Attendance management has become a vital aspect in companies, particularly the ones with remote teams and distributed locations. While the traditional attendance systems usually lack the location context, allowing room for manipulation and fraudulent behaviours, the modern and smart attendance management tools offer GPS based attendance that combines geo location detection for attendance tracking. Most companies with field work and setups that demand regular site visits and travelling have shifted to geo attendance. This geo location attendance system eliminates the need for manual processes and tremendous attendance tracking, allowing smooth, accurate, and efficient tracking. This blog will explore the features of GPS location-based attendance systems and how these smart systems reduce attendance manipulation.
What is Attendance Manipulation and Why It Happens?
Attendance manipulation refers to the tactic where an individual tries to falsify or alter attendance data, usually to gain unfair advantage. Attendance manipulation may include employees trying to modify their clock-in or clock-out times, marking attendance for other fellow employees, also called buddy punching, someone pretending to be at work location for unfair attendance marking, someone clocking-in outside the designated area and manipulating organisations for attendance, someone trying to alter the existing attendance data and more such practices. This often happens due to lack of geo tracking for employee management, no system for attendance with time and location and ineffective methods of employee attendance tracking. Utilising manual processes for attendance marking and tracking is not only tremendous to maintain but also prone to errors and inaccuracies. When organisations work without an authentic GPS attendance system, it means they get no location validation which can oftentimes lead to remote oversights. This can lead to salary errors, accountability gaps, and payroll disputes.
In setups where there is minimal to no supervision, particularly CCTV surveillance, employees may take unfair advantage and alter their attendance. Also, due to lack of real-time insights, attendance tracking can make irregularities go unnoticed, causing inaccuracies in data. Some studies have shown that using GPS attendance systems for attendance can significantly reduce attendance manipulation, buddy punching, and other fraudulent attendance practices. A proper geo tracking employee management system helps track employee location in real-time, eradicating room for false practices and inaccuracies.
Why Traditional Attendance Management Systems Don’t Work Anymore?
Traditional attendance management systems come concomitant with certain challenges like data entry errors, potential for proxy attendance, payroll generation delays. A traditional attendance system is prone to traditional attendance issues. A study reveals that 93% of students feel that a web-based geo attendance system would motivate them to attend lectures by allowing real-time accurate insights. The primary reason for dissatisfaction with the current traditional attendance system is that manual recordkeeping is likely to cause inaccuracies and errors in data which can make individuals feel unfair.
Using static biometric tied to one location with no real-time visibility or access to employee live tracking can lead to delays and inaccurate attendance markings. Traditional systems don’t allow attendance across multiple sites, which gives zero space for managing attendance for remote staff and staff working across different locations. Therefore, modern attendance methods, particularly the ones that offer multi-location attendance, work. These location based attendance systems help effectively manage attendance tracking across different locations.
How Do GPS Based Attendance Systems Stop Manipulation?
A GPS based attendance system offers real-time benefits that eventually help an organisation stop attendance-related manipulations and fraudulent behaviors. Some of these are elucidated below as follows:
Real-time remote attendance check-ins tied to employee location
With the help of geo location attendance, employees can only mark their attendance if they are physically present at a site. The employee GPS tracking feature allows HRs and organisations to keep track of attendance in real-time. It also helps validate attendance, eliminating false attendance markings. This GPS based attendance system works best for organizations that require their employees to work or travel across different designated locations.
Mobile-based remote attendance management with GPS tracking
One of the best solutions for reducing false attendance risks is providing employees with a geofencing attendance software that is available to them in minutes. A mobile-based system with GPS based attendance helps individuals mark their attendance within seconds from different designated locations too; they don’t have to go through the long, tremendous processes of manual markings. There are certain HRMS software and mobile applications like IDOne, that works on geotagging, helping employees mark their attendance using the mobile app when working from off-site locations.
Geo fenced remote attendance: restrict check-ins to specific areas
Geofencing attendance is the type of attendance that allows one to virtually designate or define an area, often called a geo-fenced area, around a specific location. This helps organisations geotag their employees based on their presence in the geofenced areas. If an employee is present in the geofenced area, they are considered present, and anyone outside this designated area is marked absent. Geo fenced remote attendance restricts log-ins to specified areas (specified by organisations), removing fraudulent attendance markings.
Geotag based attendance: every log includes verified time and GPS coordinates
Geotag based attendance works on tracking an employee’s location through attendance management software installed on their mobile phones. It helps tag an employee's presence across multiple locations. Geotagging employee attendance allows HRs to keep track of employees’ real-time presence on-site or at other work locations. Every clock-in and clock-out is verified in geotagging employee attendance based systems, allowing accurate data entry.
Notifications for out-of-bound attendance check-ins
When organisations use geo location based attendance, their attendance is marked on the basis of the geotagging employee attendance feature. This means if an employee tries to mark their attendance when not present in the designated or defined area, the system sends an alert or a notification to HRs, managers, or any authorised person, informing them of potential manipulation and inaccuracies. This helps reduce practices like false clock-ins, buddy punching, and attendance manipulation.
Must-Have Features in a GPS Attendance System
A GPS attendance system is not only used for accurate attendance tracking but also for simplifying the payroll generation process. Such attendance systems offer a myriad of features, and some of these features are non-negotiable when it comes to having an effective employee tracker and employee management system. Some of these must-have features are elucidated below as follows:
Geofencing and geo attendance validation
Having a geofencing attendance feature allows organisations to geofence (mark areas virtually) designated areas for each work location. This provides HRs and authorised personnel from organisations with accurate information regarding employees’ attendance, as geo tracking allows effective and precise employee management, eliminating attendance manipulation tactics.
Mobile-first design with offline attendance sync
One significant challenge that employees face with geo tracking employee management applications is that these applications may require internet connectivity. Field workers may not always have access to Wi-Fi or a stable connection, preventing them from marking their attendance. Therefore, offline syncs in the mobile interface of such attendance trackers streamline the employee management process, enabling accurate field workforce tracking.
Real-time dashboards and alerts
A good location based attendance tool offers real-time dashboards, providing comprehensive insights into employee activity for employees, HRs, and organisations. It offers real-time visibility to HRs and organisations into who is present or absent. Moreover, in case of inaccuracies, buddy punch-ins, false attendance markings, and other such practices, it sends alerts to organisations, helping them keep things fair in the workplace.
Support for multi-location attendance
Some organizations have a prerequisite for employees to travel across multiple locations from time to time. This demand calls for a multi-location based attendance tracker, which allows attendance marking for different job locations, branches, client sites, and other requirements. Moreover, it reduces administrative workload by consolidating attendance from different locations into one place, usually a single dashboard.
Attendance with time and location for auditing
With time and location features, HRMS tools can help geotag employees’ every check-in and check-out. This feature also helps build a transparent compliance system for audit reviews, enhancing an organisation's integrity. Geo attendance, when integrated with payroll, leave, and shift systems, aids in creating a comprehensive dashboard which can be accessed for smart evaluation. It proves helpful to companies as it generally aligns with client requirements.
Business Impact of Geo-Based Attendance
A geo-based attendance system is vital for business growth as it not only enhances transparency but also helps build a robust compliance setup with tangible benefits that can drive organizational success. Major impacts are listed below:
Fewer attendance disputes and payroll errors
Attendance with time and location helps organizations maintain accurate attendance records, where every check-in is time-stamped and geo-tagged. It eradicates disputes related to attendance, as employees can no longer engage in malpractices or manipulate records, ensuring a fair and transparent system for everyone. Consequently, geo attendance helps remove attendance related disputes and reduces payroll errors.
Boost in employee accountability
GPS based attendance helps HRs create a transparent employee management system. This approach also aids in keeping employees accountable and responsible, as a robust and transparent system is likely to keep them in compliance with organization rules and regulations.
Stronger compliance with labour policies
Geotagging employee attendance helps regulate and keep track of overtime, working hours, and accurate location-based regulations, allowing effective compliance with labor policies. An effective solution for employee attendance management removes ambiguity and enhances accuracy, helping the organisation stay aligned with regulatory compliance.
Transparency and trust across remote or field teams
Geo attendance enhances accuracy and transparency by enabling field workforce tracking, which can help off-site workers feel they are being treated fairly, as it reduces the risk of HR manipulation and favoritism. Remote workers and field teams are more likely to feel confident in the organisation.
Easier multi-site management for HR Teams
Organisations with multiple branches or teams at multiple locations require a robust geo tracking employee management system. This system helps HRs easily track employee location based on the geotag feature, and hence minimises attendance errors for field force management. Moreover, it reduces the manual workload for administrators by maintaining records in one place for multiple sites.
Ready to Reduce Attendance Manipulation with GPS Location Based Attendance Systems?
GPS and location based attendance tools help prevent manipulation and foster trust among employees. At Transline Technologies, we offer a robust and effective HRMS solution called IDOne, designed to streamline attendance tracking for all your employees. With features like geofencing attendance, QR code check-ins, leave management, and automatic payroll generation, IDOne eliminates the need for time-consuming manual tasks like emails and spreadsheets. Everything you need is accessible in seconds, all in one place.
Ready to reduce manipulation and simplify tracking? Connect with our Solutions Team to try our GPS enabled attendance management system built for remote, hybrid, and multi location teams. Contact us today and leverage our smart solutions.
