Sync Attendance Policy With Attendance System For Better Staff Management
I have been very fortunate to have observed these
“I’m gonna get sick soon” behaviors from the fellow staff over the years. Some
like to cough rigorously, some sniff loudly, some pretend to blow nose using lots of tissue and
many of these behaviors happened on Thursday, preferably noticeable by other colleagues. Not that I claim all who called in sick on Fridays and Mondays faked it, but I'm not wrong to assume some did. To those who do not yet get my
point, those were the signals to justify their day off on Fridays. Absent
on Mondays are also as regular as Fridays, if not more often. Sometimes we wonder whether these absences were genuine or they simply cited
acceptable excuses like medical, personal or family matters to fake a legitimate absence.
Simply put, absences on Mondays and Fridays will
give an absentee a 3-day weekend. Inquiries on those absences from the managers have to be
carried out delicately to avoid any risks of lawsuit to the company. However,
there are steps that could be taken to minimize these preventable absences
before it becomes chronic and impacting negatively on the company’s operation.
Written and enforced employee attendance policy is
very important even for companies with small operations. While some companies
want to appear lenient and providing flexibilities, these flexibilities could
turn out to be opportunities for abuse. And this could affect the entire
company’s discipline and productivity.
Some pointers when preparing the employee
attendance policy should include first and foremost the employee work days and work
hours. Specify when are the company’s workdays? When are the off days? When is
the start and stop time of work hours for all employees? What are the
exceptions? Does your company offer multiple breaks? What is the duration for
each? Do you provide any leeway for breaks? How the attendance data is going to
be collected? What’s the sign in and sign out procedure?
The staff needs to know what the company means by
late for work. Detail it out in the company attendance policy. Does the company
provide buffer zone? If yes, what’s the duration? Say for example, the working
hour starts at 9:00, and the buffer zone is 15 minutes. When an employee signs in
at 9:13, he will still be considered on time. Only when he arrives at 9:16 will
he be considered as late. What is the cut off time before an employee is
considered absent? All these policies have to be stated clearly and understood
by all employees.
A company, regardless of its size, has to also define
leave benefits and holidays clearly in its attendance policy. Clear description
of paid and unpaid leave including what qualifies an employee to take what kind
of leave must be explained to the T. How many days can a staff take a sick leave? When shall the medical certificate be sent to HR? What type of clinic is acceptable? Can a staff call in sick and rest and home? Type of holidays approved by the company and whether the holidays are paid or unpaid must also be ascertained to avoid confusion.
 |
| Leave type can be defined in TimeTec Cloud |
 |
| Once defined, the leaves can be edited later on |
Apart from detailing out the policy, a company
needs to pay attention to the process that is to be followed for violations of
employee attendance policies. Specify the steps to be taken for various
infractions, to protect your business from charges of racism, favoritism,
discrimination and etc. For example, a warning letter must be issued if a staff is absent without a valid reason or a show-cause letter needs to be issued if it happened the second time around within 6 months, something like that.
 |
| Each employee's time settings can be defined in TimeTec Cloud. |
By having all this policy in place, it’s best to
have an attendance system that can operate based on the policy for smoother
operation. In TimeTec Cloud, user can define the attendance policy of the company to
match with the attendance system's settings. Key in the day types, leave types, clocking
schedule and many other attendance details to suit to the drawn written policy. For example, once the rules for tardiness are set, Tardiness Report generated will provide the company a clear idea about the lateness problem in the company and which area or personnel that requires improvement or perhaps, lateness has never been a problem that the company needs to worry about.
 |
| Define staff attendance easily on TimeTec Cloud |
Overall, syncing attendance policies with an attendance system like TimeTec Cloud will make sure that the data received from the attendance system is useful because it has been aligned with the
policy that is in place. And another advantage, TimeTec Cloud also provide some sample warning letters to be used. :)
Get TimeTec Cloud 30-day trial at https://www.timeteccloud.com/signup.php
By Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ
0 comments: