Time Clocks For Workforce Management

By Author: Samantha Dale
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In the late 19th century a jeweler in the State of New York invented the payroll time clock and a relative of his, Harlow Bundy started manufacturing these time clocks and selling them. It was he who started the Bundy Manufacturing Company. The business then joined up with a number of other companies to form the International Time Recording Company. In 1911 it joined again and formed the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, and later on changed its name to IBM or International Business Machines.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to the origins of the initial machine that started it all. A time clock is fundamentally a time device that keeps record of time when employees make it to work and when they leave the business premises. For employers with a large number of staff and who could not be able to check on which employee was skipping work, this device was an instant hit.

Though hard to come by, some old time clocks exist as collector’s items. Some of these time clocks are styled after the ordinary grandfather clock, with elegant lines and carvings, with a decorative dial which is large, at the clock’s ...
... base.

The ordinary time clock machine, used to work with time cards that were printed. These cards had tiny check boxes that were meant to indicate time out and time in. Every employee was handed a card which was supposed to be put into the machine both when leaving and arriving at work. Whenever the card was put into the machine, with the appropriate check box aligned, a lever that was on the clock would be pulled causing an inked ribbon to be printed on the box that was on the card.

Instead of using cards, some models made use of a dial wheel. These models required every employee to dial their own number or name and the particular time was entered. Due to misuse by employees, with time this model became obsolete and had to be replaced. It was then that the key clock was invented. With this model, each employee was given their own key which ensured that only the worker provided with the key, recorded his time of arrival and departure.

With time, the time clocks became even more complicated and employee sheets were used. These sheets would then later be entered into the machine, activating a device located around the back of the slot which printed the time and date on the paper.

For decades, punch card time clock recorders and mechanical punch card time clocks, were used exclusively for decades up until the late ‘70s at which point they were linked to microprocessors for the first time. This transition began the move away to electronic systems from analogue. Even though the electronic time clocks are more preferred analogue systems have never completely disappeared, and are still preferred by some.

Though gradually punch cards gave way to swipe cards with magnetic strips which are still used by many all over the world. Unfortunately, these cards are still misused as the machine can only identify the card and not the employee.

There is a wide variety of time clocks which can help to improve your rostering and workforce management.http://www.smesolutions.com.au/clocks.php