Article By: Bill Vogel, PHR Date: June 4, 2018 VirtualHRPros.com Reducing the needless number of days employees are absent from work is the primary purpose for having an attendance policy. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics: The Economics Daily, 4.2 million full time workers surveyed in January 2018 missed work because they were sick, injured, or claimed to have a medical problem or doctor’s appointment. This is an increase from the 4.0 million workers who missed work for the same reasons in January 2017. It’s unclear if all the workers in this survey were subject to an attendance policy. However, with an increase in absences year over year and new legal protections for time off, employers need an effective attendance policy. Attendance policies can utilize two measurement methods, the number of days absent or tardy, or the number of points absent or tardy within a rolling twelve-month time frame. The easiest tracking method is counting the number of days, but some of the latest payroll system software available has a built-in point tracking system. The most difficult part of the attendance policy is defining what is an absence or tardy violation. Several laws protect absences from work such as the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA), and state or municipal paid sick leave laws (PSL). Issuing disciplinary warnings or terminating an employee for absences protected by law can lead to a long and expensive legal battle. The following considerations are at the forefront of developing an attendance policy:
For each category the definition excludes the use of two terms, excused and unexcused. Employees may have justifiable reasons for not being at work and may assume the absence or tardy is excused. For example, an employee is absent for one day and may voluntarily provide a doctor’s note the next day, but this does not mean that the absence is excused or a legally protected. Absences – The manager can assign points or number of days that an employee, usually incurs within 12-months, for unscheduled absences before receiving disciplinary action up to and including termination. For example, one unscheduled absence can result in a verbal waning, two a written warning, three a final warning, and the fourth is termination. There is no need to define absences as excessive. The use of points is explained later. Tardy – This can be a simple definition as well, as with absences there is no need to define tardy violations as unexcused or excessive. A tardy is anytime an employee starts working after a scheduled work start time, this includes returning from lunch. Notice the definition does not include arriving but starting work. Based on business necessity the manager will need to determine how much time, past the scheduled start time, is considered a tardy violation. Leaving Work Early – Employees are expected to work until the end of their scheduled work day. Leaving work early without manager or supervisor approval can also be an attendance policy violation. Job Abandonment – An employee that fails to show up for work and fails to notify a supervisor or manager of an absence, is commonly referred to as a no-call-no-show. A manager can terminate an employee after one no-call-no-show, but to avoid a wrongful termination claim, it’s best for managers to call the missing employee on the day first and wait two or three work days before separating employment. An attendance policy can include how many days or points per attendance violation before disciplinary steps begin. For example, after three violations an employee receives a verbal warning and then disciplinary steps (e.g. written warning and final warning) for each violation thereafter, all within a 12-month period. This means the employee would have a total of 5 violations with a 6th violation resulting in termination. To spread it out a bit, the attendance policy can include points for each violation such as 2 points for an absence and 1 point for a tardy. For example, when an employee receives 6 points (two absences and two tardy occurrences), the manager issues a verbal warning and then disciplinary steps after each additional 6 points within a calendar year. The cost of absenteeism is difficult to quantify, but there is little doubt that consistently absent and tardy employees cut into revenues, cause delays to customers, and place additional work burdens on coworkers. However, as a final step before terminating an employee for violating the attendance policy, managers need to make sure strict compliance with leave laws such as FMLA, ADA, and PSL. An example of an attendance policy can be found at VirtualHRPros.com Attendance Policy.
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