To identify employees through biometrics, the HandPunch terminal develops a template that represents the size and shape of the hand. This number is updated every time an employee scans into work. The update feature allows HandPunch to keep up with changes to employee hand size due to weight gain, weight loss, or other changes. HandPunch is the only biometric device with this capability, says Ingersoll’s Product Marketing Manager Bashar Masad.

The system also eliminates the need to purchase employee identification badges. HandPunch can also be integrated into a restaurant’s existing computer system via ethernet connections, which allows for easy attendance reporting that managers can trust.

Masad acknowledges that there are often concerns about employee privacy initially, but says those fears are put to rest in no time. “Some people have some resistance, but after we explain how this thing works, they understand that we don’t take any fingerprints,” Masad explains.

At the Venezuelan McDonald’s, HandPunch technology handles employee verification information for more than 3,400 employees and has cut payroll costs by 22 percent per year, according to Ingersoll Rand. The company estimates that HandPunch pays for itself in six to nine months. Ingersoll further claims that a business can expect to save at least 5 percent in labor costs right away.

Biometric scanning systems like HandPunch might soon be a staple technology in quick-service restaurants. Ingersoll Rand has installed 140,000 HandPunch units worldwide to clients like Papa John’s, Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, and Burger King. The unit accommodates several languages.

A competing technology, fingerprint scanners, was used in Canada before biometric hand scanning, and the results were not positive, according to Masad. “Workers can have oil or grease on their fingers, and when they go to punch out they have grease there and it would not work,” he says. Because HandPunch scans the entire shape of the hand, grease and oil cannot prevent identification.

The hand-scanning technology that HandPunch is based on has been around for more than a decade. “It’s a proven technology. It’s been used in high security and nuclear plants for more than 10 years. It’s used in airports, schools, universities, and manufacturing plants. We cover lots of vertical markets that deal with security and access control,” Masad says.