Hybrid workplaces swipe left on attendance machines

In the hybrid world of work, there has been the marked absence of what was once an omnipresent office device: The attendance machine. Punched down from its position of importance, it has been forced to evolve and adapt, much like the employees who once reverently used it to mark their in-and-out time.

Access, not attendance

Last year, PespiCo India launched a hybrid work model that empowered employees to choose how and from where they wish to work during days and hours in the week. On the days employees choose to work from the office, employees only use their ID cards to access the office, not mark attendance.


"Monitoring work hours and in and out schedules of our employees has never been our work philosophy or practice. We believe flexibility with accountability helps foster a culture of trust and enhances productivity," says CHRO Pavitra Singh.

At Meesho too, the need to swipe in and swipe out has never ever been a protocol, says CHRO Ashish Kumar Singh. The unicorn maintains an internal people management tool that enables them to record employee leave.

Similarly, at Barco India, a technology company that develops networked visualisation solutions for the entertainment, enterprise and healthcare markets, employees only swipe their ID cards to gain access to the office. Attendance details are updated online on the company portal and signed off by the respective managers.

Focus on Task Completion
"Organisations are leveraging digital technologies and collaboration tools to automate their HR workflows," says Rajiv Bhalla, the company's managing director.

All these changes indicate that a direct outcome of the new work-world has been the automation of admin-heavy tasks like attendance tracking.The clock-in/clock-out system lost its relevance at artificial intelligence and analytics firm Fractal well before the pandemic set in, says Rohini Singh, its chief people officer."In the knowledge industry we operate in, we don't believe the clock-in/clock-out system drives productivity or well-being. Being able to operate in a flexible, open, trusting, and accountable environment is what worked best for us. A model that allows individuals meaningful time for work, self, and well-being will enable better integration and belongingness within teams. As such, we see swiping in and out as a thing of the past, and the way forward for companies would be to build high-trust cultures within," she adds.

Work hours not important

Amit Prakash, CHRO, Marico Limited, agrees. "Irrespective of the pandemic, we have never monitored our members' attendance or work hours at Marico. For us, the focus is always on the outcome. We have provided our members with the flexibility to manage their day and work, without looking at their work hours," he says.Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, director and co-founder, Wakefit.co, says they don't feel the need to track in-office attendance, so long as goals are achieved within set deadlines. "We trust that our employees are responsible to chart out their tasks and complete them within the set deadlines. In case of any eventualities, employees have the option of speaking with their team leads and making necessary changes with their log-in as required. This system renders utmost flexibility and accessibility to our employees and upends the need for swiping machines and attendance trackers."

Potential for evolution

But not all companies are ready to do away with biometric attendance. "A primary requisite of a successful hybrid model is the need to provide employees multiple touchpoints and modes to manage their employee life cycle. I believe that in the coming years, we will see more evolved bio-geo tags for attendance marking systems," says Rajendra Mehta, group CHRO, Welspun Group.