Introduction

Any organization cannot disagree with the fact that human resource is the biggest asset of an organization as a famous entrepreneur once said “my biggest asset of the company walks out the door each evening, I have to make sure that they come back the next morning, this is my highest risk and responsibility” this statement emphasis on the importance of an employee.

So how can you make sure your workforce returns every morning?

Though the basic reason your employee comes to a job is the money or compensation he is paid for it still there are a lot of other important factors that help in boosting employee morale, increasing employee presence, and control employee turnover. 

These are some minimal changes that an organization must undertake to ensure they meet the employee each morning. Start by

• Being very transparent with your employees and communicating a clear set of expectations and goals of the organization.
• Create a positive workplace and build a supportive work culture that promotes both the mental and physical well-being of the employee
• Listen to your employee grievances and makes sure they feel that their voices are being heard.
• Don’t hesitate to invest in securing your employee’s future, make sure your employees grow with your company
• Avoid micromanagement and set up convenient and clear management systems to track employee performance.

Inculcating the practice of all the above-mentioned points helps in bringing your employees to work every day and maintains high employee attendance. Now you may wonder

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What is employee attendance?

Employee attendance is the term used to refer to the presence of an employee at his designated workplace during business hours. Employees showing up at work and fully working for the scheduled shift can also be counted for employee attendance. 

For example; a software engineer login onto his system to carry out his assigned tasks by 9 in the morning and after due completion of his tasks logging off by 6 in the evening is counted as employee attendance.

so, now the next obvious question would be why employee attendance is important. But before getting there let us have a look at the effects of increased employee absenteeism.  

• Weak rapport-building among team members.
• Creates voids in communication
• Flushes individual productivity
• Reduced employee loyalty towards management and organization
• Hit on company profits and margins

With increasing employee absenteeism any or all above-mentioned effects can be experienced in your organization. So, now we can divulge into  

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Importance of tracking employee attendance: 

I am sharing here a few important factors why it’s considered to be wise to track your employee absenteeism.

‍Prevents time robbery:

The term time theft refers to the act of employees where they won’t be presenting actual productive work during business hours and still getting paid for being physically present. No matter how good your employee is he/she would have at least once done this as we are all humans and it’s quite common for us to find tricks that can reduce our work without affecting our pay.

But increased time theft is alarming for the growth of your organization as you are paying for hours they didn’t work as a result you won’t get any return this can turn out to be fatal for any organization.

We can reduce time theft by prevented by compensating for the work results instead of time spent on work. This enables consistent productivity patterns while allowing breaks when required by an employee.

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Observes patterns of Absenteeism: 

Employee absenteeism refers to a habitual pattern of absence from fulfilling duties or obligations.  By tracking employee attendance management stands a chance to observe these patterns and can form an action plan to reduce them. 

The most common employee absent pattern is MONDAY BLUES which is trying to take-offs every Monday. By understanding these patterns management can bring changes like special rewards or more liberty for showing up to work on a Monday. 

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Enhances customer experience:

The end goal of any business is to make profits through increasing sales which is directly related to the customer experience while an interaction takes place. 

But increased absenteeism creates a shortage of labor and results in inadequate time to handle each customer, this can ultimately lead to poor customer experience. To prevent all this tracking employee attendance is important. 

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Delay in production:

This issue is most likely to arise in labor-intensive businesses such as automobiles, patisseries, teaching, etc. Imagine a teacher handling grade 10 maths is regularly absent for no solid reason, this can lead to huge backlogs and build ambiguity among students which can create a poor performance of the student in tests.

This can bring a serious il-name for the school od ed-tech company. This same scenario can be applied to all labor-intensive jobs hence tracking employee attendance. 

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Challenges of employee attendance:

After understanding the importance of tracking employee attendance, you might want to start an immediate attendance tracking policy but it’s not an easy task to be implemented in a day. These are the likely challenges you can face while trying to monitor your employee’s attendance. 

Sick leave: 

This is the most common reason you might hear from your employee for his/her absence and with the spread of the pandemic, an employer can’t risk the health of employees.

Sometimes this might be a genuine reason and sometimes not, this is one of the most troublesome reasons for the absence of an employee.

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Late arrivals and early departures: 

Some employees use various tricks and techniques to start late in the morning and wrap up as early as possible at the end of the shift. You can even notice some employees constantly staring at the clock to wrap up the work and leave for the day.

Though the employee has been physically present throughout the day still there would not contribute largely to mindful or productive work. 

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Monday blues:

There are always quite a few employees who cannot function on a Monday morning. They try their best to avoid working on a Monday as they find it extremely difficult to resume work after a weekend break. 

The same goes for the employee who always tries to take off on Fridays or the one who impatiently watches clock all through the day to hit 5 on a Friday evening.

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Long time no see: 

Although it’s impossible and inhuman to expect an employee to work all through the 8 hours of the day without adequate breaks. Some employees take advantage of these breaks and try extending each break at the cafeteria. 

There might be also employees who go on long breaks such as maternity leave, medical leave, emergency leave, etc. though these are very important management must be prepared in advance to tackle all the gaps wisely. 

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Changing absenteeism pattern: 

Now after tracking employee absence, you’re sending feedback to the respective employee about the inappropriate absent pattern, then there are chances that instead of controlling the existing pattern the employee may change to a new pattern.

In case you warn an employee about taking frequent leaves on Monday then chances are that he might start taking sick leaves in the middle of the week. 

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How to manage employee attendance.

Now let us find out some practical and possible solutions on how to tackle all the above-mentioned challenges.

Awards and rewards: 

Who doesn’t like being recognized for their efforts? Rewarding your employee for changed behavior, achieving 100% attendance in a month, reaching targets for a month with a creative title, and cash bonuses or other perks can boost employee productivity.

This might also act as a motivational factor for other employees who are lagging as they can get inspired to put in more effort.

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Allowing flexibility: 

There is a saying about “the tighter you try to hold, the harder they try to escape”. This applies to your employees as well. Hence, allow flexibility in work wherever possible and let loose all the stringent policies which don’t have any impact. 

You can choose a hybrid system of work that allows the employee to work from the office and remotely as well. So instead of taking sick leave, your employee can still finish the task in the comfort of their home. 

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Invest in biometrics: 

Don’t be hesitant to invest in installing devices that can help you track down your employee presence such as a Biometric system or a timeclock system.

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Automate using software/ app: 

In the current context where everything is done in a digital medium, it will be the wisest choice to take help from technology. By adopting a powerful and efficient software or app system to regulate attendance policies you can manage all data with just a few clicks which leads to effective handling of employee attendance.

Since everyone now is proficient in using apps and software, this change can be convenient for your employee to adopt and you can keep a check on attendance and send automated feedback. 

Automating through apps and software is usually a one-time investment with minimal maintenance charges which can help you save from a lot of cyclical overheads for tracking your employee’s absence.

This can help in making your employees more efficient since it provides you with real-time and accurate data.

Do you want to build your employee attendance app today? 

Click on this button to connect with ZORP – helps in automating your process in minutes.

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