Automotive supplier improves accuracy, cuts administrative burden of employee absence management program

Summary
When an automotive supplier tracked employee absentee rates with a standalone system, it was difficult to accurately administer a company-specific policy that assigns “points” to specific attendance “incidents” such as unexcused absence, tardy, early departure, and unscheduled leave. As a result, the manufacturer had difficulties calculating the impact of unplanned absenteeism including lost productivity, scheduling, overtime and administrative costs. Now, a fully integrated absence management system automatically applies the company’s absenteeism policies in real time. Employee attendance patterns trigger attention to individual employees when their absences become excessive; the company has a better handle on employee absenteeism; and both employees and supervisors trust that policies are accurately and fairly administered.

About Manufacturers Industrial Group
Manufacturers Industrial Group, LLC (Lexington, TN) produces metal sub-assemblies and interior vehicle components for tier one automotive suppliers. Typical components include metal seat tracking assemblies used in vehicles produced by major North American OEMs.

The company’s production processes are made up of assembly, staking, press work, welding, and other fabrication techniques. Manufacturers Industrial Group employs over 550 production, operations and management staff in two locations.

The Challenge of Employee Absences
In past years, Manufacturers Industrial Group collected hourly employee time and attendance data with an automated system that tracked employee start/end times in real time, and also automated the assembly of payroll data.

However, the company relied on a stand-alone software system to monitor employee absenteeism. The stand-alone package necessitated time-consuming, double data entry and data export to monitor and enforce the company’s absence management program.

As the company added employees, it grew increasingly difficult for supervisors to gather employee absenteeism information to get a clear picture of the costs related to absenteeism. The company found it cumbersome to accurately assign points to employees with unexcused absence, tardies, early departure, and unscheduled leave.

Questions of Timeliness, Accuracy
For example, once absence incidents were entered into the separate system, supervisors did not have the ability to send timely warnings to those employees who were violating unexcused absence policies. It was often well after the fact that an employee was issued points for absences, and it was possible for unexcused absences to fall between the cracks without consequence.

Another problem was accurately identifying those employees authorized to end their shifts early due to assembly line stoppages. If the supervisor did not make manual adjustments to the standalone system, it would generate a point value even though the early departure had been authorized. Over time, it grew increasingly difficult to trust that policies were accurately applied.

An Integrated Approach
To address these issues, Manufacturers Industrial Group recently put into place an integrated absence management program that accurately identifies attendance trends, monitors employee absenteeism, and fairly applies the company’s HR policies regarding absenteeism — all in real time.

Working with Advanced Time Management (Grand Rapids, MI), the company installed Attendance Enterprise™ Incidents & Points Module. Manufacturers Industrial Group selected the solution as it fully integrates absence management capabilities with InfoTronics’ Attendance Enterprise time and attendance software in use at the organization.

Now, there are no extra steps needed to track the company’s absence management policies. Employee data collected from the bar code readers automatically flows into the Incidents & Points system, and that data triggers rewards for conscientious employees and flags those employees who need management intervention.

Advanced Time Management helped to customize the system to closely match company policies. As an example, a half point is issued to an employee who punches in up to four hours late. A full point is issued for employees absent 5 hours or greater. It is also possible to ‘buy back” points for certain attendance behaviors. Once set point values are reached, or when specified trigger actions occur, the system automatically issues occurrence notification to employees and supervisors so everyone is clear on the number of points an employee has been issued.

Once an absentee incident is tracked by Attendance Enterprise, it becomes part of an employee’s attendance history. Incidents are easily edited and changed by supervisory personnel. Incidents and trigger actions are also tracked within an employee’s time card, and become part of an employee’s historical attendance activity and archive time card report.

Useful Reports Aid Decision Making
The company now instantly generates reports that give supervisors quick access to absentee policy assignments, incidents employees have incurred, and penalties employees have received.
Other useful reports summarize a list of incidents and a running total of points on the time card and track employees who have a certain incident, corrective action, trigger action, or point balance in incident folders.

An especially useful report shows absentee rates per each department. Manufacturers Industrial Group operates with fifty different departments, and it is useful to compare employee data between work groups. These summary reports were not available with past methods, and help arm the company with accurate information for better management of employee resources.
The company also finds it useful that the InfoTronics system provides a clear audit trail, showing in detail any edits to a time card made by supervisors, edit history, and other audit information.

An Improved Bottom Line
All told, Manufacturers Industrial Group is better equipped to manage employee absentee policies since implementing the fully integrated absence management solution. By integrating points calculations with the time and attendance function, the company cut down on double data entry, and significantly reduced its administrative burden.

The system was customized to reflect the company’s specific policies, and both employees and supervisors benefit from improved accuracy and timeliness. This approach promotes and rewards good attendance, thereby improving the overall bottom line of the manufacturer.