Employee attendance management: Boosting productivity and cutting costs

Good attendance management is about making your team more productive, improving how well things get done, and saving money by reducing lost work time. Ignoring employees who are often absent can make other team members feel angry and overworked. That’s why having transparent and fair rules for tracking and reporting attendance is necessary.

What is attendance management?

The goal of any organization is to have perfect attendance, but perfection is unrealistic. Life happens. Even though people will miss work sometimes, you shouldn’t ignore what that means for your business. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that employee absenteeism costs Canadian businesses $16.6 billion per year. Beyond just the money, when people are absent, others have to pick up the slack, leading to burnout and frustration.

Strengthening your attendance management strategy mitigates the consequences of poor attendance.

Making your attendance management plan stronger helps you deal with the problems that come from poor attendance.

Why Attendance Management Matters

Attendance management means keeping an eye on when people are at work. The main goals are to:

• Minimize the abuse of sick time.
• Make everyone more productive.
• Improve how quickly tasks get done.
• Cut down on money lost from missed work time.

Effective attendance management does not punish workers for absenteeism beyond their control. If there isn’t a clear way to handle repeated absences, a lack of trust can creep in, which might then lead to people ignoring rules, taking advantage of attendance expectations, and even being dishonest.

The good news is that a comprehensive attendance management plan can help you determine why people are absent from work. Key steps include implementing an attendance policy and creating consistent and fair reporting, tracking, and disciplinary procedures.

Adding measures such as  “Bare minimum Mondays” and employee assistance programs can help prevent absences by looking after employee well-being. Every organization should prioritize improving attendance because when employees are present, goals are achieved.

How to manage employee attendance effectively

Managing employee attendance well involves several key steps, from setting clear rules to preventing absences before they start.

Step 1: Set clear attendance expectations

Before you expect employees to obey rules, you must establish the rulebook. Creating an Attendance Management and Absenteeism Policy lets all employees know what your company expects regarding attendance. This policy plays a crucial role in the broader performance management process.

The main aim of this policy is to handle absences reasonably by explaining:

• What attendance is expected
• How to deal with absences that aren’t okay

Your policy should define different types of absences, such as:

• Non-culpable absences: Absences are due to illness, weather, or injury, whereas culpable absences are within an employee’s control.
• Culpable absences: These are absences that an employee cannot control, such as illness, bad weather, or injury.

The policy should apply to all employees, whether in the office, from home, or a mix of both (hybrid work). Make sure your policy also explains:

• How attendance is tracked
• How to report absences
• What disciplinary steps will be taken if the rules are broken

Employees also need to know how to report an absence. Without a clear way to report, it’s hard to track and prove when someone is missing work without a good reason.

Sometimes, non-culpable absences, such as an extended illness or injury, require accommodation. If an employee needs this, your Human Rights Policy and its associated legislation will guide you on how best to help them. In these cases, you don’t use progressive discipline. Each case where attendance needs accommodation is determined on a case-by-case basis. Remember, accommodation plans are unique to personal needs.

Step 2: Use performance management software for tracking and reporting

Attendance management programs and apps like Timetastic[1]  make reporting and tracking attendance much easier. These tools can often integrate with a wider performance management system.

Without a consistent reporting procedure, employees may report to the wrong individual, and their absence might be tracked incorrectly, resulting in unnecessary disciplinary action. Attendance management programs eliminate the need for paperwork or never-ending spreadsheets by offering a streamlined digital platform. An organized platform lets you:

• Plan work schedules easily.
• Approve time off requests.
• Manage many teams at once.

Using an efficient and organized service helps make sure all employees are treated fairly. For those looking to streamline HR processes, having employee performance management software that handles attendance can be a game-changer. This performance management software helps identify patterns and link attendance directly to employee contributions.

You need to identify patterns before you address poor attendance. Investigating patterns helps identify whether absenteeism is culpable or non-culpable, and whether accommodation may be needed. Patterns to look for include:

• Specific days: Absences on popular days like weekends, Mondays, and Fridays.
• Around holidays: Missing days before or after vacation or public holidays.
• Changes in behavior: Consistent lateness, early departure, or unexpected absences from employees who usually have excellent attendance could indicate a personal or health issue.

Keeping good records of these patterns helps you find the reason behind poor attendance and decide the next steps in your performance management process.

Step 3: Adopt a consistent attendance management program and disciplinary practices

Making a final decision without considering all sides of a problem is never a good idea. When analysing employee absenteeism cases, considering all contributing factors is essential to fair discipline, which aligns with the principles of fair performance management.

A good Progressive Discipline Policy outlines how to address and handle culpable absenteeism consistently and fairly. Progressive discipline should start with a formal meeting. During this meeting, you must:

• Clearly state that their attendance is still not acceptable.
• Explain the reason for the meeting.
• Set clear expectations for improvement.
• Explain what will happen next if there’s no improvement.
• Offer helpful resources.

If the employee’s attendance shows no improvement, there are five stages to follow:

1. Coaching: Informal guidance and support.
2. Verbal warning: A formal spoken warning, often documented.
3. Written warning: A formal warning in writing.
4. Final written warning or suspension: A last written warning or a temporary removal from work.
5. Termination: Ending employment.

Hopefully, termination is unnecessary, and the employee fixes their absenteeism challenges. The intention is that the employee learns to maintain good attendance long term. If poor habits return after a long period of good attendance, the progressive discipline restarts at the first stage. Remember to document all communication during each stage of the process. When enforcing progressive discipline, managers and supervisors should be role models by following attendance expectations themselves, thus reinforcing a strongperformance management system.

Step 4: Put in place preventive measures

Prevention is a smart way to handle attendance problems and stop them from getting out of control. An Attendance Management Best Practice Guide offers an overview of strategies to prevent absenteeism from becoming an issue and help employees address factors that lead to it.

Some common reasons for poor attendance include:

• Lack of employee engagement
• Stress.
• Low productivity.
• Health issues.
• Disabilities.

Measures like wellness programs, Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), and flexible work arrangements can help fight these root causes.

• Wellness programs: Like offering gym memberships, these help with physical and mental health.
• Flexibility: Other ways to make your attendance program more flexible are to offer more sick and vacation days than the law requires or to offer hybrid and remote work options.

If your employees dread coming to work each day, a poor workplace culture may be to blame. Building a positive workplace culture through these measures makes sure employees feel supported when they need to take a day off. A supportive culture leads to transparent time off requests and fewer no-shows.

Why is good attendance management important?

Attendance management is essential to productivity and should be considered an organizational goal. When employees are absent, company goals are more challenging to achieve. Poor attendance leads to lower productivity and employee morale.

Fair tracking and reporting procedures are key to finding out why people are absent and keeping work schedules organized. To improve your attendance management, you must update policies, establish clear tracking and reporting, and address culpable and non-culpable absenteeism.

How does missing work impact all employees

Beyond just the money it costs and the extra work for other employees, letting absences go unchecked causes problems everywhere in your company. Imagine if just one team member is missing: tasks might not get done on time, customer service could get worse, and the quality of work might drop as busy colleagues rush to cover. Over time, this less efficient way of working wastes a lot of time and money and can hurt your company’s good name.

Also, if you’re too relaxed about attendance, it can damage your company’s spirit. When employees keep missing work without clear consequences, it can make those who show up every day feel unfairly treated. This can lead to:

• Low team spirit: Hardworking employees might feel they’re not appreciated or that others are taking advantage of them. This can make them lose interest and work less hard.
• More people leaving: Your best workers, tired of doing extra work, might look for jobs elsewhere. This costs you good people and means you must spend more money and time hiring and training new staff.
• Less trust: Employees might stop believing that managers and HR can or will enforce rules, which can cause them to lose respect for the people in charge.
• Unstable operations: When you don’t know who will be at work, it’s hard to plan projects, set work times, and keep things running smoothly. This can cause confusion instead of order.

Building a team that’s accountable and supported

Good attendance management isn’t just about spotting problems; it’s about building a workplace where everyone knows what’s expected of them, and help is there when needed. Employees feel more responsible when they understand the rules and see that policies are used fairly for everyone. They know that being at work matters and that their teammates count on them.

A good system lets HR and managers find employees who might be struggling before missing work becomes a big problem. Maybe a pattern of absences shows there’s a deeper personal or health issue. With a solid system, you can see these signs early and offer the right support, like connecting them with a helpful program (EAP) or discussing flexible work options. This way of helping early shows employees you care.

This builds loyalty and trust, which are much more valuable than punishing absences. It transforms attendance management from an annoying task into a smart way to promote employee well-being and keep your company healthy, directly linking to the human side of performance management.

The benefits of good employee attendance management

Ultimately, good attendance management goes beyond just making sure people are at work. It helps with:

• Better planning: With reliable information on who’s at work, you can plan staffing needs more accurately, set up work schedules better, and plan projects more confidently.
• Stronger teamwork: When everyone does their part, teams work better together, talking improves, and goals are met with fewer problems.
• Better company reputation: Companies known for being fair, supportive, and well-managed attract better job candidates and are seen as better workplaces. This makes hiring easier and cheaper in the long run.
• Better information for decisions: Keeping good records gives you essential clues about attendance trends across different departments or job types. This helps you find bigger issues and make smart choices about staff, training, or changes to the workplace. This information is very helpful for improving your overall performance management system.

Need help making attendance management easy?

Managing employee attendance effectively might seem like a lot of work, but you don’t have to tackle it alone. At Citation Canada, we provide the essential tools, expert guidance, and proven solutions to help you streamline your attendance management processes and support your broader performance management system.

We offer a full range of HR solutions designed to:

• Simplify policy creation: Get access to thousands of HR documents and HR policy templates, including customizable attendance management and progressive discipline policies. Updating and creating new HR policies can be time-consuming, but with our help, it’s easy.
• Boost manager skills: Our online training courses teach your managers to track patterns, understand different absences, and handle situations fairly as part of the performance management process.
• Provide HR support: Our HR experts are here when you need them, ready to offer advice and support on tricky attendance cases, accommodation needs, or any HR compliance questions.

By partnering with our team of HR and Health & Safety experts, you get more than just tools; you get the confidence that your business is prepared for the future of work. We help you create a workplace where attendance is well-managed, leading to a more productive and innovative team.

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