AboutTime releases facial recognition sign-in to track mobile employees

Dec 31, 2019, 2:30 pm EST | Luana Pascu

AboutTime releases facial recognition sign-in to track mobile employees

AboutTime Technologies has added facial recognition to mobile workforce management tool WorkMax TIME for accurate and automated employee time tracking, the company announced.

The enhanced system for mobile workforce identity verification cuts down costs and improves enterprise security because there is no added hardware, expense or manual verification, AboutTime claims. WorkMax TIME’s face recognition has an auto-search function and uses intelligent computing and facial-spatial measuring algorithms for comparison, reducing the need for manual inspection.

“When we launched WorkMax TIME, we offered mobile photo face capture tied to the time records like many time tracking solutions do, but we always planned to add automated face recognition to perform the bulk of the work and enable WorkMax customers to eliminate buddy-punching and time-theft,” said Ryan Remkes, CEO of AboutTime Technologies. “We wanted to free up the need for humans to manually inspect every employee time stamp. WorkMax face recognition helps reduce time theft and automates the process for our customers. This results in paying the right employees for their work accurately.”

Some key benefits include automated facial recognition for automated photo comparison, the elimination of buddy punching by filtering time records and analyzing time stamps, mismatch alerts, and enhanced security through facial recognition and GPS features which ensures employees are where they are supposed to be. WorkMax saves time because it reduces the need for manual check. Unlike other biometric solutions, it doesn’t require expensive equipment and can be activated on a smartphone.

Not all employees might be willing to use it, though. In New Zealand, an electrician was fired for “serious misconduct” after he refused twice to use a facial scanning sign-in system at work fearing how his biometric data would be used, stored and protected, reports NZ Herald.

By installing Timecloud, KME argued it would “help us track employees and subcontractors in case of emergencies or site evacuation.” Deployment was postponed for a few weeks because employees raised concerns about biometric data privacy and protection.

After he was fired, Tim Fenson reported the company to the Employment Relations Authority. The institution ruled KME’s decision as unreasonable and that there were “significant problems” in how the facial recognition tracking system was introduced in the company. As a result, the construction company will pay over $23,000 (US$15,500) in compensation.