Tips for Crafting an Employee Attendance Policy

Every business needs an employee attendance policy. As you would expect, it basically outlines the rules concerning employee attendance.

That includes things like tardiness, no-shows, and job abandonment. You can also build things like paid time off and leave management into your policy.

It can take time and effort to get your employee attendance policy right, but the process will run much more smoothly when you follow these helpful tips.

Begin by Creating a Simple Set of Rules

When crafting your attendance policy, you need to come up with a set of rules concerning attendance as well as disciplinary procedures for any employees who violate the rules.

So, begin creating your policy by defining each element, such as attendance, tardiness, and absence.

Then, lay out the rules and procedures for using paid time off, which would include both illness and holiday time.

Next, outline the rules for unscheduled absences, which would include tardiness and calling in sick procedures.

Use Absence Management Software

Rules around absence are an important part of your employee attendance policy. You will make everything a lot easier if you use staff absence management software.

The best software includes incredibly helpful features, such as a calendar for you and your employees to see and track absences and plan ahead, an interactive wall chart that gives you a simple view of who is absent and when, and a schedule for each member of your team so that you know which employees are working and when.

Ensure You Comply with Laws Concerning Employee Leave

Your attendance policy needs to follow the law in terms of things like how many days off your employees get and when you need to pay for days off, such as holidays.

So, make sure you read up on the national employment laws before you start drafting your attendance policy. If you leave checking until later, you could find you have to start your draft again.

It is recommended that you hire a lawyer to review your attendance policy once you have created the first draft to check that everything in the policy is law-abiding.

Come Up with Realistic Disciplinary Actions

Once you have established the rules and procedures around attendance, you need to come up with appropriate and realistic disciplinary actions for employees who break the rules.

Consequences are an important part of an employee attendance policy. After all, there is no point in having rules in place if you do not follow up rule breaks with disciplinary action.

Of course, when employees know what disciplinary action will be taken for breaching rules, they are more likely to abide by the rules.

Your disciplinary rules must be fair and impartial. You should never include disciplinary actions that come across as vindictive or mean-spirited. Spend some time looking at standard disciplinary actions that other companies take to come up with a full list.

You will need rules in place for each specific breach of a rule. For example, you could have a disciplinary action in place for an employee who is more than thirty minutes late for work, such as classifying it as a no-show for the day; which would result in the employee being unpaid.

Provide Flexibility Options

Lastly, you need to bear your employees’ wants and needs in mind when crafting an attendance policy.

You will want to make your company one that employees want to work for and you will want to retain your top talent and avoid high employee turnover. So, meet the demands of the modern workforce by building flexible options into your employee attendance policy.

Companies that allow flexible schedules and remote working can benefit as much as the employees.