As small business owners, you have lofty dreams – build a Fortune 500 company, provide well for your family, save the pandas, who knows? Whatever your goal, it begins with getting and keeping happy customers. When employees routinely call out or are no-shows, your dreams quickly become nightmares. Employee attendance problems, above any other part of your business, can rip apart your admirable plans at the seams. This risk makes it essential to have a strategy to improve attendance-related issues.
How You Can Improve Employee Attendance Problems
#1: Try carrots instead of sticks.
It’s about company culture. Help your employees want to come to work. Create an environment in which your employees feel valued. In a previous article, we mentioned a Harvard Business Review study that revealed that words of praise are vitally crucial in workplace environments. The best-performing teams received almost six positive comments for every one negative. In service-based businesses, inspections routinely highlight things employees could’ve done better. With this in mind, make it a priority to tell your employees the good things, too. If you have remote employees you don’t see, our timekeeping system has great messaging tools for easy communication.
#2: Hire strategically.
One of our customers owns a cleaning business and only needs part-time cleaners for the night and early morning work. For this reason, he only hires workers who already have full-time jobs and need to pick up side work. These employees are trying to catch up on bills, pay for college tuition, save for a house, etc. – they are motivated. He conducts thorough interviews to discover these motivations. His workers are more mature, stable, and reliable. As a result, in an industry with 200-400% turnover, this wise ol’ sage doesn’t have employee attendance problems.
#3: Reward good behavior.
We’ve mentioned praising your employees, but let’s put more meat on the bone. Do you have employees who are always on time, never call out, do high-quality work, and never complain? And do you want to keep these employees? By all means, find real ways to show your appreciation. Pay them as much as you can, and then some – spread out over time. For instance, a $100 Outback gift card is tax-deductible for you (and you often get a bonus for buying them). This occasional treat is cheaper than a raise that you pay weekly. Tangible rewards are also less expensive than the costs of replacing hourly workers. Finally, design ways that encourage employees to hold each other accountable. For example, the whole team receives a benefit each month without a customer complaint.
#4: Start a referral program.
If you hire wisely, you have a crew of good employees. As the saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together.” Reward your flock through an employee referral program for bringing you good candidates. In a positive work environment, your good employees should have plenty of friends who want to get on board. A referral program also gives your employees a sense of ownership in the company. Your team won’t suggest folks who will add to your attendance problems.
#5: Trust, but verify.
You can do everything right and still have employees who don’t show up. Your dreams can’t be left to chance. We are your safety net. With our automated time clock and scheduling system, we’ll send you no-show text or email alerts in time to get your jobs covered. Our no-show and late employee report also help you to track who receives the carrots and who gets the sticks.
Be The Best Option For Workers
Employee attendance problems will never go away 100%. It’s a fact of life. But you can create a culture where people want to work – above all their other options. You can design a workplace focused on making your employees feel like VIPs through words and rewards – one in which employee attendance problems are the exception, not the rule. It’s the best plan to keep your dreams of world domination alive.
Let us help you build an extraordinary workplace. We’ll give you 30 free days to get started.
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About Chronotek
The most dependable employee timesheet and scheduling software available. For over 20 years, Chronotek has set the standard in time tracking by providing businesses with every tool needed to manage a remote workforce, reduce time card waste, and simplify the payroll process. No matter if employees are working from the field, at the office or from home… Chronotek has the solution!
