Attendance Policy and Strategy
We are a manufacturing facility and are looking for input on how some of you out there handle attendance.
We currently are still using a points system but I'm sure you're all aware that has its challenges and human interpretation inconsistencies. Have any of you found a process that works both for your team and for your supervisors?
I'd love to hear some out-of-the-box concepts that you have found to be successful. Thanks so much for your time!
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Hi, Vicki - This topic is near and dear to my heart as I have worked with several manufacturing companies over the years. You are absolutely right - the points and occurrence-based policies are outdated and do not yield the results we want. What I have found to be effective is to introduce an in-depth manager training program that gives supervisors the support and resources they need to effectively manage performance. I am happy to share resources with you if you are interested in designing a program for your organization. I also offer program design and facilitation services (sometimes they just have to hear it from someone else!) Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to discuss in more detail.
Thanks,
Christie Engler
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Christie Engler Thank you Christie - I will follow up with an email. Vicki
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Hi Vicki. I have worked in Manufacturing for many years and seen companies with and without attendance policies. An attendance policy provides expectations for managers and employees so I like attendance policies for that reason. However, attendance policies may not be appropriate for all cultures and environments. One way to make your attendance policy more consistent is automating schedules and points in your timekeeping system, then auditing to ensure compliance. To me, the biggest risk with attendance policies is manager consistency, not the policy. One way to increase consistency is a quarterly round table discussion with managers about attendance situations and how to handle them consistently. Then document and create FAQs for managers from these discussions. Please reach out if you would like to talk further! Bonita.Martin@MeridianBioscience.com.
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Bonita Martin Thanks so much for the response. We just purchased the companies first HRIS system last Spring. Getting the attendance policy running is one of our next steps but I'm afraid, until we are all on the same page internally, automating this isn't going to help us much. Also, the schedule changes frequently and not certain how/who would keep up with that on a weekly/daily basis. I do like your idea of quarterly discussions; we've been headed towards that the past few months as well on not only attendance but worker's comp, fmla, etc. Unfortunately, I'm a department of 1 and just need to figure out how to get all of these things addressed within everyone's schedule.
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