1. HR Glossary
2. Absenteeism Policy

Absenteeism Policy

What Is an Absenteeism Policy?

Absenteeism is the absence of an employee in the workplace beyond an approved time. Absenteeism policy is a list of rules and processes to help employers minimize their employee’s absence at the workplace. The policy outlines why an employee is allowed to take leave, including sickness, vacation, accident, planned time-off, etc. It also describes the probable consequences of unplanned and excess absenteeism or unpunctuality.

For example, a company has framed rules regarding the leaves employees can take, how the application must be made, who will approve them, and no. of paid and unpaid leaves. This can be called an absenteeism policy.

How Does Absenteeism Policy Impact Your Workplace?

Framing a good absenteeism policy is a remedy to benefit the company financially and improve organizational behavior to reduce absenteeism since it badly affects the employee’s productivity.

The Absenteeism policy includes every aspect of attendance and tardiness needed for workplace management. It is one of the best approaches which motivates the employees to minimize their absence and the employers to be fair by granting leaves and time-offs according to the employees’ essential requirements. To implement a policy that is fair by all means is important. If the policy is not flexible or feasible the impact will be directly on the employees.

How To Reduce Employee Absenteeism In The Workplace?

Increased employee absenteeism can be problematic in the long run. Here mentioned are some ways to reduce absenteeism:

• Set defined policies and procedures. It will promote discipline in the organization. Also, when employees have a clear idea of policies, there are fewer chances of breaking them.
• Use some absence management tools to track leaves and keep a proper database record for future evaluation.
• Offer certain flexibility to the employees, like flexibility in schedules. It reduces the stress levels of employees resulting in fewer leaves.
• Build a company culture that encourages and engages the employees. This will make employees more committed towards work.

Frequently Asked Questions

How are PTO and absenteeism policy correlated?

PTO is referred to as paid time off. Generally, when an employee is sick he/she is eligible for paid time off. Having a flexible policy that allows compensation in such cases is important.

What components should be included in absenteeism policy?

In an attendance policy, the components like the procedure to take the leave, when to take leave, how to take an approval for a leave, and tardiness.

What are the different kinds of absences?

There are mainly 4 types of absences;

• Planned and approved by the authority
• Unplanned but approved by the authority
• Unplanned and unapproved by the authority
• Emergency leave

How To Implement The Absenteeism Policy Effectively

In order to effectively implement the absenteeism policy, HR managers can:

• Frame a simple and easy to understand policy
• Communicate the changes and ask for feedbacks
• Train the supervisors on policy implementation
• Focus on employee engagement

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