Absent employees can hurt your business and put a strain on other workers. By the same token, when workers come in even when they’re sick, they can spread their illness to other employees and become more ill themselves. This scenario can ultimately lead to a greater number of absences than if the worker had simply taken one or two days off. It’s important to develop an absence policy that is sympathetic yet firm and encourages attendance without prompting people to come to work when they really should stay home. A good absence policy:

1. Sets clear standards for regarding tardiness, notifying superiors, and early departures.
2. Addresses abuses, such as repeatedly taking days off around weekends and holidays.
3. Is firm yet flexible.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Assess your attendance

To devise a policy that suits your needs, you need to know how common absences are in your work force and to detect individual abuses.

I recommend: Absence management is the buzz phrase for what you need to do to manage all lost work time. How you collect the data, whether you count early departures, doctors’ appointments, and value time off around holidays and weekends will make a difference in the outcomes. Using the Bradford Factor, which tracks the distribution of absences and how absences are distributed over time, can reveal what your policy needs to address.

Know your legal limits

You may need to track absences differently for certain workers.

I recommend: Bone up on the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal family leave legislation, which can affect how you chalk up absences for different workers even if it appears to have an uneven effect on the workforce.

Create procedures

Develop systematic procedures for managing absences so that you detect early signs of discipline or health problems.

I recommend: Tailor the policy to the comprehensive approach you take to occupational health and performance issues.

Customize your policy

Adapt the policy to fit the particular needs of your company and your workers.

I recommend: Choose a traditional policy that sets lengths and reasons for excused absences, and customize it to fit your needs. The newer, less-flexible approach is to adopt no-fault, which accords a set total of days off allowed for all reasons.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Be cautious about putting the absence policy in writing and issuing it to all employees. It sets up expectations for enforcement that could limit your ability to make exceptions.
• •  Consider what the policy and its enforcement telegraphs to employees. The desirable effect of the policy is to convey that the employer values diligence and professionalism not undue suspicion or lack of understanding.
• •  Concentrate on dealing with individual problem employees and follow through on progressive discipline.