Keeping track of start, stop, lunch times, holidays, and sick days is a pain. Busy. Your employees are adults. If you think this statement is a good reason to stop tracking employee attendance, the following consequences may change your mind.
Financial expenses
Whether your employees are late or absent, you’re paying for work you didn’t do. In one analyst report, direct costs were $660 per employee per year. This amount only covers salary costs and does not take into account indirect costs, such as temporary reimbursement payments. Nor does it give a true picture of the specific benefits that are still available or the fact that insurance premiums are increasing due to high absenteeism.
Legal battle
If you don’t use a proper timetable management system, you can sue your company. Employees can simply tell you to deny them a debt if there is no evidence to confirm or refute the absence. Also keep in mind that the Fair Labor Code is very clear: you must pay your employees for the overtime they work, even if it has not been agreed in advance.
Productivity decreases
If an employee is unemployed, your competitive advantage will be lost. Other team members have to relax, which means their own work will be disrupted. Morale is down because employees don’t see that management isn’t trying to contain or discipline lazy people. In the worst case, the job isn’t even done. Call centers, law enforcement, and all companies hosting customer meetings tend to suffer the most.
What a waste of administration
If you can’t track start and end times, you’re wasting valuable resources trying to monitor and discipline employees whose histories are not documented. You may need to hire replacement workers or share work with other overworked workers. The time you might spend on strategy and marketing is wasted on parenting.
Confidential management
If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Without a proper time and attendance management system, you will not get a clear picture of how many hours you work, when you are absent, how much is missing or available, and why you are late or not. Additional data from automated systems can help you work for special events or seasonal sales, track individual vacation confirmations, develop flexible work arrangements, or tailor your compensation package to your employees’ needs.
