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As much as it’s exciting to run a business, managing employees is a task. Companies with huge teams, in particular, often wonder if there was any easier way of keeping track of employees in huge manufacturing plants. Some are moving around, some are attending meetings, some are on their priority tasks and basically everyone is scattered in different areas. Now if you go checking manually where they all are, if everything is running smoothly, whether work is being done efficiently and if everyone is safe, it’s going to be quite a hassle.
Thankfully, with promising tech advancements like Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Ultra-Wideband (UWB), employee location tracking, recording attendance and ensuring workplace safety has become very easy. It really means a lot for businesses with bustling floors. Let’s understand how these systems work and what makes them super necessary in today’s work environment.
What is an Employee Tracking & Monitoring System?
We’ll start by learning about this fantastic tool. It’s a highly practical system through which you can effortlessly track the movements of your employees and what they do during work hours. You no longer have to go on manually and mark their attendance or stress about whether they are where they are supposed to be. Count on this employee monitoring device to get real-time updates like a live dashboard.
In large facilities like factories, hospitals or huge offices, employees often need to move between areas. A tracking system lets employers see who is where. They can know if anybody has entered a restricted area or if a certain employee is available for a task to be assigned. This really makes life easier for the managers who need to make sure their teams are working properly.
BLE and UWB both have common attributes and are considered best for indoor position tracking. These devices are Class B end devices. Moreover, UWB is far superior to Bluetooth, because UWB determines location via ToF and Bluetooth determines location via RSSI. Although the cost for UWB is higher than BLE.
How Does the BLE based employee tracking system work?
The system uses tracking devices which are basically BLE beacons and can even be in the form of ID badges that are usually carried around by employees. These devices send signals to the gateways (BLE signal Receivers) which are strategically placed in the premises. Team heads can get all this information on their mobile app or web panel and that’s how they know about their staff. Let’s see how it works:
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Employee Carries the Device
Your employees will always carry a smart ID badge which will broadcast signal in scheduled time intervals, that is mostly less than 1000ms.
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Gateways Around the Workplace
With BLE based gateways installed in different locations on the premises, tracking is never a problem. These locations are determined based on several calculations.
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Data is Collected & Sent
The system gets the data from the gateways and sends it to a central server. Most of the computation happens on server.
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IoT dashboard for employee tracking
From here, their managers can see their frequent movements. Even the insights on productivity can be visualised.
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Reports & Alerts
In no time the system gives you a thorough report on attendance, working hours and other important details.
Certainly, this method is far more convenient, accurate and helpful than fingerprint scanners or manual check-ins. Plus, there’s no invasion of privacy because the system tracks only work-related movements in the premises only. The traditional methods can never provide such useful data.
Key Features of an Employee Tracking System
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Employee Location Tracking
With this, managers can check where employees are during work hours within seconds and this is extremely useful for large places with a huge number of workers. You can easily know an employee’s location for better coordination.
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Computerized Attendance Tracking
Employees don’t have to sign in manually upon entering the office. They are automatically marked present when they step in. Now this is very good when it comes to eliminating errors or preventing employees from signing in for each other (proxy).
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Geo-Fencing & Restricted Areas
By creating virtual boundaries, companies can make sure their employees stay within their assigned areas. The moment anyone enters a restricted area, an alarm gets triggered and this stops people from entering restricted zones.
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Employee Productivity Monitoring
The system is also smart enough to generate reports on total work hours and movement patterns. This will help managers understand the work pattern of their team and they can accordingly optimize everyone’s work schedules.
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Emergency Alerts & Safety Compliance
If ever there’s an emergency like a fire or accident at work, the system can promptly locate employees and thus make sure that everyone in the facility is safe.
Benefits of Using an Employee Tracking System
1. Increases Workplace Productivity
When you know where the employees are and where they move around the day, you can assign them tasks better. This way nobody is either under-worked or over-worked.
2. Improves Security
Since you get real-time location updates, there will hardly be any unauthorized access to sensitive areas and hence, lower risk of security breaches or incidents at work.
3. Reduces Manual Work
Who needs to maintain physical registers or tally the fingerprint scanners for attendance all the time when everything is automated? That’s how you save time and effort.
4. Workforce Management
It becomes easier for businesses to make better staffing decisions because they know who is available, how much an employee is occupied and how efficiently all tasks are being completed.
5. Compliance with Regulations
Specific industries like healthcare and manufacturing need to monitor their employees more strictly for the sake of their safety. With this device, businesses can also comply with the stated rules.
6. Cost Savings
When the staff works efficiently and there are no unnecessary delays, businesses ultimately save a lot of money on labor and operations.
Suggested Reading: Forklift Tracking and Monitoring System
The ROI of an Employee Tracking System
If you wonder whether it’s worth investing in an Employee Tracking System, the answer is yes. This is because the system pays for itself in so many different ways. To begin with, it really helps in ensuring all tasks are completed on time. Here’s what makes it an excellent investment:
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Saves time
As discussed, no need for manual check-in and out and paperwork that saves many hours for both employees and managers.
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No time theft
Employees become more accountable as the system has the entire record of their work hours. No buddy punching or extended breaks anymore.
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Increased security
Nobody who’s unauthorized can enter sensitive areas. It reduces the risks of theft, violations of safety or any compliance issues.
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Better workforce allocation
With almost real-time data on employee in hand, managers can make sure each department has the right number of employees and the workload is effectively distributed.
Over a period of time, you will notice that the system will contribute to higher efficiency, more employee accountability, minimal payroll errors and overall lower operational costs.
Conclusion
Besides keeping tabs on employees, an Employee Tracking System also makes the workplace smarter, safer, and more efficient. Modern technologies like BLE and UWB can track employee movements and streamline operations without putting extra workload on managers.
If you run a large facility and handle many employees in the same place, the tracking system can make workforce management a breeze. You can learn more about this remarkable concept by visiting getgeo today!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Employee Tracking & Monitoring System?
It is an advanced system with which you can keep track of your employees’ activities and frequent movements during work hours. It helps increase productivity, recording attendance and ensuring workplace security.
How does the system work?
Employees will have small tracking devices in their ID badges or other wearables that they will carry throughout the day. Their data is available for managers to see in real time.
What are the key features of an Employee Tracking System?
It helps with real-time tracking of the employees, automatic attendance, sends alerts when somebody enters restricted areas, helps measure work efficiency and finds employees to save them from any danger.
What is the ROI of implementing an employee tracking system?
It saves time, makes employees accountable for their job hours, increases security and helps manage the workforce and workload. In the long run, businesses save money and become more efficient.