[Rebecca Oettinger]

Hi Valerie.

Our firm did some research for a large utility company in the fall of 2001 where we looked at industry human resource trends. We found that most companies treat an absence or tardy as an occurrence regardless of the reason because of legal and morale issues if company management gets involved with subjective reasoning. Also, you want definite guidelines in place so acceptable practices do not change as managers come and go.

We recommended measuring occurrences on a rolling 12-month basis with 3 occurrences resulting in a verbal warning, 5 occurrences resulting in a written warning, and 6 occurrences resulting in suspension or termination. The last category allows management some freedom in not losing good employees but you need to be aware of the precedence you set.

In addition, we implemented a tiered scale for what constitutes an occurrence: absence was 1 occurrence, tardiness ½ occurrence, etc. You may consider factors such as how to treat multiple day illnesses with vs without doctors notes, failure to log in and out of the phone system for breaks and end of day, etc. Feel free to call if you have additional questions.

Good luck!
Rebecca