In terms of the registered number of companies in India, the figure is approximately 26.63 lakh. In 2022 alone, new businesses were registered at 173,114. The number of people working across these companies would outnumber the total population even in some of the largest countries in the world.
Given this huge number, one interesting question you may have is how these companies track employees working hours. There are different varieties of attendance management system used in India. In this blog, letâs examine some of the most popular types of them.
Top 5 Attendance Management Systems Popular in Indian Businesses
Pen and Paper-Based Method
Pen and paper-based attendance tracking has been one of the most common forms of attendance management in India for decades. Even though several companies are switching to cloud-based employee attendance management system these days, this conventional method is still being used in many sectors.
For instance, construction, manufacturing, etc. A relatively cheaper option, in this method, as soon as the employees arrive, they locate the attendance register in the office and enter their clock-in time and signature. At the end of the month, the HR manually counts the number of days each employee reported to work and uses the data for payroll processing.
Excel-Based Time Tracking Sheets
This is a bit more advanced version of the pen and paper-based method. Instead of the physical attendance register, here employees mark their attendance on the Excel sheet. They do it either on a common office computer or on their own systems via the shared Excel sheet. This approach makes the attendance calculation easier for the HR team.
However, this method is not completely secure. Anyone can edit the attendance data on the Excel sheet. For instance, an employee who arrived at 10 am could later change it to 9 am. Budding punching is another challenge to deal with when relying on this free attendance management system.
Online attendance management system
As per the latest data, more than 50% of companies have switched to online attendance management systems, making it the most popular method in the country as of now. In this method, employees clock in or clock out via a cloud-based time and attendance software. Each employee would have access to the software with their login details the system can be accessed on their browser from anywhere.
Unlike the Excel sheet method, here there is no need to enter the time manually. Instead, pressing the clock-in button on the software will record the attendance of the employee with the exact time and make the data available in real time for the HR team. One of the main advantages of this method is that this even works for remote employees.
Attendance Management via Mobile App
These days, there are dedicated mobile apps for every service which you can get done on a web browser. A mobile-app-based attendance management system is a typical example of that. The majority of the time and attendance software out there in the market have their mobile app versions for Android and iOS operating systems. The features might vary though.
You can experience the finest form of smart attendance management via a mobile app in Mewurk. In addition to the basic attendance marking, the Mewurk Mobile App supports GPS tracking. Companies that want their field staff to report to work within specific location limits can require them to use this feature for geo-fencing purposes.
Biometric Clock-In Machine
Biometric click-in machines are another advancement in the field of attendance management systems. These devices are designed to mark or track the attendance of an employee after matching them based on the biometric data it has been fed with. For instance, fingerprint, iris or facial data.
Iris and face recognition attendance machines are the latest innovations in the segment of biometric attendance management systems. In an office which has installed a face-recognition attendance machine, all that an employee needs to do is look at the camera on the machine and the attendance gets marked. Today, the biometric attendance management system has even got better. With AI-enabled face recognition capabilities, there is more accuracy, precision and fastness.
Conclusion
There are multiple methods to mark employee attendance. However, the degree of convenience and accuracy of data and integration capabilities vary. We hope this blog gave you more clarity on what type of employee attendance management system you should choose for your business in India.
