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Amazon has revamped its approach to tracking employee office attendance, according to a Business Insider report.
The new method for monitoring ‘badge data’ – gathered when employees scan their ID badge to access or exit an office – times with the launch of its controversial full return-to-office (RTO) policy.
Employees are now expected in the office five days a week, with a small number of exceptions, but their attendance behavior is reportedly being measured less rigidly.
How has Amazon changed its approach to attendance monitoring?
Monitoring office attendance has been a challenge for Amazon, just as it has been for other employers who have called staff back to the office.
In July, the e-commerce firm attempted to crack down on ‘coffee badging’ – a trend in which workers circumvent an RTO policy by visiting the office and scanning their ID badge but only staying long enough for a hot beverage – by mandating staff to stay in the office from between two to six hours per visit and monitoring their length of stay.
The tracking system used by Amazon previously marked employees with labels including “inconsistent badger” and “zero badger,” based on their compliance with the three-day in-office policy in place at the time.
Under the new approach, Business Insider reports, the labels are less firm, and managers are instead given granular badging data and the flexibility to decide how they will act on it.
It means that those responsible for managing employees have more jurisdiction over employee non-compliance with the five-day policy.
The new system “gives employees and managers visibility into the days they badged into a building,” a spokesperson said. “The information helps guide conversations between employees and managers, as needed, about coming into the office with their colleagues.”
Hours spent in the office and times of arrival or departure are also reportedly no longer included in the summaries given to managers.
Instead, the system focuses on the number of days staff attend the office, as the move to scrap any remote work flexibility means trends like ‘coffee badging’ are no longer a going concern.
Amazon managers given ‘raw data’ on employee office attendance
This latest development adds further clarity to an internal FAQ document about the RTO mandate, in which Amazon confirmed it would continue monitoring badge activity but did not specify exactly how it would act on the data collected.
“In general, badge reports provide visibility of the days you badged into an Amazon building," the document stated. "This includes nearly all corporate buildings, data centers, fulfillment centers, and delivery stations.”
It also confirmed that the new badging system would record sick days, leaves of absence, and any paid time off (PTO).
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Amazon staffers and managers have used an internal Slack channel to discuss what the new approach means in practice.
According to Business Insider, which has seen the messages, one manager confirmed they have been given access to “raw data about which days they've badge in [sic] or taken paid time off.” Another described their view of the data as a “pretty basic table.”
Other messages confirmed that managers can access their employees’ badging report data at all times, with a daily refresh taking place at 8 pm ET.
Managers are also unable to see the locations of badge scans, which has thrown up possible issues for Amazon in the past. Last Summer, one employee claimed that scanning their badge in a back room of a local, Amazon-owned Whole Foods store counted toward their attendance.
However, with managers now expecting to see their employees in the office each day, such behavior will no longer fly under the radar.
Amazon employees have hit back at attendance monitoring and the company’s increasingly strict in-office policy. In July, one employee wrote in a company Slack channel: “Remember when we were measured on metrics that actually mattered?”
In his memo to staff informing them of the five-day RTO mandate, CEO Andy Jassy said the policy would be hugely beneficial for decision-making and collaboration between colleagues.
