Employee absenteeism is an employee’s frequent absence from work for no valid reason. It is one of the problems that the corporate world grapples with.
Certainly, it can have negative impacts on businesses. For example, it can be stressful for other employees who have to pick up the slack of the absent employees.
Moreover, employee absenteeism puts the reputation of your business in jeopardy, results in project delays, and could affect the morale of your employees.
Businesses know how employee attendance problems can affect their operations, and they try to brainstorm strategies to avoid them. Here, we offer various ways to address the employee absenteeism challenge.
1. Create a Policy
Corporate entities typically grapple with employee attendance problems because they do not have a policy to establish the kind of attendance system they want.
Employees will comply with attendance requirements when you have emphasized them through a policy.
Put the attendance policy in black and white. Doing this ensures that your employees have no reason to validate their lackadaisical approach to performing their duties.
When they don’t show up to work, you can use the policy to show them that they have violated a rule.
In this instance, EasyWork, an HR app allows employers to upload a policy and other important documents and be viewed online by everyone in the company for maximum effectiveness. Moreover, no paperwork is required.
2. Gather Evidence
Schedule a meeting with an employee or employees to talk about their absenteeism from work. Let them know you’re aware of their absences. However, beforehand, you must gather enough facts to back up your claim.
Having your employees’ absence data will make them see how serious you are about their attendance.
Without evidence, they will likely be defensive and see you as unserious. Make sure the evidence you’re collecting is airtight and can’t be countered. In this regard, businesses can adopt an HR app, such as EasyWork to manage employee absenteeism effectively.
Since all attendance records are stored on the cloud, they are safely kept and can be retrieved anytime, anywhere.
3. Be Open-Minded
When discussing an attendance problem with an employee, you must go with a listening ear. An employee could be absent from work because of unavoidable personal problems.
Rather than chewing them out, listen to their reasons. If they have a legitimate reason for their absenteeism, you might rethink penalizing them.
4. Make Communication a Priority
Make yourself approachable and keep lines of communication open to all employees. Assure your team that they can communicate with you anytime they have a problem that affects their work attendance.
Keeping lines of communication open reduces absenteeism and makes your employees feel loved and appreciated. This, in the long run, boosts their performance.
HR software such as EasyWork comes with ‘Company Communications’ features and is helpful in boosting communication across the company.
5. Show Genuine Concern
Some employers make the mistake of asking the employees too many personal questions because of what’s in it for them: getting their employees to work better. An employee is likely to see through this insincerity.
Do not pry into their personal lives to determine why they have been tardy or absent from work. Always leave the door open for them to talk to you about a problem.
6. Have a Human Resources Team
A human resources team is highly beneficial for businesses because it can help improve employee performance and the overall functioning of the business.
Include the use of employee attendance apps or HR apps to help the team manage and develop employees within the organization. Let the HR team know how much importance you place on employee attendance so they can carry out their duties well.
In Closing
Employee attendance problems should not be taken lightly. If not handled properly, they can seriously affect your business.
Through the use of an employee attendance app or HR software, and by embracing the solutions discussed above, you can address employee absenteeism challenges and get the best out of your employees.
EasyWork’s Attendance feature offers comprehensive tools such as digital attendance, selfie clock in/out and clocks in/out on behalf.
It is high time to leverage technology to boost employee productivity, increase competitiveness and achieve your business goals.
