Attendance Policy

Purpose of Attendance policy

• The purpose of the attendance policy is to reduce

absenteeism in the workplace thereby implement and
enforce an attendance policy.
What’s Absenteeism?

• Absenteeism may be defined as when employees are not

showing up at work due to reasons like Tardiness etc. It does
not include holidays, leave or any emergency situations.
Causes of absenteeism

• Poor working conditions

• No job satisfaction
• Boredom
• Poor supervision
• Stress
• Personal Problems
Types of absence

Constant – When it is repeated frequently

Short absence- Absence for 1-2 days
Long absence – Absence for more then 2 consecutive weeks
Goals of Attendance Policy

• Goals must be tangible

• Greater meaningful job, greater motivation to regular work
• Real time expectation from employees
• To keep employees engaged
Ways to curb Absenteeism

• Change of Management Style

• Change in working conditions
• Give incentive to employees
• Develop an attendance Policy
Difference between excused and Non excused
absence
Unexcused absence
An unexcused absence is an
absence that has not been
authorised by an employee
supervisor. In some cases, an
unexcused absence may be due to
the result of an unavoidable
circumstance such as death or a
sudden illness. In other cases, the
reason for absence is personal.
The attendance policy
Must clearly define the acceptable
reason for the unexcused absence.
Excused absence
In case of excused absence, an
employee has received advanced
permission from the immediate
manager to not to be at work.
Reasons do vary however it
includes funeral, scheduled
surgery etc. The absence policy
must list the reason for which a
person may request an excused
absence and the reason for doing
so.
Good Attendance

• The Employee is reporting for work consistently

• Punctual with entry and exit time’
• Staying at work during working hours
• Break taken only in the assigned timeline
• Proper approval has taken in the case being absent or late
• Absent or Late only for valid reasons.
Responsibilities

• Directors responsibilities:

• Defining the work schedule for employees basis the business

demands.
• To determine whether the employee or immediate manager are
complying with policy or not.
• Taking corrective action as and when required.

• Employee responsibility:
• To follow the attendance policy of the company religiously.
• Getting approval from Immediate supervisor for the leaves, tardiness
or any other deviation from the normal routine.
Continue...

• Managers responsibility: ‘
• The most important responsibility of the manager is to monitor its
employee attendance.
• In case any employee is coming late to the office on regular basis a
meeting can be arranged with the employee to discuss the issue faced
by an employee.
• Options like flexible hours, work from home etc. can be given to
employees for helping them to manage work-life balance.
• If there are issues related to mental health of employee which result in
absenteeism, help team member to meet the mental health
professional.
• HR can be approached in case there is any disciplinary issue against an
employee.
Disciplinary action

•Steps to handle unauthorised absence from work:

 
•It is the responsibility of the manager to deal with the employee absence and it varies from
manager to manager. Forex. an employee who is absent for a single day will be dealt with
differently than someone who is absent on a regular basis.

•Step 1: One should first make to have a contact with the employee on his/her regular
absence.

•Step 2: If an employee is not contactable through any source in such case a letter to be
written to the employee asking the reason for an absence.

•Step 3: Letter must notify the employee that absence is causing disruption in the normal
working of the employee so the disciplinary action would be taken against the employee in
absence of any response from employees end.
•  
Further steps for disciplinary action

• Step 4: Letter is generally sent in a way that manager gets s copy

from the employee which is duly signed by the employee.
 
• Step 5: This and all other attempts to contact the employee should
be recorded as a matter of attendance policy in offices.
 
• Step 6: Discuss the issue with the employee on their return.

• Step 7: If the reasons for absence are valid, in such circumstances

the leave although unauthorised might be seen to be acceptable
and steps can be taken to help employee report absence properly in
future.
Benefits of Attendance policy

• Makes employee punctual

• Increase productivity
• Reduced absenteeism
• Major attendance issues can be identified
• Best use of skilled resource