How does an online attendance tracker work?

Considering the changing working conditions, automation is starting to become one of the key priorities for many HR teams. According to a recent PwC survey, about 45% of respondents state that process automation or intelligent automation is one of their key focus areas. Attendance is one of the everyday HR processes that has to be automated, and cloud-based attendance management systems are increasing in popularity. If you are planning to adopt one, here's a quick overview of how online attendance trackers work:

• Tracks employee attendance online

Cloud-based attendance trackers empower employees to mark their attendance online. Your employees can check in using the web or mobile application. If you have a biometric system for attendance, your online attendance system can be integrated with it to capture data and store it in a centralized space. Or, if you are looking for an online biometric system, most cloud-based attendance trackers come with facial recognition technology to prevent proxies or any other attendance discrepancies. Employees can track their working hours, managers can track the total working hours of their team, and the HR team can access the attendance details of the entire workforce.

• Streamlines all aspects of attendance

Online attendance trackers don't just stop with tracking working hours; they simplify every aspect of attendance management. If your employees want to take short absences from work to run a personal errand, they can apply for permission through the system and get it approved by their managers. Similarly, if they have to work outside of the office for a client visit or any other reason, they can simply apply for On Duty and get their attendance covered. Further, if senior employees at your organization (like the CEO or C-level leaders) are not able to mark their attendance regularly, you can mark them as present by default. Online attendance trackers also provide a way for HR teams to track their workforce's overtime hours.

• Keeps attendance data accurate

If your employees fail to mark their attendance or mark it incorrectly, they can raise an attendance regularization request through the system and correct faulty entries. Similarly, HR administrators can get a clear idea about all the check-in and check-out entries, including permissions and lunch breaks, throughout a working day. Further, if you want to make sure that your employees only mark their attendance from a specific location, you can set geo-restrictions. This way, employees can only access the attendance tracking feature when they are within the geo-range that you've defined.

• Simplifies shift management

Most online attendance trackers come with built-in shift schedulers that help you assign shifts to employees that work with clients in different regions. You can create any number of shifts and assign them as needed. Whenever a new shift is assigned to your employees, they'll be notified instantly; they can also submit shift change requests if they are not able to keep the assigned shift. Similarly, your employees can be rotated from one shift to another regularly and automatically. You can get a bird's-eye view of your entire workforce's shift schedules and prevent shift conflicts.

• Provides access to multiple reports

Attendance reports help you stay on top of all essential information regarding your workforce's everyday attendance status and provide a clear picture of the attendance patterns at your organization. The daily status reports help managers and HR teams understand who's in and who's out so that it's easy to assign tasks and get work done. Additionally, you can also get details about which of your employees have checked in early or late, and who has worked overtime. All of this data will be helpful for payroll processing too.

Understanding the basics of online attendance tracker

Having an online attendance tracker for your organization can work wonders for your organization by streamlining every tedious administrative task associated with attendance management. It's better to say goodbye to manual processes when you have such an efficient way to track attendance. We hope this blog gave you a clear idea of the basics of how an online attendance tracker works!

Zoho People, our HRMS, comes with a cloud-based, online attendance tracker that provides a simplified way for organizations to track employee working hours, assign shift schedules, regularize faulty attendance entries, and facilitate attendance compliance. Learn more about Zoho People's online attendance tracker. 

Also read:What are the advantages of tracking attendance online?