Face Recognition - A Revolution in Employee Monitoring

As reported by Statista , more than 60 countries adopted AI-powered surveillance between 2017 and 2019. This was being supported by facial recognition technology, whose market is now expected to reach $16.5 billion by 2030. This growth isn't surprising since face recognition algorithms have improved over time - recording accuracy in excess of 99%.

However, what's interesting here is the different use cases that are emerging. While the technology was previously predominantly used across automotive, BFSI, defence, healthcare, and government sectors, it is now gaining traction in IT, retail, and beyond.

As a company leading the employee monitoring space, we have always had an interest in the possibilities of face recognition and if it could be integrated into our monitoring solution to:

• Improve employee security and compliance

• Help our clients better track their workforce

• Ensure they have the right people in the right place at the right time

Fast forward to today, and our clients can now use the face-recognition feature right inside the platform. Not only is this a novel, top-notch solution for better monitoring, but it is also affordable and hassle-free to implement.

Before we get into the technicalities of how the feature works, we must stress the "why" of integrating face recognition.

All things considered, face recognition is certainly not a must-have feature, but it can be incredibly valuable in certain scenarios and for certain industries. And that's precisely what we learned over the past few months while discussing the viability of monitoring solutions with potential clients and gathering feedback from existing customers.

They admitted that such a solution failed to provide the necessary visibility into the attendance of their workforce, compliance tracking, and, ultimately, employee engagement. Their customer success manager outlined how the technical support staff opened certain apps like "Microsoft Word and their own customer support ticketing tool to exhibit their usage patterns. However, this didn't provide any insight into the fact if employees were actually working. They later found out, using CleverControl, that the employees were just opening the "productive" and "workspace-specific" apps to cheat on the time-tracking tool.

Another client expressed concerns over how colleagues often covered up for one another or "buddy-ed" for overtime pay. It was foreseeable that such behaviour could not only jeopardise the company's financials (and security) but also nurture unhealthy workplace practices. "Our company has an open-door policy for reporting such activities. However, if we don't have the technology to identify such cases on time, how do we actually prove them?" — was the question that haunted their Chief Human Resource Officer.

We realised that a company like ours could become an invaluable ally to such organisations. Not only would we be able to provide them with the correct information, but we could build the solution from scratch and ensure that it is scalable, flexible, and robust. Most importantly, we wanted to build it into our existing and comprehensive monitoring solution so that the:

• Entry barrier to adoption could be low

• Technical support could be simplified

• Cost of the solution could be lowered

• Functionality could be user-friendly

• Features could complement the existing monitoring functionality

CleverControl's face recognition feature has been explicitly designed to help businesses increase discipline in the workplace, reduce the number of employees working under false identities, and amp up the workforce's productivity.

CleverControl uses the system's webcam to recognise and record employees. The program takes a photo of the employee every 5 seconds.

The program then browses through the recorded employee faces and compares them to the existing database of employees, i.e., previously captured photos.

Once the program is done collecting the photos and analysing (comparing) them, it prepares a comprehensive report for the employers to assess. This report includes:

• Photos of the all people who have worked on the system

• Each photo has the name of the person (if you have identified the person in the system) and the timestamp.

This report is available on the program dashboard for the employer to access, regardless of their location.

Face recognition isn't included in the basic subscription. You have to purchase the Webcam Recording feature to use it. With Webcam Recording, the program records continuous video from the computer's webcam throughout the day. If you already have it, you should update the program on the monitored computers to the latest version.

Volg daarna deze stappen om gezichtsherkenning te activeren:

• Go to your online dashboard > Account > Computers and ensure that Webcam Recording is toggled on.

• Click the button Setup Computer under the computer's name.

• Go to the Media tab and scroll down to the Face Recognition section.

• Toggle on the Face Recognition option and select the webcam in the drop-down menu. You're all set!

Later kunt u het rapport vinden op het tabblad Gezichtsherkenning op het dashboard.

Calling this a "revolution" would be an understatement. At the end of the day, all business owners want to improve their employees' sense of engagement, maintain profound levels of accountability, and create a healthy workplace culture.

Such a scenario isn't possible with typical time-tracking solutions. There are usually security risks involved, and they never really get "under the skin" of their employees. And even though increasing the discipline and productivity of workers can be a tough task to crack, face recognition can be an effective tool amidst all the challenges. For example, it can:

According to the latest IBM study, the cost of a data breach averages a whopping $4.35 million. The study also sheds light on the fact that around 50% of these breaches happen in the cloud. Indeed, it's very tempting for companies to store sensitive information on a cloud server, like the login credentials of their employees. However, the takeaway is clear: these organisations need to make sure that access to such servers is restricted to authorised personnel only.

Favourably, CleverControl's Face Recognition feature helps businesses restrict access to only authorised personnel. This ensures that neither the network nor the company's infrastructure is compromised. In addition, it adds tremendous value to a company's existing monitoring solution and the entire technology stack.

Employees who submit fake timesheets are often disgruntled and disengaged. They are, by and large, unhappy at work. This is a worrisome phenomenon. Not only does this disrupt workplace culture, but it also costs millions of dollars each year to businesses in terms of lost productivity and revenue. Then, of course, there's the problem of people covering up for latecomers, colleagues imitating others, etc. All this cascades into a state of affairs where people are not accountable for their actions.

CleverControl's Face Recognition feature helps create accountability among employees. First, it protects the organisation from fraud and false identities by continually recording employees' faces. Second, the program can be used to enforce policies based on an individual's actions. Consider this; if a certain employee doesn't show up for work on time for more than three weeks, they can be put on a warning list.

The physical security of the workplace is only as strong as its least secure entry point. With the modern-day workforce becoming increasingly remote, the problem has only gotten more complex.

Favourably, CleverControl works just as fine regardless of whether you have your employees working onsite or remotely. The employers just need to install the program on the employee's computer, and they'll have all the monitoring details intuitively presented on their dashboard. The reports from the face recognition functionality can be accessed in the same way. However, you must note that face recognition could prove to be a bit intrusive in remote locations, especially since it would record the family members in the background. So, before you implement such a feature, you must ask for the employee's consent.

A host of factors can slow down a company's productivity, including poor team cohesiveness and low workforce morale. Such a scenario could even lead to unnecessary project delays and, ultimately, underperformance, as seen in missed deadlines or targets. For example, we found out how the active time dropped significantly before the holiday season for 50% of our clients. Of course, you don't want to be too stringent always. You might even want to allow employees to have some flexibility in their work schedules.

But still, face recognition can prove as an effective tool for boosting productivity and ensuring discipline, especially when "timely" rollouts are critical towards the success of a project.

CleverControl's face recognition technology is fast, accurate, easy to implement, and affordable. We believe that it will help revolutionise the way companies monitor their employees. It is a far better alternative to the traditional video surveillance or CCTV systems you would have set up in your office.

We're convinced that it could prove to be a game-changer, regardless of your industry, size, or workplace setup.

Contact us today for a more detailed review of the program's features.