Smart card system puts the fizz back into tracking workers’ sick days

Soda-pop company Coca-Cola has again come under criticism for a marketing campaign which apparently encourages employees to take unauthorised days off work – but Time and Attendance UK provides a solution to firms’ clocking in problems.

This campaign for Glaceau Vitamin Water, urging workers to use sick days when not ill, had originally irked the Forum of Private Business, and also weighing in is Lord Digby Jones, the former head of the Confederation of British Industry. He told the BBC’s Working Lunch programme: “I would like a senior Coca-Cola executive to come on to TV, apologise and explain why they thought it was funny.”

Time and Attendance UK can end the doubts of an employer concerned about workers taking ‘sickies’, using a range of proven Windows™ based time and attendance systems. There are two dedicated systems available, which are operated by contactless smart cards and key fobs, and for maximum convenience the cards do not even have to be taken out of a wallet or purse.

The entry-level WinTA Lite consists of a complete smart card time and attendance system, and includes sophisticated software for monitoring working patterns, overtime, and job costing. The basic apparatus is a WinTA Lite software installation CD, T8440 Clocking Station and 50 Smart Cards. For larger (indeed, unlimited) numbers of employees, WinTA Enterprise provides total control over working rules, job costing and fire roll call, and can be combined with biometric technology to practically eliminate the practice of ‘buddy clocking’.