Imagine an office of a startup company with just 25 employees. On an average day, two to three employees report sick. However, the HR department manages to reassign tasks effectively among the available employees. But things will be totally out of control if more employees take a leave. The HR team would have no idea what to do. Unexpected challenges like this can happen in many organizations. Through proper analysis of the attendance data and leveraging it, the HR teams can ensure better workforce management. This blog provides a detailed guide on how to interpret attendance management data to enhance workforce management efficiency.

What Is Attendance Management Data And How Does It Affect Workforce Optimization?

Attendance data basically refers to the data derived from the records of employees clocking in and clocking out on a given day or a given period of time. It has a direct impact on an organization’s employee engagement, employee experience and employee retention rate. Poor attendance patterns indicate poor workforce management and an undesirable workplace culture. By properly tracking and analysing employee attendance behaviour, organizations can effectively trace the root causes that lead to poor attendance and implement measures that can improve the situation. To navigate this area effectively, the first step to take is gathering and analyzing the attendance behaviour or patterns. Let’s now identify the common attendance patterns that may lead us to pinpoint the root causes of absenteeism and similar attendance management challenges.

Identifying Common Attendance Patterns

According to surveys conducted on attendance behaviour among Indian business organizations, the following five patterns were shown to be more prevalent by the majority of the participants.

Frequent absenteeism:

Frequent absenteeism can result from multiple factors such as illness, burnout, or any personal issues. It can also indicate organizational factors. Studies show poor work culture and lack of employee engagement can leave employees less motivated to come to the office regularly. By fostering support, implementing flexible work arrangements and having open communication with the employees, the HR team can trace the root causes of it and take steps to reduce it.

Tardiness:

Frequent tardiness among your employees is a serious issue that needs to be addressed at the earliest or it can worsen to an unmanageable level. While occasional tardiness can result from transportation issues or certain family responsibilities, when it happens frequently, it indicates organizational issues or employees' poor time management. Allow more flexible schedules so that all employees can be present for work on time. Also, prioritize and emphasize punctuality in the attendance policies in the labor management system.

Leave abuse:

Leave abuses happen in organisations that do not have a proper leave policy resulting in excessive absences of sick leaves or sometimes even authorized absences. Implementing a robust attendance and leave management system and formulating clear guidelines regarding the consequences of unauthorized absences can help deter such abuses to a great extent.

Absences on specific days:

Are your employees reporting sick on specific days? For instance on days before or after weekends? Or on days when certain supervisory meetings? While the employees may have personal reasons to justify their absence, collective or frequent absences on specific days cannot be appreciated due to the degree of impact it can have on employee productivity.

Uneven attendance across teams:

Take a look at business A which sees 85% attendance among its marketing teams while the operation team consistently maintains an 85% attendance rate throughout the week. Does it hint at anything? Uneven attendance across teams can indicate a poor work culture. If the members within a certain team feel that they are treated with fewer privileges than the members of another team, it can affect their morale and gradually lead to poor performance and frequent absenteeism.

How Do Attendance Analytics Improve Workforce Efficiency?

With accurate attendance data that shed light on organizational issues, the path to optimizing the data for better workforce efficiency is easy. Here are some proven ways to optimize attendance analytics for workforce efficiency.

Using the insights for improving employee engagement:

By keeping track of employee attendance behaviour and identifying the patterns through attendance tracking software, organizations are in a better position to gather valuable insights that they could use for implementing effective employee engagement programs. For instance, if work-related stress is causing employees to experience burnout, anxiety and health issues leading to absenteeism, the HR department should intervene, and take measures to pinpoint and root out the causes of such stress.

Figuring out performance assessment and training needs:

Skill gaps in certain areas of the work, for instance, a team leader taking leaves on days when he is expected to brief up the work plans for next month, apparently because of lacking presentation skills. By looking at the attendance patterns and initiating open communication with the concerned employees, it is possible to make a huge difference in the management of workforce.

Efficient staff scheduling and roster management

With real-time data on attendance and leave, the HR team can act proactively to improve workforce management. For instance, rescheduling with the available team members to keep the operation on without interruptions. Also, having data on when absenteeism peaks from labour management system software helps allocate resources accordingly to reduce wastage.

How to Leverage Attendance Data For Efficient Workforce Management?

Coming to the core, the big question that lies before us is how to leverage attendance data for efficient workforce management. The first challenge is getting accurate attendance data. Once you have it, you can figure out patterns, identify the root causes and initiate open communication with your employees to improve the situation and thereby create a more productive and progressive work environment for them.

The Role of Automated Attendance System In Producing Reliable Attendance Data

With modern cloud based online attendance systems like Mewurk, getting accurate attendance data is not a big challenge these days. Using its sophisticated interface and modules, you can easily track, monitor or manage your employee's attendance. Mewurk automates the whole process, stores the records encrypted in its server and syncs it across people’s web or mobile apps. Organizations get real-time data on employees' attendance, which enables them for proactive actions.

Wrapping It Up…

In conclusion, optimising workforce management through attendance management data analytics helps improve your team’s efficiency, reduce wfm costs, and boost employee morale and satisfaction. By analysing attendance patterns with the help of an integrated system that combines features of remote workforce management and onsite workforce mgmt, businesses can make informed decisions. It helps them optimise their staffing allocation and improve overall productivity.