🚀 Beacons aren’t just for retail. The modern way of the attendance tracking.
Beacons*: a term that has broken into the world of innovative companies with a big BANG! The possibility of tracking people’s behavior inside a closed space has heated the imagination of the world’s marketers up to the limits. Still, the potential of beacons is associated mainly with retail. We ask and answer: what happens if we implement beacons into HR, attendance management, and time tracking?
Let’s travel in time for a while and observe John-an-employee day at work. John enters the office. At the very moment when he crosses the doorstep, he gets a notification on his phone saying:
Hey John! Remember that we have changed the security door code yesterday, call Mary if you forgot it. Ps. You look awesome today, keep it up!
John smiles feels grateful for the reminder and start his work. When the lunch break starts, the notification on his phone pops up again:
Mmmmm, you know what time is it? It’s lunch time! Time for a break. Pro tip: since you look awesome today, don’t let me be your only companion during your meal, take someone with you :)
John feels inspired encouraged to invite his colleague Greg. He recalls that Greg loves Indian cuisine, so as does John. Gents spend some free time together and get back to work a while later. John is welcomed by his manager:
John, I just got notified that you are back. Pop in to my office for a while please, there’s one urgent issue we need to discuss.
Thanks to the iBeacon notifications and presence tracking, John has just avoided a stressful call during his lunch: his manager knew that John was out of the office and waited patiently for him to be back.
After a few hours John is finally about to solve the “urgent issue”, and at this moment he gets a mobile notification saying:
John, it’s been a busy day, and we support work-life balance. Go home, your family (and the new Game of Thrones episode!) is already waiting for you :) See you tomorrow, chop-chop!
And this is how John’s working day ends up. He goes home and his manager knows about it thanks to another notification that he got. Everyone is happy with the work of John’s virtual assistant called: iBeacon.
Now let’s get back from the future of attendance management to reality. Well, wait… Actually, there is no need to get back, because:
THE FUTURE IS HERE, AND JOHN EXISTS.
Beacons are no longer for retail only. They are a great game-changer for attendance and absence management as well if HR managers know how to benefit from them. At Calamari, we have already implemented Beacons to time tracking and attendance management. Thanks to the technology your attendees can clock in and out with no single action. Calamari recognizes when your employee is present at the office and starts shift automatically, letting you know about it by the mobile app compatible with beacons.
Calamari has already begun to install beacons in the company spaces, helping your employees to mark their presence without wasting time for unnecessary signatures.
So, this is it?
No, we do not cease here. iBeacon in HR is such a promising technology, that we will go further, starting from implementing iBeacon notifications about breaks and the end of shift. All that to make your and your employee's life easier and more automated. And what else can iBeacon change in HR and beyond?
This emerging technology is getting more attention outside retail. It is predicted that the number of beacon devices will hit 60 million units by the end of 2019. Their price keeps on decreasing at the same time. Such potential is being noticed not only by Apple and Google. More and more startups and medium companies reach for them to create new services. Mingleton uses beacons to revolutionize dating market, Launch Here improves your installed apps organization, and many companies try to implement them into smart home solutions (just like Zuli does). There are also ideas to use beacons for pet animal safety and tracking.
In this case, your imagination is the only limit.
Do you know any companies apart from Calamari that uses iBeacons? Or maybe you have your idea of how to use them? Let us know, we’ll gladly share our experience!
PS* What are beacons?
Here’s a short yet full definition by Estimote, the world leader of the technology:
Beacons are essentially tiny, low power computers attached to walls or objects in the physical world. Using proximity technologies they detect human presence and behavior and trigger pre-programmed actions delivering contextual and personalized experiences.
