Analysing absence data is integral to maximising productivity

According to a study by BrightHR, Understanding the impact of staff absences, only a third of the companies who collect absence data use it to monitor the impact of absences of their businesses.

Many companies don't monitor sickness absence at all, or do it in a low-tech, decentralised manner such as putting a note on a calendar or in a diary. Some companies believe that this is all they need, since as long as they know when someone is away, they can address issues such as payroll and dealing with the absent person's workload.

However, recording attendance data in this way means that companies cannot easily spot larger patterns such as someone always taking off days after football games or before bank holidays, or two employees taking turns to be away.

It also makes it difficult to gather the data if they do ever need to examine the evidence for disciplinary procedures or salary discussions, since it is not easily available all in one place and one format.

Other things that companies may miss as part of the bigger picture include absences which look like malingering at first glance but can actually be solved through careful management, such as employee taking days off for chronic illness, child-minding responsibilities or commuting issues.

If they are good workers and the company culture encourages it, these sorts of absences can be thoroughly minimised by offering employees the option to have flexible working hours.

Keeping detailed, centralised absence records also enables companies to keep track of how much staff absences are costing them in direct costs such as sick pay or overtime/replacement staff, and in indirect costs such as reduced productivity and increased administrative workload.

A Tensor time and attendance system can help fix all of these issues, thanks to its wide range of useful features.

Calendars make it immediately obvious if employees have a pattern of sick days or of lateness, as different absence reasons can be colour-coded. The system can send email notifications if a person has exceeded a stated number of days or instances of an absence.

All the clocking data is immediately available to view in a near-real-time basis, and can be exported into many different formats or transformed into reports using the report wizard and advanced reporting functions. Clocking data can also be restricted by admin level, so that managers and team leaders can only see their team's data. This keeps the information secure and reduces the potential for abuse.

The shifts option within the Tensor time and attendance system can also be configured for flexitime working for each employee. Flexi adjustments can be made for any day, either to change the existing balance or to replace it with a new value.

The mobile app version of the Self Service Module means that companies with remote employees such as salespeople, carers or people working from home can still monitor their attendance. This also comes with GPS, which is logged in the central system.

If you are interested in making your attendance management more detailed and robust, please get in touch today.