5 Common Employee Attendance Issues (and How to Address Them)

Approved or occasional absences generally aren’t a cause for concern. It’s normal for your employees to have responsibilities outside of work, and it’s good practice for your organization to be flexible when unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances arise. But excessive absenteeism can damage employee morale and hurt your bottom line.

Having a clear attendance policy can help you set good attendance expectations, and using a digital employee attendance tracker allows you to monitor employee absences and record approved and unapproved days off.

Let’s take a look at some common employee attendance issues and what to do when an employee starts to miss work a little too frequently.

5 Common Employee Attendance Issues

Employee attendance issues range from occasional tardiness to chronic absenteeism. The best way to solve attendance problems will depend on your employee attendance policy and your company culture. Here are five attendance issues to prepare for.

1. Tardiness

An employee is tardy when they show up late to work — but how you define tardiness depends on your company policy. Is an employee late when they show up 10 minutes into their shift or 30? Chronic tardiness can become a problem when an employee is consistently showing up late to work without their manager’s approval.

2. Absenteeism

Excessive absenteeism is one of the most common employee attendance issues. From no-calls, no-shows to unexcused absences, an absent employee can seriously disrupt the workday. Even when an employee has a valid reason to miss work, an unplanned absence can complicate work schedules, especially for a small business.

3. Leave of Absence Abuse

Employees who are ill or injured may be entitled to a leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or another sick leave law. These types of absences are in addition to ordinary sick days and vacation days. While FMLA leave requests should be taken in good faith, employees can occasionally abuse FMLA privileges.

4. Job Hunting

Another common employee attendance issue is job hunting — when an employee skips work to attend a job interview or pursue another employment opportunity. This is often the result of low morale or a poor work environment, and may be a sign of low employee engagement or retention issues that you need to address.

5. Burnout

Finally, there’s burnout, which is when an employee gets so overwhelmed that they stop caring about their work. This can take the form of virtual absenteeism — showing up to online meetings but not really participating — or other unscheduled absences.

What Are the Consequences of Chronic Absenteeism?

Addressing excessive absenteeism isn’t just a matter of principle. It can have real impacts on your organization. Here are just a few potential consequences.

Low Morale

If one employee is consistently coming in late, then soon everyone feels like it’s OK to come in late. The same goes for skipping work without calling in sick. Poor attendance impacts everyone if key players aren’t regularly available during work hours.

Higher Costs

Frequent absenteeism can have an effect on your bottom line — especially if you pay other employees to pick up the slack. Some of your team members may have to stay late or work overtime to make up for another employee’s absence. 

Lost Productivity

Employee attendance issues can reduce productivity and work efficiency. Important tasks may not get done on time, resulting in missed deadlines and bottlenecks.

How to Address Employee Attendance Issues

Identifying employee attendance issues is important, but how do you solve them without causing tension or offense? Follow these best practices to address an employee’s poor attendance record tactfully and take steps to improve their performance.

Determine the Underlying Cause

It’s easy to blame employee absenteeism on laziness or lack of focus, but often there’s a root cause underlying the issue. This could be anything from mental health issues to a lack of childcare or a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Understanding why an employee is missing work or showing up late is the first step to offering employee counseling or providing reasonable accommodation.

Have a Clear Attendance Policy

Spelling out your attendance policy in your employee handbook allows you to set good attendance expectations. It also means you can take disciplinary action without having to worry about accusations of unequal treatment or retaliation.

When you have a clear disciplinary process — such as a verbal warning followed by a written warning — individual managers can apply the rules fairly and consistently.

Use Time-Tracking Software

Tracking employee attendance digitally solves employee attendance issues by creating a consistent record of when an employee shows up to work. Instead of using physical time cards or an Excel spreadsheet, use digital time-tracking tools to log the precise hours an employee works and integrate it with your payroll automation software.

Support Work-Life Balance

Having a generous leave of absence policy may seem at odds with a strict attendance policy, but it can actually help reduce absenteeism. By providing a flexible schedule or remote work policy, you support employee well-being and reduce the risk of burnout.

Streamline Leave Management

Similarly, when you streamline leave management with a platform like Pulpstream, you make it easier for employees to request an approved leave of absence rather than call in sick at the last minute. Our self-service portal simplifies the process for requesting leave, reducing stress for your employees and your human resources team.

What Are the Benefits of an Attendance Management System?

Employee attendance issues often require intervention, such as a one-on-one meeting to address the problem and follow-up conversations to resolve it. Using an attendance management system can simplify and streamline the process. Here’s how it works.

Monitor Attendance

Digital tools take the manual effort out of time-tracking. Instead of having to calculate hours worked or accrued leave by hand, you can see it all in an intuitive, cloud-based platform that integrates with your calendar and other scheduling tools.

For example, Pulpstream allows you to track sick leave, intermittent FMLA leave, and more, so you always know how much leave an employee has available.

Identify Patterns Early

Attendance management systems can identify patterns early, giving you more time to address them before they become an issue. Catch recurring problems like tardiness right away, and use this information to intervene with underperforming employees.

Trigger Policy-Based Workflows

Platforms like Pulpstream support custom HR workflows, so you can ensure that your team addresses individual cases in line with your company policy. Send out email and SMS notifications automatically based on specific triggers, such as an incoming leave of absence request or an expiring FMLA certification.

Document Each Step

Attendance management platforms also help you maintain appropriate documentation when addressing attendance issues. By keeping a record of an employee’s absences, and your attempts to reduce them, you can demonstrate a good faith effort to support your employee before resorting to suspension or termination.

Solve Employee Attendance Issues With Pulpstream

Employee attendance issues often have an underlying cause, such as a personal health condition or family commitments like childcare. Using a digital attendance tracker allows you to identify issues before they become a problem and take steps to address them.

You can also use Pulpstream’s leave automation software to proactively approve cases of job-protected leave, reducing the frequency of unscheduled absences. Pulpstream’s cloud-based tools make it easy for employees to submit a leave request and for your human resources team to track their eligibility and remaining leave balance.

Request a demo today to see how it works!