As a business owner, manager, supervisor, you wonder why your expectations for work attendance seem to be communicated to your employees in an ancient language that no one understands. Why is it so hard for everyone to understand that you really do expect an employee to show up and work the posted schedule?

On close examination, the final answer just might be that it is indeed your fault, your communication to employees concerning attendance might be flawed. Is there a difference between what you say and what you actually make happen?

Here’s a short list of some factors that contribute to attendance problems:

1- No one is in charge of attendance – who’s keeping score?

2- Generational issues, older employees who know how important attendance is and younger employees who believe they can come and go as they please.

3- Internet knowledge – more and more employees are informed about FMLA and are learning how to use “the system.”

4- Use it or lose sick leave plans.

5- Supervisors who believe if they enforce attendance policies they might lose their “best” employee.

6- No plan to fix the problem.

My Grand Pa would say to me….if a person keeps a cow-pie in his hat eventually he will get used to it. In my youth I didn’t have any idea about what Grand Pa was trying to tell me, but I know now. If there’s a problem and I don’t do anything to fix it, by and by I’ll just get used to the problem, the problem will become status-quo.

Grand Pa might have given a few ideas about fixing the attendance problem (for sure there was no attendance problem on his farm!)

1- Make sure everyone understands what is expected. No questions. We hired you to come to work everyday…we expect you to be here everyday.

2- Who does the employee contact when she is going to be late or absent. There must be a clear line of authority. Telling a co-worker to tell the supervisor is never appropriate.

3- Some things must be set in stone, like:
a. Requests for vacation or personal time off (we highly suggest doing away with vacation and making all leave fall under PTO) must be submitted in advance.
b. If you miss work and fail to follow the established rules for notification you will receive a warning, a verbal warning the first time and then a written warning…no exceptions.
c. If you miss 3 or more days of work due to illness you can’t come back to work without a doctor’s note…no exceptions.
d. More than 2 or 3 or 4 days (the company must decide) absence within a quarter are considered attendance abuse and can lead to discharge.
e. Use Decision Making Leave before discharging a person for poor attendance. This forces the employee to commit to changing his ways or being subject to discharge.

4- Post the rules for attendance where everyone will see; by the time clock, in the break room, etc. Don’t accept as an excuse…I didn’t know.

5- Use the 90 day introductory period to assess a person’s willingness to abide by the attendance rules. If a person has an attendance issues in the initial 90 days of employment do not employ that person past 90 days. Attendance issues will not get better (or any other policy violation the employee having issues with).

6- Be consistent.

7- Keep attendance records. (document, document, document)

Allowing some (my best guy) to violate the attendance rules while enforcing the rules with others will ultimately lead to a morale problem.

Set clear expectations and professionally enforce your attendance policy. In the long run your organization will run better, be more productive, and morale will be better.

What’s under your hat? Hopefully not an “attendance cow-pie.”

Please contact the HR Department at A Plus Benefits if you have further questions or concerns.

We appreciate your business!

Randall Barker is the VP of Human Resources at A Plus Benefits, Inc.