Biometrics for Clocking In

[Easy Rhino]

While I agree with you guys about the potential union issues, I am new here and my bosses have assured me they'll deal with the fallout and they would just like a solution. So what do you think is the best way to deal with buddy punching at job sites outside of the office?

the managers need to come up with a figure for revenue lost to buddy punching. prove it and then sue the union.

 

[OrbitzXT]

the managers need to come up with a figure for revenue lost to buddy punching. prove it and then sue the union.

As I said earlier, this is currently impossible because right now the only system they have in place is the office communicates verbally with the foreman at the particular job. The foremen are actually supposed to call the office daily and let us know who worked from when to when, but they don't even do that. One of the workers in the office who does payroll spends most of her day calling the foremen trying to get information on the hours worked.

The bosses at my office aren't necessarily trying to get money back from previous time lost to buddy punching. They simply want to enact a system now that stops or limits it from this point forward.

 

[Easy Rhino]

As I said earlier, this is currently impossible because right now the only system they have in place is the office communicates verbally with the foreman at the particular job. The foremen are actually supposed to call the office daily and let us know who worked from when to when, but they don't even do that. One of the workers in the office who does payroll spends most of her day calling the foremen trying to get information on the hours worked.

The bosses at my office aren't necessarily trying to get money back from previous time lost to buddy punching. They simply want to enact a system now that stops or limits it from this point forward.

well IMO a biometrics system would simply escalate the obvious problems that already exist between the union and your organization. if you guys arent seeking any sort of monetary compensation for what you believe to be happening then it obviously is not that big of a deal.

 

[scaminatrix]

IMO, that's even more reason to speak to the employees about it. Ask them what THEY think is the best way (they are the ones who will be afftected the most).
After speaking to them about it, they will most likely have a little meeting between themselves, and they'll probably decide to actually start calling the office daily to avoid the proposed changes.
Even though you don't have to worry about the fallout afterwards; it's still good work ethics to involve the people who are most affected.
As I said, the foreman might actually start calling in every day once they get some detailed info from you on the proposed changes.
If you can use your initiative to FIX the problem without changing anything, you'll be saving the company a lot of money and earning some brownie points too.

 

[Mr McC]

All systems of control are subject to abuse and will be abused, if your bosses attempt to implement tighter control there is no guarantee that it will prove successful and it may actually aggravate the situation given that the workers will probably view the "Big Brother" approach as abusive.

 

[95Viper]

Um, why not go with something, like, smart cards,
Tie the card to the PC and you can control it, modify access use, USB or other techs, secure, etc.

See links below for info:
Smart Cards

The Smart Card Deployment Cookbook

Athena ASECard for Windows Smart Card Starter Kit

DekArt - Dekart Logon is a reliable Windows login solution that offers strong, two and three-factor authentication, and convenient login to Microsoft Windows, Active Directory (including Samba domain controllers), Novell eDirectory. The smart card or USB drive is used to unlock the computer when it boots and lock it whenever it is left unattended.

# Improved security
# Dramatically increases user and IT staff productivity, as they no longer need to spend time dealing with password issues
# Allows using strong, secure passwords while simplifying the logon process
# Eliminates risk of losing or forgetting long passwords
# Enables easy back-up and management of the user credentials
# Seamlessly integrates with the existent infrastructure
# Comes with a high quality USB security device: s USB token or Dekart SIM Card Reader with a SIM sized smart card
# Supports biometric authentication
# Supports an extensive list of third-party hardware solutions

Alandin eToken Network Logon



There are more companies that have solutions for the problem at hand.
Smart card solutions


Edit: That one employee logging in for another is a hard problem to solve, unless you use one of the biometrics, but that is a hard one to get by the union. However, if, you tie the pc and smart card together they would have to have both, their's & their buddy's.

Edit Edit: Take 'em and implant RFID chips, tell 'em it contains their medical history and you are doing it to lower the cost of medical insurance. Joking!

 

[OrbitzXT]

My boss told me today that the Union is already up in arms about the idea of a bioscanner or other invasive tools for punching in and out, but they said something like a web based punch in tool would be okay so that's what were looking into now.

Does anyone have any experience with these? I'm currently using the google to shop around and see the differences. I imagine I'd need one that can allow me to have them only punch in and out from the laptop on the job site. Otherwise a website would probably aid in their buddy punch ins. Also we plan to use their social security numbers as their passwords, in hopes that they want to keep it private and will not share this to have someone punch in for them.

Even if this doesn't completely do away with the problem, I imagine it could curb it to a decent extent which should save the business a good amount of money.

As always though, any thoughts from the smart people here are always appreciated.

 

[OrbitzXT]

I spoke to the gentleman who created this web based solution today...

http://www.punchedin.com/index.html

I think I may try this out. I don't expect it to 100% rid my company of buddy punch-ins but I suspect it should help a lot. It looks simple, should work on the job site, and is non-invasive so the Union won't have anything to complain about.