Tomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Tomas Laurinavicius ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Written By Tomas Laurinavicius ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Tomas Laurinavicius ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Contributor Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Updated: May 1, 2024, 5:57pm
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Injuries, illnesses or lack of work ethics result in workplace absenteeism. Over 70% of employers agree that absenteeism has a moderate to significant impact on productivity and revenue. Use a customizable attendance policy template to minimize no-shows, early-outs and employee lateness.
An attendance policy lists rules and guidelines to track, monitor and enforce employee adherence to scheduled work times. The goals of an attendance policy:
Every employee signs an attendance policy during onboarding. A signature indicates policy acknowledgment and acceptance.
Use this attendance policy template to design a fair attendance management policy for your company.
An effective attendance policy communicates the importance of regular attendance and adherence to absence request procedures. Depending on the workforce size and composition, employers create one company-wide attendance policy or several department-based versions.
Each version can have standard provisions and optional subsections, such as the following:
Explain how your company defines authorized and unplanned absence. Provide a list of
procedures the employee has to complete to get their leave approved and compensated.
State when all employees (or specific divisions) have to be present at the workplace. Define what your company considers as “tardiness.” For example, arriving 20 minutes after the scheduled shift start time. Most organizations provide a five- to 15-minute grace period (as life gets in the way).
Indicate the planned shift end time for specific employee groups if your workplace doesn’t allow flexible hours. For example, leaving more than 30 minutes early before the shift ends.
Also, this section has to explain the procedures for notifying superiors in cases of late arrivals. Indicate the right contact person (title and contact details) and mandatory notification period.
Job abandonment occurs when an employee stops coming to work without prior notification and fails to respond to attempts to contact them. Employment laws do not regulate job abandonment, but it’s considered severe workplace misconduct.
Your attendance policy should state what constitutes job abandonment. For example, consecutive absences for three days. Then explain the follow-up action: disciplinary
proceedings or immediate termination without severance pay.
Make it clear how employees must provide notice before terminating their employment. It’s a good idea to have different policy clauses for full-time, part-time and contract-based employees.
To prevent poor attendance, employers enforce attendance policies via direct supervision and disciplinary action.
Common types of disciplinary action for unexcused absence include:
The above actions are applied progressively, based on the employee’s attendance record and on-the-job performance.
Attendance Point System
To motivate higher employee attendance, you can create a scoring system for tracking
employee attendance infractions. An automated attendance point system can minimize unfair employee reporting and recognize and reward good attendance.
Many employee scheduling systems now include modules for time tracking, which can help you rapidly identify early-outs, excessive sick leaves and recurring lateness. Then, investigate the issue on a case-by-case basis.
Flexible Attendance Policy
Hybrid workplaces have become the norm—and flexible working hours actually boost employee productivity. Flexibility in attendance also lets your people maintain a better work-life balance, and meet personal and family obligations. That leads to higher employee well-being and, ultimately—lower talent attrition.
Consider if you can accommodate flexible work arrangements (e.g., various starting hours, morework-from-home days, etc.) for at least some departments.
To improve employee attendance, you need to address employee engagement rates. Only 32% of full- and part-time U.S. employees are engaged at the workplace. Engagement rates directly correlate with employees’ overall physical and psychological comfort at the workplace.
A good attendance policy does more than warn about repercussions for tardiness or absence. It should also reflect the company’s action to improve the employees’ well-being.
Research says monthly attendance records improve when corporate policies promote good work-life balance, offer flexible working arrangements and allow extra time off on an as-needed basis.
Modern employee monitoring software enables HR departments to identify internal drivers for absenteeism, such as family issues, underlying health conditions and high stress levels. Then, create programs to support and accommodate different employees’ work styles and health-related needs.
Employees’ presence and availability directly affect the project timelines, commitments to stakeholders and customer service levels. Regular and punctual attendance can improve individual productivity and support the entire organization’s success. Your attendance policy template should accommodate your commitment to good attendance records and the flexibility your workforce requires to stay engaged and efficient.
Use a customizable attendance policy template as a reference. Customize the highlighted areas such as shift start/end time, minimum notification period for planned and unplanned absence and repercussions for not following through with the stated clauses.
A reasonable attendance policy assumes that your workforce is present at the workplace no later than 15 minutes after the shift start date (if you have fixed working hours) and provides notification of unplanned absence within at least one hour before the start date. Many organizations are now also switching to flexible attendance policies where employee performance, rather than presence, is used as the main criterion.
First, lead by example. Ensure that all management has impeccable attendance records. Secondly, invest in time tracking software to monitor employees’ attendance automatically and avoid any fake accusations
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ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing operations. He worked with TIME, Observer, HuffPost, Adobe, Webflow, Envato, InVision, and BigCommerce.
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