Biometric devices use features of the body to identify individuals, such as a finger template or shape of the hand. Biometric devices provide offer some significant security advantages over traditional methods of access control. Included below are 5 ways biometric devices can improve workforce security.
Buddy Punching
Implementing a biometric device to manage your time and attendance can greatly reduce your losses eliminating the time theft practices of buddy punching. The term “buddy punching” refers to the practice of hourly workers punching the time clock on behalf of fellow employees who are leaving early, arriving late, absent from work or not scheduled for work that day. A major consequence of buddy punching is that employees are getting paid for time in which they are not even on the job.
Recent studies have concluded that buddy punching can account to up to 5% of a company’s payroll cost.
Privacy
There are no privacy issues or risk associated with biometric devices. Biometric devices do not store images of the hand or fingerprint. The information of the employees enrolled is a template of their hand or fingerprint, created using a series of algorithms. These templates cannot be used to replicate a person’s hand shape or fingerprint.
Authorized Personnel
As biometric devices are unique and cannot be swapped, faked, or lost, security managers have complete confidence that unauthorized individuals can’t access keys – with biometric devices physical keys are not distributed.
Misplaced Employee Badges
Employee badges cannot be passed along to an individual nefariously or accidently. Biometric devices make employee access control much more secure than a traditional system that relies on physical keys.
Loss Prevention
Like it or not, employees steal from their employers. Biometric devices can bolster a loss prevention policy. When managers are busy or distracted, employees may borrow their keys, or swipe cards, leading to theft related activities. However, with biometric devices, a manager must be physically present to offer their biometric authentication for the authorization to be completed.
Overall, it is important to remember that biometric devices are not the means to the end of workforce security, but rather part of an overall strategy, along with other preventative measures to keep your organization as secure as it possibly can be.