Tardiness & Absence Notifications: Is Your Policy Clear?

In the ideal world, your team members are punctual and show up to work every single day.

But since you’re employing humans and not robots, sometimes life happens.

Employees get sick, unfortunate incidents happen, or maybe they just have to deal with unexpected circumstances—there will be days that your staff may be late or absent.

As the manager or HR practitioner, you understand these moments are inevitable. All you need is for the employee in question to give you a heads-up.

At your workplace, is it enough that they just text you? Should they call? Who should they be notifying? Have you made the notification process clear?

How well do you manage absences at work?

Managing absences 101

Through rules and processes, absence management aims to lower employee absenteeism, which is typically brought on by illness or injury.

These rules and procedures must be explained to managers and staff members to be effective, and management and your HR team must enforce them aggressively.

Because the whole absence management is viewed more positively, some organizations prefer to refer to it as attendance management. This entire process may even include rewarding staff for good attendance.

Why is absence management important?

The management of absences is a crucial problem for businesses.

It’s common to underestimate and misunderstand the effect on specific employers and the economy as a whole.

Did you know that productivity losses related to absenteeism cost businesses up to $1,685 per employee annually? And that’s just the direct costs.

Employee absenteeism has expenses for your company, both direct and indirect, much like other complicated business concerns.

Direct costs, which can be more easily quantified, include things like salaries, Worker PTO, overtime expenses, and the added costs of finding replacements.

The indirect costs might vary between industries or two businesses in the same industry, and they are frequently more challenging to estimate.

In general, these can consist of the following:

• Staff morale difficulties when filling in for others
• Collaboration breakdowns and sluggish workflows
• Critique of management and business practices
• Deficiencies in knowledge and expertise that impact service
• Executive attention being diverted, and administrative time wasted
• Decreased productivity and increased costs

You suffer losses when absences are not managed effectively, whether indirect or direct.

How to manage absences effectively

Every company has operating requirements.

Employees with various skill sets must collaborate on a fixed schedule to provide value and consumers with prompt service. These team members also have requirements.

They may experience a temporary incapacity due to illness or accident, keeping them from working. In addition, they can experience unforeseen personal circumstances that prevent them from entering the office.

Even the healthiest, most driven employees require and deserve time off.

The wide range of complex and contradictory operational and human needs must be considered for a program’s effectiveness. In addition, there are a lot of legal and regulatory regulations to take into account, such as the following:

Offering flexitime or wellness initiatives

Corporate wellness is a significant trend that is related to absenteeism. Corporate wellness’s major goal is to support staff in choosing better lifestyles.

Numerous businesses arrange various wellness events for their workers, such as health training, athletic events, or even providing healthy food and drinks in the office.

It’s a true “win-win” situation. Employees can choose a healthier lifestyle that increases longevity, happiness, and vitality.

A healthy lifestyle has countless benefits that your team will undoubtedly appreciate.

Businesses that engage in corporate wellness benefit from more energized and productive workers and decreased absenteeism.

So, the next time your employees call in sick, advise them to stay home to ensure a thorough recovery.

Employees will be able to sleep well without feeling bad, and your business will be able to prepare according to the resources that are accessible.

Crafting a detailed absence management process

If you’ve ever wasted time searching for an employee that didn’t report to work only to find out that they called in sick, then you know that there’s something wrong with your notification process.

Establishing a clear absence management policy is very important. A firm absence management policy should make employees aware of the expectations of absences.

In turn, they will also know the proper way to notify their supervisors and such in the event of unexpected absences or tardiness.

A clear process for managing absences must be provided in such a policy and communicated to staff.

The following details need to be included in a good absence management policy:

• When and how to let superiors know you’ll be absent
• How an absence is handled from a scheduling and administrative standpoint
• When flextime is a viable option for lowering absences
• What the pay policies are in the event of an absence
• When to apply disciplinary measures
• How to get back to work after a long break,
• How to record absences

Your ideal management process and policy should be detailed, clear, and easily attainable for all parties involved.

Utilizing software for managing absences

The usage of specialized software is the most effective technique for managing absences. Solutions for managing absences are frequently included in platforms for workforce management like Hezum.

Absence management is a crucial component of workforce management, especially when it comes to unplanned, frequent, and brief absences, which frequently disrupt production and result in payroll errors.

But sometimes, lengthy notification processes can get tiring for everyone involved, and that is one problem Hezum eliminates.

By streamlining the process through the Employee Self-Service (ESS) feature, Hezum allows team members to schedule their time off requests conveniently.

There won’t be unnecessary back and forth between employees and HR staff concerning questions on their available leave credits—Hezum keeps track of and updates this information. The best part is that all employees can access it.

Hezum also integrates everyone’s schedule in a calendar so it’s easy for managers to see if they need any augmentation or rescheduling on days with limited staff. That way, the workforce remains operational and productive.

Remember when we told you it’s best to communicate your absence policy clearly?

Hezum is also capable of becoming your bulletin board. Keep your organization in the loop by posting announcements, memos, and essential documents with the ESS feature.

To wrap it up

Being sick is an inevitable part of life.

Suppose you work as an HR practitioner or are an employer. In that case, having the correct absence policy is essential to running your company and maintaining your employees’ safety, health, and happiness.

Take a more innovative and streamlined approach to absence management with Hezum. Visit our website to learn more about our solutions, or request a demo today.