Clocking-in machine

10 Things to Think About When Choosing your Clocking-in Machine

Deciding you need an efficient time and attendance system to help you track, collect and process your employees’ hours is the easy part, in fact it’s a no-brainer. Accurate record keeping of employee attendance is not even optional these days – not if you want to stay compliant with the law, avoid losing money you don’t need to and also save endless hours of admin paperwork (which no-one can afford not to be doing right now). Choosing your clocking-in machine, however… isn’t so simple. Biometric fingerprint, RFID, facial recognition, temperature reader – does it matter? Or should you just head over to the uAttend shop and pick the first one you find? Well, no, not really…

So, to help you make the decision a little easier, here are 10 things to think about when choosing your clocking-in machine:

  1. Does it need to be contactless? If your staff wear protective hand gear, or you’re worried about hygiene, you may prefer or even insist on a no-touch machine.
  2. Does it need to be as quick as possible? If you have one machine and a hundred workers clocking in and out at every shift, you want the clocking process to be as quick as humanly possible.
  3. Is avoiding the spread of germs paramount? If so, a temperature reader is the best way to go. This would mean that anyone arriving with a fever would be denied access to clock in.
  4. Do I have hundreds of workers using the machine? Many biometric machines have a limited storage capacity of between 100 and 300 fingerprint of facial templates. If you have several hundred employees, another option maybe better.
  5. Do my workers wear protective uniforms when they enter the workplace? If they have nowhere to feasibly store a fob or card, RFID may just not be a viable solution for you.
  6. Do you have workers who are not fluent in English? If so, it would be easier to have a machine that doesn’t require voice activation for clocking in and out, and lets them know clock-in has been successful with a sound rather than a recorded message.
  7. Do you want employees to be able to start and end breaks and transfer departments on the machine? If that’s the case, RFID machines may not be suitable for your needs.
  8. Would you prefer a machine that can offer more than one clocking method? Most of our biometric machines also allow for RFID clocking and pin clocking. This way, you can choose which employee clocks in using which method.
  9. What kind of connectivity do I have on my site? Some clocking-in machines offer internet connectivity via LAN only, which may not be suitable for your needs. If connectivity is a frequent issue, a machine that allows Offline Clocking would be your best option.
  10. Do I need easy Template Transfer? If you have multiple sites that require clocking machines, a terminal that allows all of your staff to clock in without downloading their biometric templates will save you lots of time.

If you’re still not sure as to which clocking machine is right for you, please contact a member of our sales team and they will happily offer you some advice.