Buddy punching: What it is and how to stop it

Imagine that someone wants to come in to work late one day without their employer realizing. To get around the company’s clock-in system, they give their employee ID badge to a coworker so they can scan it when they get to work. This practice—called buddy punching—sounds harmless enough, but it can create serious operational and financial issues for your business.

Eliminating buddy punching is tricky, particularly for large businesses that may not notice right away if an employee clocked in but isn’t actually on site. This post will teach you everything you need to know about buddy punching, including how it happens and why it’s harmful. Most importantly, you’ll learn practical steps that can help prevent buddy punching in your organization.

What is buddy punching? #

Buddy punching is when one employee clocks in for another to make it seem like they’re at work when they actually aren’t. Because the coworker has the employee’s badge or ID, managers and supervisors don’t realize that anything unusual is happening.

Buddy punching methods #

Buddy punching isn’t a new problem—the term itself comes from employees using their coworkers’ timesheets or punch cards to clock them in at work. For decades, people have turned to their colleagues and friends, asking them to buddy punch so they can slip away from work early or show up late.

As technology has evolved, so have employee strategies for buddy punching. Many organizations shifted away from paper cards and began using plastic IDs or badges.

Unfortunately, employees can just as easily hand off these credentials for other people to scan. In response, some companies began using QR codes, email links, and passwords to clock in. The simplicity of email forwarding, information sharing, and screenshotting make these technologies equally vulnerable to buddy punching as traditional methods.

The purpose of buddy punching #

Some people buddy punch for relatively innocent reasons. They might oversleep, have issues with childcare, or need to go to an early appointment. In other cases, it’s a simple matter of employees taking advantage of employers who don’t notice or willingly overlook this activity.

In most cases, buddy punching occurs at the beginning of a shift, often because an employee is running late. However, some people also plan ahead. An employee who wants to arrive at work late but doesn’t want to ask for time off or lose pay could ask a coworker to clock them in and cover for them until they arrive.

Buddy punching also offers employees an underhanded way to get an extra long lunch or leave work early. If someone wants to go home before their scheduled time, they can ask a coworker to scan their badge when they leave so it appears they stayed as long as they were supposed to.

Buddy punching vs. tailgating #

Some businesses might confuse buddy punching with another common problem – tailgating.

When someone tailgates, they follow an employee or invited guest through a door, using that individual’s credentials to gain access to the space without proper authorization. Buddy punching is essentially the opposite. It refers to an employee scanning someone else’s credentials when they aren’t present to act as if they entered the building even though they didn’t.

While these activities can both prove harmful to your organization, they pose very different threats. Tailgating presents a security risk because unauthorized individuals can examine or take private data, steal company property, or threaten employees and clients. Buddy punching, on the other hand, is primarily a concern in terms of lost productivity and internal fraud. Both of them, however, can be prevented with a modern access control system.

Buddy punching consequences #

Employees clocking in a few minutes before they actually arrive at work might not seem like a major concern, but it can have a ripple effect throughout your operations. Rather than brushing it aside, businesses need to understand the full extent of the potential repercussions.

Lower productivity and engagement #

Organizations often judge productivity levels by comparing how much time employees spend at work with how many tasks they complete. Buddy punching taints this data, making it difficult for businesses to properly track employee efficiency and productivity. As a result, they might have flawed expectations for production that fail because employees aren’t working their full scheduled hours.

When employees participate in buddy punching, the chances are high that they’re not engaged with the organization and its goals. Most concerningly, buddy punching and engagement create a vicious cycle: The more employees are able to participate in this dishonest practice, the more their connection to the workplace and their coworkers will drop.

Financial losses #

Buddy punching can put a serious dent in your business profits, limiting your growth and threatening your long-term viability. Research has shown that employers in the United States lose more than $370 million each year to buddy punching.

These are some of the ways that it can affect your bottom line:

• Company fraud: Buddy punching constitutes fraud because employees are taking money for work they aren’t doing. Individual instances of buddy punching might come at a relatively low cost, but they can quickly add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Lost sales and revenue: When employees aren’t present and on-task, they’re not connecting with customers, building relationships with prospects, and following up on leads. This ultimately reduces your sales and overall revenue.
• Customer satisfaction: Customers who have questions or need support can’t get help if employees aren’t on the job when they should be. A lack of prompt, high-quality service can decrease satisfaction levels and affect customer loyalty.

With so many damaging outcomes, investing in practical solutions to buddy punching is a small price to pay to avoid these kinds of financial fallout.

Unhealthy workplace culture #

Organizations that permit or disregard buddy punching show employees that dishonesty is acceptable. This could lead to other, more serious behaviors down the line, including stealing funds and lying to managers about work tasks.

Buddy punching can also foster resentment among employees. Workers who show up on time and do their jobs as asked will eventually start to feel upset and even angry that other people are shirking their duties and getting away with it. Tension within the workplace will grow, making it more difficult for teams to collaborate and work toward the organization’s mission and objectives.

How to prevent buddy punching #

Although employees have found workarounds for many clock-in technologies, don’t give up hope. These steps can reduce instances of buddy punching in your organization.

Create a buddy punching policy #

If you want to get rid of buddy punching, the first step is to implement a clear, specific policy. Explain to employees that asking someone else to clock them in or clocking in for another employee is unethical and violates your organizational policies. Enforce the rule with consequences so that employees understand the severity of this kind of activity.

To ensure employees throughout the company fully understand your buddy punching policy from their first days on the job, incorporate it into your onboarding and training materials. More specifically, add it to your employee handbook and any instructional videos or quizzes that new team members complete after hiring.

Implement mobile access control #

Putting an official policy into place may help deter employees from buddy punching, but it won’t stop the activity entirely. For that to happen, you need a new, more secure clock-in method for your employees.

Some access control systems, including Kisi, allow you to use digital credentials rather than physical ones. For instance, you can set up your Kisi system so that employees have to have their mobile devices on-hand to unlock the door and verify they’re on-site. Kisi now allows you to use employee badges in Apple Wallet, which you can tie directly to your clock-in system.

This approach makes it difficult, if not impossible, for employees to buddy punch. While many people are happy to hand over their employee IDs so someone can clock in for them, the same generally isn’t true of smartphones. These devices also have additional security measures, such as biometrics and passcodes, that employees may not want to share with others because it allows them to access all their contacts, messages, and private information.

Integrate access control and video security #

Another way to ensure your employees don’t buddy punch is to combine access control and video surveillance. This allows you to see who enters your business in real-time and keep a record of employee entries. It also gives you evidence and a means of investigating if you suspect that buddy punching is taking place.

The best access control and video surveillance systems offer remote management and monitoring. This means you can check to see if employees are scanning their own credentials no matter where you are. You can also look for a system that has real-time alerts that notify you if there’s any unusual or suspicious activity that could suggest employees aren’t using their credentials as intended.

Consider your employees’ opinions #

These measures can deter buddy punching, but it’s also beneficial to look at your employees’ motivations and perspectives. For many organizations, buddy punching is a symptom of a larger problem. To get to the root of it, ask yourself these questions:

• Do employees have sufficient leave time for medical appointments and other important activities?
• Are employees struggling with their work/life balance?
• Are excessive workloads and burnout negatively affecting employee engagement?
• Do employees feel comfortable approaching leadership about their concerns, challenges, and needs?

The best way to get answers is to ask your team for feedback. If you’re concerned that they won’t feel comfortable speaking honestly about issues in the work environment, consider distributing anonymous surveys and looking for patterns in their responses.

Put a stop to buddy punching with Kisi #

If your organization is struggling with buddy punching, you’re not alone. The vast majority of businesses deal with this problem to some degree, losing productivity, employee engagement, and money in the process.

At Kisi, we’re proud to offer a future-proof answer to buddy punching and other common business concerns. Our cloud-based access control system and video surveillance make it easy to manage clock-ins and make it harder for one employee to use another’s credentials. Reach out to learn more about a tailored solution for your organization and to request a demo to see Kisi’s access control in action.