New Normal

14
Feb
2021

How Rounding Rules Can Save Your Organization Time and Money

Employee shift differential and overtime expenses are challenging for organizations of all sizes to anticipate or identify because the differentials do not jump off the page. Rather, it is that accumulation of punch time differentials that cause the biggest problems and cost the organization the most money. Using time rounding rules can help organizations prevent unexpected expenses and headaches.

Avoid Clock Creep

Shifts might have designated end times, but often an employee’s work may not. It is common in many organizations for an employee to clock out after their shift has ended, which tacks on time to their time worked. This may only be a few minutes each day, but cumulatively, this can add up to meaningful amounts of time that require paying overtime or trigger other requirements. This “clock creep” can be costly for businesses and result in unexpected budget impact.

Integrating ZKTeco’s Ultima device with your organization’s Human Capital Management system (HCM) can help to avoid clock creep by using rounding rules for time punches falling outside of the employee’s scheduled shift. For example, if an employee’s shift ends at 5:00PM, but she clocks out at 5:03, Ultima’s rounding rule function will record the punch out time as 5:00 if there is a rounding rule that records time in fifteen minute increments and defaults back to the prior quarter hour. Ultima will then push the rounded time to the HCM.

Rounding rules can be applied individually to all punch types. These rules are also customizable to a specific organization’s policies and labor law requirements.

Simplify Payroll and HR Processes

Rounding rules help Human Resources (HR) teams avoid the time-intensive work required to verify punch times to avoid clock creep. This results in more efficient payroll processes. This also enables HR professionals to identify real issues, such as unapproved or excessive overtime, which may require attention. By surfacing real time punch issues, HR professionals will be better equipped to remedy issues and avoid significant budget issues down the line.

Further, because the review process will be less intensive, HR can enlist people managers to help identify punch time anomalies and work with their team members to resolve the issue.

Simple Solutions to Avoid Complex Problems

Implementing rounding rules can help an organization better manage their employees time and avoiding unexpected or unintentional budget or employment law compliance issues. Clock creep impacts businesses of all sizes and of all types. Utilizing the Ultima timeclock’s rounding rules function, in combination with your HCM’s shift scheduling process, can help to avoid clock creep and headaches and issues that come with it.

Posted by Editor in Future, New Normal
26
Dec
2020

Say Goodbye Paper Visitor Logs and Protect Your Facility

Say Goodbye Paper Visitor Logs and Protect Your Facility - Visitor Check-in Made Easy

We are proud to announce the addition of a visitor management module to our market-leading Ultima device. This new module allows visitors to sign-into your facility with the same Ultima device that your employees use to record their time punches. By integrating visitor management into the Ultima timeclock device, organizations can leverage Ultima’s many technical features and user-friendly interface in a new and business-critical way.

A Simple Process for Visitors and Facility Administrators

The Ultima device is simple for visitors to use, providing easy to follow prompts, guiding them through the check-in process without the need for assistance. Here is an example of a typical visitor’s check-in experience:

  • The visitor will check-in on the Ultima device by providing personal information and will indicate the person the visitor is there to see.
  • Next, the visitor will be asked a series of attestation questions. This attestation feature can be used to ask COVID-19-related questions and to gather information required by state and local health authorities.
  • The Ultima device will then record the visitor’s body temperature using Ultima’s built-in thermal camera and, if enabled, take a still-image snapshot of the visitor for identification purposes.
  • When the visitor check-in process is completed, a Red Flag alert will be sent to up to three personnel within your organization if the visitor’s attestation responses or body temperature reading indicate that there is an issue and the visitor should not be allowed into the facility (e.g., the visitor has a fever or indicates a recent potential exposure to COVID-19)

Many Useful Features, One Powerful Device

As this example illustrates, the visitor module is easy to use. But because every business has different requirements, the module is designed with many customizable features.

Thermal Module: Ultima’s thermal module will read a visitor’s body temperature and indicate whether that temperate is within an acceptable temperature range. If the visitor’s temperature falls outside of that range, a warning will be triggered. This module works with Ultima’s mask recognition functionality, which does not require removing a face mask.

Attestation Questions: The visitor module can be configured to ask visitors attestation questions to gather critical wellness information or other information from visitors to your facility. All of this information can be stored for future reference, (e.g., for contract tracing) or passed on to a third party system (e.g., an Amazon S3 bucket).

Photographs for Security: Ultima is equipped with a camera which can be used to capture a visitor’s image for security purposes. The visitor’s image is linked to other data collected during the check-in process and can be stored for future reference and identification purposes.

Notifications: Ultima can be configured to send a Red Flag warning notification to three individuals within the organization based on how a visitor answers attestation questions or if a body temperature reading indicates a visitor has a fever. This notification can be customized to include the visitor’s answers to the attestation questions, temperature data, and photograph, providing facility managers with critical information in real time.

Data Storage: Ultima can store visitor records, including attestation question answers and temperature data. Because temperature information may be considered health information under HIPPA, the visitor module can also be configured to provide a temperature reading for compliance purposes, but not store the visitor’s temperature information.

Configuration Menus: With all of these available features, Ultima’s administrative menus are designed to make configuration easy. Administrators can choose from many optional features in an easy-to-navigate set of menus to customize their solution, as needed

By integrating visitor management into the Ultima device, organizations can simplify and streamline workforce data management and visitor management into one versatile device and leverage Ultima’s many technical, integration, and installation options. Visitor management has become more complicated and business-critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speak with a ZKTeco representative today about how the Ultima visitor management system can work for your organization.

Posted by Editor in Future, New Normal
14
Oct
2020

Cleaning Your Clock – Keeping Your Time Clock Device Germ-Free

Timeclock devices are, by their nature, one of the highest-touch areas of your business. It is critical that this device is kept sanitized at all times to prevent the spread of disease within the workplace. Whether your business has protocols for cleaning time clocks, or you need assistance with developing best-practices for sanitizing your timeclock, ZKTeco is here to help with solutions to ensure your business remains safe and healthy.

View our Cleaning Guide

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused businesses across all industries to examine their sanitation practices. State and local health authorities in most areas have developed protocols for keeping businesses safe, but each business should develop its own tailored set of best practices. To help develop best-practices for your business ZKTeco has developed options for keeping your timeclocks clean and sanitized.

Wipe on, wipe off

Timeclock devices can be cleaned with approved cleaning products and a soft cloth, like a microfiber cloth. Before and after each employee uses the device, he or she should wipe the device with a wet cloth and then use a dry cloth to remove any remaining cleaning product on the device. Be careful to not over saturate the cloth or the device and fully dry the device during this cleaning process, removing excess moisture. While this cleaning method is nothing fancy, this method is effective and quick.

Frozen screen… on purpose

ZKTeco’s Ultima timeclock is equipped with a new feature that freezes the device’s screen for thirty seconds so users can wipe the device without having to avoid inadvertently pushing buttons. The user should press the button on the bottom left of the screen which will freeze the screen. Users should use this freeze option to clean the device before and after using the device. This protects the user and anyone who may use the device later on. This feature is exclusive to the Ultima Clock series.

Other ways to keep clean

A key element of a health and safety plan is that the plan fits your business needs. There is no one-size-fits-all plan that will work for every business. For this reason, ZKTeco has suggestions on other ways to keep safe while using your timeclock. Some businesses have opted to use disposable finger cots or finger coverings. Other businesses use a stylus for interacting with the time clock, which allows users to make selections on the device without physically touching the device at all. In some cases, businesses have found that a completely touchless device that relies on facial recognition functionality is the best fit. ZKTeco’s Ultima device can be configured for whatever options are the best fit for your business.

To keep your employees healthy and safe, you need options, and ZKTeco is ready to work with you to develop a workforce management solution and safety protocols built around what your business needs.

If you have any questions please contact us and schedule a consultation EMAIL to us
or Contact us

Posted by Editor in New Normal
25
Sep
2020

Timeclock solutions for the “New Normal”

Workplace operations are changing faster than ever before in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses must take new precautions to protect the health and safety of their employees, customers, vendors, and anyone else who may interact with their personnel and facilities. ZKTeco has the solutions needed to meet the challenge posed by the pandemic to ensure business continuity with a focus on health and safety. Workforce management solutions can play a central role in business operations and employee safety and wellness. ZKTeco stands ready to assist your business with all of your workforce management solutions needs.

The pandemic has caused us all to reexamine even the most basic processes in our businesses. In this new-normal, timeclock devices for workforce management have become even more essential to business operations as employers seek to capture time and attendance data and also ensure that employees are healthy and complying with health and safety regulations. In addition to time punch data, timeclocks can serve multiple purposes in a workplace including capturing an employee’s body temperature and identifying if he or she is wearing a mask. The new normal is requiring business to rethink their operations and timeclock terminals can serve as a central element of this new normal workplace environment.

Timeclocks are a high-touch area of a business and one of the most shared devices in the workplace with every employee interacting with the timeclock terminal during their workday. Employers increasingly expect that timeclock devices keep their workplaces safe while delivering the same timekeeping functionality essential to business operations. ZKTeco’s Ultima timeclock is a cost-effective device that packs all of this essential functionality into a single terminal, meeting the demanding requirements of your business.

In the new normal, businesses need flexibility and customized support. The Ultima timeclock is built with the required functionality and flexibility and can be configured to meet any requirements.

  • Many businesses utilize a timeclock terminal in their facility that requires physical interaction with the device. Common features like fingerprint scanners are no longer the best option in this new normal environment, due to sanitation concerns. As businesses look to upgrade their timeclock terminals, finding a terminal that provides many customizable options is critical to provide maximum flexibility as workplace safety demands change over time. ZKTeco’s Ultima provides employers with choices on how to manage their employees and in this new normal world, choice and flexibility has never been more important.
  • The new normal demands that employers rethink how to utilize touchless punch technology like employee identification cards. Whether a business wishes to use a barcode, a RIFD chip-based cards, or a magnetic strip swipe card, Ultima is able to accommodate all requirements.
  • Ultima also supports biometric technologies, like facial recognition that can identify employees even while wearing a mask and reduce employee physical contact with the timeclock terminal. In this new normal environment, many businesses are exploring biometrics technologies as a secure and safe option for touchless time clock interactions. *
  • In addition to biometric technology, Ultima is equipped with thermal scanning technology that can determine an employee’s temperate and identify those who may be ill as a part of the employee time punch process. In many businesses, the task of taking employee temperatures is manual. With the Ultima terminal, this task is made safer and more efficient, removing the close personal interaction required to take another person’s temperature. *

The new normal has presented a lot of new challenges for businesses and employees. As workplaces adjust to meet these challenges, technologies like ZKTeco’s Ultima are available to help. This new normal environment requires businesses to be flexible and adaptive as the rules for operating businesses in different industries change. Ultima is the market-leader in flexibility, configurability, and can be integrated into any businesses’ workplace management system.

For more information, contact your ZKTeco sales representative or, for new customers, connect with us at: Email us or 732-412-6007

* While exploring this option, businesses will need to consider state regulations to ensure compliance with all regulations and notice requirements.

Posted by Editor in New Normal