A three-store body shop in Baltimore, Md., is using a facial recognition employee time attendance system to eliminate "buddy punching," or the act of an employee helping another employee out by punching him or her in or out. According to a study by Nucleus Research, the practice costs 74 percent of organizations’ payroll losses.
Camden Body & Fender, which was founded in 1925 and is the oldest auto repair shop in Maryland, had used the classic punch card method in the past, which was vulnerable to buddy punching. Moreover, there was the inconvenience of processing all the cards and adding up hours each week for payroll.
In 2006, Camden moved to an electronic badge swipe system so that employees would carry their badges with them, as opposed to leaving punch cards on a rack next to the clock for anyone to take. However, this method didn’t work as hoped, since employees were still able to leave their badges with a co-worker and have a buddy swipe in or out of work. The badge system was also difficult to administrate, requiring complicated server software installed at the shop and constant rebooting. The badges cost the shop three dollars each and would periodically deteriorate and require replacement.
In 2009, Camden gave up on the badge system and switched to a web-based time clock using a touch screen and pin number for each employee. Although this new system had the benefits of using a web-based service without requiring a server and employee badges, it had the downside of not working whenever the Internet connection wasn’t reliable. Whenever such a situation would arise, employees couldn’t clock in or out, creating a payroll nightmare.
Finally, in 2011, Camden Body decided to switch to a web-based facial recognition time clock service by Fareclock, Inc. It prevented buddy punching, no server was required, payroll processing was easy, and there was zero downtime.
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