You cannot have 100 percent perfect attendance in your company. That is too perfect and we don't live in an ideal world, yet. There is bound to be one or a couple of employees that will have problems of absenteeism.
But there is such a thing as excessive employee absenteeism. If your company is experiencing this problem, it can be due to one or a combination of two things: personal problems or company mismanagement in relation to employee attendance.
But it's not the end of the world if some of your employees have the habit of absenting themselves once or several days in a month. Certainly getting absent every week needs drastic measures. Here are some recommendations.
1. Provide support to your employees
Don't be too hard on your employees. If a certain employee starts absenting himself when he was not like that before, maybe he has a valid reason. Talk to him in an objective way and pry out the real reason. Once you understand his situation and it seems legit enough, provide him all the support he needs, i.e. flexible hours, monetary support, and so forth, until he overcomes his problems.
2. Set a definite attendance policy for all
If all employees are made to understand your company's policy on attendance, such as coming on time and related matters, there will be no ambiguity when it comes to the implementation of penalties when there are policy infractions.
Be clear about the number of days they are allowed to be absent and as to how many minutes they are allowed to be late in a week, or a month and the penalties if they exceed these limits.
3. Set rewards on good attendance
There is no better form of appreciation for good deeds than giving a reward. For instance, when an employee is able to clock in 100 percent of the time, for three months, reward him with some form of a bonus for that quarter. Or you can add an extra day or two to his annual vacation leave.
