The History of Biometric Punching Attendance System

Why is it important for organisations to maintain attendance? 

A company in the corporate sector pay their employees depending on the number of working days and calculating their loss of payment during the leaves. So naturally, they needed to keep tabs on the working hours; for instance, in the late 1800s, time clocks were important devices that factory owners used to record the working time. Soon, electric time clocks took over the mechanical ones; this was followed by the invention of the time clock software in the 1990s.

The technological advancement paved the way for modern and compact computing systems, and time clock software also evolved further. Different industries, including the educator sector, also started investing in advanced attendance management systems like biometrics. However, it is noteworthy to mention that institutes adopted the tool not just for attendance but for many other purposes.

Why has the biometric attendance system become an in-demand tool for institutes? 

Conducts attendance automatically 

The first activity before starting the class that teachers need to conduct without fail is calling the students’ names individually to record their absence or presence. Unfortunately, this takes up quite a lot of teachers’ time, and they also have the additional responsibility of maintaining the attendance register. Besides, the traditional way of recording attendance has been in use for the longest time and is not compatible with online classes. 

On the other hand, when the institutes integrate the biometric system in the institute, students can easily record their attendance by simply placing their fingers on the biometric device. As the device would have the original fingerprint input stored, their attendance would get marked after a quick verification. 

When an institute plans to avail the system, they ensure that the fingerprint storage capacity is huge and scalable. Moreover, they are mindful that the student mass could increase in the coming years.

Prevents proxy attendance 

During online classes, a few students may skip their classes and ask a friend of theirs to attend instead; this is a common occurrence during online exams as well. A remote examiner would not know if the registered student is taking the test without proper measures. One of the key advantages of the biometric system is that only the registered students get access to the exam website. 

Before logging into the exam website, students need to authenticate their identities through fingerprint or iris scanning. As a result, they won’t be able to conduct any malpractices such as proxy attendance. 

Integrating to payroll management system 

The system is not just useful for maintaining the students’ attendance but also for improving the payroll system’s efficiency. Besides, the school has so many departments, including the teaching staff, admin department, accounts and HR. Therefore, it is a challenging task to maintain an attendance register for all of them simultaneously. So, if all the staff members use the biometric system to record their attendance, it will become easier to calculate the number of present days. 

Consequently, accurate employee attendance details will help to fasten the computation of salaries. 

Accuracy of data 

A common problem that admin and teachers alike face with the traditional attendance system is that they need to count the number of present and absent days manually. However, with the biometric management system, they can easily rely on automated attendance reports. Moreover, it provides accurate data as opposed to the traditional system, which leads to manual errors. 

Security of data 

Students require to input their personal information while registering themselves with the biometric system. So, there is a fear of student data getting leaked or compromised; one of the top-most priorities of the institute is to protect the student information. Therefore, the system ensures the security of the data via encryption which prevents unauthorized personnel from gaining access. 

In conclusion 

The education sector has come a long way in terms of recording and management; a biometric system is one of the tools that have taken precedence in recent years. Besides, through its various features, such as fingerprints and facial and iris recognition, it ensures to prevent any proxy attendance. Additionally, it helps to minimize time consumption and the human effort required to record attendance.