How To Deal With Unauthorised Absence?

A business has several components that must be managed to ensure operations run smoothly. The workforce is the core component, directly associated with productivity and output.

What happens when your workers start showing up late or, take leave without permission?

This behavior must be dealt with in strategic planning as an unauthorized leave can severely impact a business economically and on operational terms. It is not easy for HR managers to decide how to deal with unauthorized absences as they occur unexpectedly, so any preemptive actions are difficult to take.

In this article, we detail everything about unauthorized absence from work to understand the possible measures that can be taken to curb the practice.

What does unauthorized absence mean?

An unauthorized absence is when an employee takes leave without providing any reason for their absence. If the worker fails to notify the supervisor or manager about their absence, such leave is unauthorized.

There can be more than one version of absence without leave (AWOL). When a worker is absent and calls in to inform about the reason but mentions a reason that they are not permitted as per their employee contract, it is also considered unauthorized absenteeism.

For instance, if an employee informs their manager about any personal appointments last minute, an unplanned holiday, or any reason that HR managers deem unfit for an absence. That said, HR managers must be empathic towards permissible grounds for an employee’s absence, such as sickness or the need to attend to dependents in an emergency.

Poor weather conditions making it difficult to travel to work is also why sometimes employees cannot report to work.?Given the sudden nature of these situations, HR managers must create clear policies as to when and under what circumstances unauthorized absence from duty disciplinary action is unnecessary.

This will help supervisors to know when to take action against unauthorized absences.

How to deal with unauthorized absence?

In the event of an unauthorized absence from work, there are several ways to deal with the situation. HR managers must be with reasonable attempts to contact the employee to ascertain the reason for the sudden unscheduled absence from work.?

Depending on the reply from the worker, appropriate action can be taken.?Here’s how what can be done.

1. Ensure that all employees are aware of the attendance policy

Prevention is better than cure, so you must take all necessary actions to prevent Unauthorized absence. The HR department’s responsibility is to prepare clear, concise, and easy-to-follow employment policies. The policies must clearly outline the company’s expectations around reporting an absence or asking for leave.

Explicitly create sickness and holiday absence policies to make it easier for employees to know what the company expects from them in such scenarios. It must mention whom employees should contact if they need to leave urgently. Employees who understand the appropriate process for requesting leaves are less likely to commit mistakes.

According to the company, mention in the policy what is termed as unauthorized leave. Also, give some examples as we provided above. Disciplinary actions that can be taken against unauthorized absence must also be clear.

2. Try to contact the employee

If an employee doesn’t show up for work within the given time frame specified under the company’s attendance policy and is not authorized to leave, it is a valid reason to contact them. Managers can try reaching them over call and email.

If there is no response, you can contact the emergency contact in case the employee is not notified and is not reachable. Once you have ensured there is no emergency; it makes appropriate grounds for dismissal for unauthorized absence from work.

3. Send a warning letter and initiate a disciplinary meeting

If you cannot reach the concerned person through phone or email, after a certain number of days, and if you cannot contact their emergency contact too, you can send them a warning letter regarding their unauthorized absence.

The warning letter must be an initiation for a meeting for unauthorized absence from duty disciplinary action. Ensure that you provide 48 hours' notice to the person for the meeting. Here are?some sample warning letter templates for unauthorized absence from work.

4. Invite them to a disciplinary meeting

After a warning letter is delivered and they fail to attend the meeting, it is advisable to invite them for a second meeting. It is the right thing to do, and if they fail to follow the rescheduled meeting, do notify them that the meeting will go ahead regardless of their presence.

Suppose the employee attends the disciplinary meeting and informs the reason which is viable and acceptable for unauthorized absence. In that case, you should tell them that such a thing will be added to their record if the behavior is repeated.

Want to know what disciplinary?actions?should be taken for unauthorized absence? Read our article on Truein.com to learn about disciplinary actions and what should be done employee comes back to work.