Employee absenteeism is dealt with by HR professionals.
They draft sick leave policies & procedures, take calls from employees calling in sick, determine whether official reports or doctor’s notes are required to grant them leaves, inform managers about the concerned issues, and share information with seniors to administer the employees’ leaves.
As you can see, manually it would take hours to approve a leave of an employee. But what if it can all be done with automated software? What if employees would only require marking their attendance or requesting for leave and the software would do the rest of the work?
Before switching your attendance system from manual to automated, let’s clear your doubts in this blog of manual vs automated attendance.
In this manual vs automated attendance system piece, we’re going to take the discussion forward while breaking it down to its single atom, but quite precisely:
Lets Begin: Manual vs Automated Attendance
Never forget: When it comes to attendance management TIME is MONEY
We certainly moving from manual to automated attendance system, but did you imagine why?
Manual process:
- Complexity of the Data management
- Key person dependency
- Involves a lot of Paperwork
- Possibility of human error to occur is Large
Wasting TOO MUCH TIME on low-value activities
Automated Process:
- System is Centralised
- Scope of errors is marginal
- Minimal Manual Intervention
- Collects information in a Real Time
SAVES TIME, EFFORTS, and RESOURCES
In any organisation, when several employees start showing up and departing simultaneously, they spend time waiting to enter and exit.
Lots of time will be wasted in just getting in and out, while they wait to punch in and out.
Another significant loss resulting from the manual attendance system is being handled with an outdated system. The most time-consuming part, for instance, is keeping track of an employee’s working hours.
If the manual attendance system doesn’t have an organised structure, it’ll bring the business down to its knees and it’ll keep it there until you quit or upgrade.
Employee attendance inputs are critical for correctly calculating salaries. Salaries are calculated on the basis of the number of days an employee has worked, which is derived from attendance records.
Furthermore, attendance data is utilised to determine Shift Allowances, Attendance Bonus, Overtime and compensatory offs.
See, how everything is interconnected.
Which is the Smart Attendance Management System?
Of course, automated attendance systems are more intelligent than manual ones
Of course, automated attendance systems are more intelligent than manual ones
You may examine future employee costs using computerised statistics and forecasts by an attendance system. You might export the data, which could be used to determine whether you have or didn’t have enough employees during a busy season, for instance, if you have one.
Conversely, you can look at your slower times and determine if your staff is more efficient.
Good luck calculating those things manually.
Why Automated Attendance System
Automated Attendance System Literally Conveys the Message of “Prepare for Growth”
With a team of 5 or even 20 people, you can continue to operate, calculate, and create schedules manually, but if you want to grow you need an attendance software.
You have to let it scale your firm as it grows and free up your time so you can concentrate on expanding your business.
Simply put, the idea of “preparing for growth” means spending more time considering the direction your company will go rather than wasting hours on mundane activities such as manually keeping the attendance records or figuring out who’s being absent regularly; let automation do the job.
How Attendance Automation Can Make A Difference?
HR automation handles all tedious and repetitive processes. Additionally, they deliver accurate results within a specific time frame. Along with this, it reduces chances of human error. Therefore, it improves the quality of the results.
Have you ever pondered how secure your manually archived documents are? Certainly, no one can take responsibility for it. And lost or missing data can greatly affect the organisation.
Automated attendance system has become a powerful solution to all these problems.
Benefits of Automated Time And Attendance Records
Seeking a solution that simplifies the workflows is vital for the organisation’s advancement to be effective. Because it is responsible for ensuring employees’ welfare, the HR department has given utmost importance. Additionally, HR automation is quickly becoming a must for all HR managers.
Automating attendance processes has enormous advantages. Some of them are- .
1. Paperless Documentation
Many tasks, especially involving a lot of paperwork, are integrated into the HR function. Take manual attendance, for example, where evaluating attendance necessitates using a lot of paper. However, in the end, all those pieces of paper will be useless.
Organisations may save much money by switching from manual to cloud-based solutions.
Consider the identical scenario from the last part. HR managers must manually prepare an attendance sheet by the month’s end. This requires a long time and frequently gets boring. When using an automated system, you must set up the guidelines; the system will take care of the rest.
2. Easy-to- Upgrade
Manual processing takes a lot of time and work. Additionally, if there are any updates or modifications made while the tasks are being completed, it seems the process must be repeated from scratch.
Take the scenario where you are managing payroll. When you reach the calculation step, you complete all essential numerical calculations before realising that the fiscal criteria have undergone an upgrade. The time you invested in the procedure is, therefore, totally ineffective.
Contrarily, when you install an automated system, you gain relief from all of those issues like calculating arrears. Simply enter the relevant data once, and the system will make the appropriate modifications automatically.
3. Improve Productivity
The automated approach significantly reduces the need for time, cost, and effort. Data is processed rapidly, and sharing is made simpler and thus more adaptable.
However, it requires patience to email documents to the relevant person manually, and if you are far away, it is challenging to deliver them in the given timeframe.
With such a simple approach, acquiring the required data takes a few moments, sparing you with the time you would have otherwise lost.
Furthermore, as the system takes care of all the repetitive tasks, it acts as an impulse factor to keep attention on the primary duties. These features promote productivity by boosting employee morale and encouraging focused work.
When it comes to comparison, both manual and automated attendance systems walk on a path that fits their needs. Although, the differences that makes automated attendance a bit superior than manual are as follows:
Attendance System During And After Covid-19
Manual attendance system has evolved in the last few years in response to new health measures in the workplace, giving rise to automated attendance applications with geolocation as the best option today.
Here are some benefits:
4. Zero contact
With the new normal we seek to avoid any action that could become a source of infection. The registration of attendance under this modality avoids contact with the same device for the entire organisation.
5. Lower investments
The investment in assets is less since it does not involve the implementation of a biometric control clock for use, but only the assistance software.
An automated attendance software, such as HROne, allows employees to mark their attendance through the portal or simply use the app.
6. Process automation
Process automation is always welcome to facilitate tasks and loads. Applications intended for this task can also perform other key actions such as sending permission requests or constantly reviewing the markup history by the employee.
Many times, it is thought that the attendance management system via geolocation is exclusive for the home office modality, however, the reality is that even in the conventional operation it is one more measure to avoid massive outbreaks of diseases.
More than a problem, the current lifestyle has been an opportunity to open new paths to success, using technology in daily processes can help the company reach a different level and provide employees with experiences that make them feel comfortable, cared for and part of a company that seeks continuous improvement.
Know When It’s Time To Automate Attendance
That Excel sheet for measuring time, attendance, and schedules may appear to be a kind of automation. However, it is only as effective as the person who remembers to record their real-time rather than estimating it.
If your company uses a manual system for keeping track of work schedules and attendance, it will “probably work” until everything becomes a complete mess.
You’re opening the door to system errors, illegible cards, or dishonesty (such as “buddy punching,” where employees mark friends who are absent or late, as well as standard human error); if you primarily use paper punch cards, excel records & spreadsheets, or even ancient magnetic card systems. Because that’s all, an outdated system can manage to offer you.
Outstanding technology makes the calculation of time and attendance easier, which also removes the potential for fraud.
Suppose you are caught off guard by the operation of your existing attendance system or realise that there have been irregularities in your employees’ time.
In that case, your next move should be to select an automated attendance system.
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