UK 
United States
With accurate and detailed absence records, you can quickly identify behaviour patterns and prevent operational challenges from becoming performance issues.
In addition, where positive performance lessons are learnt, you can use absence records to inform and positively influence key strategic and investment decisions.
Why accurate absence records are essential
The UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) highlights that there are many reasons why employees are absent from the workplace.
Absenteeism could be the result of poorly designed processes and workplace equipment, supervisory and management failures and even unmanaged safety risks.
Having accurate and detailed absence records enables organisations to create and apply effective absence management policies. Then, should employees fail to comply with organisational policies, accurate absence records ensure a fair and informed disciplinary process. If a dispute reaches an employment tribunal or a court of law, accurate records can be important evidence.
Workers engaged on a time-basis also depend on accurate attendance records to ensure their pay is correct. Detailed records showing the days employees worked, how long they worked and what breaks they took, enable payrolls to be very accurate.
Common reasons for inaccurate attendance records
Absence records are often inaccurate because of equipment, process and human error. Manual attendance tracking systems and processes, such as paper-based sign-in on the gate/reception, or timecard-based manual clocking in solutions, can introduce inaccuracies.
The very process of capturing, or digitising, paper-based absence records introduces additional costs and inefficiencies – somebody has to spend time inputting the data, which impacts on profitability and organisational performance.
Manual data entry introduces errors. Research from multiple sources shows that average data entry errors range between 0.8% and 4%, with industry benchmarks usually set at 1%. If your organisation employs tens of thousands of workers globally, this introduces a significant margin. If your payroll costs are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, this introduces errors in the tens of millions range. All because of standard data entry errors.
Digitise your time and attendance systems
Access to accurate and detailed absence records can increase organisational performance, reduce payroll fraud and is a core element of a workforce administration risk management strategy. So, how can accurate absence data be captured, enabling your organisation to enjoy these benefits?
Digital clocking-in solutions, using combinations of web based, mobile app, kiosk and digital gate entry control that can incorporate biometric technologies, are the start. The benefits include recording exact location and attendance to the minute, and the technology cannot be duped by employees, such as clocking in on another’s behalf.
Having captured accurate data, the second essential element is the reporting and analytics. Managers can analyse the data to identify actionable insights – when is your workforce absent, why and what action can you take to improve performance?
To learn how Crown can help your organisation build more effective long-term strategies, contact our team of experts today.
