Abstract:
In Ghana, public worker absence is a key obstacle to delivering services to the populace. Beside the educational sector, the health sector is among the leading public sectors with low attendance. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the implication of the adoption of the biometric attendance management system on the performance of the employees at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. The quantitative and cross-sectional design study involved the survey of 200 staff of three clinical directorates (diagnostic, child and oral health) from the total sample size of 203 sampled through a multi-stage sampling method. Data collected through structured questionnaire administration was validated through exploratory factor analysis and further analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical instruments. The inferential statistical tools used were Spearman’s correlation and multivariate regression. The result showed that the biometric fingerprint technology employed at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital largely covers areas such as employee attendance timing and employee identification. The biometric attendance system is perceived to have limited coverage in terms of payroll computation. The fingerprint biometric attendance technology has been installed in some directorates to record the attendance of employees as this system takes lesser time in recording and perceived better than the manual system. With the fingerprint time clocking system, employee attendance is easily captured in the healthcare institution through a computerized biometric clocking system that captures working hours of employees, provide detail audit trail of employee attendance and further ensure high level of data integrity. Thus, the biometric data system installed by the hospital is intrinsically connected to individual employees. The biometric fingerprint attendance management system of the
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hospital is described as efficient and effective in the management of employee attendance. The system is perceived as secured, easy to use and capable of reducing the time wastage in recording attendance manually. The biometric attendance timing system, employee identification system and payroll computation system are all perceived to positively influence employee performance. Thus, the installed biometric fingerprint attendance system is perceived to have improved significantly the attendance of employees. The technology is reported to be challenged in several areas such as frequent breakdown, non-recognition of some fingerprints, funds for rolling out the system to other directorates, periodic denial of employee access, irregular power supply, delay or slow detection of fingerprint and possible long queues in front of the machine at closing time. The study therefore recommends the replication of the policy in all directorates and other hospitals in Ghana.
