Implementation of a well organized Attendance Management SYSTEM can obviously help you to get rid of this kind of problems. I adopted such a SYSTEM (developed on the basis of organizational effectiveness) 3 years ago in my organization and still getting some very good results. I would like to share few bullet points of that system:
1. We use a Biometric Time Attendance device which is accompanied by a user-friendly attendance management software.
2. The employees who have to work mostly outside office and hence fail to record attendance in biometric device, have to fill up a form (format attached for your convenience). In this case a manual input of IN/OUT time is required.
3. Each team leader maintains a log book for the individuals working under him. Though it has some other implication, it also contains the allocation of time consumed by an individual in various projects in a working day.
4. There is a confidential tracking system to handle some special cases. As a corporate client we availed this service from our cell phone operator.
5. Provision of financial Award and Penalty for outstanding and problematic attendance respectively.
6. We have some flexibility at the managerial level and above. We call it 'FREEDOM THROUGH RESPONSIBILITY'. Their job has been designed in such a way that they are inspired (or compelled) to give their best. They might not face instant penalty but will obviously get some negative marking in Performance Evaluation System at the end of the year.
There are few more things. But the most important thing is that you have find out:
Which are the most effective for your organization and at the same time acceptable to the employees as well.
Please feel free to contact me for further clarification.
Kind regards,
R.K. Rada