Attendance management is all about finding the perfect balance between attendance, effectiveness and discipline. Between planning leave schedules, managing unscheduled absences and tackling absenteeism, there are also responsibilities like encouraging employees to use their paid vacation time and avoiding workplace presenteeism. This is why attendance management is challenging now more than ever before. In this article, we’ll show you how to motivate your employees to be more present at work, both mentally and physically.
Develop a clear attendance policy. A formal attendance policy allows you to establish consistent and precise standards throughout your organization while outlining the disciplinary procedure for policy violations. Once you’ve established workplace attendance policies, make sure to share them with all employees.
More importantly, you must be consistent with applying these rules. This is the only way to show employees how serious your attendance policy is.
Use time-tracking software. Another approach to handling employee attendance is using time and attendance management software. It can boost employee responsibility and decrease absenteeism, and it can assist you in monitoring hours, tardiness and absences, managing schedules and tracking vacation and sick time. By using tracking software, you can discover patterns and take measures to enhance attendance.
There are many tracking software programs available, so choose one that enables you to tailor the system to your company’s requirements and receive updates when errors occur, such as an employee working overtime.
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Measure the employees’ performance. Employee performance should be directly related to attendance in your evaluation system. Furthermore, we suggest that you consider rewarding employees who perform exceptionally well. Of course, these do not have to be costly programs! You can create fun ways to entice and attract your team members (e.g., movie tickets or gift cards) or acknowledge them publicly during staff meetings.
For example, if you’re relocating the office and looking for ways to minimize downtime for your employees, you can reward them if they show extra motivation during this time. Staying productive during an office move can be challenging, but with some enhancement, you can turn your workspace into a well-oiled machine.
Address the attendance issues on time. Do not put off discussing performance and attendance until a planned one-on-one meeting or the annual evaluation. Supervisors should take the responsibility to address these issues with staff as soon as possible. Every manager is responsible for their team’s attendance and overall performance, and dealing with concerns immediately will probably lead to a change in behavior.
What can supervisors and team leaders do to address these issues and overcome potential obstacles? Setting aside time for team training or a development workshop containing sections on handling employee attendance and performance will keep supervisors updated.
Offer fair time off. Companies that provide generous paid time off (PTO) benefits may increase employee attendance and efficiency. Employees will establish the routine of scheduling their days off if you provide adequate time away from the workplace. For example, suppose one of your employees is using their PTO for the process of moving houses. Professional moving crews like those from mod-movers.com can help the employee estimate how many days the move will take so they can forward accurate information to you ahead of time, allowing you to find substitute coverage, reschedule project deadlines and balance workloads across teams.
You need to choose the type of PTO you want to provide to your employees. Is there a set amount of time each year? Is their time off granted all at once or accumulated? Do you provide unlimited PTO?
Offering fair time off is one of the most effective ways to handle employee attendance. Not only will the employees avoid absenteeism, but they will also try and be more productive to earn their PTO.
Final thoughts. While absenteeism makes for a challenging workplace, it is avoidable. Your company can save money and decrease absenteeism by handling employee attendance and establishing a fair attendance policy that deals with issues adequately. Furthermore, providing a reliable PTO policy that covers vacation and sick time can reduce the number of times employees fail to show up for work.
We’ve given you the most effective ways to handle employee attendance. All you have to do now is implement them according to your company’s and employees’ needs.
