Legendary boxer Mohd Ali titled his autobiography:
The Greatest. And he wrote a note on the cover– I want to be modest, but then I have to tell you the truth! We are feeling the same, as we tell you why Cuckoo Tech is the best attendance management system in India.
Let us confess, there are some good multinational attendance management system available. But in India, they just can’t compete with the Cuckoo capabilities. Why do we say, so?
Because we are talking about India. Cuckoo Tech is the world-class time and attendance solution, futuristic, fast, and ultra-flexible attendance management platform, created from ground up for complex Indian business requirements.
Let us tell you 5 important distinctions which makes it the best attendance management system in India, in spite of the presence of multinational players–
1: Business Scenario Approach: Unlike other attendance management software which boasts of their features, we focus first and foremost on attendance scenarios. Rest assured, every single feature that you want, you will find in Cuckoo. These features are designed & developed to perform under complex Indian scenarios, the real-life challenges you come across in your business environment.
Cuckoo Tech is designed in such a way that for every attendance scenario there are multiple ways to perform a task. This flexibility is highly useful and desirable in the Indian context with variations in different geographies, industry-specific requirements, and cultures.
It’s this innovative approach to complex business scenarios that make us the most recommended attendance management system by our clients.
If you are getting curious, Cuckoo Tech has all the important attendance features.
With Virdi as the global bio-metric partner, we provide customer service in almost any corner of the world.
2: Cuckoo Is Made For Cloud:
While older companies have customized their legacy attendance management software to run on the cloud, the Cuckoo Tech is ‘created for cloud’.
Cloud is native to Cuckoo Tech’s architecture. This really makes a difference in performance.
We have specially created the dedicated ADIS platform to utilize the best of cloud technology. ADIS utilizes the internet of things (IoT) technology to seamlessly integrate hardware and the software. Plus, push technology makes sure that you will achieve the most smooth, ultra real-time performance.
And it works beautifully in complex shift planning scenarios. Even in the toughest multi-shift scenarios like modern retail and Hospitality.
Now let us move to the third important distinction:
3: Gamification and Employee Engagement
Cuckoo Tech is the world’s first gamified attendance management system to engage the employees.
New age workforce doesn’t like to be monitored. But with Cuckoo, when employees fill their time sheet, make punches, apply for leave they get scores. The comparative score-card and attractive rewards keep them engaged. It is a unique feature. Not even offered by expensive dollar eating solutions.
4: Cuckoo is Torture Tested:
Cuckoo Tech is used by 100′s of most demanding customers. While good software companies use stress testing for their software, we at Cuckoo Tech follow torture Testing.
The software is continuously tried and tested for extreme Indian HR scenarios. (Volume of employees per customer 10K+, multiple-attendance capturing options from mobile to biometric, auto shift planner with the 24hrs cycle, and many more.)
And we handle these business scenarios in all kinds of business environments– From manufacturing to modern retail, BPOs, facility management, hospitality, advertising as well IT & ITes services.
We are open to any demo by asking you your toughest scenarios. It will be a pleasure to show you how Cuckoo Tech can take those challenges smoothly and efficiently.
5: Preventive Care:
This is the most important ‘function’ in Cuckoo Tech.
The cuckoo team has evolved a method of problem detection even before it occurs. And we suggest clients to avoid certain behaviors which can cause attendance related problems later on. This is a result of our experience over the years, and Indian industry-specific scenarios documented by us.
We are proud of this innovative approach to customer care. You can only experience it, it can’t be shown in demos.
Now, there is one most important thing to sum everything up–
Opportune Master-Mind Sessions:
We regularly engage with the HR community. We organize Master-Mind sessions with Indian HR leaders and Business owners to understand new challenges. These expectations are addressed in the development of cuckoo attendance management system on an ongoing basis.
Because the solution is on the cloud, in a sense, the Cuckoo Tech attendance management software is updated and upgraded throughout the year.
Conclusion:
Cuckoo Tech should be your choice–
Call Us For a Tough Torture Test: 9821186599
Back
It is been a while that I am writing on–why attendance system has to be treated not just as an HR function. But an enterprise solution which needs sophisticated automation.
In my blogs on attendance system, I tried to cover in depth the criticality of various attendance functions.
Ranging from how to select the right attendance software to what are the selection parameters of an attendance system, and how to identify the right attendance service provider. I have discussed in detail, which biometric fits the best for your attendance system, and also created infographics on the difference between .
In an earlier post I also emphasised how fake finger mechanisms causes financial loss to an organisation. basic attendance system & Enterprise attendance system
Today I am writing on multiple modes of time and attendance capturing for your employees as per business requirement. Ranging from desk jobs to field jobs, remote location working to work from home. I am sure it will be interesting to find what type of jobs people do & how challenging it is to capture their attendance.
Let me first define what is a Time and attendance system?
It seems common sense: Time & Attendance system is a process by which one identifies whether the employee has attended to work at the said time.
But for doing this, we must take into account all the time attendance policies, practices, statutory compliance. Inputs for attendance, scheduling tools, record maintenance & payroll generation. This combination makes it complex.
Let us list down the various options to capture attendance.
How the biometric can be implemented for various work profiles.
Biometric devices is best option to capture attendance for staff. Installing a biometric device near the entrance, makes it accessible to all employees to mark IN & out punches. Thus making it a full proof attendance marking system.
Facial recognition biometric device is the best option, with the nature of work that may vary from a manufacturing unit to another unit. In our experience, most of the worker’s finger- texture keeps changing, because of nature of their work. It eliminates the option of finger based biometric. The facial recognition technology has enhanced over the period & it is a safe bet to use these devices now.
Biometric devices again is the best option. As we all understand the environmental difference between an office, factory, hospitality business & retail outlet. The type of biometric device will vary for retail stores.
The selection of the biometric hardware to be deployed also depends on the employee strength & number of shifts on the floor.
For a hypermarket format a finger based biometric with one device for check-in & another for check- out is a must, as this helps to find deviation against planned roaster / schedule for employees. You can refer to my case study on retail attendance.
For smaller retail outlet less than 20 employees, an office type biometric set up works. For still smaller size retail, mobile based solution works fine, refer to mobile attendance capturing section.
Portable biometric devices is the best option to mark attendance inside the classroom. These devices are sleek, rigid & tough, come with power back up, work with SIM based internet technology to transfer data real time. Attendance marking for school & college students have never been so easy.
List of job roles where it is perfect to use a mobile attendance system.
App based solution with option to geo tag the employee attendance has been a boon for organisations with people on field. Let me put this in other words, any business where employees have to travel out of office for service calls, support, sales, customer relationship management needs mobile based attendance capturing system. The recent apps are highly sophisticated & take care of high level of accuracy including any misuse, it even has selfie mode to reconfirm someone’s presence at the location.
The mobile apps work in remote locations & basements with no internet connectivity. It still captures the time & attendance in an offline mode, allowing to sync once the employee is in the network coverage area. This attendance app is available in both IOS & Android version.
This has been an area of pressing challenge in recent times. As outsourcing business is flourishing and retail chain outlets are expanding at a fast pace. These organisations needs a cost effective mode of attendance capturing because the number of employees at each location is handful. But spread across various locations. These organisations work on high volume & low margins. Hence creating a cost effective attendance solution was the need of the hour.
Mobile based attendance with geo fencing is the best solution currently available in the attendance market space. The solution allows to geo fence the store location or a client location where the employee is deployed. The employees are restricted to mark attendance using the registered mobile device only from the geo fenced location.
We have heard about the resistance of employees in accepting this system, but a correct employee orientation, attendance guidelines & processes have seen good success.
Proxy attendance marking is alive even today, maybe because of practical reasons, in many organisations. In small, as well as some big organisations. There are cases where due to compliance reasons biometric devices can’t be installed on client site, mobile phones are not allowed in. The only way to mark attendance in such scenarios is, manager approves it over the attendance screen on behalf of the onsite resources. So at least manual efforts are gone & data is available in digital format. It even has an essence of manager taking the ownership of employee attendance.
Attendance upload scenarios where companies have depots / satellite offices with 5-6 employees, biometric or mobile are not possible because of cost, security, infrastructure challenges. In such cases either the site in-charge or HR coordinator manually consolidates the data in a specified XLS template to upload this on the HRMS system.
Contactless attendance is a new technology corporates are using. The employees are given mobile based digital key installed on their smart phones. As they come in the proximity of the office door it automatically marks the attendance. Giving a great user experience.
Hamster devices TABs and OTG capable smart phones can attach to small biometric device called hamster, this is handy & portable device which can be carried to the employee desk for marking. Or can be kept on a manager’s desk inside a parking lot where employees can come to mark their attendance. These small biometric hamster devices do not need its own power, storage & internet. They use resources of the smart devices. The best feature: the software can geo-tag & click a selfie.
Timesheet has been used for many years by IT & engineering companies. But it still continues to feature in future technologies. Though modern timesheets have become sophisticated, it help in clocking employee’s productive hours and approval by the concern team manager, and also connects with billing, expenses, and project management tools.
SSO: Commonly known as single sign on. Technologically progressive company now host their complete solution over the cloud. Since all the solutions are on cloud, it becomes a challenge for employees to remember login credential for so many different apps. But with single-sing-on, employee only logs into the cloud. The rest is taken care of using active directory.
The 1st login to the day is treated as the IN & the last log out is the end of the day punch. Employees will not have to login separately in the attendance system to mark their attendance. Hence SSO comes handy & the employee does not miss a punch in any case.
As we all know & I strongly believe, life is a journey of learning & growing. If you come across any other modes to capture attendance apart from the listed ones, or a system your time office has implemented, please share. I will be happy to add to this list.
Connect with me on dhwani@opportune.in
Back
#Unlocking #Covid-19 #safebacktooffice #contactlessattendance #bepositive
As a known proverb says “The show must go on” unlocking has been initiated. Businesses are trying to get the employees back, and safe to office, so that they can service the customers & get the business to pre-covid days.
The new norms are set. The way people will have to live life till we find the vaccine to cure the COVID-19 is defined. SOP’s have been rolled out. The basics are clear.
The world has learnt how to WFH, but we also realize that human beings are social animals and cannot be confided to homes.
Safely returning to work place is the current phase of our life in the Covid era. HR and admins have a huge task in hand. They are quickly learning & aligning their processes to real life situations. Standard procedures and instructions are in place, what norms must be followed. But every organisation has its own set of unique problems.
Here is a list of top 3 things that the HR and admin have to consider to ensure a safe return environment for employees:
Contactless solutions: From entry to exist for all employees & visitors one needs to implement contact less procedures. Few things that can be implemented and available in market
Face detection biometric devices
QR based visitor access system
Auto sensor doors
Social distancing planner: It is important that distance are strictly maintained between co-workers & strict no contact protocols are implemented and followed. Tips on how this can be achieved
Identify resources that needs to work from office & for them WFH is no option
Create shifts for people who have to compulsory attend office
Use of technology to achieve the desired plan with efficiency
In case of walking customer outlets, like retail stores, restaurants, hotels & public places, restrict the no. of people that can visit in a day. Make all visits appointment based
Workplace protocol: The rules for office access, attendance & accessing to one’s desk has changed. We have to be careful not for us, but other co-workers too.
Temperature checking at entry & exit
Sanitisation of work place on regular frequency
Aarogya Setu app installed for each employee & visitor entering the premises
Keep 6 foot distance between two persons
Self-declaration of each person entering the premises of not coming from any contaminated zone.
Disposable cutlery at cafeteria.
While we have to be strong and come out for all essential activities. We have to be careful too. By being disciplined we shall be able to minimise the spread of the infection. Use of contactless technology will enable to achieve the desired protocols & we can soon get buzzing at our workplace.
If your organisation has successfully implemented a safebacktooffice policy. Kindly share me details on dhwani@opportune.in & help other organisations to adopt
Back
The attendance system market is flooded with solutions. All biometric device system integrators claim to have an attendance management software. With software developers coming out from every home in India, designing a good looking software isn’t a challenge. But what about functionality?
In this checklist, we are assuming that web-based, cloud-based systems are the future. Any good T&A system will take care of leave management too.
If you are looking to find out an attendance system software which is comprehensive, with depth & maturity, this checklist will help you decide.
We have created this checklist based on our thorough background in HR automation for about more than a decade. Attendance management is a crucial subject and needs enterprise treatment. Because it tracks an employee’s performance, productivity & salary cost for the organization.
If you are considering to buy, upgrade or migrate to an Attendance system here are the key features to look for:
Biometric devices:
The biometric device is the 1st step taken for the correct attendance automation. With so many cheap biometric devices available in the market, it is tough to select the right biometric device. But a wrong biometric device can lead to losses, like salary lapses, business productivity loses, security lapses. Check this now!
Tips to choose the correct biometric device:
Check for sensor quality & warranty. It’s critical to check if it can detect the fake fingerprint. Traditional devices are unable to do so.
Biometric device with Push technology: The attendance data should seamlessly flow to a central data management system on a real-time basis.
Finger / Biometric template storage on a central server.
IP65 & other compliances to work in various climatic conditions
Multi-country presence – applicable to businesses and companies with a Global presence
Importance of biometric device: If the correct biometric device is not installed, the whole time attendance management will be a failure. It is plain and simple: Junk data in is junk data out.
The uptime of biometric is a critical factor in capturing employee presence on the work. If even 3% data is manually captured the efforts to generate T&A register is high & purpose of automation is defeated.
Recommendation: Buy the right biometric device, there are a few good quality devices which are reasonably priced and has high ROI value. We suggest Virdi or Kronos.
Attendance rules:
Attendance rule takes care of company specific requirement for employees working time. Rules are the 1st factor of evaluation for a perfect time management software to work with the hardware. Once the data is dumped from the biometric it is important to apply the right time attendance rules.
Parameters an attendance rule should allow to configure–
Define working hours, full day, half day, short hours
Attendance policy, late coming & early go rules, mandate login time as per business needs
Deduction of leave/pay rules if a violation of policy
Define shifts, multiple shifts, break shift, weekly offs
Define Shift rules, auto shift, manual shift, rotational shift
Other parameters like regularisation rules within specific time/days window
Attendance lock for monthly payroll
Importance: Rules & policies as per company needs & state statutory compliances helps in the accuracy of employee attendance & avoid manual interventions. ZERO manual intervention & transparent practices across the organization is the success of a T&A management software.
Recommendation: Today most organizations buy the software which comes along with the biometric device or vendor recommendation. The time is to evaluate the software service provider separately who understand time attendance system & HR domain.
2 such service providers are CuckooTech and Kronos.
Rostering module: Rostering or shift planning feature is a default/mandate for a progressive & enterprise organization. Highly used in Hospitality, BPO’s & manufacturing companies.
Rostering features we need to check for in the application:
Scheduling of shift, team-wise & manager wise
Amendment to shifts as per business dynamics
Shift rules as per compliance, the employee cannot be allocated continuous shift
Shift rules as per business needs, no women workers post 10.00 PM
Auto shift creation in case of the shift not pre-schedule.
Shift rotation policy & Skip option to handle exceptions
Statistical data for efficient shift planning, shift plan VS actual attendance
Publish roaster on the platform & allow the employee to request for a change in shift
Importance: For a Company with multi-shift needs, defining shift is an important business requirement, in fact, managers have high KRA for effective shift planning. Just imagine an aviation business running only on one fix shift, or state electric department running only one shift.
Recommendation: A software, which meets business needs as per industry requirement. Check if your software provider understands & implement your business specific requirement.
Attendance regularisation, the success of a system is measured on its usage. Here we are referring to employee using the time management functionality. For them to hook on the system, employee self-service functionality is a must.
Features that need to be part of the attendance regularisation functionality–
Employee attendance can be regularised on a click. Request to regularise missed punch, outdoor activity & working from home should be easy.
Manager self-service function, with capabilities to approve requests.
Importance: 100% employee involvement is the only parameter to measure success. Assume employees do not have an option to regularise because of biometric fault or a human error. It will directly impact their pay. The last thing an organization wants as a reason for an employee to resign.
Recommendation: A system that allows regularisation of time, quickly, based on rules. A service provider with a robust attendance solution with similar functionality is the winner.
Attendance System functionality
Attendance rules, rostering, regularisation are all the features of a time capturing system, the above features work well if supported with the following functionality–
Employee & manager self-service portal
Employee & manager portal should have options for
Web check-in
View its own attendance data on a daily/weekly/ monthly / yearly basis with all relevant info like hours work & present status.
Regularisation & approvals
The employee should be able to read all the attendance policy & shifts planned
The manager can do data analysis for its team, like hours worked, short hours, regular late coming, Over time workers. Real-time attendance deviation based on shift planned
Timesheet one of an important function for IT & ITeS companies.
Admin should be able to lock the data as per defined dates, any change in data post attendance lock is considered for next month payroll as arrears.
Attendance alerts via email / SMS notifications
Mobile app for offline attendance marking & various attendance related request while on move or at the comfort of a sofa at home.
Gamification of attendance function, to engage the employees on the online portal.
Importance: These features are the backbone of the attendance system, without these features, the system cannot run independently. It is like we have the data in a box, but accessibility to the box is restricted, and it is of no use. Similarly, an attendance system with best biometric, rules & practices cannot work, if we do not have the ESS & MSS portal for employees ease.
Recommendation: Attendance system should have a capability to check for information on the employee portal in real time, the user interface should be simple for the employees to use, and they can navigate their current & past information with ease. Mobile version of the solution is a must
Mobile App:
Any smart attendance solution provider cannot miss the mobile app. App design should have all important functionalities and must be responsive to all kinds of mobile devices. So the employees do not mind installing one more app.
Checks for a mobile app–
Availability of native apps Android & IOS
The capability to store relevant data offline & then sync on demand.
The app should have features to capture geo location, geo fence location to restrict unauthorized marking, option to click selfie, supports validation in case of an audit.
Notification option
Process driven installation of attendance app, to avoid proxy marking.
Capability to integrate with API, for data exchange with payroll software, HR system & SAP.
Importance: More than 30% of the office staff are on the move for various business support work, ranging from sales, services, support. Business like food delivery, taxi services, e-commerce rely heavily on the mobile app only to track for employee’s attendance. The younger generation is more comfortable using a mobile even on their working desk.
Recommendation– Subscribe to attendance app that is native for sure. Integrates using API. Capability for integration with 3rd party app using Cordova or similar capability. Scalable to meet other HR function needs like expense claims, leave, helpdesk, Chabot. One app sure to be looked for is CuckooTech
Attendance System configuration, the importance of the configuration feature is same as a backstage team. The ease of any application is because of the right configuration options.
Checklist for a perfect configuration feature–
User creation with roles & responsibility
Can configure the email & SMS gateway for communication
Mapping of reporting manager for teams with effective dates of responsibility
Bulk upload with all applicable rules to avoid junk upload of data
Setting up of attendance alert rules as per business needs
All attendance reports in PDF, for internal audits & maintaining transparency
Audit trail exports on demand available
Importance– Any automation solution not having the capability to support administrative work is not qualified as per software standard practices.
A simple example of, how system config comes handy: an employee has not turned up to work for more than a week, in a workforce of 500 it goes unnoticed, but with alerts & business logic configured, an SMS / email comes directly to the concerned person. Not to forget importance of audit trails in case of any misuse/breach of data.
Recommendation–The attendance configuration maturity comes with experience only. The handling of clients across various verticals helps build rules & knowledge repository. My vote again goes to CuckooTech considering the Indian scenario & value for money.
This content is published post extensive study & mastermind series with Sr. HR fraternity, understanding the complexity of the attendance system, and expectations of HR team from an Enterprise Attendance system service provider.
If you would like to participate or contribute to mastermind series please connect with me on 9821186599 or email me on dhwani@opportune.in
Back
Today’s HR has a challenge in hand…they need to offer flexibility to employees at the same time see that organization processes are also adhered to. In this blog let us look this aspect specifically in the context of time and attendance system, mainly service industries.
Any service industry organization have mixed kind of work force, comprising –
Field work force- typically covers sales and services staff.
Front office staff- Generally serves customers from offices. This kind of work force is required to work in office in specific shifts (fixed timings) and must be available on desks to take continuous incoming calls.
Back office staff – This workforce need timing flexibility, they on many occasions need to put long hours.
Class of specialists – These are typically highly skilled and costly employees, generally found to be working on time bound projects. Their work hours are erratic…Some time a few of them being very passionate …they keep working for hours and hours, including on weekly offs/holidays.
Sr. Management – These are Management category people, driven by business targets, attendance is just a formality.
About time and attendance system
Time & attendance system allows HR to identify whether the employee has attended the work at the said time. Does the attendance is followed as per defined attendance policy and adhering to statutory compliance. T&A output provides inputs for attendance, scheduling manpower, record maintenance & Salary Processing.
Now let us see which solution option is appropriate to manage time & attendance of above mentioned workforce segments.
Field work force
Mobile based solution that allows to use GPS for capturing location of the employee along with attendance has been a boon for organisations with people working on field. Any business where employees have to work outdoors for service or support calls, sales & marketing, customer relationship management needs app based attendance capturing system. The recent mobile application are highly modern to provide high level of accuracy, highlighting any misuse and even have selfie photo feature to reconfirm employee’s presence at the particular location at a particular time.
These days with improved mobile applications technology, apps can still capture the time & attendance in an offline mode (useful in remote locations & basements where connectivity is weak). Applications synchronize data as soon as employees enter into the network coverage area.
Front office staff
Incentive based on inbound or outbound sales/support calls make their day. They need to be logged into the the system to records their transactions.
SSO (SingleSignOn) API – Since all the solutions are on cloud, it is a challenge for employees to remember login credential to each app over the cloud. To give an ease to operate, employee can login in to the cloud & the rest is taken care using active directory. The 1st login to the day is the IN & the last log out is the END of the day punch. Employees will not have to separately login to the attendance system to mark the attendance. Hence SSO comes handy & the employee does not miss a punch in any case.
Back office staff
Device based authentication is important for back office stop. Depending upon severity, multiple solutions options are available. Like Biometric device, Face Recognition etc. Controller based solution ensures proper access control to various departments within large office premises, and ensures the security aspect which is critical for such a staff who need to move around for various activities to perform the job. Sophisticated solution ensures registration of employee at one device and replication of registration details on various devices automatically.
Class of specialists
Being costly and project bound resources, revenue is typically based on project activity completion or efforts spent on performing tasks, irrespective of locations. Timesheet has been used for many years by IT & engineering companies. It helps logging employee’s productive hours against the project, activity. Timesheet approach offers flexibility to resources to log the timings line daily/ weekly etc. And that gets approved by the concerned team manager for whom they are working. It seamlessly connects with billing, expenses, and project management tools. If required it can work alongside biometric attendance if location presence is critical.
Sr. Management
These are employees at higher positions/ promoters; they are driven by passion, business targets. They drive the departments and organizations towards set goals. While all categories of people mentioned above are their team members, need to be using appropriate attendance capturing mechanism. Sr. Management category are exception due to nature of their job and position in the organization. Hence proper exception handling rules are critical for time attendance system. In fact, analytics from Time and Attendance system plays important role for Sr. Management for getting real time data from applications which should be hosted in secured cloud environment. Good analytics helps this category of people to make right and timely decision to align the work force, to inculcate required discipline, and to drive them towards organisational goals, .
I strongly believe, life is a journey of learning & growing. If you have come across any other category of staff apart for the ones listed, or a system your time office has implemented, please share.
You can connect with me on pankaj@opportune.in
Back
As we all agree even today for an HR, setting up employees accurate attendance system is the biggest task. No matter what HR technology, flexibility & generation one belongs.
From the days of manual attendance marking at the time office the corporate world has moved to the latest biometric & mobile solution using IoT & GPS. Still every office is struggling for the best of attendance solution, may it be for all employees or few set of exceptions.
So what is the fuss all about? Why are organizations not able to achieve 100% success when it comes to attendance management system?
Let’s point out few scenarios of attendance capturing challenges & the complexity involved
1. Employees working at client side – Especially the facility business, contract staffing, IT resource deployment
2. Employees on field – Sales & client servicing
3. Identify & Implement the correct attendance system – Integrated & collaborative approach
4. The progressive HR companies – With flexi attendance practice
5. Business linked attendance policy, SLA driven rostering, various time-zone support
6. Most importantly, state wise attendance compliance mandate
There are at least 50 other such cases which we know, based on intensive research, study & mastermind series with the industry experts.
All these issues are still there because most automation solutions are focused more on automation and less on the real life HR scenarios.
Considering the above stated attendance system challenges, we evaluated realistic solutions available in the marketplace, to achieve high success ratio for accurate & realistic attendance system for employees.
Thankfully there are good solutions which are cutting edge when it comes to technology and designed for modern Indian HR scenarios as well. These solutions can take care of the above mentioned special cases, too.
A few good attendance system features are–
1. Employees Engagement Platform: motivate & explain employee’s the importance of Attendance & its compliance. Use the attendance platform with Gamification & rewards to engage them.
2. IoT Platform: use cloud based biometric Attendance capturing for real time information across multiple location & Time zones
3. Mobility: multimode attendance capturing solutions for ease of capturing geo based attendance of resources on move
4. Integrated: Attendance solution supporting from real time compliance alerts to attendance data for payroll generation
The best thing is to bundle such solutions into a package, to configure the right features as per policy, practice, industry & business need. This approach has already given results to many organizations.
These new-age attendance system are designed to give solutions to the above mentioned attendance problems in a very cost effective manner, thus creating a perfect case for return on investment.
You can write to me on dhwani@opportune.in, to discuss any Attendance related complex issues.
Back
How Much Is Your Organisation Loosing Because Of Rs 100 Fake-Finger Prints? Think Twice!
Here is a headline early this month.
We always knew that fake finger impression could be made, as we have seen it in Hollywood movies. The gate-crashers in these silver-screen blockbuster use high-tech to intrude into security systems.
It might shock you, but as the news clip informs, a fake finger impression can be sourced for only Rs 100/- in our Indian towns.
Our Indian brothers with their jugaad-mindset can create these fake-fingers with home-sourced items like coconut oil, M-seal and Fevicol.
But on a bigger level, some enterprising people have discovered in it a promising business. You can set up a fake-finger printing machine with an investment of just Rs 1 Lac.
Obviously, there is huge demand for such fake-finger prints.
Now the vital questions for HR community are:
First, let us understand the impact of ignoring these news stories–
Even if 2-3 employees are using unethical practices to mark their attendance, say for 2 days a month, than 6 man days of working are lost. Which is typically 25% of working days. If this happens throughout the year than we are talking of at least 3 man-months of losses.
If we take minimum CTC of 15000/- for a Jr resource, we are talking of 50K of salary wrongly paid. The infinite loss of employee not attending the work, and spreading a wrong message among peers by escaping unnoticed may create rippling effects.
With just Rs.100/- someone we can procure a fake finger, and can pose a huge threat of security lapse. Considering locations with stores having high value inventory, highly confidential data centres…it’s just unimaginable what all can happen. And god forbid, might be happening in organisations.
What are the possible solutions?
Manual option is practically not possible, and goes against the basic purpose of installing the biometric machines in the first place. Chances of manual lapse is in fact higher. Only option is to implement devices with fake finger detection technology.
So are such solution available in market & aren’t they really expensive?
Good news is, we have a solution to the multiple problems of fake finger registration. Devices with capability to detect any kinds of fake fingers are available. These are patented & available in more than 100+ countries.
You must check this here: https://cuckootech.com/fake_finger_detection_sensor.php
Even better, the device comes at an economical price, with 10+ year of sensor-warranty.
The benefit of implementing such compliant biometric devices has high ROI whether you evaluate the 100% stopping of unsolicited elements entering the premises, attendance compliance, or the security.
The solution is guaranteed or money refunded!
You can talk to us if you want: 0987654321
Back
Here is an infographic created by our communications team. It will help you understand the key differences between Enterprise Time & Attendance System and the Basic Time & Attendance system.
Though both are called T&A systems, the depth and the range of Enterprise systems make them useful for organizations with a bigger workforce and complex HR scenarios, while a Basic T&A System may suffice for a small organization with fewer complexities. We are sure the visual comparison below will help you decide your requirement
Back
The transcript of our article on People matter is as below
The innovation that has caught everyone’s attention in HR community currently is the Gamification of T&A platform by Cuckoo Tech. It was a leap that was proactive; Opportune Technologies has put a lot of resources, skills, and man hours in creating this breakthrough.
Now that the initial roll out is over, we asked Dhwani Mehta, M.D. of Opportune, the imminent question. Apart from being the first one to crack such a solution in the world, did it make business sense to innovate?
He shared with us the insights:
1. Engagement: As per the Opportune research team, in the initial 1st month of inception, the employee engagement of the user clients with T&A function have gone up by 18%. The complaints regarding the missing attendance inputs have gone down by 67%, now employees want the game points to win the rewards and make sure they input the attendance data.
2. Client Delight: A senior HR manager from a retail firm says, “What an ideal employee engagement on the platform, never seen before, in fact, never imagined before!”
There is a reason the HR is so excited about this new innovation, it solves some of the worst nightmares for them.
For example, about 70% workforce of a finance house is in sales. Generally targets are the only benchmark and attendance was always ignored by the sales employees. It caused panic in the HR team at the time of consolidating the month end attendance & payroll. The company typically did not take action against the sales people but was looking for a solution to this recurring problem. Cuckoo gamification instantly struck a chord. The gamification leaderboard and the redemption catalogue was the perfect solution. The sales people being competitive wanted to earn as much points.
In a midsize IT company with all young resources, the employees work their heads out, writing great software piece, but when it comes to marking their attendance or informing in advance for a leave they were lethargic.
The scene changed as soon as the gamification was rolled out. The young team loved the upgrade. The HR managers informed Cuckoo team, “First time my people went gaga over someone else’s software! And attendance and time sheet capturing has improved at least by 65%, thanks!”
3. Demand For Demos: The sales phones are continuously ringing for demo. It was a pleasant surprise for the Cuckoo sales team. The sales head Akshath says, “I told my team not to make any new business pitches till we roll out the gamification upgrade to our current clients, but the good word spread fast through the HR grapevine and we were flooded with a demand for demo. We had to put many prospective clients on a waiting list.
He adds, “In the gamification development phase I had my own questions, why to go for such a leap when no one was asking for it. But now I know the power of innovation. We have closed some high value clients in 1st month itself.”
4. Gamification Partners: The best thing about the Gamification Platform is, the organization doesn’t give the rewards, Cuckoo’s partners extend the reward to the employees.
The innovation has attracted big restaurant chains & retail giants to extend the coupons / offers to the Cuckoo subscribers. Dominos, Shopper stop, PVR cinemas, Locoff, J P Electronics are just a few of the names.
More and more partners are asking to be a part of this initiative; Cuckoo team is evaluating them based on the value addition they can bring to employees using the platform.
5. Development Team Celebrates: The development team at Opportune.lab was more than thrilled after the successful launch; especially that HR journals and magazines took note.
They are geared for the next release!
7. Conclusion: Innovation Works, Big Time! Dhwani Mehta says, “I can say with utmost conviction that innovation makes business sense. After the gamification bit, now we are getting calls from some of the biggest organizations in the country. In fact, the response is so overwhelming that we had to expand the sales force, and the development and customer service team.”
He adds, “Gamification is the culmination of many product and process innovations that we created over the past 3 years. We are committed to innovation. In fact, we have India’s foremost innovation coach Mr Puneet Bhatnagar as an integral part of our team. To all Indian business people I want to say, “An investment in innovation is the best investment we can make!”
Back
Attendance systems are a crucial component in HR automation. But what worked smoothly a few years back seems to be lagging in handling today’s work demands. So progressive companies in general are upgrading to advanced enterprise attendance system.
If you are considering to upgrade, I have compiled this exhaustive list of 13 must parameters. It comes from our 10+ years of experience servicing the attendance industry, catering to 200+ clients in various verticals.
It is clear from our experience that attendance system is no more just restricted to installing biometric devices and capturing the attendance. The attendance system is now seen as a source of crucial data for business performance evaluation and enhancement.
Let us carefully understand the relevance of each item & how it impacts the business.
Domain expertise – Every business has its unique proposition for success. To extend this success the solution also has to be aligned to industry practices and peculiarities. This can be delivered only when the solution provider understands the business & configures the solution to meet the business need.
Be aware, any AS IS solution with free frills does not give the required business success experiences.
Take away: Appoint a service provider who is a subject matter expert.
Attendance rule engine –The success of attendance management system depends on integrating organisation’s rules in the system. This is a must for optimising the business productivity, keeping in mind the employee flexibility.
Take away: Attendance rules configuration flexibility is a must.
Attendance features – The attendance capturing is a complex thing in today’s business scenario. With people on the move, part-time and contract employees, dynamic shift hours, work from hone employees, all needs to be taken care of.
Complexity of these attendance scenarios need to be simplified with a feature rich & user friendly enterprise attendance system.
These features range from attendance rules, requests, approval, shift planning, attendance compliance, reports, analysis, and attendance alerts. Using a smart device on move is the need of the day.
Take away: Intuitive & user friendly attendance software needs to be deployed.
Custom development for Business requirements. The attendance solution should be flexible enough to be configured for unique business requirements, or to add a component of the custom piece to exactly fix that business need.
Like the high demanding attendance system for Facility / Manpower industry, or, any organisation with high dependency of employees on remote sites.
Take away: Attendance solution provider should be flexible and capable to custom build a piece. Also evaluate if their core system can accept the customisation smoothly.
API for integration – Enterprise attendance system, or any system, that cannot handshake with other systems is a resounding NO. Integration of data seamlessly with various ERP solutions is a must for better productivity and fulfilling crucial business demands.
We highly recommend you to buy a solution with API capabilities, even if the solution has one less feature.
Take Away: The enterprise attendance system should be ready for API integration with existing ERP solutions, may it be SAP or a custom built in-house solution.
Scalability – Two things to check for scalability. One the volume it can handle considering the next 5 year growth plan of the organisation. Two, ability to scale up and add-on modules for HR, from attendance to payroll on a single integrated platform.
Take Away: Appoint service provider with a vision to grow in the Attendance & HR vertical. A company which can continuously upgrade and scale the system to match up with new age requirements. You need not just vendors, but experts who can advise on the attendance trends in the industry.
Multi-location management – This is one of the features of attendance system, but this is critical & hence part of this evaluation matrix.
Today companies do not restrict the business to cater locally. But are expanding in various geographies. Even globally. In such scenarios the solution should be able to cater multi-location & multi-time zone.
Take away: The capability of MLM feature is to analyse data from the multi-location workforce, rostering of shifts, real time attendance info, finger-template management across locations.
Contractor management– With companies shifting its focus on the core business, the trend in outsourcing support function is on rise, so it is important to have a checker in place as the cost of contract resources makes a dent in the pocket, if not monitored for actual attendance & performance.
Take away: The solution should be able to monitor the work order of contractor, to attendance & billing. The key to success is to integrate contractor attendance system with the Vendor management tool. A case study
Attendance compliance – Reports as per state statutory is a must. From overtime rules, to compensatory off, number of leaves per year, working hours per day, breaks available and many more details.
Take away: The solution provider must be able to generate the reports, or integrate with a compliance management system for monthly audits.
TAT & SLA adherence – Finally, when we are going to on-board a service provider for an enterprise attendance system, kindly validate, review & do reference check for the services. Few SLA like up time of the system, frequency of patch & version upgrade. Chances of downtime because of updates. Response time to resolve critical errors.
Take away: No matter how good is the solution, at least 30% selection score goes to ongoing services & support by the attendance system service partner.
Biometric support – The starting point to any attendance system is Biometric devices. It is as much important to evaluate the correct device for the organisation. While cost can be a barrier for good devices. But with onetime expenses spread across 5-7 years, it is a clear case of buying quality device over a cheap solution.
A recent news of employees using fake fingers to mark attendance has caused panic in corporate world, as it affects the security too.
Take away: Biometric device with Push technology, finger template management, sensor warranty, guaranteed capability to detect fake & live finger. And most importantly biometric data should integrate seamlessly with attendance system.
Attendance system Security – Data is asset for any organisation. With cybercrime on rise. It is a mandate for any attendance system to have IT security checks in place.
Take way: The attendance system should be security compliant. Need to check for HTTPS, VAPT report & APP security report.
Data migration– Each organisation will have historical data in some format available. Implementing a new system without past data will delay the advantage of implementing a new system. Because the new system will not have enough info for analysis & building attendance trends.
Take Away: The attendance system should have the capability to import past data.
We are sure, if the checklist is adhered than you as an organisation will implement a robust, productivity-enhancing, successful online attendance system. One which will save you time and money and will repay its own cost multiple times.
Kindly share your learning, success/ failure case studies
Looking forward to connect with you for an interactive discussion on attendance automation. Feel free to write to me on dhwani@opportune.in or call me on 9821186599
Back