How to Write an Employee Attendance Policy

‍This article was contributed by Deanna deBara and originally posted on Hourly.io

In a perfect world, every employee would show up to work on time every day. But the truth is, life happens, and no matter how responsible or committed your team may be, there are going to be circumstances—whether that’s a last-minute family emergency, a scheduling miscommunication, or transportation troubles due to inclement weather conditions—when your employees are either running late or can’t make it to work at all.

As a business owner, you want to be flexible and cut your employees slack when unavoidable situations come up that make your employees late or absent from work. But in order for your small business to run effectively, those situations need to be the exception—not the rule.

Having an employee attendance policy will get your entire team on the same page about tardiness and absenteeism—and, in the long run, can save your business from significant costs in lost productivity (according to data from the CDC Organization, productivity losses resulting from absenteeism cost employers a whopping $225.8 billion each year).

But how, exactly, do you write an employee attendance policy? What do you need to include in your policy? And how can you enforce it and make sure your employees are both present and punctual—while still allowing flexibility for when situations out of their control keep them from work?

What is an employee attendance policy?

An employee attendance policy is a company policy that clearly outlines how your business will deal with any issues related to tardiness or absenteeism, including showing up to work late, leaving work early, or excessive absenteeism. The employee attendance policy should also outline things like how to request paid or unpaid time off and different types of employee leave (including medical leave and sick leave).

Your employee attendance policy can be its own business document or it can be a part of your employee handbook, but however you decide to structure it, the policy should be distributed to and signed by every employee and new hire when they start working at your company.

Why an employee attendance policy is important

Clearly outlining your company policy on employee absence or tardiness is important because it sets the expectation from the get-go on how your business will deal with attendance issues. By clearly outlining your stance on employees being absent, tardy, or missing work hours, you can avoid any absence-related miscommunications in the future (for example, an employee claiming they didn’t know the proper steps to take to call in sick).

Having a written and signed employee attendance policy can also protect you from any potential retribution if you have to take disciplinary action against an employee for violating your policy. Employee attendance policies also ensure consistency; when there are clear guidelines on how to deal with employee absences, tardiness, and other attendance issues, each employee’s attendance is dealt with using the same guidelines and framework, which helps to keep your policy consistent (and ensures human resources or management isn’t accused of favoritism).

What does an employee attendance policy need to include?

Your employee attendance policy should include clear guidelines on any and all issues related to attendance, absenteeism, and tardiness that your employees might face while working for your business.

Some of the key components you’ll want to include in your policy include: