Attendance loopholes are devouring corporate profits, with 80% of overtime pay possibly going down the drain
A Financial Director's Shocking Discovery
"I just can't make sense of this account!" Ms. Zhang, the financial director of a technology company, made a shocking discovery during the annual audit: the company disbursed 1 million yuan in overtime pay throughout the year, but the actual valid overtime expenditure was less than 200,000 yuan. This means that more than 800,000 yuan in overtime pay fell into the black hole of attendance management.
Alarming Audit Results
As the investigation deepened, a series of systemic attendance loopholes came to light:
Time Fraud Remains Rampant Despite Repeated Bans
The investigation showed that time fraud has become the main loophole for overtime pay loss. Employees of a certain project team did not leave immediately after work; instead, they handled personal matters at their workstations and only clocked out an hour or two later to create the illusion of working overtime. What's worse, some employees in technical positions used their system permissions to directly modify clock-in records through the backend, artificially delaying their normal off-work time by 2-3 hours. When the audit department retrieved the surveillance footage, it found that an employee claimed to have worked overtime until 10 p.m., but actually left their workstation at 7 p.m.
Serious Identity Fraud and Distorted Attendance Data
When auditing staff checked the attendance records, they found that the same clock-in device recorded clock-in information of different employees consecutively in a very short period of time, which clearly indicated organized proxy clock-in behavior. For example, the surveillance footage showed an employee staying briefly in front of the clock-in machine, but the device repeatedly emitted prompts for successful verification. Further investigation revealed that some employees used counterfeit fingerprint films, allowing one person to carry the "fingerprints" of multiple colleagues for batch clock-ins, completely distorting the basic attendance data.
Data Vulnerable to Tampering, Supervision Ineffective
The backend management of the attendance system has serious hidden risks. Personnel with system administrator privileges can modify clock-in records at will, and the traces of modification are difficult to trace. An IT department employee of a company revealed that they had been asked by their department supervisor to add overtime records in batches for the entire team. This kind of "fabrication out of thin air" fraudulent behavior renders the attendance supervision system ineffective.
Lack of Management Supervision
The overtime approval process is seriously formalistic. Most managers adopt an "accept all" attitude towards overtime applications and rarely verify the authenticity and necessity of overtime work. Some managers even use approving overtime as a means to win over subordinates and proactively encourage false reporting of overtime. A department manager admitted: "Everyone does this; if I take it too seriously, I will offend people instead."
Industry-wide Problem: Why Is Overtime Management So Difficult?
Inherent Defects in Traditional Attendance Systems
Fingerprint clock-ins are easy to copy, password clock-ins can be shared, and card-swiping clock-ins can be done by proxies—all these traditional methods have obvious loopholes. Especially in large manufacturing enterprises and labor-intensive enterprises, attendance fraud has become an open secret.
Backward Supervision Methods
Enterprises often rely on manual spot checks and post-event audits, making it difficult to achieve real-time monitoring and effective prevention. When problems are discovered, losses have often already been incurred.
Deviated Cultural Orientation
The wrong concept that "overtime hours = dedication" has led some enterprises to implicitly encourage ineffective overtime. This cultural orientation has provided fertile ground for attendance fraud.
Real Case: Alarming Losses
An audit of a manufacturing enterprise found that:
The night-shift attendance records were seriously inconsistent with the surveillance videos, and the actual attendance rate was less than 70%.
Fingerprints of different people appeared at the same workstation at different times, indicating systemic proxy clock-ins.
Overtime output was completely out of proportion to working hours, with low efficiency.
Within three months, the enterprise suffered losses of more than 800,000 yuan as a result.
Iris Recognition: Building an Untamperable Attendance Defense Line
After a large enterprise introduced an iris recognition attendance system, the effect was immediate:
Accurate Time Period Management
The system automatically records the actual overtime hours, eliminating the possibility of manual modification. Each clock-in requires live iris verification to ensure the accuracy of time records.
Unique Identity Authentication
The uniqueness of iris features fundamentally solves the problem of proxy clock-ins. Each employee must be present in person to complete the clock-in, ensuring that the person matches the identity.
Data Security Assurance
Encryption technology is used to store attendance data to prevent backend tampering. All operations leave traces, providing a reliable basis for audits.
Intelligent Analysis and Early Warning
The system can automatically analyze overtime efficiency, issue early warnings for abnormal overtime behavior, and help managers detect problems in a timely manner.
Real Feedback: Voices of Enterprise Managers
The Human Resources Director Stated
"After the iris attendance system was launched, the monthly overtime expenditure decreased by an average of 65%, saving nearly 1 million yuan annually. Employees also realized that they must work overtime actually to receive remuneration, and their work attitude has improved significantly."
The Financial Director Sighed
"Now the overtime data is true and reliable, and we no longer have to be anxious during audits. More importantly, we can accurately analyze overtime efficiency and optimize human resource allocation."
Solutions: Building a Comprehensive Overtime Management System
Technical Assurance
Adopt iris recognition technology to establish a reliable identity authentication foundation and ensure the authenticity and credibility of attendance data. The system should have tamper-proof and traceable characteristics.
Institutional Improvement
Establish a scientific overtime approval process, and clarify overtime standards and compensation mechanisms. Implement full-process management of overtime, including pre-approval, in-process monitoring, and post-event evaluation.
Cultural Remodeling
Advocate a culture of efficient work, avoid ineffective overtime, and focus on work output rather than working hours. Incorporate overtime efficiency into the performance appraisal system.
Take Immediate Action: Enterprise Self-Inspection Guide
● Verify the matching degree between recent overtime expenditure and work output
● Evaluate whether the existing attendance system has security vulnerabilities
● Check whether the overtime approval process is strictly implemented
● Analyze the differences in overtime efficiency among different departments
● Formulate an optimization plan for the overtime management system
Conclusion
Attendance loopholes not only cause direct economic losses but also erode corporate culture and employee morale. By establishing a reliable attendance system through iris recognition technology, enterprises can effectively plug management loopholes and achieve real cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
Establishing a fair and transparent attendance environment and ensuring that every cent of overtime pay plays its due value is the wise choice for modern enterprise management.
About Us
As a leading domestic biometric technology enterprise, WuHan Homsh Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on the R&D and application promotion of iris recognition technology. We have iris recognition algorithms and hardware equipment with completely independent intellectual property rights, providing professional identity authentication solutions for various industries.
Our technical team has rich industry experience and can provide enterprises with full-process services from demand analysis, solution design to deployment and implementation. At present, we have successfully implemented iris recognition projects in multiple fields such as manufacturing, service industry, and technology industry.
If you are facing difficulties in overtime cost management, please feel free to contact us, and we will provide you with professional technical consultation and solutions.
