Up to 10% of Employee Absences are Unauthorized

According to a press release, typically, these unapproved absences are tracked at a manager’s discretion (53%), while another 25% of respondents do so by monitoring it as unpaid time. However, respondents indicated authorized absences – such as disability, maternity/paternity leave, sabbaticals, sick time and vacation time – account for a higher percentage of payroll-related costs.

A little more than 20% of respondents listed sick time as accounting for more than 25% of all payroll costs, while nearly 60% said that vacation time accounts for more than 25% of payroll costs.

The majority of respondents (62%) track absences using a Web- or PC-based solution, with 73% indicating that solution is part of their commercially available time and attendance software, the press release said. Thirty-eight percent of respondents still use manual/spreadsheets for absence monitoring, and the responsibility for those spreadsheets is split between payroll (56%) and managers (44%).

Thirty-eight percent of respondents’ companies require all employees to report their time each pay period. The most prevalent method of employee time reporting is a Web-based solution (35%), followed by time clocks (32%) and manual/spreadsheets (25%).

Of APA members who responded to the Trendline survey, 39.9% work at organizations employing less than 500 people; 16.8% work at organizations with 501 to 1,000 people; 27.5% work at organizations with 1,001 to 5,000 people; 7.4% work at organizations with 5,001 to 10,000 people; and 8.4% work at organizations with more than 10,000 people.

CyberShift, Inc. is a provider of workforce and expense management software and services. More information is at www.CyberShift.com .