Before the pandemic, remote and hybrid work options were seen as luxury perks by many people – the type of thing offered to a lucky few who had the right kind of role with the right kind of company. As lockdowns and stay-at-home orders swept across the country, however, many Australians were surprised to see how quickly their employers were able to pivot. For their part, many employers were surprised to see how quickly and easily employees adapted to remote work and how effective and productive they were.
When restrictions were lifted, many Australians were understandably resistant to the idea of simply returning to the way things were. This tension between the old office-based model and the fully-remote pandemic one gave way to a flexible middle way – the hybrid approach to work.
Companies have a lot of scope for creativity when it comes to the way they implement their hybrid work model. You can allow some employees to be fully remote while others are fully in-office. You can stagger shifts so that everyone spends some time in the office but not all at once. The scope for freedom and flexibility is virtually endless.
While all this sounds marvellous in theory, there have been plenty of teething problems. Security – both cyber and physical – is perhaps the biggest and most pressing challenge business owners are facing. From fingerprint scanners to facial recognition technology, biometrics has been helping Aussie businesses on all fronts.
Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting and unexpected ways biometrics has come to the rescue of the new hybrid workforce.
Biometrics reduce your risk of hacks and data breaches
Even if you don’t yet have an advanced biometric log-in system for your remote workers, installing the best fingerprint time clock in Australia will reduce your chances of experiencing a devastating data breach. How is this possible?
When you’re operating with a hybrid workforce, your employees will inevitably spend some of their time working at home, in co-working spaces, and in libraries, cafés, and other public areas. This drastically increases the risk that their credentials may be stolen, either through hacking, shoulder surfing, or even physically if they have a keycard or leave their device unlocked and unattended.
Obviously, your best line of defence is to include biometrics at every access point to your system, virtual and physical. After all, a stolen password is no good if the bad actor can’t get past the biometric stage of a multi-factor authentication (MFA) process. However, even just upgrading your old keycard access system to an advanced biometric system will eliminate the chance that employee access cards may be lost, stolen, or otherwise compromised.
Biometric security is becoming increasingly portable
Nowadays, you can get advanced ultrasonic fingerprint scanners in smartphones and tablets, making it easy to ensure all company devices are protected, regardless of where your remote workers take them. Everything from laptops to flash drives can have a biometric security layer, ensuring that even if an employee’s device falls into the wrong hands, those hands won’t have the right biometric markers to be able to do anything with the technology.
Biometrics streamline access for your team
Rather than having to remember keys, cards, passwords, pins, and questions about childhood pets, your employees become the keys to your system. This is true whether they’re on-premises, at home, or in an airport waiting for a flight. We’ve already covered the security benefits of such a system. However, you can also save a significant amount of money by protecting the time and resources that are otherwise wasted on retrieving forgotten passwords and replacing lost keycards.
Biometrics naturally increase accountability and trust
A flow-on consequence of giving employees more freedom and flexibility with their schedules is that you’ll have less control over and knowledge of when and where they’re working. With the simple introduction of a biometric time and attendance system, however, your team can automatically log their shifts with accuracy down to the second.
This approach ensures that everyone remains accountable for their actions at work – whether that be in the office or at a remote location. Crucially, it gives you instant access to time and attendance data whenever you want to analyse it. In this way, you can free your team to work when and where suits them best without taking on the risk that people may – intentionally or unintentionally – slack off.
Quality is everything when it comes to biometrics
Though the field of biometrics has a lot to offer the emerging hybrid workforce, it’s important to note that these benefits only apply to high-quality biometric systems. If you’re looking for smartphones with fingerprint scanners or a biometric time clock, Australia has plenty to offer. However, it’s crucial to understand that many low-cost devices do not analyse enough data points to create truly unique profiles. This can lead to false positives – in other words, someone may be able to access your system not via hacking but by simply scanning their finger and striking it lucky.
Thankfully, the step up from less effective budget biometrics to high-quality devices does not come with an eye-watering increase in price. In fact, you’ll find that most biometric technology is surprisingly affordable, so there’s no reason to settle for a less effective solution.
Are you looking for the right biometric technology to support your hybrid team? Nexus Biometric would be happy to help. This is, after all, our speciality! Contact our friendly team today, and we’ll help you determine the best solution for your specific circumstances.
