How do you keep employee hours recorded? Some employers can see what time an employee logged on and off the computer. There is even a way to tell how long the employee has been inactive on a computer. There is the manual log in and log out way, signing in and signing out. This can be subjective sometimes and open to dispute.
Delivery vans and other employees on the road can be fitted with tracking devices which informs the employer where they are and for how long they have been there.Then there is the employee time clock it is difficult to argue with a machine specifically developed for recording start and stop times. These days they have fingerprint recognition and other functions.Where did the employee time clock originate? What is the background?Here is a little background on this inventive work time recording device.
William Bundy was a jeweller who has a healthy small business located in New York on the side he was also the inventor in the Bundy family. After tinkering around for quite some time William Bundy had a finished product to show for his labours by the end of 1888. The Bundy family quite fortuitously also contained a business minded brother and by the end of 1889 William's enterprising brother Harlow Bundy had organised and funded a company that was able to start mass producing Time clocks. The company was called Bundy Manufacturing Company.
Just over a decade later around 1900 Bundy Manufacturing, along with two other time equipment businesses, was consolidated into the International Time Recording Company (ITR) this started quite a few mergers and buy outs and today the trail ends with up at Stanley Security Systems. At this point in the story employee clocks took a turn towards the technology we have today. The punch card system was linked to a microprocessor this was developed by Kronos Incorporated and released to the public in 1979.
In the late twentieth century, massive leaps transformed time clocks, they started to evolve from the original mechanical based machines to computer based, electronic time and attendance systems. Instead of the old stamp or imprint system the employee has a magnetic stripe card the system recognises the employees number and records the clock in information. Time clocks today also have the ability to measure and report on the employees hours against legislation like the European Working Time Directive or relevant local Award or legislative time requirements. There are also employee self service functions available for employees, they can use Employee Time Clocks to request long service leave, annual leave, record sick days and other everyday working recording necessaries.
Today Employee Time Clocks have adopted some of the technology commonly used in mobile devices like phones, laptops and tablets this new generation of time clocks are called 'Smart clocks'. The state of the art smart clocks have many of the same features as phones and tablets touch screens, full colour displays, real time monitoring for problems, wireless networking and over the air updates. The innovations are used to keep employees honest like utilising the cameras on the smart clocks to ensure that the employee clocking in has the same facial features as the employee with the same employee number. The inventiveness of William Bundy continues with manufacturers utilising modern inventions and technology to stream line the recording process. I think his brother Harlow would approve to.
