Attendance Management was the topic of the Brantford September SIG.  Having worked in Human Resources for many years it was a topic I was extremely familiar with.

We started out by talking about scenerios different companies encountered regarding attendance.  General consensus was that attendance was a problem in all organization but there was generally only a handful of employees that caused the problem.

Specifically - one company struggled with poor attendance in a specific area.  The suggestion was made to cross train other individuals for this area so back up was easily available or to discipline these individuals so the employees realized the company was serious about it.

Another issue was no call no shows which refers to individuals who simply do not call in their absence or show up for work.   One suggestion in this regard was to call the individual once it was realized that they hadn't shown up.   This is easier if you have a formal time and attendance system and harder if you do not.

Some suggestions to work on managing attendance include linking your bonus system to attendance (check out member needs help for some systems other companies have implemented) and counselling staff before they hit the 10 days under the Employment Standards act.  Another suggestion was if notice of more than 1 week was given for absences then they did not get penalized under the attendance system.

Overall we had a  great discussion on a topic where all the answers cannot be found.   But some potential solutions were shared and all companies realized that every organization struggles with attendance and needs to set up a system that both the company and employees can work within.

We finished our event with a tour of the Norlok facility.  Thanks again to Jeff Boatright of Norlok for hosting this great event!

Our next SIG will be October 22, 2009 at Ranpro in Simcoe.  We have a speaker from the Ministry of Labour who will discuss the current issues in the ministry.  If you are interested in attending, please e-mail Laura Gibson.

For more information on SIGs in the Brantford region, please contact Laura Gibson by phone at 519-304-4648 or by e-mail at lgibson@emccanada.org .