Though biometric technology is becoming more and more prevalent today, many still don’t know exactly how it works.

Scientifically, biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and statistically analyzing biological data. For IT, the measuring and analyzing is used to verify that an individual is who he says he is, much like a computer password.

The way biometric time clocks work is by scanning human characteristics that are statistically unique enough to identify each of us. These characteristics may be used individually or in combination with others. The characteristics most frequently used are face (spatial pattern of the face), fingerprint, hand and finger geometry, handwriting, eye retinas or irises, and speech.

Why use biometric time clocks?

There are many reasons to consider biometric time clocks . For each reason, authenticating ourselves by who we are and not what we know, what we carry, or how we choose to identify ourselves, i.e. PINs, passwords, smart cards, and security tokens.  Other benefits of biometric time clocks include:

• Passwords are expensive and the cost of password and identity protection is far superior with biometric time clocks
• Biometric time clocks reduce paper. In many cases, traditional forms of verification generate boatloads of paper. Know too that other instances of authentication like notaries often rely solely on paper to document an event. 
• Passwords are overwhelming. Simply put, we have so many of them that we cannot remember them all. Our saturation of these secrets increases the likelihood that we do not properly protect them.
• Biometric time clocks increases financial accountability 
• Biometric clocks improves physical security. We are now more sensitive than ever about the need to ensure that physical premises are safeguarded at point of entry.
• Biometric time clocks’ automation can eliminate our sole reliance on a paper trail for a given transaction or event.

Bottom Line

Whether you want more efficient employee time keeping, limited paper trails, heightened security, or more organized accounting—biometric time clocks can take care of multiple business needs. In addition to more efficient time keeping, you’ll also intrinsically have heightened security and biometric logging capabilities for every employee.