Popeye's gets serious about fraud, implements biometric system

Published 21 June 2011

Today, Sailormen, Inc., the largest Popeye’s franchise with 148 locations across seven states including Florida, Missouri, and Alabama, announced that it is deploying biometrics at their restaurants to improve employee accountability, increase sales, and reduce fraud; the Popeye’s franchise will use DigitalPersona’s U.are.U fingerprint readers to verify manager overrides and to track an employee’s hours

One Popeye’s Chicken & Biscuits franchise is getting serious about fraud implementing a new biometric ID system for all employees.

Today, Sailormen, Inc., the largest Popeye’s franchise with 148 locations across seven states including Florida, Missouri, and Alabama, announced that it is deploying biometrics at their restaurants to improve employee accountability, increase sales, and reduce fraud.

The Popeye’s franchise will use DigitalPersona’s U.are.U fingerprint readers to verify manager overrides and to track an employee’s hours. Currently, managers use swipe cards to authorize overrides and voids, while employees punch in and out of work with a pass code.

Sailormen says that the biometric reader will help minimize payroll fraud as employees will no longer be able punch in for others. In addition, employees will no longer be able to borrow a manager’s card for overrides and voids helping to ensure the veracity of all transactions.

The numbers from the American Payroll Association on time theft are astounding. It can cost businesses up to 5% of gross payroll, amounting to billions of dollars of losses every year,” said Jim Fulton, the vice president of marketing at DigitalPersona. “Our fingerprint biometrics solution effectively combats attendance fraud, unauthorized voids and overrides, helping restaurants, such as Popeye’s, realize a significant ROI within the first 30 days.”

JD Zweydoff, the director of Point of Sales (POS) at Sailormen, said that the biometric systems have proven effective in combating fraud and reducing losses.

The U.are.U Fingerprint Readers from DigitalPersona have provided us with a simple and secure way to reduce our financial losses across all of our stores,” Zweydoff said. “The impact of the deployment has been significant and immediate. We’ve seen food costs drop and payroll fraud eliminated.”