How Can We Tackle Unreported Employee Absences During Office Hours?

In my organization, employees frequently go outside during office hours. We have security services, but the security supervisors are not allowed to ask for reasons as my management has denied permission for this.

Last week, one of the employees left and returned after 4 hours, which I also observed. This employee works in the Purchase Department. When I questioned him about his absence, he mentioned that he had gone for official work. However, he is not supposed to leave without reporting, so I couldn't inquire further. I suspected that he was lying.

Implementing a System to Address Unreported Absences

To prevent such situations, can we implement a system to address this issue?

Thanks & Regards,
Sujata

Start the Gate Pass system in your company. The gate pass will help you to come out of this situation to some extent, but not fully. This is because I have seen that gate passes can also be managed. However, you will experience some relief, as I mentioned.

Regards,
Arun J.

Can we control this by maintaining a register to track in and out times?

You can implement a gate machine that records the in and out times automatically through thumb tracing. Without this, nobody can open the door. This machine ensures that unnecessary persons cannot enter the office.

Dear Sujata,

Our members have given their valuable inputs. In addition, discipline starts from the top. You must ensure that the management understands this. Going outside during official hours without any approval is considered indiscipline on the part of the concerned employees. It is a serious concern that further worsens the situation for other employees as well.

To Control the Situation:

1. Firstly, identify the individuals who frequently leave the premises and discuss this matter with their HODs to address the issue of indiscipline. HR personnel may inquire about the whereabouts of the employees in question, as it is our responsibility to uphold discipline within the organization.

2. Implement OSD (Outstation Duty Forms): Any employee leaving the premises must obtain approval from their respective HODs using these forms. Without this approval, their reimbursement claims will not be accepted.

3. Additionally, maintain an Outstation Duty Register to record entries.

Note: Security personnel are expected to question individuals about their reasons for leaving. Please persuade the management to implement disciplinary procedures.

By consistently advising and counseling the HODs to establish and uphold discipline, positive results are guaranteed.

Best Wishes.

Dear Sujata,

This is in addition to what other members have said. You have received a sufficient number of replies; therefore, please take action on it.

By the way, in what type of company do you work? What is the nature of your industry?

You have written: "Last week one of the employees went out and came back after 4 hours, and the same thing was observed by me. He is working in the purchase department. When I observed this, I asked where he was, and he said he had gone for official work. Actually, he is not supposed to report, so I was not able to ask him in detail."

Your suspicion could be due to your ignorance. Similar to HR, the job in the Purchase department is not chair-centric. Procurement professionals are required to visit vendors to develop collaborative relationships with them. How can anyone collaborate without even meeting? "Vendor Development" is an important procurement activity.

Furthermore, as a procurement faculty, I always advise procurement professionals to build relationships with purchase professionals from other companies as well. To reduce procurement spend, bringing economies of scale is essential, and this is possible when collective orders are given.

Additionally, procurement professionals have to conduct a lot of market research. Just like we spend time buying household items, the same applies to company purchases. Any purchasing activity is time-consuming, whether personal or work-related.

Yes, he may have done some personal work as well. However, before forming firm opinions, I recommend verifying and not tarring everybody with the same brush, as it may demotivate sincere employees.

As an HR professional, I recommend focusing on the deliverables. As long as an employee meets the deliverables, everything is fine. Where one goes or where they come from does not matter.

If you want to know more about the deliverables of procurement professionals, you can click here.

Ok...

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

As our professional friends mentioned above, please remember your level in your organization. Can you make a decision on your own and also implement it? If you are reporting to a senior management person, will they go by your suggestion? Please remember that if you are about to implement something, there will be a lot of protests, objections, etc. Place the facts with data in a proper way with proper documents to the management. Give them options available for controlling/implementing discipline among the staff members. You should also be able to convince management about the loss of man-hours due to the absence of people from their work spot, etc. Once your proposals are accepted, next you should request management to inform all senior department heads about the new proposal and they, in turn, should inform the employees under them.

Once this is done, you can circulate the new policy/procedure among staff members for sincere implementation. While implementing, you will come across some hurdles/challenges. Be flexible and if you really find some glitches/problems, amend the procedure to make it robust.

Best wishes

My suggestion is that if employees are out for 4 to 5 hours in a day, they should take prior permission from their HOD, which should suffice. Another point to note is that if they are absent for more than a day or a week, they must inform the HR Department, including their HOD and others.

As Arun mentioned, initiating a gate pass is unnecessary in my experience for durations of 4 to 5 hours in a day. If they have permission from their HOD, what more can we ask for? Therefore, for out-of-station duties, it is not required at all.

Regards,
Manjunatha E
HR Assistant
BHEL/BTPS/BELLARY

Understanding the Issue of Employee Absence During Office Hours

I am not able to understand the intention of the member in raising this issue. The issue, as I understood it, is:

• In the organization, one employee is going out during office hours.
• There is security, but the security supervisors are not empowered to ask questions to this employee as management has denied that right to security supervisors.
• The member who raised this issue has no authority to ask why the employee had gone out and for what purpose, or why that employee need not report the reason to this member.
• The member is feeling that the said employee is lying (only a feeling, not sure).
• The member wants a solution for this situation but does not have the authority to do so.

Now, let us decide what to do with the management and the controlling officer of that employee who is going out.