Want to know how can the attendance of on-field sales personnel be validated?

Dear seniors,

I want to know how the attendance of on-field sales personnel can be validated.

Very good question. Personal emails are not recognized by Indian law. The next option is India Post.

You can provide GPS-based devices that will confirm where the employee is when he signs in and where he is all day.

Every employee works under their HOD and is accountable to them for efficiently and effectively discharging their duties. The HOD entrusts fieldwork to their staff as they are familiar with their work, and attendance certified by the HOD is accepted by HR for salary purposes.

There is a form called "OOD" (On Official Duty) used to track outstation work. The HOD approves it, specifying the place of OOD, purpose, and period. In large companies with multiple departments and hundreds of employees, we have to depend on HODs for their attendance as well.

Security and vigilance officers also monitor employees' movements, and HR heads receive information through their contacts, enabling them to detect any misconduct and seek clarification from the HODs. GPS and other new devices recommended by seniors can also be utilized to monitor employees' work during OOD.

Email: c.neyimkhan@gmail.com
HR Consultant
15.1.16

As per cyber laws of India, emails are recognized with the concerned location's IP address. Many companies and Indian courts acknowledge this. Hence, if a company does not have infrastructure in a location where biometrics, staff, office, and mails are recognized as attendance and daily reports.

In some IT companies where work from home is permitted, including teleconferencing from home, an identity card is to be inserted in the keyboard of the person (who works from home) to ensure the veracity of his identity and mark attendance (from - to time).

Email attendance/daily email reports by employee personal mail ID or company mail ID with IP address are legally valid documents as per Indian cyber law. The Supreme Court has accepted the same along with PDF copies.

Dear anonymous,

Twice you have mentioned the email with an IP address. Please explain how this will assist the company in validating the attendance of the field force. How does the IP address play a role in this? These are attendance records, not part of a police crime investigation.

Thank you.

Yes, when a company incurs a loss of pay despite receiving daily work reports via email, it could lead to a legal investigation. It is advisable to transition away from the old system and embrace the digital world. Please check cyber laws for further clarification.

Thank you.

I do not understand where the police investigation stems from. No one goes to the police for a deduction of salary, and the police will not waste time investigating such a case. The rationale of the post is not evident to me.

The question was how to validate the attendance of the field force. Attendance is not the same as a work report. Furthermore, work reports would be made at the end of the day and not from the place of work. Therefore, in any case, the IP address, etc., would have been meaningless.

Hello,

Most of the attendance systems help in-house employees to mark their attendance. However, on-field sales employees spend most of their time traveling to customer locations. Therefore, the solution should be mobile-based since they can carry their mobile phones everywhere.

Mobility enables employees to mark their attendance using a mobile application from the customer location/field, utilizing mobile GPS technology. This eliminates location and time barriers. The attendance application records the clock-in time and real-time location of sales employees, allowing managers/supervisors to monitor their activities from the office. This system also helps eliminate time theft (a significant threat) and false claims by sales employees, serving as a single source of truth.

To learn more about this application, please visit https://getspot.in.

Best Regards, Anand Pristine Softs