This template provides general guidance for drafting an employee attendance policy. Employers should consult with legal counsel to ensure their attendance policy complies with applicable federal, state, and local laws and fits their specific workplace needs.
Attendance disputes usually begin when supervisors enforce an attendance policy unevenly across employees. When two employees commit the same violation and receive different responses, the company creates a discipline record that becomes difficult to defend. Uneven enforcement shifts attention away from the employee’s attendance issue and toward whether the company applied its rules consistently.
Attendance disputes also surface when the definitions for important terms leave room for interpretation. If the policy does not state how many minutes count as “late” or how to record a partial-shift absence, supervisors make their own judgment calls. One supervisor may treat a ten-minute delay as insignificant while another records it as formal tardiness. Two employees who arrive ten minutes late for the same shift can receive different discipline solely because one supervisor logs the delay and another does not. When enforcement and definitions vary by supervisor, the written policy stops functioning as a uniform standard and becomes a source of dispute.
Attendance Policy Setup
Company and Worksite Details
An attendance policy should identify the full legal name of the company and the employees covered by the policy. If the company operates more than one location or has departments that follow different scheduling structures, your policy should state whether a single attendance standard applies to all employees or whether certain sites or roles follow a modified version.
Policies should state that lateness is measured from each employee’s scheduled shift start time. When departments or roles follow different schedules, it should be clear that attendance is tracked based on the individual employee’s assigned shift rather than a single company-wide start time.
Call-Out and Approval Structure
Attendance policies should explain how employees are required to report an absence, late arrival, early departure, or late return from a meal period or rest break, and state exactly who the employee calls or messages to give notice. It should specify whether employees provide notice by phone call, voicemail, email, text message, or through a scheduling system, and whether a voicemail left after hours satisfies the notice requirement when a supervisor does not answer.
Policies should also explain who approves planned time off or schedule changes. If supervisors can approve shift swaps or late arrivals but only HR can approve medical leave or extended absences, that should be stated clearly.
Tracking System Choice
Every attendance policy needs a clear rule that explains how supervisors respond when an employee misses a shift, arrives late, leaves early, or fails to report to work without notice. Employers should state how many violations within a stated time period lead to a written warning and how many lead to termination. Attendance rules should also clarify whether a one-minute delay is treated the same as a thirty-minute delay or whether discipline starts at a specific threshold.
Attendance Standards and Definitions
Issues the Policy Should Address
Employers should define the specific attendance violations that trigger discipline. Attendance rules should state that missing a scheduled workday, arriving after the scheduled start time, leaving before the scheduled end of a shift, and returning late from a meal period or rest break are violations that may lead to written warnings or termination based on the number of violations within the defined time period. Employers should also state how partial-shift absences are recorded and whether repeated latenesses across multiple days are treated as separate violations or as a pattern of behavior.
Attendance and Punctuality Expectations
An attendance policy should state that employees are expected to report to work at their scheduled start time and remain at work until the scheduled end of the shift, unless a supervisor approves a change. It should require employees to follow the call-out procedure each time they miss scheduled work time or expect to arrive after the scheduled start.
It should also require supervisors to document each attendance violation on the day it occurs. Each documentation entry should include the scheduled shift time, the employee’s actual arrival or departure time when relevant, and the explanation the employee provided. If HR approval is required before issuing a written warning or termination, the requirement and the role responsible for granting it should be specified.
Definitions
A definitions section prevents supervisors from applying their own interpretations to key terms. When words like “absence,” “tardy,” or “no-call/no-show” are defined in writing, discipline decisions rest on fixed standards instead of individual judgment.
- Absence: The employee does not report for a scheduled workday or misses a full scheduled shift. It should be specified in the policy whether missing part of a shift counts as a full absence or is recorded based on the number of hours missed.
- Excused absence: The employee followed the notice requirements and received approval under the company’s time-off rules.
- Unexcused absence: The employee did not follow the notice requirements, did not receive required approval, or did not have available leave time.
- Tardiness: The employee arrives after the scheduled start time. Rules should state whether a grace period applies and the number of minutes allowed before recording a tardy.
- Early departure: The employee leaves before the scheduled end of a shift without prior approval.
- Late return: The employee does not return to work at the scheduled time after a meal period or rest break.
- No-call/no-show: The employee fails to report for a scheduled shift and does not provide notice within the time required by the policy.
- Job abandonment: The employee fails to report for a defined number of consecutive scheduled workdays without notice or contact, as stated in the policy.
Notice and Call-Out Rules
Who Employees Contact
Employers should identify the specific person or job title an employee contacts to report that they will not be reporting for a scheduled shift or will not be present at the scheduled start time. Employers should also determine who the employee contacts when they need to leave before the scheduled end of a shift.
If the policy states only “notify your supervisor” or uses similarly general language, employees may direct notice to someone who is off duty or does not check messages regularly. A dispute can then arise over whether the employee properly reported the missed shift or the late arrival within the required time frame. Employee attendance policies should name a primary and backup contact so employees know exactly who to contact when a scheduling problem arises.
Ways Employees Can Give Notice
The attendance policy should state the approved methods employees may use to provide notice and if the company accepts notice by phone call only, this should be specified. If voicemail, email, text message, or an electronic scheduling system are permitted, those methods should be identified and clarification should be given on whether notice is effective when sent or only when received.
Attendance requirements should also address what happens when an employee cannot reach a supervisor directly. If a voicemail left before the reporting deadline satisfies the requirement, that rule should appear in writing. If third-party notice is allowed in emergencies, attendance standards should state who may provide it and under what circumstances.
Information Included in Notice
When reporting a missed shift or late arrival, the employee should identify the specific shift affected and whether the absence covers the entire shift or only part of it. The notice should include enough detail for the supervisor to decide whether another employee needs to be called in and whether duties need to be reassigned.
The attendance policy should require the employee to include the following information in the notice:
- The date of the affected shift
- Whether the employee will miss the entire shift or arrive late
- The expected arrival time or return-to-work date, if known
- A reliable method of contact for follow-up scheduling questions
Notice Deadlines
Employers should impose an exact time by which an employee needs to notify the employer that the employee will miss a scheduled shift. For example, an policy may require employees to call at least one hour before their scheduled start time. The rule should use a specific number of minutes or hours so there is no confusion about the deadline. Policies should also state when an employee needs to notify the employer of a late arrival or the need to leave before the scheduled end of the shift.
What Happens When Employees Do Not Give Notice
When an employee does not report for a scheduled shift and does not provide notice by the deadline, the employer loses the ability to plan staffing for that shift. A manager may have to approve unplanned overtime or operate short-handed, which can delay work and increase labor costs.
Policies should state that a no-call/no-show is a separate violation from the absence itself. Rules should define the discipline that applies to a first no-call/no-show and the discipline that applies to repeated no-call/no-show violations within the stated time period, along with the number of consecutive no-call/no-show days the company treats as job abandonment.
Protected Leave and Accommodation Routing
An attendance policy should state that time protected by federal, state, or local law is not treated as a violation under the attendance rules, and that an employee who takes an absence covered by approved medical leave or a disability accommodation will not receive attendance discipline for that time.
Supervisors should route potential protected leave issues to HR on the day they arise. If an employee raises a medical issue that may qualify for protected leave, HR should determine whether the time is legally protected before any attendance discipline moves forward.
Corrective Action Steps
When an employee continues to violate the attendance rules, discipline should increase in defined steps and policies should state how many violations within the stated time period trigger a written warning and how many trigger termination.
Supervisors should record the date of each attendance violation and the reason the employee gave for missing work or arriving late. Before issuing a written warning or termination, the supervisor should review the employee’s prior attendance entries to confirm they were recorded accurately and did not involve approved or legally protected leave.
Supervisor Attendance Documentation Checklist
Supervisors should use a consistent format when recording attendance violations. Each entry should answer the following questions:
- What was the scheduled shift date and start time?
- Did the employee report as scheduled? If not, what time did the employee arrive or leave?
- When did the employee provide notice, if notice was given?
- What reason did the employee give?
- Did the employee reference a medical condition or other issue that requires HR review before discipline proceeds?
Supervisors should document attendance violations on the same day they happen. Discipline decisions based on incomplete or inconsistent records are difficult to defend if challenged.
Attendance policies create exposure when definitions are vague or supervisors enforce rules inconsistently. Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s national labor and employment group helps employers draft defensible attendance policies, train supervisors on documentation requirements, and respond to attendance-related discrimination charges. Send us a message or give us a call at (202) 715-6244 to discuss your workplace attendance standards.