Attendance Management by Nicole Solka

Article: http://www.benefits.org/interface/cost/absent.htm

After reading this article, I can definitely understand the reasons and the necessity of having an attendance policy in place within an organization. Not only can not having one disrupt the flow of an organization's daily routine, but it can also be confusing for employees when they need to take time off.

This article states that there are many direct and indirect costs when an employee is absent for a day. This includes wages, benefits, staffing, scheduling, lost productivity, etc. I definitely agree with this and think that this is enough proof alone that there should always be a firm attendance policy in place. When an employee is absent for any reason, there is definitely going to be less productivity. And even if someone is called in, maybe an "on-call" or "temporary" person in some cases, this is still going to cost the company money and time as that person is most likely going to need training on how to do that particular person’s work. And if another currently working employee were to do that person’s work on top of their own, the company would most likely end up paying overtime costs.

Another point that is made in this article is the many reasons that employees take time off from work. Some of these are obvious reasons such as accidents and illness, but some potentially disturbing reasons include poor physical fitness, boredom on the job, stress, poor working conditions, etc. I definitely think that this could cause a problem in a workplace. Obviously employees will be taking time off for serious, "real" reasons but if employees start taking unnecessary time off just because they are tired or bored with their jobs, this can cause a serious problem for the company. This further convinces me that a solid attendance policy always needs to be established within an organization.

The article also made some interesting points regarding attendance within companies. For example, the more an employee makes and the longer they have been working for a company, the less days off they tend to take from their job. In my opinion, I would attribute this to company loyalty and dedication, as well as job satisfaction. If a person is making an amount of money that they are comfortable with, I definitely think that this is true and that they will be less likely to be dissatisfied with the work that they have to do. Also, the longer an employee works for a company I would think the more loyal they are, so they probably will not take unnecessary days off from their jobs.

In summary, I think that the best way for an employer to handle poor employee attendance is to set a firm attendance policy that must be followed by all employees and if it is not then that employee must be terminated. In some cases of course, exceptions could be made and there should be some flexibility as stated in another article that I found, but I think that by having a solid policy in place and by requiring documentation for absences, employees are more likely to know that they can and can’t miss work for and they will be less likely to get away with taking more absences than are necessary.

Other Sources:
http://www.employer-employee.com/absent.html
http://www.hrhero.com/topics/absenteeism.html
http://library.rice.edu/about/employment/staff-resources/forms-policies/time-and-attendance-policy
http://www.helium.com/items/248603-introducing-an-attendance-policy