Salisbury-based care group Abicare called us after they were contracted to provide care staff for recuperating patients from hospitals across Hampshire and Dorset. The carers were needed to look after both Covid-positive and non-Covid patients who were being accommodated in empty local hotels operated by major chains. The business world emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic will undoubtedly be very different from the one that entered the crisis. It will be even more cost-conscious, given the additional overheads of making and keeping premises safe for employees and visitors, and staff will have a heightened awareness of hygiene, with frequently touched surfaces and equipment requiring regular and scheduled cleaning. Work is also likely to be more flexible in terms of where and when it is conducted, with split shifts and staggered start times – and, as a result, monitoring staff hours and calculating pay will be more complex and require greater input and control. Critical events are notified to specific users in seconds via alarm systems that can be easily customized to your requirements. If a fingerprint or hand reader is used by everyone, a strict cleaning regime needs to be implemented to ensure the well-being of staff and maintain their confidence in a safe workplace.

Although it’s impossible to predict the future of emerging technology trends, we could see early on that mobile devices were going to have a major impact on the management of everyday tasks – and so easyLog began developing convenient app versions of key products from the start.Hygienic – employees use a smartphone which is always under their control, so there are no health concerns about multiple staff touching an attendance recording device and how clean and safe that unit remains. In the current climate of rising prices and falling value for money, it is good to know that at least one business essential is actually becoming more affordable – foolproof attendance recording with facial recognition technology. There are three important questions to ask when introducing attendance recording via a smartphone app to your workforce:

Versatility – tablets and phones can be used for a multitude of other business functions, unlike a dedicated biometric machine Now Royal Mail is getting in on the act by adding QR codes to its stamps. The new stamps, which will still feature an image of the Queen but no longer include a monetary value, are designed to connect physical stamps to the digital world via the Royal Mail app and are being phased in by 31 January 2023.

EasyLog Cloud

There is no need to invest in infrastructure other than smartphones, which employers and staff usually already own Thankfully, easyLog has a simple, easy-to-implement, low-cost solution based around smartphone QR code scanning technology. Next the user is asked to enter their own unique ID number given to them by their employer. This is saved in the App and means it will not need to be remembered again at the point of use. One of the side-effects of the coronavirus pandemic is that we have all become much more aware of hygiene procedures, with government advice on hand washing and disinfecting surfaces with increased regularity becoming embedded in the routine of our daily lives. It is often said that the internet is a great equaliser and, for smaller companies, we are finding that very much to be the case. Thanks to the web high tech solutions are no longer the preserve of big companies with generous investment budgets – nowadays even micro companies operating on a shoestring can take advantage of sophisticated time and cost-saving technology.