When running your daily operations, it’s vital that your business has employees it can count on. However, it’s inevitable there will be times when lateness or absences are unavoidable.
The potential impacts of late or absent staff on your business can be significant, affecting costs, productivity and even increased pressure on other employees.
It’s estimated that around one-third of businesses have processes in place to closely monitor attendance and productivity in the workplace. Ideally, all employers should be able to measure and understand how lateness and absenteeism specifically affects their business.
Here we take a look at the causes of absence and lateness, as well as how you can address these issues to minimise the impact in future.
Understanding lateness and absences
There are all sorts of reasons why employees may not turn up to work on time, if at all. From the morning rush hour traffic jam to sudden personal emergencies, the majority of instances will come down to unforeseen circumstances.
Monitoring the times when employees are late or absent could help you to identify whether these occurrences are simply a one-off or whether any particular patterns start to emerge.
For example, if the average number of absences tends to be higher at certain points of the year, it’s likely that there are seasonal factors at play, such as increased illnesses during the winter.
Dealing with employees
People will always require time away from work, whether through planned holidays, sudden emergencies or sickness. While persistent lateness or multiple absences may require you to be firmer with employees, it’s important to show a bit of flexibility to your staff.
In cases of lateness, allowing someone to make up for lost time elsewhere offers a much softer approach to a reprimand. On top of that, it also ensures the business doesn’t lose out from missing hours.
Greater awareness of mental health and wellbeing has prompted an increase in stress-related absences in recent years. By showing a bit of flexibility, you can keep employees feeling comfortable, respected and valued at work. This may also reduce the frequency of unexpected absences in the future.
The cost of absences
Costs incurred by unplanned lateness or absences may not necessarily be just financial losses relating to the amount of work lost. It’s important to recognise the impact that missing employees can have on your wider workforce.
With other colleagues left picking up the slack and taking on additional tasks, there’s a knock-on effect that other people’s productivity may begin to fall. The increased pressure on other team members could even lead to further stress-related absences.
By using integrated time management and attendance data, it will be possible for you to begin forecasting periods that may be absence-heavy and, if necessary, put contingency plans in place to account for staff shortages well in advance.
Why choose Addtime?
Platinum Enterprise is Addtime’s flagship workforce management software, allowing employers and HR bosses to measure, monitor and review attendance data. With a range of different solutions available, you can streamline various different processes to keep on top of absences, lateness and shift management.
Using the integrated software available, you can easily analyse and identify common areas where there are dips in attendance, and quickly create reports on where potential improvements can be made.
View our case studies to see how we’ve helped other businesses save time and money with Addtime time and attendance systems.
To find out how Platinum Enterprise from Addtime can help you and your business, please call 01942 272 061 or get in touch with us online through our contact form.
