Absenteeism can be a major drain on productivity in the workplace. If you do not regularly examine employee schedules and keep track of absences, it is difficult to determine whether you have a problem with absenteeism. With the use of quality employee scheduling software, you can track hours worked and look for trends in absenteeism.
Any business can benefit from absence management software. It allows you to monitor employee absences and enforce your attendance policy. If you are hesitant about upgrading your software, discover the problems that absenteeism can cause and how software can offer a solution.
What are the Dangers of Absenteeism?
Why is absenteeism such a threat to your business? And, how can you tell that you have a problem with absenteeism? When employees stop showing up for their scheduled shifts, you will naturally experience a decline in productivity. This can come as the result of other employees working additional hours. The employees that have to pick up the slack may experience fatigue and less motivation to meet expectations.
Additionally, when the employees that regularly call off or miss shifts continue to go unpunished, the employees that do follow your attendance policy will begin to feel you are not looking out for their interests. You may notice a reduction in staff morale and a slow drain on your productivity.
Those are just a couple of the largest impacts that excessive absenteeism can have on your business. Though, there are other forms of attendance abuse beyond not showing up for shifts. Employees that abuse your attendance policy by not clocking out for breaks and lunches end up costing you additional money in wasted payroll.
While one or two instances of attendance abuse each week may not seem like a lot, it can add up over the course of a quarter. Between this added cost and the impact that absenteeism can have on productivity and morale, it is worth your time to find a way to combat absenteeism. But first, you will need to look at the cause of absenteeism.
What Causes Absenteeism?
There are numerous issues that can result in increased absenteeism. One issue is not having a suitable system in place for handling employee absences. If an employee knows that they will not be penalised or written up for calling off, then they have no additional incentive to follow your attendance policy.
When employees see others abusing your attendance policy and getting away with it, then they are also more likely to call off, show up late, or not clock out for lunches and breaks. Over time, you can develop a cycle of absenteeism that is hard to correct without major changes.
The best solution is to get to the core of the problem before it spreads to your entire workforce. You will need to look for ways to discourage absenteeism, by enforcing your attendance policy and streamlining some of your HR operations.
How Can You Put a Stop to Absenteeism?
If you want to put an end to excessive absenteeism, there are several steps that you can take. First, you need to reevaluate your attendance policy. Go over your policy and make sure that it is clear and direct. Next, print a copy of the attendance policy and have every member of your staff read and sign the policy. This simply reinforces the policy and ensures all of your staff understands the penalties related to missing a shift or abusing the system.
In addition to reinforcing your policy by actually having your staff review the policy, you should put a system in place to better handle absences. By implementing a time management system, you can simplify the way you deal with employee time tracking. This lets you monitor employee’s shifts in real-time. Make sure that your staff is showing up on time and clocking out for lunches.
When you use an electronic system for accurately tracking attendance, you have an electronic log of the hours worked. There is no disputing about the information collected by the time tracking software.
What are the Benefits of Using an Absence Management System?
Beyond providing a simplified solution for tracking employee hours, a complete absence tracking system will allow you to look for trends in absenteeism. You can use the software to identify repeat offenders so that you can confront them before their absenteeism becomes a major problem.
This same software can also be used to give employees more control over their schedule. You can grant them access to view their schedule and request shift changes. This cuts down on requests that need to be handled through the HR department. This also increases employee morale. Your managers can also use this software to generate scheduling reports. Using these reports, you can make better use of your available payroll – which could increase productivity.
Absenteeism can be a real threat to the productivity of your business. If you are worried about absenteeism, then you need to gain control of the situation. In addition to reviewing your attendance policy, you should consider implementing an absence management system.