Load One - Blog #attendance tracking

Important Tips For Handling Employee Attendance Issues [2020]

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 09:00:00 +0800

Your employees are a vital part of your business. An engaged team can do wonders for your company, and helps maintain morale as successes pile on top of each other.

But especially in challenging times like now, it can be a challenge to maintain morale and momentum. Many companies have allowed employees to work remotely, but have not updated their policies to match.

Now that we are living in a pandemic, it's even more important to take employee attendance and engagement seriously. Ignoring issues does not only mean possible loss of revenue for the business, but can seriously lower the whole team and company's morale. Consider:

Other employees can't ignore excessive absenteeism in a colleague, because they are stuck picking up the slack for them.
Deadlines may be missed and additional costs/fines incurred for the company.
Seeing no action done for excessive absenteeism may lower team morale and risk alienating your working employees.

While you should not be tying your staff to their desks during working hours, neither should you ignore attendance issues like this -- both for the business and the employee's benefit.

It's a challenge that needs to be addressed. We have some important tips for you if you have to address issues like this.

Ensure Your Attendance Policy is In Writing

Make sure you put your attendance policy in writing. This may be in the employee handbook, the intranet documentation, or other channels.

Make sure this is accessible to your employees, so that they are aware of what repercussions are there for excessive absenteeism. They also need to be aware of what process to follow if they need to report their tardiness or leave-taking.

For 2020: Now that many employees are working remotely and physical offices may be empty, make sure that your policies are digitized, whether in PDF form for employees to browse, or in your company intranet.

Don't have a document sharing platform? Try putting your documents on Google Drive. But make sure that permissions are set correctly so access is controlled.

Track Employee Attendance Well Reliably

Make sure you are tracking attendance reliably and well. Of course, your employees must know the company process and internal system, too. This helps maintain information integrity and means less work for everyone overall.

While it might be tempting for leaner companies to postpone formal attendance tracking to a later date, make sure someone is doing it, even if manually. This data will be important when addressing any attendance concerns.

For 2020: Many workforces have resorted to morning "check-ins", whether via a team chat or other medium, now that many people are working from the safety of their homes. But make sure that someone is taking note of these check-ins to ensure proper tracking.

An alternative is using a cloud-based attendance tracking software like Load One's solution (ask us about it!), to formalize the process and free up your managers' time from needing to manually track and report attendance.

Express Your Concern

For first-time offenders, it's all right to breach the subject more casually. Either way, make sure employees are aware that you have noticed, and emphasize that their welfare is important to you. After all, especially in the current climate, many people are struggling and may have understandable reasons for absenteeism.

For 2020: It's a challenge when teams are not able to meet face to face. Make sure you address issues with a phone call at the very least--a video call would be better. Many subtle cues can get lost with a voice call, much less an impersonal email. It's also good to remember that there are unique challenges in today's world. Leading with understanding and kindness can help you maintain your employees' loyalty and morale.

Work With Them On a Solution

Work on a plan of action or improvement plan with the employee. Depending on their reasons for tardiness or absences, work with them to come up with a solution or improvement plan.

Perhaps they have extra workload they may need to address at home before they get to work, or a personal issue they are dealing with currently. Perhaps they need temporary adjustment of their working hours. Some employees may need a more formalized leave of absence to take care of their health.

Discuss your employee's needs with them and work out what they need from you so that they can address the issue and continue contributing to the team.

Take Care of Your Team

Remember that it's important to find out the root cause of your employee's excessive tardiness or absenteeism. While it might sometimes be tempting to write it off as a flaw or negative mark in their record, many times there are underlying issues that can be easily addressed with an honest conversation.

Taking care of one individual will help the team. Additionally, it's generally easier to work with an employee on a solution rather than letting them go and finding a new team member. A successful improvement plan can leave your employee feeling extra grateful and loyal to you and your company, as well.

While there is no silver bullet when it comes to tackling attendance issues, communicating with your team will help. Starting with the basics can help you improve employee attendance and engagement, and therefore uplift your business.

3 Things You Can Do to Create the Right Remote Office Culture

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 09:00:16 +0800

Remote work is, by now, a staple of doing business in this pandemic-affected world. We're all waiting for the day when we can all go out and things "go back to normal", but this truly is the "new normal".

Masks and shields when outside. Once-a-week errand runs. Spray bottles of alcohol everywhere. Food delivery when possible. And working from home for many of us.

Many businesses have been forced to rush into implementing remote work programs in order to limit disruption. Between making sure staff have working computers and setting up remotely-accessed tools and online workspaces, it's easy to deem it a job well done when work is finally moving along.

But it's easy to forget that one of the most important ingredients of the remote office is the human being doing the work.

Getting a remote office set up for your employees is more than just supplying them the tools they need to do the work, but also making sure that their working environment and culture matches. A good office culture for remote workers will help your staff do better and more efficient work, too.

Is your office remote-worker-friendly? Here are 3 ways you can help your office culture evolve into one that is conducive for remote workers.

#1 - Encourage A Better Workspace

It's important to separate work and relaxation for remote workers. The brain associates certain places with certain activities, so encourage your staff to work on a table or desk, and not in their beds!

Try to budget for encouraging better workspaces for your staff. Maybe you can't spring for a new office desk for everybody, but maybe a fun remote raffle would work, or even a subsidy so they can purchase one themselves.

You can also run small contests or programs where you can encourage your staff to "show off" their workspaces. Take a page from many remote work communities who love sharing their desks to show their hard work and design skills. A little encouragement can help build a small community in your business that encourages making conducive work spaces for themselves.

#2 - Set a Schedule for Your Team

While remote work is great for flexibility, sometimes, a few rules and guidelines actually work better for us. A consistent routine helps our brains get ready for work, so encouraging your staff in maintaining a routine is great, too.

Perhaps allow them to set when they start work, so sleepyheads can get a little more sleep or people who love cooking and having hearty breakfasts have a little more time to prepare. Remote attendance tracking software like the one Load One offers can help you track when they "clock in" remotely, but can also help them--the act of checking in for the day of work can signal their brain that it's time to get busy.

#3 - Encourage Reaching Out

Remote work can easily feel very isolating. It's easy to lose track that you have a team working with you, and to feel that you are all alone. Encourage downtime socializing in your teams to help them feel more comfortable in reaching out to their colleagues.

Host fun, interactive meetings that encourage friendliness. Perhaps set a theme for your Zoom backgrounds and show off your staff's creativity. Hold a meeting in costume. Have a few drinks (perhaps give them a little budget or allowance!). These fun activities can help raise their engagement at work.

Also, remember that even professionally, it would benefit your employees to network and be part of a larger community than your business. Encourage them to attend and participate in online conferences and communities relevant to them. It can help them feel less alone and more connected to the work they do.

Conclusion

It doesn't take much to start turning your company into one that is conducive to remote workers and makes sure that they are treated as fairly as ones who head into the office.

Even after this global pandemic, businesses will be faced with an entirely new world -- one that has experienced remote work in a very real way.

It's time to make sure your business is ready to take that new world on.

Get Started Now

Tracking Attendance at Work Can Help Boost Productivity

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 09:00:22 +0800

Tracking employee productivity is an age-old challenge for all businesses. Concerns over staff gaming the system or employers becoming draconic in their measures to track employees have resulted in an uneasy stalemate in some companies.

But whether on-site or remote, accurate tracking is important for both employers and staff alike. Tracking attendance at work can help boost productivity and employee engagement as long as management takes action on the information that accurate employee tracking can provide.

Here are some important ways how an attendance tracker can help your workforce.

Avoid Pay Errors

One of the most obvious benefits of tracking attendance is preventing pay errors. This might be a no-brainer for bigger companies, but even smaller companies with a tight workforce need to be careful when it comes to payroll.

No matter how big or small your workforce, human error is unavoidable. It's a challenge to recall accurately when your staff starts and finishes work. Having the exact time-in and time-out data will help your payroll department calculate exact pay requirements, especially when it comes to overtime work.

And don't forget how prone to typos humans are. A wrong decimal place can wreak havoc, and result in stress for your employees and time away from important tasks to correct said mistake. An exported timesheet from a reliable attendance tracker can minimize typos and speed up processing.

Prevent Micro Management

Some managers might feel the need to be constantly checking on their staff's work, especially if said staff are working remotely. When they can't see their staff working, they worry that they're not doing their jobs. This results in demoralized employees who spend hours providing proof of work or in meetings instead of getting on with the tasks they need to do.

A good attendance tracking system that allows for remote tracking will help ease micro management and boost productivity, since managers will have real-time visibility on employees' time in and time out. Even better, ones with biometric or facial recognition time-in functionality will prevent "buddy system" abuses and ensure that employees are present working when they punch in.

Boost Employee Attendance and Productivity

While it might seem counter-intuitive, a reliable attendance tracker can actually boost attendance. This is because a professional, smooth process of tracking employee attendance and leaves mean staff aren't as stressed about asking for time off.

Transparency in the way attendance and leave tracking is handled leads to less burnouts and sick leaves, and raises employee morale.

For remote workers, a remote tracker also serves as a great signal for when they need to start work. When employees are able to mentally prepare themselves for the tasks that your business needs, they are more productive and effective at their jobs.

Easily Spot Bottlenecks and Overwork

When you have real-time visuals on employee attendance as well as accurate reports for manpower, you and your managing team have valuable data that you can gain insight from. Such information can be anything from bottlenecks at certain project phases and overwork from certain departments, to employees suddenly requiring leaves due to emergencies.

This can help your management take appropriate decisions and actions.

Perhaps reassessing your company workflow can yield a more efficient process. This will prevent excessive overtime and result in cost savings for the business--and also better work-life balance for your employees.

Perhaps an employee taking more unexpected leaves has personal issues at home they need to address, and may appreciate being able to work remotely for the time being. Such a move may help mitigate workflow blocks and increase morale.

Conclusion

Tracking attendance at work doesn't have to be a battle of wills between employers and employees.

An efficient, streamlined process like Load One’s attendance tracking solution alleviates much uncertainty and stress from your managers and staff alike. It helps your management make decisions and become more proactive in taking care of their teams both inside and outside of work.

Don’t fall prey to pay errors, micro management, and low employee productivity when you can help your teams work effectively by providing them the tools they need. Get in touch with us if you need help.