What is buddy punching? How to prevent it? Time theft. Solution

Buddy punching refers to the practice of one employee punching in or out for another employee, often for the purpose of covering for a late arrival or early departure. This is a form of time theft, as it results in employees being paid for time they did not work.

Preventing buddy punching can be done through the use of time and attendance systems that use biometric methods such as fingerprints or facial recognition to verify the identity of the employee punching in or out. This ensures that only the employee whose fingerprints or face is registered in the system can punch in or out, making it much more difficult for someone else to do it on their behalf.

Another way to prevent buddy punching is to use time and attendance systems that have a geofencing feature, which only allows employees to punch in or out when they are in a specific location. This prevents employees from punching in or out remotely and helps to ensure that they are actually on the premises.

Additionally, some companies also use a “selfie” feature that requires employees to take a photo of themselves when they punch in or out, this also helps to prevent buddy punching.

Another solution is to have a strict attendance policy in place that clearly outlines the consequences for time theft, including buddy punching, and communicates it to all employees. This can act as a deterrent and help to create a culture of accountability within the organization.

Regularly auditing and monitoring attendance records can also help to detect and prevent buddy punching. By reviewing time and attendance records, managers can identify patterns of suspicious behavior and take appropriate action.

In conclusion, buddy punching is a form of time theft that can be prevented through the use of time and attendance systems that use biometric methods or geofencing, as well as strict attendance policies, regular monitoring and auditing, and the use of “selfie” feature. By implementing these solutions, organizations can ensure that employees are only paid for the time they have worked.

Buddy punching is the most serious problem which happens in an organisation. In buddy punching attendance is marked by a colleague. Buddy punching is done when an employee is late or is not coming in an organisation. Not just the government organisation buddy punching is seen in private organisation as well.

Considering a scenario where an employee is doing a buddy punching for for a person who is just 15 minutes late. If the same is done by 15 person in an organisation of 50 people then when we calculate in percentage this will be a big time theft.

Buddy punching is a serious concern in in service as well as product based organisations. Due to this and employee is paid for the number of hours person has not worked for. This is a serious concern for any organisation productivity as this is related to the finance of an organisation. Buddy punching should be treated as illegal and an organisation should prepare a strict policy against the buddy punching, as this causes and harm to the organisation productivity.

RFID card based attendance system which were used to mark the attendance is very prone to Buddy punching. Manual registers which were used in many organisations for marking attendance is another way by which fake attendance can be marked.

 

How to prevent buddy punching?

Mobile attendance app!

Face recognition Mobile attendance app with GEO fencing and GEO tagging can be used to capture the attendance of an employee. When the employees time is captured by cloud server on real time basis an accurate attendance will be captured. Not just that time, location can also be captured of an employee. For office employees GEO Fencing option can be used which will allow an employee to mark the attendance when they are present inside the office premises. Geo tagging option can be used, GPS enabled mobile app can be used to track the the live location of employee.

Merits of mobile attendance app!

• Realtime reports
• Most accurate attendance
• No Fake attendance

This is a matter of concern for not for just the big organizations but the small organisations as well.

Biometric devices

Use of fingerprint based time attendance machines can help in reducing the buddy punching. They are more secure than RFID attendance system. By the use of fingerprint based time attendance machine you can avoid buddy punching. This can help you in saving a lot of money. In biometric devices fingerprint is used to mark the attendance of an employee.

Merits of biometric devices

• Accurate attendance
• Real time report
• Most secure

Demerits of biometric devices

It required to be installed at every site.
Costly solution when number of employees are one or two per site
Need a internet connectivity

Face recognition time attendance

Facial recognition time attendance solution have elimitated the security holes that were present in the traditional biometric devices. This is more secure and much faster then traditional fingerprint based devices.

Conclusion

As understood Buddy Punching is a serious concern for the organisation growth. It is about the time theft which is happening. It is very important to take an immediate action to stop this. An organisation can implement a biometric machine or a face recognition attendance solution for mobile attendance app depending upon their budgets and requirement. For more information and any kind of help please feel free to email us at in**@am*********.com. You can also fill up the following form with your requirement so that one of our representative can connect you and understand your requirements and provide a solution for you.

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