Company guide to employee attendance management

Introduction: What is attendance management? And why is it important for companies?

Attendance management is a fundamental process for companies to monitor and track, with the support of a special register (so-called attendance card), the working hours of their resources; i.e. the actual presence or absence of employees in the workplace.
The main objective of attendance management is to ensure that employees comply with the actual working hours, as contractually defined.
There are many companies that today outsource this process.
“HR Capital” supports companies in these processes as it is composed of a team of experts in payroll, personnel administration and employment consulting; staff capable of managing and satisfying each client’s needs.
With the help of HR Capital, companies can check the accuracy of each entry, to comply with the law, ensure that adequate workforce scheduling is guaranteed and respected and at the same time, that employees are properly compensated for the time worked.

How to record attendance: the law

A correct record of attendance is essential to accurately draw up the attendance sheet of the Single Employment Ledger (Libro Unico del Lavoro, ‘LUL’), as required by Italian Decree-Law no. 133/2008 implemented by Italian Law no. 133/2008 as subsequently amended.
The section of the LUL relating to monthly attendance must be drawn up indicating, with respect to all employees, the number of hours per day, the hours of overtime and additional work and any absences, such as illness, accident, pregnancy, holidays, leave, etc.
The correct compilation of the variables on the pay slip is essential, as it affects the calculation of the monthly salary due to workers: for this reason, the law requires that all the events that occur in the employment relationship must be correctly indicated, also in order to correctly calculate the salary due to the worker. Indeed, if the LUL is not compiled correctly the employer may be exposed to administrative sanctions and the risk of litigation with workers.
Attendance recording tools are not subject to prior agreement with trade unions, as provided for by Article 4, paragraph 2 of Italian Law no. 300/1970.

Methods to track employee attendance effectively

Each company can decide to use different methods and systems for recording attendance for monitoring purposes, including:

1. Virtual terminal: entry and exit times are recorded by clocking in on devices such as access-controlled digital clocks;
2. Badge readers with RDIF (125 KHz) or MiFare (13.56 MHz) technologies: they are delivered to each employee on the day that they start employment with the business by linking their profile to a unique code. In this way it is possible to clock-in by scanning, i.e. by simply bringing the badge or magnetic card close to the appropriate reader;
3. Mobile app: downloadable directly onto the employee smartphone allowing him/her to clock in online by logging in with his/her personal credentials (username and password);
4. Biometrics: Biometric identification, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, allows attendance to be recorded accurately.

HR Capital can support companies in the choice of the method with a careful evaluation, first of all, with respect to the company’s size, its specific needs and the availability of resources; and moreover, it makes sure that each client company, which relies on its team of experts, equips itself with an accurate, reliable attendance management system that complies with local employment laws and company policy.

The basics of attendance management: using the attendance sheet and attendance register

Companies must document their employees’ activities through the LUL which came into force in 2008 to replace the payroll register.
HR Capital can provide each of its client companies with a standard attendance sheet to collect the data that will be sent to the team’s Payroll Officer for the correct processing of the payslip.
The company must ensure that the attendance sheet is filled out for each internal employee. This means that the clocking in of employees and the management of working hours (specifically, the daily start and end times and, in many cases, also that of intermediate breaks are detected) with holidays, illnesses, authorised absences and any other type of absence are accurately recorded and compared with the theoretical timetable provided for by the specific employment contract.
If the attendance card is compiled correctly, it is possible to extract reports on individual attendance highlighting any points that should be monitored. The company may, as a result, vary the operational and organisational strategy to be applied from time to time.
The client is supported on an on-going basis in the correct processing of the attendance sheet according to the specific regulations provided for each variable entered, through HR Capital’s dedicated HR Generalist team.

How to correctly compile an employee attendance register

The compilation of the employees’ working time register must take place daily, to keep track of the entry to and exit from the workplace consistent with the agreements between the employer and the individual worker.
HR Capital can provide the tools needed to track employee attendance and hours worked through a monthly attendance register, which is a useful tool to improve the management of the specific company and, at the same time, respond to the needs of workers, providing them with proof of the hours actually worked.
Personnel register regulations may vary from country to country; HR Capital’s teams keep up with latest developments to help its clients apply them.

How to create a monthly spreadsheet for managing employee hours worked

Excel or Google Sheets attendance sheet, calculation of overtime and paid holidays, employee absenteeism and illness monitoring
As recording attendance on paper can be impractical and inaccurate, there are several alternatives that can be used to simplify and speed up the entire process. Among them, many organisations opt to use Excel attendance sheets or Google Sheets.
HR Capital uses, in particular, Excel attendance sheets to assist its client companies in monitoring employee absenteeism and illness as well as for the calculation of overtime and paid holidays.
Subject to informing workers of the rules relating to the processing of personal data and respecting workers’ rights in this respect, the hours of absence due to illness and hours in excess of working hours are carefully monitored and managed by the company for organisational and internal scheduling purposes.

Benefits of automating attendance management with attendance management software

HR Capital can help companies automate management of the working hours of their internal resources with appropriate attendance management software, which replaces the traditional manual attendance sheet.
This type of employee management system can provide a wide range of benefits to organisations including:

• accuracy and monitoring of attendance data in real time on both the company and employee sides;
• time savings compared to manual data collection and cost savings, especially at the administrative level;
• increased compliance with employment laws and regulations;
• customisation and flexibility with respect to an organisation’s specific time and attendance rules;
• analysis of the data collected, to identify, for example, attendance trends or optimise workforce scheduling;
• increased security, thus reducing the risk of time fraud or unauthorised clocking.

A current example of an electronic device to monitor the hours of actual presence in the company and which incorporates the benefits described above is represented by the “digital clock”. This tool identifies workers through biometric authentication methods or the use of RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) cards or badges.

How to improve company efficiency through managing employee attendance

HR Capital uses a digitised working time recording system for its client companies, so the process is made more efficient and accurate.
There are many benefits of tracking employee attendance and absences. Among these, the main focus must be improving the productivity of internal resources, obtained through an optimisation of personnel scheduling. Knowing in advance who will be absent, especially for medium/long periods, allows the organisation of workloads, with respect to all the organisation’s resources, which in turn increases final performance, and the optimal achievement of the set objectives.

Conclusions: optimise employee attendance management with a modern, digital approach

To optimise attendance management with a modern and digital approach, each company can adopt the automated systems mentioned above, which undoubtedly streamline and make attendance management more profitable.

These systems are certainly achievable, relying on a team of experts in the sector such as HR Capital, which is capable of organising and coordinating the flow of work and information, providing on-going training to client companies on the latest developments in employment law and consultancy,and is ready to meet the specific needs of the client and its employees.
Continuous dialogue and frequent feedback between the various teams in HR Capital and client companies can help the company to innovate and continuously improve.