A religious perspective on biometrics

StarNewsOnline, the Web site of the Star-News in Wilmington, N.C had an interesting article entitled Workers claim ‘mark of beast’ in time-keeping, file protests on city ID system. The article is about a religious protest being claimed by a dozen City of Wilmington employees against the use of biometric readers for the city’s Kronos Time and Attendance system.

Not withstanding that I think the city paid a steep price ($350,000) to implement the system for its 1200 employees, significant benefits still remain achievable. For starters, biometric time clocks such as the Kronos 4500 Touch ID Terminal are a great way for companies to eliminate buddy-punching. According to Nucleus Research, the cost of buddy-punching for some organizations can be as high as 3% of their gross payroll spend.

In addition, these modern time clocks open up the system to employees who can then conduct many transactions at the clock… such as requesting time off, checking their schedule, swaping shifts, etc. By automating these manual processes, organizations save another percent or two off their gross annual labor spend. And in doing so, make life easier for their employees, their employee’s managers, and of course their auditors that want to provide ‘proof’ of all transactions for regulatory compliance.

While this is the first religious challenge I’ve heard of against biometric time clocks, I’m confident the powers that be will see there is no evil being done here… its just a government body trying to manage its costs. The alternative of course is for them to raise taxes. :-)