Attendance and Leave Management
Every company needs to have an attendance policy. It varies across organizations as per their industry, culture, prevalent practices. It ranges from authoritarian to a more liberal approach. Flexi Work Hours, Work from Home are some concepts which are quite popular in companies now.
An attendance policy is required to maintain discipline in the organization and keep a check on tardiness (late comings). Hence while framing an attendance policy a balance needs to be maintained between a having dictator attitude where the attendance rules are too stringent and a club member attitude where in employees come and go as they desire.
The attendance policy will include the below
- SHIFTS OF EMPLOYEE: They will vary from company to company. Some companies will service international customers will have day shift and night shift. Retail Companies or Hospitals will have early morning shift. afternoon shift etc.
E,g
- 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
- 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
- WEEKLY OFF: Some companies have all Saturday and Sunday as week off. Some have only Sundays and some will have alternate Saturdays off.
Employees of hospitals and retail Stores have any day of the week set as week off basis their monthly roster.
- LATE MARK RULES: Companies need to have a late mark rule set in the organization. Companies can set a rule as per their culture and practices. This gives employees some leeway to come late upto a certain time limit. i.e a grace time is allowed. Employees coming after the stipulated grace time beyond a certain number of times, a penalty is issued by the company.
E.g : Every employee is allowed a 15 min grace time as per his shift for late coming in a month.
For a shift of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. The employee is allowed a grace till 09:15. Employees are allowed to come till 09:15.
Any employee coming late (after grace period of 15 minutes) for more than 3 times in a month will be marked half day for the said day. The same would be either deducted from his leave balance or in absence of sufficient leave balance salary in lieu of leave will be deducted.
- WORKING HOURS: Companies also set a rule where in employee need to mandatorily complete the stipulated 9 hrs work a day. If less than a particular hrs is served by an employee then half day deduction is considered from employee leave or salary as the case may be.
Certain companies do not have any late mark rule set. They have a policy of come to work at any time and complete the required hours of work.
- LEAVE: A company needs to provide leaves to employees for personal work, vacation, sickness etc. Leaves are provided so that employee burnout does not happen. An efficient leave policy is part of the organization compensation philosophy. Some companies have more leaves than others. The general types of leaves are :
Common Leaves
- Casual Leave: They are for short duration and are generally unplanned.
- Sick Leave: They are for medical reasons. They can be short or long depending on ailment.
- Privilege Leave: They are generally used for going on holiday or a trip and are generally long.
Note : Some companies break the total leave entitlement into Casual, Sick and Privilege. Some may combine it all together as all-purpose leave.
- Maternity Leave: This is given to women employees as per the rules laid down in a maternity act. It has been recently amended to 26 weeks.
Uncommon Leaves
It is company specific and not stipulated by law.
- Paternity Leave: This is given to fathers of new born child.
- Bereavement Leave: This is given to employees for the death of a family member.
- Sabbatical Leave: This is given to employees who are given a break for some months. E.g pursuing higher education. This is an unpaid leave. However the tenure of the employee is not affected. After completion of the leave the employee can join back and resume services as normal.