How to Track Employee Attendance with QR Codes?

Are you worried about your employee attendance tracking in the workplace? Perhaps you’d like to know exactly how many people actually show up for work every day, or perhaps you’d like to reduce staff absenteeism and leave a paper trail of proof of attendance.

Employee attendance tracking is a critical aspect of employee management. It shows where employees are at any time and how they spend their time at the job site. However, if you are still using a manual time and attendance system, it can be a tedious process.

To overcome the manual process challenges, organisations are utilising technology to narrow their approach to taking attendance. Scanning QR codes on badges is one easy and convenient way to track employee attendance at a program.

At first, the idea of tracking attendance using QR codes may seem strange. As, attendance is traditionally tracked using pencil and paper methods, where cards are filled out by an employee putting down everyone’s name and number.
However, with the growing fieldwork or handling of multiple employees in the workplace, companies rely on the use of time and attendance apps as a daily tool that makes tracking attendance easier than ever before.

Similarly, QR Code technology has been rapidly changing the way businesses hand out information, track employee visits, and work hours, and manage field workers using centralised software.

With only a scan of a code, a program staff member can confirm the attendance of any employee in the company, thus decreasing the amount of paperwork or computer time used in tracking those who are present and absent from work.
It is a more efficient method of tracking than pencil and paper, with the added benefit of being able to provide more information about each employee’s attendance; from employee name to their location to the task they perform.
Moreover, now your employees can use smartphones or tablets to clock attendance using the QR code technology. This means that you only have to scan a single QR code for every employee, rather than having to write down everyone’s ID numbers each day. If you’re wondering how to track attendance with QR Codes, read ahead.

What is a QR Code Attendance System?

A QR code attendance system is a method of tracking attendance that utilises QR (Quick Response) codes. This smart attendance system allows individuals to sign in or check-in by scanning a QR code with their smartphone or other mobile device. The code can be placed on a physical item like a badge or printed on a piece of paper, or it can be displayed on a screen. The system can help organisations streamline attendance tracking and reduce the time and effort required for manual record-keeping.

Can You Use A QR Code To Track Attendance?

Yes, QR codes can be used to track attendance. By using a QR code to record attendance, organisations can quickly and accurately capture attendance data. Attendees can scan a QR code at the beginning of an event or session to check in, and then again at the end to check out. The system can also be used to track attendance at remote events or online meetings, where attendees can scan a code displayed on their screen. QR codes can help simplify attendance tracking, reduce errors, and provide real-time attendance information.

Why Are QR Codes The Ideal Tool For Tracking Employee Attendance?

Employee time tracking using smartphones with applications that allow faster and easier attendance capturing is becoming popular among industries. Given the ubiquity and ease of use, QR Codes are another ideal tool for tracking attendance.

The attendance tracker QR Codes provide an efficient and more streamlined alternative to physically noting attendance. Having this functionality natively on smartphones has led to a seamless user flow without having to resort to paper or cards and markers.

We can think of a few reasons why time tracking with QR codes can be beneficial:

Smartphone-based QR code readers let you mark the attendance by scanning a mobile device with your code, rather than having to use pen and paper.

They’re already embedded in some devices, so it’s easier for people to start using them right away.

It reduces the possibility of time theft/buddy punching, as the QR code will be mapped with employee details.

Different Ways To Set Up A QR Code For Employee Attendance System

Whether you’re setting up attendance at a specific workplace, or multiple workplaces, there are two main ways that one can implement QR Codes for tracking attendance.

You can either place a QR Code at the entrance of a workplace, and employees entering or leaving a job site can scan it to punch their time.

Assign a QR Code to each employee either in the form of a physical ID card or on the mobile app, which they will scan every time they enter or leave the job site.

In both methods, you will require to generate QR codes, and here’s how you can do it:

1. Deploy A QR Code Linked To A Form At The Entrance Of Your Workplace

You can create a form with users’ details which they need to provide for marking attendance, you can use Google Forms as well.

Generate a link for the Form which you have created using the form creator solution.

Generate a QR Code with QR Code generator software.

You can attach the form link to the generated QR Code.

Now, print the code and deploy it at the entrance of the workplace.

Employees can now use their smartphones to scan, and record their attendance.

As easy as it sounds, this mitigates the need to hire a staff just for recording attendance. The workflow of marking attendance will be partially automated, but it will speed up the process. However, after scanning the QR code, employees would be required to fill in their details which can be time-consuming.

Furthermore, if the form doesn’t capture the employee’s image, the chances of buddy punching remain high. This is where you can leverage allGeo dynamic forms features to track and record employee attendance.

While the platform you are selecting for generating forms can be anything from Jotforms to Google, implementing a system where you can customise forms and simplify the time-tracking workflow would be more beneficial. This is where you can leverage the allGeo QR code time track.

allGeo provides QR code solutions with dynamic QR codes linked to interactive forms for field data collection. It allows you to collect employee attendance data from the dashboard itself, in other words, you won’t require to handle multiple tools.

Apart from the faster process, you get all the features like:

Generating QR codes for multiple work locations.

Customisation,

Integrations like payroll,

Time and attendance reports.

2. Generate Unique QR Code IDs For Each Employee

Create a dynamic form with all the details you want to capture.

To reduce the repetitive process, generate pre-filled form links for each employee

Generate a QR Code for each employee and attach it to the pre-filled form link.

Incorporate the QR Codes with the employee time tracking mobile app or you can print them for physical ID cards.

Employees can now use their smartphones or physical ID cards, to scan, and record their attendance.

Though the process might seem complicated or tedious, it is an ideal use case for employees working in different locations. The initial setup would require a lot of manual work, but once it’s done it will automate and streamline the entire workflow for your employees.

But if you are managing a large set of employees, generating pre-filled forms and QR codes can be extremely tedious and time taking. This is where allGeo has you covered, you can leverage our tool to generate batches of QR codes and pre-filled forms in bulk.

Attendance QR Codes With The allGeo Bulk Generation

Using the allGeo bulk generation feature, you can easily set up QR Code attendance tracking with dynamic forms by following these steps.

allGeo provides a Google Sheet integrated with an automatic QR code.

Fill in all the employee data in this google sheet, like employee name, ID, location, etc.

Once the employees’ details are filled in, the QR code will be generated automatically in bulk for all the employees.

Instead of generating the QR code for each employee, you can use allGeo’s QR code generator and integrate it with your Google Sheet. As most organisations handle employee data on excel sheets, the generation of QR codes for time clocking becomes easy and seamless.

Does the above solution solve the buddy punching challenge? It doesn’t but with the allGeo customised workflow solutions, you can make ‘upload your photo(real-time employee photo)’ a mandatory action before recording the time and attendance.

Tracking is becoming more and more efficient. To keep up with refinements in employee attendance tracking technology, companies like Truetym are actively investing in solutions that don’t just track their employees’ physical location; they also collect attendance data that can be easily and quickly shared with managers and other interested staff.

While traditional markings have served the purpose of attendance tracking for a long time, it might just be time to give digital options some consideration. allGeo provides software that eliminates the need for paper, pencil, and time when it comes to tracking attendance.