Absenteeism in the workplace

More about absenteeism in the workplace monitoring

What is absenteeism in the workplace?

Absenteeism in the workplace is a permanent employee absence that is above the acceptable period. In recent years, the frequency of absenteeism has increased significantly, making it a widespread workplace challenge.

Impact of absenteeism in the workplace

Various negative effects of absenteeism in the workplace make employers worried. Here are the most common absenteeism in the workplace consequences:

Less engagement in the work process;
The team is overloaded with tasks;
Excessive overtime and burnout;
Delayed delivery of work;
Lower quality of work;
Loss of motivation;
Reduced profits;
Extra expenses to cover overtime, replacement, and recruiting.

Employee absenteeism and its impact on productivity

The direct effects of absenteeism involve mainly extra costs on wages for employees who are not working and team members who have to work overtime to handle the workload. Still, the effects of employee absenteeism can also be indirect. Frequent employee absence damages individual and team productivity. Implementing WorkTime absence tracker software can assist in revealing how your employees' attendance affects your team's performance. Request a personalized demo to learn more about WorkTime and its benefits for your business.

How to deal with employee absenteeism?

Can I terminate an employee for excessive absenteeism? The decision to fire an employee for absenteeism in the workplace may seem logical, but it is often ineffective in the long run. First of all, you need to have a solid reason to terminate an employee and ensure that you follow all legal requirements. Secondly, firing for employee absence can have a range of negative effects, such as

Adverse impact on your employees' morale;
Increased level of anxiety and stress;
New incidents of absenteeism in the workplace;
Low motivation and reduced engagement.

That’s why dealing with employee absenteeism requires a well-planned strategy.

Find out the root cause of employee absenteeism

It is the first step towards preventing staff absenteeism. For instance, you can gather regular employee feedback to see the bigger picture. Very often, the cause lies much deeper than it seems. Among the possible reasons for frequent employee absences are the following:

Stress or burnout;
Injury or illness;
Low morale or lack of engagement;
Cases of bullying or harassment.

With WorkTime reports, you can easily spot the signs of burnout and prevent them on time. Also, a high distraction score and excessive overtime may indicate burnout, leading to a high absenteeism rate. Knowing the situation will help implement the best strategy for preventing further cases of absenteeism at work.

Build an effective absenteeism management strategy

It’s important to create an employee attendance policy and enhance the importance of a high attendance rate. The HR department may be extremely helpful in reaching this goal. Regular meetings can also help raise awareness among staff concerning frequent absence in workplace without a justified reason.

Implement absence monitoring software

HRs can also take care of keeping track of employee absences manually. Still, it requires additional time to prepare individual timesheets for each absence of employees. Therefore, implementing an absence tracker can become an effective tool to deal with it. Save time with WorkTime, as our employee absence tracker automatically monitors attendance, analyzes metrics, and provides comprehensive reports, including timesheets. Keep track of employee absences and document everything: scheduled/unscheduled absences, holidays, and vacations.

Recognize employee efforts in dealing with work absenteeism

Monitoring employee absenteeism is crucial. Still, it’s important to recognize your workers’ efforts to improve their attendance. Motivating and rewarding employees will show that your team is valuable and their efforts are noticed. Set goals for attendance and observe the progress with WorkTime. Financial rewards, such as quarterly attendance bonuses, will also be a great motivator to reduce cases of absenteeism at work.

Effectively manage the excessive absenteeism cases

Terminating employee for excessive absenteeism is not always the best decision. Instead, a complex approach to managing absenteeism will work effectively. So, finding the best way to manage employee absenteeism is crucial to solve this issue. With WorkTime, you will know for sure how to reduce absenteeism in the workplace. By using absence tracking software, you will have access to valuable information related to your team’s attendance and performance. By analyzing the attendance statistics, reports, and timesheets, you will create a strategic plan for preventing the effect of absenteeism on employee performance.

Prevent excessive absenteeism with WorkTime

WorkTime provides all necessary tools for effective attendance monitoring and preventing absenteeism in the workplace.

1. Monitor employee absence and attendance.

WorkTime can be used as an absence tracker, but it provides many other useful features. Monitor employee attendance, including:

Employee’s status (late/on time, at work/off work);
Who is working right now?;
Attendance goal;
Login/logout times.

2. Get 60+ comprehensive reports on employee attendance and more.

You can use WorkTime for vacation days tracking, holidays tracking, and absence tracking. The employee absence software provides 60+ comprehensive reports on employee attendance, productivity, active time, and more. WorkTime analyzes the screen in numbers, so no content recording is necessary to assess attendance and productivity.

3. Maintain transparency with non-invasive WorkTime employee monitoring.

Prevent employee absenteeism non-invasively (without going too far) with WorkTime absence tracking. Our software uses green monitoring technology, providing an alternative to invasive features like screenshots or keystroke recording. WorkTime helps monitor attendance without breaking the employee’s privacy.

4. Motivate employees with leaderboards.

Noticing the employee’s achievements is a good way to make them feel valued members of your team. Leaderboards will help recognize employees for maintaining attendance policies. Encourage them to achieve attendance & productivity goals together and reduce the number of employee absences.

5. Compare in-office and remote attendance.

It’s hard to notice worker absenteeism when your team (or some employees) work remotely. That’s why employees absenteeism tracking will be inevitable in preventing such cases. WorkTime perfectly fits this task. Multiple office tracking is useful to monitor attendance regardless of the employee’s location. Moreover, you can compare in-office and remote attendance rates. Effortlessly detect employee absenteeism, even when your team works from home.

Benefits of WorkTime absence tracking software

Identify employee absence patterns and take necessary actions to prevent the negative effect of absenteeism on employee performance on time;
Reduce the time spent filling out timesheets. Our absence monitoring software monitors attendance and provides all required information in comprehensive reports;
Use WorkTime absence tracker to ensure that employees adhere to the attendance policy;
Prevent work overload and excessive overtime. Analyze absenteeism in the workplace rate to guarantee you have enough workers to handle the shift workload.

Get a 14-day trial for free to take advantage of WorkTime absence monitoring software right now!

FAQ

Can an employee be dismissed for absenteeism?

Yes, it is possible to dismiss an employee for frequent absenteeism in the workplace. But you need to be sure that you follow all legal regulations, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which cover different types of absences.

Can I terminate an employee for absenteeism?

Can you terminate an employee for excessive absenteeism? Yes, the employer can terminate an employee for absenteeism in the workplace. Still, bad firing practices can result in wrongful termination. Hence, the employer should have solid reasons, including written records of employee absences.

How to calculate absenteeism rate?

You should fill out timesheets and record all scheduled and unscheduled absences. Then, using an absenteeism rate formula, you can calculate the absenteeism rate. But you can save your precious time by delegating absenteeism in the workplace tracking to WorkTime.

How to calculate absenteeism percentage?

You can do it manually with the help of the absenteeism rate formula. In this case, you should record all work absences during a particular period. Or you can simply use WorkTime absenteeism in the workplace monitoring system to calculate absenteeism percentage automatically and get comprehensive reports on attendance, productivity, active time, and more.

How to improve my attendance at work?

It’s important to prevent absenteeism in the workplace to not ruin the image of a productive worker. WorkTime employee absence tracker can be a useful tool for time management and self-control.

How to reduce absenteeism in the workplace?

Implementing effective absenteeism in the workplace management strategy is the most effective step for solving this issue. Using WorkTime absence monitoring software can significantly facilitate this task and become an effective tool for improving the employee attendance rate.

How to discipline an employee for absenteeism?

Combining several approaches will help reduce cases of absenteeism in the workplace. It’s important to understand the cause of absenteeism, implement attendance policies, and regularly enhance the importance of attendance dynamics. Moreover, attendance bonuses and fines can work effectively. Finally, implementing a WorkTime absence tracker can be used for monitoring and self-discipline matters.

How to talk to an employee about excessive absenteeism?

Companies that are trying to lower employee absenteeism are using a comprehensive strategy to meet this challenge. It’s crucial to avoid pressing your workers. Instead, try to find out the root causes of frequent employee absences. Then, you can set goals for attendance and observe the progress.

Try WorkTime now!

Monitoring absenteeism in the workplace

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