Attendance management is one of the essential ingredients in the recipe for absenteeism prevention. It serves to ensure that your team members are always present at the workplace when needed and the business remains productive all the time.
One of the primary things required to manage employee attendance well is a comprehensive policy that explains how such issues as tardiness, no-shows, and different kinds of absences are handled in your company.
A good employee attendance policy lets your staff members know what to expect when they neglect your attendance requirements and motivates them to be at work on time. So, here we discuss how to create an effective attendance policy and which things to cover in this vital document. Besides, to make it easier for you to develop an employee attendance policy for your team, we made a simple and free Word template. Download it and use it as a prompt during the writing process.
Nowadays, when flexible work arrangements grow increasingly widespread, many employees are not required to be exceptionally punctual. However, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and some other types of organizations still have to ensure their staff follows the designed work schedule 100%. After all, the production cycle should never stop, classes must begin on time, and every patient needs to be cared for without fail.
Besides, regardless of how flexible it is, every company wants its team to be present consistently and not miss work without valid reasons. And a well-developed employee attendance policy will help you see to it by outlining which disciplinary actions your team members are subject to for tardiness, early departures, and excessive absenteeism as such.
Employee Attendance Policy Components
- Introduction | Provide a brief overview of the policy at the beginning of the document. Indicate its objectives, describe the background of why it was made, and touch on a problem it aims to resolve.
- Excused absences | An excused absence is any type of leave that has a valid reason to occur. It can be planned in advance (like a long-term annual vacation) or result from an emergency situation (like sick leave or bereavement leave). But in any case, this type of absence always comes with a manager’s approval. And since different employers permit their workers to be absent for a varying number of reasons and on varying conditions, you need to specify in your attendance policy which absences are considered rightful and justifiable in your company.
- Unexcused absences | Next step is to clarify which types of absences you don’t welcome. Basically, any kind of absence that can’t be categorized as excused becomes an unexcused one automatically. And presuming that every member of your team wants to keep away from unexcused absences and the disciplinary actions they entail, you need to specify which steps must be taken to avoid or alleviate the negative consequences of such absences.
- Tardiness and early departure | In this section of the policy, you need to indicate whether your employees are given a certain grace period to report to work and clock in. It’s also essential to describe when your team members are permitted to leave work earlier than scheduled and which steps they need to undertake to avoid penalties in that case.
- Disciplinary actions | To promote team productivity and achieve desired performance results, you have to discourage excessive absenteeism, and one of the best ways to do so is by penalizing it. Thus, your employee attendance policy must include a clear definition of excessive absenteeism and indicate how you will deal with it.
All these topics are already covered in our free attendance policy template. We added some examples of what you can write in the document – feel free to use the content of the template as it is or edit it in accordance with your own internal rules and policies.
Track Absences in a Streamlined Way with actiPLANS
An effective employee attendance policy is key to absenteeism prevention. Yet there’s one more great thing that can contribute to better outcomes in this regard – an intelligent absence tracking tool.
Here’s a good option for you:
actiPLANS is a user-friendly and largely affordable software solution that allows employees to plan time off in advance and notify supervisors about any lateness or early departures promptly via the mobile app. Managers can also use the tool to streamline the approval of leave requests and get insightful historical data on staff absences.
When combined with a well-developed attendance policy, these actiPLANS features let you manage time off and minimize absenteeism with ease. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to make sure of it yourself!
