Checking 'time theft' inside office

You step into the office at 10:10 pm instead of the stipulated 10:00 pm with a heavy heart and a long list of most suitable excuses to roll out for being late, in case of an interrogation by the boss.

However, the chief only shoots a dirty look at you, giving the message. But then there is this colleague of yours who comes in at 10:20, with his head upright and feeling little guilty. He also goes scot free. Again the message is clear to you: Tomorrow you can also try his method.

Being habitually late for work, leaving early, constant socialising with other employees, excessive personal phone calls, claiming illness and taking unjustified 'sick' days, reducing productivity in order to create overtime work, listening to the radio, watching television or reading books and magazines, eating lunch inside and then going out for a full lunch period and frequent and long coffee and snack breaks are some of the aspects of wilful duty evasion universally practised by employees, says a study on time theft conducted by Robert Half International.

Mantra Technologies, an Ahmedabad-based biometric security and business solutions company, said studies show that the average worker is overpaid Rs 6.80 per day (49 minutes), Rs 190.4 per month and a total of Rs 2,284.80 annually for unauthorised or unearned time.

The company said human error data entry losses and auditing losses due to insufficient security and payroll systems are the major sources of any enterprise's annual payroll loses. The cumulative annual payroll loss due to these factors for a company that employs 100 people will be around Rs 3.5 lakh, the company said.

"If an employee of a company comes in five minutes late, takes an additional five minutes during the lunch break and leaves five minutes early, the company is forced to pay for the stolen time. If 100 workers waste 15 minutes each of productive paid time, it puts a major monthly burden on the employer," said Percy Master, associate manager, Godrej.

Godrej offers TimeSpan access control and time attendance system, a device that ensures quality time of the company is not lost due to time theft.

"Time theft is nothing new. On the first day of the employment, the employee reaches office on time. As days go by, he learns how to steal time. To curb this, companies introduced punch cards. Each employee should punch in while coming inside the company and leaving the premises. Initially, this system proved successful as employees felt they are being watched," Muralee Warrier, owner of Ganson Systems in the Fort area of Mumbai, said.

Ganson deals in access control and time attendance systems manufactured by various companies.

"But proxy punching rendered this system ineffective. The machine senses the card and records that the employee is present, though the employee may not be physically present. Someone else can punch for the employee. Same is the case with proximity cards, which the employee is supposed to flash in front of the sensor," Muralee said.

"This is where biometric systems come into play. They are foolproof, reliable and cost effective," said Manoj Kurankar, general manager of Pune-based Axis, a company that develops authentication products, solutions, integration suites and services.

In biometric authentication, a person's identity is confirmed by examining characteristics such as fingerprint, iris, retina, or signature, Axis officials said. Physical characteristics are unalterable, so they provide a foolproof security system.

"Moreover, a biometric system offers a variety of conveniences. No employee can complain of a lost card or a forgotten password. There cannot be any proxy punching. Usually, when an employee leaves the organisation, the magnetic or punch card becomes redundant. It cannot be used by another employee. Biometrics solves all these problems," Kurankar said.

Axis' microprocessor-based time and attendance and access control system, Time N' Track, is enabled with biometrics and smart card technology.

It offers leave management, shift management and payroll management, the company said.

"This equipment can be used as an attendance system as well as an access control system. Using this system, the company can restrict employee access to certain cabins, buildings and work areas," Kurankar said.

Axis' DesCop, a biometrics-based desktop security system, protects one's computer from unauthorised use.

Godrej's TimeSpan automatically executes overtime monitoring, employee tracking and report generation. The product interfaces with barcode, proximity and biometrics and integrates with payroll systems.

It also offers a modem connection option for downloading data from remote locations, personal computer connectivity and in-built printer connectivity.

"We expect the market to grow faster in the coming years with more companies finding it cost-effective to install an attendance system," Percy Master said.

"We at Axis manufacture the products keeping in view the Indian conditions. We use our own sensors and algorithm as the sensors show variation in their performance with the change in weather," Kurankar said.

"There is a vast market to be tapped. We see tremendous growth in this segment in the coming days," he said. Hiren Bhandari of Mantra Technologies said, "Five companies are entering into biometric technology every month. We have our own biometrics technology (algorithm)." He said many companies are just resellers, importing the components and software development kits and use that into their application.

Mantra Technologies offers FVS SDK, that enables a user to develop fingerprint authentication applications more quickly and easily. The products also include Time Trak and Mantra TypeKey, a logon system, which uses one's typing rhythm along with conventional user name and password to authenticate the PC use.

However, employees of most offices are, understandably, averse to installing these systems.

"I often find it hard to sell time attendance and phone usage monitoring systems. When I go to an office to introduce such systems, I immediately fall out of favour of the employees there. I hate supplying these gadgets to a company where I already have a contract for servicing telecommunication equipment. The employees are sure to complain to the management against my telephone servicing to 'avenge' for introducing systems that put a lash on them," a dealer said.

Obviously, who will like it if big brother's watching "" nay breathing down one's neck?