Thumbs Up Using biometrics to keep your employees honest and save you money

David Karpman knew his payroll was too high. And he even knewthe reason: Some of the 30 employees of Del Rey Nut Co.were filling out phony timecards and cashing paychecks for hoursthey hadn't worked. "We were paying for people whoweren't there," says the 48-year-old owner of the LosAngeles food and promotional products company, which has $3.5million in annual sales.

Karpman didn't know what to do about it--until he tried abiometrics time-and-attendance system that requires employees toscan their thumbprints when punching in. Says Karpman, "Youhave to have a thumbprint, so unless they bring in a cadaver,we're covered."

Biometrics is the use of body measurements to identify people.The technology has been around for a long time, but it got a bigpush after 9/11 when it was promoted as a tool for preventing actsof terrorism. Now, experts say the post-9/11 hoopla was overblown.Limitations such as lack of interoperability, error rates and highcosts are keeping biometrics from the widespread adoption that waspredicted.

But measuring people's fingerprints and other body partsdoes have a place in business as a tool for controlling"buddy-punching"--when employees have a friend clock themin early or out late--and other abuses of time-and-attendancesystems. Karpman's fingerprint-reading system, for example,cost just $400 and quickly paid for itself in labor cost savings,he says.

If you're interested in looking at biometrics as a way tocontrol time-and-attendance scams, fingerprint readers are probablywhat you'll use, says Kyoko Kaneda, a consultant with New YorkCity-based biometrics consulting research and integration companyInternational Biometric Group LLC. Other biometricapproaches measure hand geometry, voice patterns, facial patternsand the eye's iris.

No matter what technology is used, it won't always recognizeevery legitimate user--or recognize impostors. "Biometricsaren't 100 percent accurate," says Kaneda. Some people,for instance, have naturally faint fingerprints that are difficultfor scanners to read--that can be a serious issue if you are tryingto identify thousands of people.

That's one reason small employers may lead in implementingbiometrics for time and attendance. "When you have an error ina small database, it's not a problem," notes Maxine Most,principal of Boulder, Colorado, technology consulting companyAcuity MarketIntelligence. In practice, that means a company with a workforce of fewer than 100 people may rarely or never encountersomeone whose fingerprint can't be read.

Still, you'll need to have a backup system for theoccasional problem. Karpman, for instance, says he sometimes hiresa worker whose fingerprint can't be read by the system, and inthose cases he uses a signature-authenticated paper timecard.Needing such a secondary system eradicates some of the costsavings, but for Karpman, it's a modest compromise.

Other biometrics issues concern interoperability and privacy.The lack of standards keeps many large potential users, such asgovernment agencies, from adopting biometrics for identification.Right now, the field features many competing vendors usingproprietary hardware and software systems that won't worktogether. Privacy issues arise when employees fear misuse ofbiometrics information stored in employer databases.

A movement to implement common standards is materializing,however, and Most says that designing systems so biometrics data iskept separate from other identifying information can enhance ratherthan impair privacy. With improved technology, better standards andwiser use, Kaneda is projecting that total biometrics revenue willrise from $1.2 billion in 2005 to $4.6 billion by 2008. SaysKaneda, "It's no longer science fiction."

Mark Henricks writes on business and technology for leadingpublications and is author of Not Just a Living.