Absences cost much more than the dollar figures that appear on your employees paychecks. Absenteeism impacts the flow of work, results in decreased productivity, and can even cause loss of customers. Absences often result in expensive overtime for others, which, if not properly managed, can cause stress, sickness, and yes you guessed it more overtime.
Yet setting and enforcing effective absence policies has become one of managements greatest challenges. If you’ve ever tried taking the hard-line approach of docking pay or demanding doctors notes, you know it doesn’t work. Workers on the receiving end of these policies often feel disrespected and dissatisfied. Instead of improving attendance, these tactics are more likely to have the opposite effect. Disgruntled employees tend to be absent more than satisfied employees, and you may even notice that employee turnover increases.
Fortunately, there are more positive ways to improve attendance. Instead of tightening the reins, improve morale using a workforce management system such as Time and Attendance Software.
Time and attendance software allows you to strengthen attendance policies in a more positive manner.
Use it to:
1. Improve morale. Use the data in the workforce management system to gain insight why absences are occurring. For example, if a particular shift under a certain supervisor has a higher than average number of absences, perhaps there is an employee morale issue in that group. Identifying these issues, and taking steps to fix them, will make your organization a better place to work and will improve attendance.
2. Provide incentives. Use time and attendance software to identify those with good records, and reward them with time off, gift cards, or other meaningful awards. Or, introduce gamification to encourage workers to compete for prizes for good attendance, and use data to determine winners.
3. Introduce flexible work practices. Make things easier for your employees, and improve attendance. When employees are able to better balance work with family, absenteeism decreases. Workforce management software makes it much easier for companies to manage flexible work arrangements, without the cost and hassle associated with manual time and attendance systems.
4. Empower employees. Self-service options allow employees to have access to, and manage, their own attendance records. This sense of control improves accountability and attendance. Our Time and Attendance, Employee Scheduling Software can provide this function for your employees and organization.
5. Improve compliance. Configure the system to notify you if actions aren’t in line with company, state, or federal policy. All too often organizations give employees the benefit of the doubt when it comes to FMLA and other compliance laws, because they don’t entirely understand the legislation and want to avoid violations. Automated time and attendance software gives you and your employees the peace of mind of knowing your practices are in line with legislation.
6.Manage issues and abuses on an individual basis. Use time and attendance software to track absence patterns. Tracking who is absent, and when they are absent, can help you identify trends and recognize those abusing the system instead of meting out across-the-board penalties and policies. Configure the system to send notifications when attendance issues occur, so they can be managed before they become a real problem. The system can be programmed to send letters and notices to one or a group of people, and also schedules meetings, monitors disciplinary actions, and tracks follow-up.
