Employee Attendance Management : 5 Important Questions

Recording the employees' attendance is an important HR activity that ensures that the organization pays the employees correctly and complies with employment law requirements. By streamlining attendance registration, you can recognize your employees' attendance patterns and identify unplanned absences, tardiness and similar issues that can damage productivity. If you want to establish an attendance process in your organisation, we have answers to five common questions related to attendance management.

What Are the Different Types Of Attendance Tracking?

A good process for attendance tracking is essential for monitoring the employees' attendance patterns and documenting attendance data with a view to compliance and payroll processing. Here are some of the most common ways to track employee attendance:

System For Attendance Management

An intuitive HR tool that enables employees to register their attendance times online via web and mobile applications. Their working hours are automatically calculated and stored in the database.

Biometric Devices

These devices, which are usually installed at the entrance to a workplace, use the employees' distinctive features, such as iris, fingerprints and other facial features, to record attendance. When the employees check in and out with biometric devices, their working hours are calculated and stored in the system.

Spreadsheet

HR teams often create spreadsheets that employees use to record check-in and check-out data. Once the HR department has collected all data for a specific period, the team can easily calculate the total working hours. Overtime and leave data are usually also entered manually in the same sheet.

Physical Registers

A manual register is usually placed at the reception, and the employees register their time in and out with a signature every day. The total working time is then calculated manually by the HR department. This way of recording attendance can be tedious.

What Is the Best Way To Track Employee Attendance?

One of the best ways to track employee attendance is to use an attendance management system. Employees can register their attendance with a single keystroke, and the data is documented automatically. Features such as IP restrictions, geo-restrictions and facial recognition can make the data more accurate. These systems can also be integrated with payroll systems so that the attendance data is automatically transferred to the payroll calculation. Intuitive reports that come with the system provide an overview of who is in and out, so that it is easy to delegate work. In addition, the user access controls that come with the system ensure that the right people have access to the presence data.

How Do You Write Good Guidelines For Attendance?

A good attendance policy should contain everything that is expected of employees in terms of attendance, including how employees should mark attendance, the number of hours they are expected to be in the office, how overtime hours are calculated, how they can request permission during the working day, how the guards distributed and what counts as tardiness and absence. It should also define which disciplinary measures you will take if the employees do not comply with the rules in the guidelines.

How Do You Ensure That the Guidelines Are Adhered To?

When you start, it is important that you keep up to date with all the employment laws that apply in your region. Certain laws state, for example, that employees must not work more than 48 hours a week, and that employees who work more than that are entitled to reasonable overtime pay. Therefore, you must carefully monitor and document your employees' working hours to ensure that they are treated fairly. Similarly, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires organizations to keep accurate records of the total number of hours worked by non-exempt employees. As employment laws vary from region to region, it is important that you know the laws that apply to your organization and that you streamline your procedures accordingly.

How Can You Improve the Attendance System?

Measures to improve attendance processes can have a major impact on the organisation's productivity and bottom line. Set clear expectations for the organisation's expected working hours and other guidelines for attendance. Integrate the attendance and payroll systems closely, so that you neither underpay nor overpay your employees. Use an attendance tracking system to automate attendance recording, allow employees to record attendance on the go, and store attendance data in a central archive.

Conclusion

In conclusion, IceHrm provides a seamless solution for attendance management, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and streamlined processes. Elevate your HR practices with IceHrm's comprehensive tools.