Struggling to Track Field Staff Attendance Across Multiple Cities? Let's Share Solutions

We are in the service industry domain. We are finding it difficult to manage the attendance of our field staff. We are struggling to track their attendance. We have 4-5 offices in all major cities. It is also challenging to monitor their attendance from one location.

What is the best practice?

Regards,
Sathya

Hi Satya,

We have also faced the same problem with our employees in our organization. As you said, you are in the service sector; I hope you have internet facilities in these cities.

Here are some practices to consider, in my view:
Ask your employees to do the following:
1) Mail the status on an hourly basis.
2) Fill out time sheets on an hourly basis.
3) Install a Centralized Authentication System where you can request updates on an hourly basis.

Regards,
Sridhar B.

Hi Sathya,

Have a separate attendance book for each branch. Ask all the employees in each branch to fill in the attendance regularly in their respective branches. Ask each branch head or anyone in each branch to submit the attendance details or take a Xerox of that before the 1st of every month. This will be a very easy solution to follow. :)

Regards,
Gowri.

Dear Sathya,

In the majority of cases, opt for an Electronic Attendance Card Reader System.

Regards,
SC

Dear Sathya,

You may get the details of the attendance of field staff on a daily basis through the internet - maybe even every half day would help. But it depends on how often the field staff can access the net and furnish the details. At least, I do not approve of getting the details on an hourly basis since this will become more of policing. The staff, especially the field staff, have to be dealt with very carefully since they usually cannot stick to a fixed working hours of 8 hours a day. Hence, have more trust in them unless they prove wrong.

Hope this will help you to a certain extent.

Regards,
Dhinakaran

Thanks, Mr. Dinakaran. Let me give a little more info.

1. All our field staff will have cell phones and be contactable.
2. They may not have internet access.
3. They can report to a place where attendance recording systems cannot be installed.
4. They will have team leaders stationed at one location.

I would like to know how this is being done in the Pharma industry (medical reps), telecom industry (Airtel/Aircel/Hutch/Reliance, etc.), FMCG (Pepsi, Coke, HLL, Nestle, etc.), and Consumer durables (LG, Samsung, Videocon, Sony, Philips, etc.).

Regards,
Sathyamoorthy Iyer

Hi all,

I am an HR person handling 50 employees. 35 employees are spread across the country as a field force (sales and marketing). What I do is:

1. I have a format for monthly attendance, which I have circulated once to all the employees.
2. Every 25th of the month, I send an email to all employees asking them to send me their attendance from the 26th of last month till the 25th of the current month.
3. This attendance has to be routed through their respective supervisors.
4. The supervisor will approve any leaves taken during this period.
5. As per the leave policy, HR has the right to deduct loss of pay if HR has not received the attendance by the 25th of the month along with approval for the leaves taken.

This system works perfectly within our organization. Maybe you could try this.

Regards,
Thresia