Whether you’re a startup or a multinational business, maintaining good attendance contributes to the corporate’s success. It also speaks volumes about your employees’ credibility and work ethic.
Furthermore, attendance impacts your workplace in several other ways. For instance, tardiness or the persistent absence of 1 worker can negatively impact worker morale.
That’s why the importance of attendance is sort of high at work.
In this text, we’ll answer the query why is attendance vital at work, discuss the important thing aspects affecting work attendance, and learn find out how to address worker attendance issues.
We’ll also give handy tricks to employers for improving worker attendance.
Table of Contents
Let’s start.
Why is attendance vital at work?
Maintaining regular attendance and punctuality is crucial for any worker because when a candidate accepts a job offer, they’re committing their time to the corporate.
Understanding the importance of attendance and showing up for the job day by day lays the inspiration for his or her successful profession.
But when an worker has consistently poor attendance, it suggests that they’re not prepared to tug their weight in the corporate. Quite the opposite, good attendance reflects dedicated employees you’ll be able to trust with vital tasks.
Nevertheless, the corporate must also do its part in encouraging workplace attendance and avoiding chronic absenteeism.
What’s that?
Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of being absent for any duty or obligation with none good reason. It’s a serious workplace issue that an employer should address on priority.
When you’re unsure the way it affects your organization, here’s what excessive worker absenteeism can result in:
1. Poor work performance
Excessive absenteeism of 1 worker can force the managers to restructure workflows.
This process, nonetheless, can have a domino effect on the complete organization.
Employees with good attendance must take over the work of their coworkers while also coping with their very own workload.
Consequently, they’ll should rush things or increase their working hours, and the standard of labor gets affected. This also affects overall worker productivity.
Furthermore, a repeatedly absent worker may fall behind to adapt to changes, affecting their very own efficiency. This could even result in delays in services or productions, thereby affecting the purchasers.
2. Increased stress and lack of worker morale
Since absenteeism of an worker increases the workload of the remaining staff, it results in work dissatisfaction.
Having to cope with additional workload together with their existing responsibilities can negatively affect employee morale.
Moreover, when overload becomes a daily thing, it leads to emphasize, resentment, and burnout. This could take a toll on the dedicated employees, who could have to take a time off to cope with the exhaustion.
3. Increased staff related costs
When an organization suffers from absenteeism, you’re forced to temporarily hire more staff or replace an absent worker permanently to fulfill labor needs. Either way, hiring a brand new worker involves a price that further burdens your organization’s resources.
Furthermore, every recent worker needs time to get used to the work, resulting in additional costs when it comes to lost productivity.
4. Workplace ethics issues
Maintaining good attendance can also be an important a part of work ethics.
As an employer, when you don’t address the problem of absenteeism, it sends out a message that you just neither uphold such soft skills nor prioritize work ethics issues.
It is best to reward every staff member who’s dependable and disciplined. It also greatly helps to spice up worker engagement.
5. Animosity
Chronic absenteeism can have an adversarial effect on other employees who maintain good attendance. Co-workers can get discouraged and demotivated when a team member is continuously absent or comes late to work.
Over time, regular worker absence can result in animosity amongst coworkers and affect worker engagement, especially when the employer doesn’t reprimand an unexcused absence and tardiness.
Now that you already know the importance of normal attendance and the implications of absenteeism, let’s take a look at the most important aspects that result in an attendance problem on the workplace.
3 crucial aspects that affect attendance at work
Listed here are the three significant aspects that may contribute to poor attendance:
1. Presenteeism
Presenteeism is when an worker involves work sick, exhausted, or distracted to the purpose that they will’t perform their work duties.
In accordance with the research by global staffing firm Accountemps, around 90% of pros admitted they’ve sometimes come to work unwell. Out of those, 33% at all times go to work even in the event that they’re sick.
These numbers are alarming because presenteeism can create several workplace hazards, like putting co-workers prone to infectious diseases. This, in turn, results in more employees looking for medical leave, affecting overall worker attendance.
Presenteeism is much more dangerous if the worker works in food service or is a healthcare skilled.
2. Negative work environment
When you continually overwhelm your employees with heavy workloads, lesser pay, and fewer vacation days, the staff may feel the pinch and act accordingly.
This could result in the unscheduled absence of an overworked worker and more staff members calling in sick to compensate.
Furthermore, a hostile work environment can even negatively impact employees’ stress levels.
In consequence, frustrated and demotivated employees can resort to tardiness and take more days off to administer their stress.
3. Personal hardships
Every worker, in some unspecified time in the future, can undergo some personal hardships. It could possibly be a family matter, financial troubles, or health concerns.
Such hardships can easily manifest as absenteeism or presenteeism.
Nevertheless, it’s best to give a while to such employees to recoup. It is best to even be flexible enough to know that such hardships are temporary and shall pass soon.
The following section covers the five steps you’ll be able to take to deal with worker attendance issues at your workplace.
5 helpful steps to deal with worker attendance issues
Listed here are the five things it’s best to do to avoid poor worker attendance in your organization:
Step 1: Define your online business’ attendance
As an employer, it’s best to first outline what scheduled and unscheduled absence means.
Your human resource department should clearly define:
- Sick leave: Sudden absence attributable to an illness.
- Approved or excused absence: Absence approved by the manager.
- Tardiness: Partial absence attributable to starting work late.
- Medical leave: Leave approved under the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act). It provides an eligible worker with as much as 12 weeks’ leave to look after themselves or a member of the family with a “serious health condition.”
- No-show: Absence where the worker doesn’t inform the management of their absence beforehand.
HR professionals must also define attendance for hourly employees. They need to state when employees are alleged to show up for work and their work hours.
Defining your attendance as clearly as possible may even assist you determine the scope of disciplinary motion for excessive absenteeism.
Step 2: Create an worker attendance policy
An worker attendance policy clearly outlines the foundations and actions for attendance management. It explains the rules for various kinds of leaves like sick leave, unpaid absence, etc.
An absence policy also includes the implications of attendance infractions like absenteeism and motivates employees to stick to the rules.
Nevertheless, an important purpose of this document is to speak all of the procedures that employees should follow to request and document their time-offs.
For instance, you’ll be able to either have an worker attendance sheet or use software for tracking attendance and requesting time-offs. No matter the mode you select, the processes ought to be the identical for each staff member.
Nonetheless, attempt to be as detailed as possible in defining the scope of your worker attendance policy.
Learn find out how to create an worker attendance policy.
Step 3: Outline disciplinary actions for absenteeism and tardiness
Your worker attendance policy must also state the severity of a disciplinary motion based on the extent of worker absenteeism.
Nevertheless, while defining the plan of action or penalties for any attendance issue, your expectations ought to be realistic.
For instance, you shouldn’t penalize a staff member who has been late as a consequence of an accident or personal loss. When you take any motion for something beyond an worker’s control, it might probably reduce worker morale and result in job dissatisfaction.
This also implies that your worker attendance policy ought to be empathetic and progressive.
A progressive policy can guide your managers to take disciplinary motion for poor worker attendance only after careful commentary and consideration.
Likewise, your attendance policy can include an attendance bonus or similar advantages for workers to enhance worker engagement.
Step 4: Communicate along with your staff for higher attendance management
Every staff member should pay attention to the standards and processes defined in your worker attendance policy.
To be sure that, your human resource department should provide a replica of the attendance policy to each worker or simply include it in the worker handbook.
Even when hiring, HR professionals must have employees log out their work agreements, including the attendance policy.
Step 5: Use a time tracking and attendance software
A time tracking and attendance software may be quite effective for attendance management. It allows you to routinely track working hours, calculate additional time, and maintain attendance records.
Furthermore, attendance tracking software may be indispensable if you have got a distant team or calculate payroll per working hours.
This attendance tracking software can assist you accurately track worker hours, maintain attendance data, and generate payroll with ease. It also empowers your employees to take control of their personal time management and improve productivity.
A. Easy time tracking
Employees can apply it to their computers, tablets, and mobiles to trace work hours online and offline. They will even edit their worker hours manually.
This may also help managers track the clock-in and out times of each worker and determine any tardy behavior.
Furthermore, it helps employers track the attendance of hourly employees and generate payrolls accordingly.
B. Detailed productivity reports
Employers and managers can access comprehensive real-time productivity reports, including attendance reports, to judge worker productivity.
The attendance report shows when an worker was present, absent, partially absent, or late. You can too filter a report back to see employees present for a particular shift or only those that are absent or late.
Among the other reports which you could generate include timesheet reports, worker hours tracked, web and app usage, activity summary, etc. You may even create custom reports for any specific employee data you require.
C. Work schedule management
Managers can set schedules and shifts for the team and simply monitor which employee was late or absent for a shift. This helps you track attendance without leaving your desk.
D. Payroll management
You can too export payroll as a CSV file and make direct payments with PayPal, Gusto, Smart, or ADP integrations.
E. Chrome integration
Here’s how it really works:
- Download the browser extension from the Chrome Web Store.
- The extension will add a “Start/Stop” button inside your chosen project management tool.
- Create your task and begin tracking time within the Time Doctor desktop app.
Nevertheless, no matter the attendance tracking software you select, it’s best to communicate your approach to tracking attendance to everyone. It is best to also be sure that each worker understands find out how to use the software.
Besides using this unbelievable attendance tracking software, we even have just a few tricks to assist you maintain regular staff attendance at your workplace.
Let’s see what the following tips are.
Handy suggestions to keep up attendance at work
1. Suggestions for workers
Helping employees take responsibility for his or her attendance can have a big effect on reducing absenteeism. Listed here are some easy strategies:
- Plan ahead in your workday: Make it a habit to arrange the night before. This includes organizing your work materials and planning your commute. It helps avoid rushing within the morning and reduces the probabilities of being late.
- Have a backup plan: Be prepared for unexpected situations like transportation problems or child care needs. Ensure you have got alternate options to get to work on time.
- Communicate early: When you are going to be late or need a time off, inform your manager or HR as soon as possible. Open communication helps reduce disruptions and maintains trust.
- Handle your health: Give attention to work-life balance and make sure you’re physically and mentally prepared for work. Regular exercise, a balanced weight loss program, and proper sleep may also help reduce stress and stop absenteeism as a consequence of illness.
- Use time without work properly: Leverage Paid Time Off (PTO) for mandatory rest, recovery, or personal matters to avoid unplanned absences.
2. Suggestions for HR managers and supervisors
Managers play an important role in managing attendance. Listed here are some actionable steps they will take:
- Create an attendance policy: Develop a transparent, detailed attendance policy. Ensure that employees understand what is taken into account excused vs. unexcused absence, tardiness, and no-show behavior. Be sure that your worker attendance policy policy complies with different applicable laws just like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), wage and hour laws, paid sick leave laws, military leaves laws, disability discrimination laws, etc.
- Provide flexibility: Offering flexible work hours or a hybrid working model may also help employees manage personal responsibilities, reducing unplanned absences.
- Offer attendance incentives: Recognize and reward employees with consistent attendance. This could possibly be in the shape of bonuses, extra vacation days, or recognition during team meetings.
- Encourage PTO banks: Allow employees to make use of a general pool of PTO days for various purposes, corresponding to sickness, personal days, or vacations. This promotes higher management of leaves and reduces presenteeism.
- Monitor attendance repeatedly: Use time tracking software to maintain track of attendance and trends. Tools like Time Doctor can provide real-time data on worker work hours and absences, helping you discover patterns of absenteeism early.
3. Suggestions for promoting worker well-being
Ensuring worker wellness is essential to stopping absenteeism. These are some suggestions focused on maintaining worker health and well-being:
- Offer wellness programs: Create wellness programs that provide physical and mental health resources for workers. This could include yoga sessions, meditation apps, or fitness challenges to advertise work-life balance.
- Provide mental health support: Offer resources corresponding to counseling services or access to mental health professionals. Ensuring employees feel supported reduces absenteeism as a consequence of burnout and stress.
- Encourage regular breaks: Promote taking regular breaks throughout the workday to avoid fatigue and maintain mental clarity. This could prevent presenteeism, where employees show up but are too drained to work effectively.
- Flexible work arrangements: Allow employees to work at home or select flexible hours. This could reduce stress from commuting or personal responsibilities and lead to raised attendance.
Wrapping up
Having good workplace attendance is far more than your employees showing up for work physically. They ought to be present mentally and emotionally as well.
Step one to be sure that is to know the aspects causing the unplanned absence.
When you determine the basis cause, you should use the rules mentioned in this text to effectively address your staff attendance issues and manage your workplace attendance higher.
