Employee Attendance Policy Guide for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you depend on your employees to show up to work reliably and keep their scheduled shifts. But what happens when employees are late, miss shifts, or frequently ask for days off? This is when an employee attendance policy comes in very handy.

Attendance policies help you educate your team on what is considered a one-time absence or absenteeism, which is frequent absence from work for unjustified reasons. They should also include information about all internal processes and leave policies so everyone involved is aware of expectations.

Employee attendance touches almost every aspect of your business, which is why it's important to have an all-in-one HR platform like IceHrm that helps you simplify time tracking, scheduling, payroll, and employee performance. Plus, our platform can store your internal policies and make them easily accessible to your team members. So let's see what all should be in your policy.

What is an employee attendance policy?

An asset management policy is a document that contains a set of guidelines, actions, procedures, and consequences for managing company assets. Typically, it will outline the company's expectations regarding asset usage, maintenance, and documentation.

Team members should have access to these policies from the start so they know how to handle days off, absences, or tardiness. And small business attendance policies can be broken down into different sections:

List all documents related to attendance, such as policies for being late or arriving late at work
Set internal expectations for the definition of attendance and absence
Explain how to report absences or tardiness to supervisors
Specify the number of absences allowed
Explain the consequences of violating the policy
Specify how to access schedules and request shift changes
Reinforce communication policies

Pro tip: Create, update, share, and reference your attendance policies frequently to encourage your team to follow workplace rules.

Why are attendance policies important for small businesses?

Small businesses need attendance policies—and not just because they promote accountability. They also promote:

They increase pay accuracy. Your attendance policies should go hand in hand with your time tracking so all employees are paid correctly for the hours they work. And if you use an all-in-one HR platform like IceHrm, you can review your employees' in- and out-of-work and breaks and pay them directly from the same app.
Ensure fairness. Policies help you treat all employees equally and hold them accountable to the same standards. Having all the dos and don'ts written down on paper with clear procedures means you can't unconsciously favor anyone.
They help you achieve your business goals. In order for you to hit your revenue goals, your small business requires your employees to work and take care of customers. However, attendance tracking is not only necessary to see who is working on a given day, but also to make staffing decisions. For example, IceHrm lets you view or export employee schedules and attendance records.
Stay compliant with labor laws. An employee attendance policy isn't mandatory. But depending on the type of business you have and the state you're based in, you may need to keep accurate records of your employees' attendance to stay compliant.

Where do small businesses typically keep their employee attendance policies?

Many small businesses keep these types of policies in a large binder with a label on the cover that says: The Employee Handbook. However, a physical copy is inconvenient, difficult to update, and can easily be misplaced or damaged. A cloud-based employee handbook is a much better alternative.

When you choose IceHrm to track your employees' attendance, you get access to HR and compliance experts who can review your policies and procedures to make sure you're adhering to the regulations that apply to you. Plus, IceHrm simplifies hiring and onboarding. As soon as you onboard a new employee, they automatically receive a welcome packet with everything they need to know to be successful in their position, including:

Documents they'll need to sign and complete electronically, such as a work permit. E.g., direct deposit documents and Forms W-4, W-9 and I-9
An employee handbook
Internal policies and procedures
Information about special training, both mandatory and optional
A description of their role and responsibilities

You can then access all signed employee documents through your IceHrm account - and have the peace of mind that they are stored securely.

The key components of an employee attendance policy

Employee attendance policies are detailed documents that explain all matters related to attendance. To create a comprehensive policy that is easy for employees to understand, you can use these components as a template:

Absence tracking and documentation
Vacation policies
Schedules, shift changes and overtime
Communication and enforcement of the policy
Adjustments and exceptions
Procedures for reviews, feedback and updates

1.Absence tracking and documentation

The first act of any movie lays out the rules of the world you are about to explore, so too should the first part of your attendance policy explain your company's rules. Define your expectations for attendance, explain the meaning of absence without official leave (AWOL) and state the intent and scope of the document.

In this section, you should also explain how you measure your employees' performance and the consequences if employees don't follow the guidelines. Overall, the document should encourage employees to find, read and follow processes to avoid a poor attendance record.

It's important that you develop processes for any leave-related action. We all have unconscious biases and, depending on our relationship with certain employees, we may be more relaxed about them than others. So, recording absences in a documented and standardized way reduces the risk of gut decisions and ensures you treat your employees fairly and equitably. Plus, an automated system saves the time you would otherwise spend transcribing attendance records, reducing human error and eliminating the possibility of files being lost or deleted.

We recommend a solution like IceHrm, which allows employees to record their working hours - including breaks - and attendance from any smart device using a secure PIN code. This way, hours are securely recorded in a dashboard that managers can approve or edit directly in the app. They can then use this information to pay their team directly through IceHrm or an integrated payroll feature.

2.Vacation policies

Here you explain the different vacation policies, what each type of vacation means, and how to request days off. This section should link to relevant documents and include information on:

Sick leave. Anyone can get sick or injured, so give your employees clear guidelines on how to handle this. Explain how many sick days they are entitled to based on seniority, role, laws and regulations, and the specifics of your company.
Vacation time. The number of vacation days team members can take for travel or leisure depends on local laws, internal policies, seniority, and the specific position. Clearly state how many vacation days each employee is entitled to and how they can request them.
Personal days off. Employees can take personal days off, for example to attend government appointments or take their children or pets to the doctor. Specify how many days you will provide your employees and whether it is paid or unpaid.
Bereavement leave. Specify how many days of leave your employees can take to grieve the loss of a loved one and how they can request it. Unfortunately, this type of leave is usually impossible to plan in advance, so you'll want to make sure you have a process in place to cover their shifts. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), you aren't required to provide paid bereavement leave, but it's a good and recommended practice.
Parental leave. Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), biological parents and adoptive parents can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to give birth and/or care for a child. You also need to guarantee them that they will get their job back once the leave is over. Some states have special rules for paying for this type of leave, so you may want to ask IceHrm's HR experts for advice.
Medical leave. This falls under the same provisions as parental leave (up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off), but is for caring for sick or injured family members or their personal medical needs.
Special leave. This includes jury duty and religious or military leave. Under the FLSA, you are not required to pay for this type of leave, but you can set your own internal policies.

3.Schedules, Shift Changes, and Overtime

Use this section to outline expectations and policies regarding work schedules, overtime, and shift changes. For example, state how many hours full-time and part-time employees must work and how much overtime they are allowed to work.

Work schedules. Explain whether they are fixed or flexible, where they can be viewed, and how to request changes.
Shift Changes. Explain how to swap shifts with coworkers and get supervisor approval.
Overtime. If your company allows overtime, include the internal policy, hourly rate, and monthly maximums, and explain how you track them.

4.Communicate and enforce the policy

This section is primarily for supervisors and managers, as it typically includes:

How and when to mention the policy. This can be done in the first few weeks of training, every time someone is late, with regular reminders in group chats and during performance evaluations.
What to do if someone doesn't comply. Each company has its own internal procedures for this, but as a general rule, you should:

Correct the employee with a verbal notice the first time it happens.
Talk to the employee about the reasons for their lateness or absence if it has become a recurring problem. Put a written explanation and signed notice in the employee's file.
Come up with an alternative to help the employee stick to their schedule, such as a work-related workday. For example, by offering them part-time work instead of full-time, changing shifts, or suggesting a short leave of absence.
If the employee's behavior leads to constant absence, consider taking disciplinary action and hiring a new employee.

When to take disciplinary action. Many companies use a point system to impose penalties for tardiness, one-time no-shows, or absences. List all violations and award points for each one. Determine at what score you must fire the person in question and hire a new employee.

Remind team members of your policies regularly to encourage them to follow the rules. For example, if you hire a new person, they will likely be expected to read and learn a whole bunch of new processes in a short period of time - and that can overwhelm them. So you can't assume that a new employee will remember everything you said or taught them in their first week. If management frequently refers to their attendance policies, they are doing just that:

They provide clarity and make sure everyone fully understands them.
Make sure all team members have the same information so you can hold them to the same standards.
Have security, comply with local laws and regulations, and encourage employees to better understand their employment benefits.
Build trust between managers and employees. The more transparent you are about your policies, the more likely your employees will value and trust you.

If you use an all-in-one HR platform like IceHrm, you can use the team communications app to recognize individual employees as leaders in attendance policies. And such reminders and recognition encourage others to exhibit the same behavior.

5.Accommodations and exceptions

Make sure you outline the need for accommodations for employees with special needs in your attendance policy. For example, let's say you hire a person with a disability who has to go to physical therapy at 12pm every day, but your afternoon shift starts at 12pm. You could allow them to start their shift at 2pm instead.

You may also need to make accommodations for people with religious beliefs or medical issues. Explain how to request these accommodations and what processes managers should use to approve them in an impartial manner.

And if you find that you need to make the same type of accommodation over and over again, add it as an exception to the attendance policy. Then establish a process for requesting each one. Some other exceptions you may need to consider include:

Additional unpaid leave
Much-needed personal days off

6.Procedures for reviews, feedback and updates

Employee attendance policies are a living document - it's not a one-time task you can just cross off your to-do list. Instead, develop a procedure that ensures you regularly review and update the policy based on employee feedback, experience and new regulations.

Once your policies feel outdated and no longer reflect reality, employees will stop paying attention to them. For example, if your vacation policy says employees must request vacation days one month in advance, but in reality you need two months to organize your schedules and find replacements, you should adjust your policy.

Should you have an employee attendance policy?

Even small businesses need an attendance policy to monitor their employees' performance in a fair and well-documented way.

And creating a document that details all of your company policies around punctuality, schedules, and vacation is easier than you think. At least, if you use IceHrm.

An all-in-one tool like IceHrm connects you with a team of HR experts who will advise you on how to create your attendance policy and show you examples to draw inspiration from. You can then host your finished document in a digital employee handbook and use the same app to track your team's hours, schedule shifts, pay salaries, and chat with them.