Let’s start by first explaining what ghost employees and buddy clocking/punching are.
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) defines ghost employees as “someone recorded on the payroll system, but who does not work for the business.” This can either refer to a real person, placed knowingly or unknowingly on the company’s payroll, or it could be a fictitious employee.
The concept of buddy clocking/punching is nothing more than one employee clocking/punching in on a clocking machine for their co-worker, helping them avoid penalties such as showing up late, leaving early, or not showing up at all.
Both these instances lead to massive losses for the company, which could include:
- paying an annual salary to an employee that simply does not exist
- paying an employee for hours worked, where no one did any actual work
- expensive overtime pay-outs
- productivity could go down, due to time theft, etc.
One of the only sure ways to combat this is by installing a software solution that automatically monitors the exact time employees are at work. Coupled with a hardware upgrade, no employee will be able to bypass the system again, as positive biometric verification would be required to clock IN or OUT of any given shift.
Fingerprint verification hardware is a sure-fire way to manage this. Without time punch cards or access cards, an employee won’t be able to clock/punch for another employee. These fingerprint devices can store thousands of fingerprint templates, making it ideal for any size business. An added benefit is that it can also be used for security purposes, granting access to only specific individuals at specific entry points.
So, unless an individual employee actually clocks in at work, the system will mark them as absent, saving you money in the end.
