Staff Registration

[aaltaf]

Does anyone use an MIS that allows staff to register themselves.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Yes, SIMS.Net with lesson monitor does.

 

EDIT: Although getting some staff to actually take registers requires a blow torch and a pair of mole grips.

[Edu-IT]

Why would you want to?

 

If you're looking for that sort of thing, maybe you need a clocking in system?

[matt40k]

Does anyone use an MIS that allows staff to register themselves.

 

I would be REALLLY careful on such a solution as it could cause the teachers union to step in. Teachers are trusted be in work and if they aren't going to be in they are required to "phone in" prior to the start of work. If your referring to location within a school beyond the standard timetable I would suggest using calendars. Publishing the cover to the intranet is also a handy way to see if someone is in work on that particular day.

[BKGarry]

We have an Easytrace Cashless Catering/E-Reg solution (don't get me started on the support though) which has a staff swipe in and out, this is primarily for the out, as if a staff member pops out at anytime during the day we can run a fire report when the alarm goes off and check no staff are in the building.

 

This is for their own safety.

[john]

I would expect that its for knowing if they are in the building in the event of a fire or emergency not checking up on them. We have raised this now a couple of times but my arguement is they are thinking of making all support staff sign in which surely is victimising us as we are also expected to phone in before the start of work should we be ill and unable to attend work, I see it as a grey area just forcing support staff to sign in all staff should sign in or none at all.

[jamesfed]

To be honest - why does it matter if staff are required to sign in or not?

 

I think the fire argument is quite a valid one in the sense that if people sign in/out its easy enough to say that yep the building is clear.

 

Adding on top of that many businesses will require staff sign in for their own purposes of audit (and to track down those who might be regularly late (even if by a few minutes)) and why shouldn’t this apply to the education sector as well?

[vikpaw]

We have just been throwing this around. Basically, as far as i can see SIMS does not allow this. In fact i can't see that many MISes would have this function as it's geared towards student data and their attendance.

 

I am with you guys who are asking why it's so important. Staff are professionals and should be trusted. I know in some industries they have signing in / clocking in, but it's quite often in warehouse type environments for safety reasons or where it's linked in with access control systems.

 

I spoke to a number of companies offering access control at the BETT show, so that at least the data can come from SIMS or A N Other MIS. Using access control is really the only way to do it, but it's most likely to be optional, as initially, they don't want it for students. So whether or not you actually sign in or not is not going to matter as the doors will be open!

 

I think a paper based system for signing out is fine. It is assumed staff are in, and they have to phone in early to report absence, so cover can be sorted. I think implementing a swiping in system will cause a backlash with staff. In some areas they have to manually sign in anyway.

 

The question is, what is the point of collecting this data, and what exactly will you do with it? If monitoring for lates / attendance then there are better ways to do it. It can be done now, so it makes you wonder if using technology is just a way of reducing confrontation or making people feel uncomfortable. I don't think throwing money at the problem and introducing more work on the technology side is really going to help. Those conversations with late comers is still going to have to happen. I'm not convinced there is a such a big problem that this sort of thing is called for.

 

From a fire safety, point of view. In past conversations, we have said that staff are not monitored, it's the students we are primarily worried about. They are most likely to be found away from lessons, or turning up late, skiving etc. Staff missing would so easily be caught, when 30 kids don't have a teacher. Staff on frees, are expected to sign out and this is recorded in admin offices and accessible for drills.

 

A bigger issue i have is that if a member of staff is signed out, what plans are in place to cover their fire drill duty, be that register a class, or evacuate a corridor or other area. I know many schools don't even have a formal plan for how to 'clear' the building and who is responsible for which area.

 

Back to the question in hand, i have been asked, how we could import the attendance data back into SIMS, but there is no real area to do it. Perhaps an aspect, against a user defined group of staff. It works but just seems overkill though. I think analysing the effect of staff absence on students via the cover module is a much more useful thing to do. SIMS lets you do Class and Student Impact which is really powerful. I wonder how many schools use that.