Warehouses and manufacturers rely on efficient workforces to meet their operational demands. You need a workforce management system that improves your control and fosters productivity, not one that creates more problems and wastes time on admin. So how do you know which system is right for you?
Workforce Structure
Your workforce and the system required to manage it is unique.
Two key factors you should consider are the size of your workforce, and the number of sites they are spread across. Some systems will work better for a larger number of staff in one location but may not be able to properly handle multiple sites, and vice versa. There may also be cost implications based on your headcount or locations.
Shift patterns can be crucial to help optimise production and output, but they may add complexity that some systems struggle to handle. This is further complicated if there is different pay or skill requirements associated to each shift.
If you employ agency or temporary staff, you need a system that can easily onboard new staff quickly and allow them to fit within your existing shift patterns and processes.
Finally, if you have any remote workers or mobile workers who are not regularly onsite, you still need to track their hours accurately and easily.
How to clock in and out
There are multiple ways that staff can register their hours. Depending on the system, it may be a variation on one or several of the following. Each type has pros and cons, and you should weigh these up against what your workforce will require.
* Smart Card or Key Fob:
These are probably the most common type of credential for clocking in and out. They are good for audit trails as they are assigned to a single user, and don't have many data protection issues. However, they can be forgotten or lost and need replacing.
* Biometric:
This type of credential is often a fingerprint or facial authentication scan. While they cannot be lost, there is a greater need for data protection to alleviate privacy concerns. Certain job roles may find it difficult to use this type of credential because they may be wearing lots of PPE, restricting visibility for authentication scanners.
* App:
App-based systems are great for employees who are regularly working at different sites, travel a lot, or work from home. You can easily log in and update your hours. However, unlike a physical clock-in system, users are more likely to forget and there may be GDPR issues if the app is on a personal device.
Exceptions
There will always be exceptions or caveats to employee clock-in data. You need to make sure that the workforce management system can adequately handle specific use cases that your business implements. You need to consider things like how you recover data if an employee forgets to clock in, overtime or TOIL calculations, breaks in the shift, or even if shift swapping is allowed. Whatever your business currently offers, the system needs to be able to handle it.
Reports and Audits
Clock-in data should be trustworthy, so if amendments or changes do need to occur, there must be a clear audit trail that highlights who has interacted with the data, and why the changes were made. This could be as simple as a manager correcting a mistaken clock-in, or approving shift swaps between employees, or a HR manager exporting reports for GDPR purposes.
Employees should be able to see information like their holiday entitlement and upcoming shifts, as well as the hours they've worked. They also need to know that their data is being protected and only accessed for justified and legitimate purposes.
Scalability
Your business is not immutable. There may be busier periods where you need to hire more temporary staff and then reduce the numbers back down, or you might be thinking about expanding to another site. You need to bear in mind whether your systems can manage this or not. If one site is governed by one set of systems and another site uses another, this can cause discrepancies when it comes to payroll or HR tracking. This is also worth bearing in mind if you have any other integrated systems — can they easily accommodate extra sites and seasonal workers?
Access Control
Access Control and clocking systems are often implemented together. You can enhance site security with tailored access patterns that sync up with shift allocations and clock-in data. This may not be possible for every clocking system, and if it is, there's no guarantee that they will be compatible with an Access Control system you have already.
It is also important to recognise that not everyone needs the same access. Managers may be able to enter more areas than temporary staff, while only cleaners should have access to cleaning cupboards.
With integrated Access Control you can easily remove ex-employees, so they don't continue to have access. This might require an HR integration, which is another important point to bear in mind.
Payroll and HR
Clock-in data is ultimately used for employers and employees to ensure a fair and accurate accounting of hours worked. Systems that unfairly punish employees or don't protect employers will cause problems. Data quality needs to be a fair and transparent transaction between the employee and employer so both parties can come to an accord; discrepancies and ambiguity lead to disputes.
Furthermore, the recent changes to UK law around day-one sick pay, holiday leave tracking, and minimum wage increases need to be accounted for, and quality clock-in data can help Payroll and HR teams immensely.
Why choose Tensor
Tensor's Time and Attendance hardware and software is an excellent solution for organisations of any size. Our systems are modular, so you can start with a single clock-in terminal and expand as your business requires. Our system can handle complex shift patterns and pay schemes and integrates with our HR module and our Access Control systems. This allows you to monitor and audit employee activity, leveraging our CCTV and ANPR to give a full report on access times, clock-in times, any pass-back or buddy punching, and unauthorised entry attempts. You can also generate (automatically or manually) reports of hours worked, time-off and sickness, annual leave accruement, and staff training, which links with HR and Payroll to give accurate and auditable data, all from one integrated system.
Summary
Ultimately, when you choose a workforce management tool or system, you need something that matches your needs as closely as possible to make sure it is fit for purpose. Ideally, you want a system that does more than your current system does, not less.
To learn more and to discover how Tensor can meet the bespoke needs of your business, arrange a demo today.
