timesheets with payroll to calculate accurate, precise salaries and enable one-click salary disbursement
Biometric systems and devices
It is common practice to use biometric devices and systems to record employee attendance. Popular biometric devices include fingerprints, access cards, and facial recognition systems. These systems are installed at the entrance of a workplace. Employees need to validate their access through these devices to mark their attendance.
Integrate biometric devices with your payroll software to auto-update attendance data. This would ensure accurate salary processing on time.
However, biometric systems are not the best choice for remote work setups where most employees work from different locations. Biometric systems are only accessible to employees who physically visit the workplace.
Manual attendance recording methods
One of the oldest ways to track employee attendance is to maintain an attendance register. This method is 100% manual, and the HR is responsible for marking employees as ‘present’ or ‘absent’ in a physical document.
While recording each employee's entry and exit is hassle-free, it is not a sustainable method. It is accessible to only a specific user group and unavailable online, hence inappropriate for remote teams. Additionally, calculating payouts based on a physical attendance register is an exhaustive process and involves manual errors.
Spreadsheets
Using spreadsheets to track attendance has become an inherent practice for finance and HR teams. They maintain a single spreadsheet to manage employee attendance, leaves, and payroll calculations. While this is a streamlined process for a small team of less than 10 people, it is certainly not sustainable for a growing employee base.
As you start accommodating more employees within the same spreadsheet, things get messy, the formula becomes complex, and eventually, the spreadsheet collapses.
Essential Features Required for Effective Attendance Tracking
Before selecting attendance tracking software for your startup, ensure that it includes the following features:
Geo-fencing
Geo-fencing uses GPS technology to detect an employee’s presence in a particular location at a designated time and automatically marks their attendance as ‘present’.
Time tracking
Employees are asked to mark their attendance using clock-in and clock-out. This helps HR and finance admins monitor an employee’s working hours and regularity, making payroll calculation much easier.
Automated and self-served timesheets
Self-served timesheets provide visibility to employees and HR regarding hours worked leaves taken, and working hours.
Synchronisation with payroll
Time and attendance software should smoothly sync with payroll, automatically capturing overtime, loss of pay, paid and unpaid leaves, and other factors to process payroll without any hassle.
Leave management
If the time and attendance software comes with a leave tracking feature that allows you to apply, approve, and monitor leaves within the same dashboard, there’s nothing like it.
Attendance reporting and analytics
Generating custom-made attendance reports highlighting key factors like employee availability, regularity, and discipline in the organisation to take required actions.
On-demand helpdesk
A 24/7 online support service from subject-matter experts to help HR teams whenever they require hand-holding.
How to Select the Best Method for Tracking Attendance
At the end of the day, you should find the answer to the question, ‘How to track employee time and attendance?’ The goal is to select an attendance tracking method that meets your budget, use cases, and team size.
Apart from looking for the above features, make sure to ask yourself the following questions:
Will the attendance tracking method securely handle employee data?
Will the attendance tracking method be easy to incorporate and use?
Does the attendance tracking method match your budget?
Does the attendance tracking method integrate with your internal workplace solutions?
If you are still having difficulties selecting the ideal attendance recording system for your brand, this should help:
If you have a small team size of less than 10 employees, you can use spreadsheets to track attendance. This is also true for startups with a limited budget
If you have a small but fast growing team, you should invest in HRMS platform like Craze that can replace spreadsheets with automated attendance-tracking software and costs only ₹40 per month
Add more questions to this list based on your individual use cases. Once you have convincing answers to these questions, make a final call.
Conclusion
Keeping tabs on when employees show up and clock out doesn't have to be a headache. Whether using old-school methods like attendance registers and spreadsheets or modern ones like HRMS software, the goal is to make life easier for both HRs and employees.
While there are multiple methods of tracking employee attendance, our vote goes to attendance tracking software like Craze.
The reasons are that it is easy to set up, comes with an all-in-one admin dashboard that auto-integrates with payroll, leave management, and attendance tools, and costs only ₹40/employee/month (startup-friendly). The always-ready-to-help support team is the cherry on top.
If you are looking to:
Build people functions from scratch in your company
Need an HRMS platform that doesn’t lock advanced features
Provides genuine support when required
Craze is the perfect solution for you. We don’t want to sound biased, so we’ll let you explore it and make a decision for yourself.
FAQs
How do you track attendance in person ?
In-person attendance tracking can be done using biometric systems, such as fingerprint scanners, access cards, or facial recognition devices, installed at workplace entrances.
How do i track my attendance automatically ?
Time and attendance software that offers features like geofencing, clock-in/clock-out systems, and self-served timesheets can be used to automatically track attendance.
Which is the best tool for tracking attendance ?
Craze, a time and attendance software, is one of the best tools due to its comprehensive features, affordable pricing and payroll integration capabilities.
What is the HR attendance policy ?
An HR attendance policy outlines rules and expectations for employee work hours, punctuality, absences, and time-off procedures. It establishes guidelines for tracking attendance and consequences for non-compliance within an organisation.
What is the most efficient way of tracking attendance ?
The most efficient method is to use time and attendance software like Craze. It offers automated tracking, integration with payroll systems, and real-time reporting features.
