Best Attendance Systems for HR Departments

HR departments are busy and vital to organisations of various sizes. Therefore any person with decision-making power should aim to try and support them with process optimisation. In this article, we will be introducing some of the best attendance systems that can change the way your company runs.

There are more than enough reasons why you should track the attendance of your staff. From ensuring they work the right hours and get paid accordingly to measuring productivity and ROI of your business. The best way of doing that is timesheets. However, traditional pen and paper sheets are easy to tamper with, and Excel spreadsheets often can’t deal with big volumes of data.

Additionally, keying the data from these timesheets to a payroll system takes up a lot of time, not to mention the risk of human error. However, there’s a solution to these challenges -  adopting a digital approach to timesheets. In this article, we will introduce you to some of the best solutions your HR department will love.

Why Do I Need an Employee Attendance System?

Aside from the obvious ‘to better track the attendance’, employee attendance systems offer a few other great benefits. First of all, they save a lot of time for HR - most solutions integrate with payroll software and therefore transfer employee work hours automatically instead of the back-office having to key them in. Secondly, they add several layers of protection to attendance malpractice such as buddy punching. And finally, most solutions offer additional features that help your business grow.  Let us introduce some of the top ones.

1. Timesheet Portal

Timesheet Portal is a flexible system that can be adjusted to the needs of a company of any size. Instead of offering a few pre-set plans, customers get to build their unique set of features and, upon scaling, can easily upgrade them. From a variety of in-built reports to fully customisable timesheets and a timesheet approval process, Timesheet Portal is the software that meets you on your grounds.

A wide range of integrations also means that not only will your HR department gain a powerful tool, but also expand capacity and automation opportunities across other solutions it uses. For example, Timesheet Portal integrates with the payroll systems such as Sage and Quickbooks, meaning the timesheets logged on a platform can be exported directly instead of being keyed in manually. 

2. When I Work

Although not exclusive, this software best caters to the retail and hospitality sectors. However, other industries can benefit from it too, especially if they have shift workers. It contains a powerful scheduling tool that is enhanced with break management and shift bidding features. The cost of the solution is pretty competitive too, designed to adjust to companies with a fluctuating count of staff members.

When I Work also adds a layer of security measures to prevent malpractice like buddy punching (clocking in for another employee) by having an option of a photo clock-in. It also helps you to ensure your workers take sufficient breaks and don’t exceed their weekly hours by disabling early clock-ins and forcefully clocking the employee out once their allocated break time begins.

3. PurelyHR

For those who seek a solution that enables thorough time tracking customisation, PurelyHR may be the perfect platform. While it only has one base plan, a variety of add-ons such as performance management,  talent management, policy violation warnings and many others allow you to make this software cater for the specific needs of your business.

While the rest of the functionality meets the expectation one would have for an employee attendance system (even exceeding it, e.g. allowing adding comments on time card punches), it has one major flaw. There is no phone mobile app available. If your staff is constantly on the move between the locations or there is no computer access on the site, this otherwise great platform is certainly not suitable for you.

4. Time Doctor

While equipped with the standard time and attendance tracking features, Time Doctor is software that’s perfect for companies that operate from the office. It grants visibility of the users’ devices, the websites they browse on the clock, the applications used and even allow taking screenshots of it.

While it offers high levels of transparency to the employer, the software is designed to aid the employee too. It is equipped with time use alerts, reminders that help them stay on track with the task (e.g. notifying them when they’re trying to visit a non-job relate website) and daily activity reports. When utilised correctly, Time Doctor is more than just an attendance system and can help raise office productivity. 

5. OnTheClock

This solution is most suitable for smaller businesses with limited budgets but in need of a functional platform. OnTheClock doesn’t offer more than the industry standard, but the competitive pricing and cost-per-employee pay model makes it perfect for growing companies.

A very attractive aspect of OnTheClock is that it involves several methods of clocking in and out, ranging from a mobile app to a kiosk. While it gives you the ability to customise your attendance-related procedures, it may also help you adjust them better to the individual needs of the employees. The platform also has a drag-and-drop scheduling feature, perfect for workplaces that utilise rotas as it will be stored in a centralised location.

Summary

HR is historically undergoing digital transformation at a slower pace than other parts of the business. This is mostly caused by the fact it’s responsible for some of the core processes within any organisation. However, your business will benefit from you adopting it as quickly as it can. You can find more information on the topic in this article here.

We wanted to put you on the right track by introducing a diverse set of employee attendance systems by showing you that no matter how unique your needs are - there’s a digital solution addressing them.

If you would like to discuss the route of digital transformation in HR - we can provide further guidance.