Attendance is a key consideration in human resource management. It is a criterion to measure an employeeโs performance, work ethic, and reliability. Good attendance is a good indicator that the employee is committed to the company. However, poor attendance or chronic absenteeism indicates certain issues, such as a lack of encouragement in the workplace. So, having an attendance register for all employees is important for any employer. Attendance can be tracked using an attendance sheet.
An attendance sheet or attendance tracker is a register used to record the presence and absence of employees and other entries, such as the reason for absence, clock-in and clock-out time, and sick leave, at the workplace.
This information is used for scheduling purposes and preparing the payroll, more so for employees paid on an hourly basis. While attendance sheets have been around for a long time, they have advanced with time. Traditionally, businesses recorded attendance manually using paper sheets and roster books. However, today, employers have the flexibility to use paper attendance sheets, templates, electronic sheets, and other attendance tracking systems such as fingerprint (biometric) attendance machines.
This article will provide employers with the necessary information regarding attendance sheets, their purpose, features, and how they can use them.
What is Absenteeism?
Absenteeism is the state or habit of frequently being away from work or work-related duties without good reason. It is a high-priority concern in any workplace. As an employer, you should always be aware of employees exuding this behavior, as it can affect your company in the following ways:
Animosity
Consistent absenteeism can be demoralizing to other employees who report to work religiously. This is because they will often have to inherit the absent employeeโs duties or maybe inconvenienced due to interruption in workflow. This may lead to coworkersโ animosity, which affects teamwork and cooperation. This can be accelerated if you do not penalize or reprimand lateness or absenteeism.
Increased stress and lack of employee morale
Since you will often have to redistribute duties when an employee misses work, employees who take up these duties may feel burdened by the workload. This negatively affects employee morale and can quickly turn into work dissatisfaction. Again, this is due to the stress and burnout from being overworked.
Poor work performance
When certain employees are overworked, the quality of their work reduces. This is because they will be trying to meet tight deadlines and focusing on completing tasks at the expense of the quality of results. This may, over time, reduce their productivity and performance. Also, absent workers take longer to adapt to changes, consequently lowering their performance.
Higher staff-related costs
Absenteeism can lead to an increase in expenses because you would need to hire (temporarily or permanently) and train new staff members to replace absent employees. All these activities will cost the company resources.
Workplace ethic issues
When employees are often late or absent from work, it can signify a lack of work ethic in the company. This can further promote indiscipline and other issues, such as reduced employee engagement.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Attendance Sheet
An attendance sheet ensures employees are present at work and removes the risk of absence. While there are advantages to using such sheets, there are also several disadvantages. This makes it worthwhile to track employee attendance.
Advantages
Attendance sheets have the following advantages:
Streamline payrolls and invoicing
An attendance tracker can record how many hours an employee reports for work. This data is used to calculate the number of billable hours for each employee when creating payrolls. By counting the number of hours an employee showed up for work on a particular project, you can use this information to calculate how much to invoice a client.
Identify attendance issues
An attendance sheet helps you identify patterns or habits of absenteeism or lateness. This information can be used to identify associated issues and formulate ways to resolve them so that they do not have an extreme impact on the business.
Simplify planning and scheduling
Attendance sheets are a centralized point to track employees who are present, absent, late, and on leave. Having this information in one document simplifies the planning and scheduling process, especially when distributing duties and planning shifts.
Determine your teamโs strength and productivity on a particular day
By recording which employees are absent and present, an attendance tracker can be used to evaluate the strength of your team on a particular day. You can see which skillset is missing and which is present. This helps you plan accordingly to optimize the teamโs productivity.
Promote punctuality
When employees know their attendance is being recorded, they are likely to report on time and not miss work unless with good reason. This can boost employee performance.
Timely payment
With accurate data on employee attendance, you can prepare payrolls on time and consequently pay your employees on time. This can be a great source of encouragement and motivation for the employees.
Maintain employee records
An attendance sheet is part of company records. It is a tool for recording employee information such as holidays, sick, and other leaves to which an employee may be entitled.
Use to solve employee disputes
The sheet can be referenced to showcase an employeeโs attendance habits when their colleagues report them for being incompetent due to absenteeism. The sheet is an accurate and reliable record that expedites dispute resolution.
Disadvantages
There are also disadvantages to using an attendance sheet, including:
Lack of productivity and assessment features
Attendance trackers are not detailed records of an employeeโs productivity. They simply indicate if an employee showed up to work on a particular without indicating how they spent their time at the workplace. Therefore, they can be used to determine an employeeโs productivity or assess their performance accurately. These two aspects can only be determined if you know which tasks and projects they worked on within the timeframe.
Payroll and invoicing issues
Using attendance sheets to prepare payrolls and invoices poses a risk of inaccurate calculations. This is because the accuracy of the data on the sheets depends on the person who filled in the information. This means that if the employee filled in incorrect information or made an error, the resulting payroll and invoice would be incorrect. This issue can be magnified, especially when dealing with dishonest employees.
Difficulty tracking leaves and overtime
Tracking leaves and overtime using attendance sheets is usually labor-intensive. This is because employees will typically have to input information manually and calculate their accumulated overtime, vacation, and sick days. Alternatively, HR will have to calculate these days on the employeeโs behalf. This can take too much effort and time. Also, it increases the probability of human errors, which can lead to inaccurate calculations.
Factors Affecting Work Attendance
Several factors can influence an employeeโs attendance at work. These factors typically include the following:
Personal hardships
Employees can sometimes be affected by personal struggles that are manifested at work. Personal hardships include the loss of a loved one, divorce, health issues, financial struggles, etc. In such cases, you show empathy and understanding and give the employee time to re-evaluate and recuperate.
Negative work environment
Absenteeism and lateness can signify a negative work environment. A negative environment can entail less pay, being overworked, having few vacation days, hostility from management and colleagues, etc. Such an environment can reduce an employeeโs enthusiasm to show up to work. This is due to the stress, frustrations, and demotivation that come with such working environments.
Presenteeism
Presenteeism is the act of reporting to work while sick or exhausted such that they cannot satisfactorily fulfill their duties. While this may seem insignificant, it can significantly affect the companyโs productivity and profitability. This is because it can lead to more employees getting sick and seeking sick leave, further affecting attendance. This problem can have drastic effects on the food and health industry.
Pre-Considerations
Various considerations are usually made when assessing an employeeโs attendance at work. These considerations include the following:
Outline your business attendance schedule
You should clarify the attendance schedule โ when employees are expected to report and clock out. This is especially important for hourly employees. Also, to ensure employees know what information to fill in the attendance sheet and comply, you should define the different attendance categories.
These categories include the following;
- Sick leave โ This is the sudden leave taken due to injuries or ill health.
- Authorized/approved or excused absence โ This is an absence with permission from the relevant authority, such as a manager.
- Medial leave โ This leave that an employee is entitled to under FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act). This leave will often award a qualified employee 12 weeks of leave to receive medical care. Employees can also take this leave to look after a family member who suffers from a severe medical condition.
- Tardiness – A tardy employee is one who arrives late, not on time. So, tardiness is the resulting partial absence.
- No-show – A no-show is a sudden absence from work without prior notice from the employee.
Fabricate employee attendance policy
Formulate an employee attendance policy. The policy should indicate the different types of leaves and how they should be applied. The policy should outline the procedure and protocol for requesting leaves and time-offs. The procedure should be standardized for all employees. It is advised to provide employees with a concise explanation of what they are required to do under attendance policies and regulations.
Draft disciplinary actions
Establishing an effective attendance policy is essential to draft clear disciplinary actions. These will introduce a companyโs rules and standards for behavior. Such policies should be drafted in a way that they are easy to understand, constructive, and convey the companyโs expectations. This can help ensure that employees are fully aware of the consequences they might face if they do not adhere to attendance rules. Additionally, disciplinary actions should be empathetic, progressive, and realistic. You do not want to penalize employees for being late due to unavoidable issues such as personal loss or accidents.
Communicate with your team
The company attendance policy should be communicated to every employee. The HR department can provide each staff member with a copy of the guidelines or place it in the employee handbook. The policy should be communicated to an employee early during recruitment. Employees should sign the attendance policy as they sign their work agreements to ensure they follow the guidelines.
Use an attendance software
Good attendance software can simplify and make attendance tracking efficient. It typically has all the necessary fields for you to input information about your employees and the different categories of their absences. This includes information on work hours, breaks and leaves, etc. You can also view their attendance history and analytics. Also, it automates calculating overtime.
What to Include in an Attendance Sheet
Several fields should be included in your attendance sheet regardless of the type of industry or business. The key fields to include are the following:
Employee name
The name of the employee should be indicated in full. The employee should use the name in the official company records. This is because the sheet may have to be compared with other employee files.
Employee details
This refers to the employeeโs contact details. The information that should be included is an employee number, address, phone number, etc.
Present or absent
This section records if an employee showed up to work or not. The employee is to mark present when they report; if not, HR will record it as absent.
Working hours (clock in/out)
In this field, the sheet should record the time when an employee reported to work and when they left. This determines how many hours they worked in a day. In addition, if there was overtime, you should be able to record whether they worked overtime or not.
Reason for absence or tardiness
In this field, the employee should note down the reason why they were absent or late. This will help you identify problematic issues that may be impacting attendance, such as accidents, family emergencies, etc.
Type of leave
If an employee has taken leave, this field should indicate the different types of leave that they have taken.
Attendance Sheet Templates
How to Make an Attendance Sheet in MS Excel
If there is no specific attendance sheet template that you can use, you can create your own template using MS Excel. Excel allows you to create a variety of templates for various needs and purposes.
Here are the steps to do this:
Open Microsoft Excel
Excel is a popular word-processing application. If you do not have it on your computer, install it. Launch MS Excel on your computer.
Select โnew documentโ
Then, access โFileโ on the left-hand side of your screen and go to the โNewโ tab. Select โBlank workbook,โ then click OK.
Add sheets as per your need
Next, add sheets depending on how many attendance sheets you need. You can create several sheets for the number of months you want to track attendance.
Label the columns
You should label the columns as per your needs. For example, the employee name should be labeled in column A, the employee number in column B, and the dates in other columns for the entire month. You can also add other columns to enter the contact details, designation, etc.
Format the dates
Next, add the dates as needed. To format the dates, right-click the number and select โFormat Cells,โ then go to the โNumberโ tab and scroll down to โCustom.โ A box will open up with several options. You can choose the date format according to your preference and needs.
Fix the attendance input
You should then fix the attendance input such that P represents present and A represents absent. Go to the first cell that has to be entered, select the cell, go to the โDataโ tab, and then click โData validation.โ Under the settings box, select the โListโ option, input A and P in the source tab as your drop-down options, and click โOKโ to save the settings.
Lock other cells
Then, select the range of your attendance sheet. Right-click and select โFormat cells,โ go to the โProtectionโ tab, and select โlocked.โ
Evaluate the days
To calculate the number of days the employees were present, input the formula (=COUNT (dates)-CountIF(attendance_range, โAโ). These days will be checked as present in the sheet. This is unless or until they are checked as absent.
Save the document
Lastly, you should save your attendance sheet. First, go to the โReviewโ tab, and select โprotect sheetโ to allow you to select the permissions you would like to grant to users of the sheet. To manage your attendance sheets in one place, create a new sheet and write the month names as headings. Then, add the formula (=VLOOKUP($A3, INDIRECT(C$2&โ!$A$3:$B$12โ),2,0) in the last cell after adding all the headings. The sum function can be utilized to calculate present days, leaves, etc.
Tips for Maintaining Attendance at Work
Good attendance is very beneficial for a business. As an employer, you should find innovative ways to motivate and encourage employees to arrive to work on time and consistently.
Here are several tips to improve and maintain employee attendance at work:
Have paid time off
Ensure there is paid time off on top of paid vacation and medical leave. This allows an employee to have a break from work while undertaking other things while recouping. In turn, it boosts employee attendance and prevents presenteeism.
Give incentives and bonus
Most employees want additional benefits and rewards for excellent attendance at work. You can reward your top employees by providing incentives such as gift cards or cash bonuses. You could also provide bonuses or discounts on products and services when they reach specific thresholds of attendance, such as perfect attendance for a month or year.
Flexible working hours
Be flexible when scheduling working hours. For example, you can allow employees to work from home based on the situation as long as they complete their duties. This allows employees to have a sustainable balance between personal and professional duties.
Arrange a wellness program
Start a wellness program or service for your employees. The program can focus on physical fitness, mental wellness, social interactions, and life skills. This helps employees have a proper work-life balance and increases their commitment to work.
Train supervisors
Since supervisors are the people who work closely with employees, they can identify potential issues with attendance. They should be trained on how to manage these issues effectively.
Have the attendance policy according to the laws
The companyโs attendance policy should comply with federal and state employee and labor laws such as FMLA, disability discrimination laws, paid sick leave, military leave laws, and wage laws.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is making an attendance sheet beneficial?
An attendance sheet lets you track each employeeโs attendance and working hours. This facilitates better employee management because it helps employers to create an accurate schedule, payroll, and other time-sensitive work-based activities.
What are some things that an attendance sheet is used for?
An attendance sheet is used for different reasons, such as to keep track of an employeeโs attendance, leave, and hours worked, which are used to create payroll and schedule employee shifts. It also helps to identify the reasons and patterns of absence.
What are some benefits of making an attendance sheet for the employees?
The sheet is beneficial in analyzing employee attendance as it gives an overview of your employeesโ attendance. It also promotes accountability among staff members and encourages productivity by ensuring attendance policies are adhered to.
Why does a supervisor need to track his employeeโs attendance?
Keeping an accurate record of each employeeโs attendance is vital because it helps businesses create schedules by evaluating their employeesโ daily working hours and attendance. This helps the business to match the scheduling with their manpower and workload. It also helps to ensure employees are paid based on time input. In addition, using the sheet, the supervisor can identify employee inconsistencies and act accordingly.ย