Struggling with Excessive Employee Absences? How to Address Uninformed Leaves in Your IT Company

We are an IT-based company in Mumbai, and we are facing excessive leaves/holidays taken by employees and uninformed absences:

- Taking long leave of more than a month to go to their hometown.
- Not returning on the specified date and extending leave while visiting their hometown.
- Frequently absent from work with or without informing.

Policy on Excessive Leave and Absenteeism

Can we create a policy where if any employee takes more leave or is absent for more days than the leaves sanctioned, we can deduct more salary than usual? For example, a 10% extra deduction for the number of excess absent days. Is there any other action we can take against the employee?

Regards, R. Modi

Policy on Employee Leave

After reading your post, the first question that comes to mind is whether you have a policy on employee leave. If yes, have you defined the procedure to obtain leave, the types of leave, and what constitutes "unauthorized absence" that merits the deduction of pay?

First and foremost, revise your leave policy. After revision, circulate it to all employees. If the leave is not approved by the HOD, then start deducting the pay for unauthorized leave.

In case you are already deducting the pay, this means the punishment is not working. It shows the mindset of the employees and how much they are "desensitized."

Company Culture and Employee Mindset

Therefore, the problem lies in the culture of the company. It appears that you do not have career-conscious people in your company. Going on unauthorized absence shows employees are not concerned about their careers, and if they are not concerned, they are not taking your company seriously. They must be considering your company as a "stopgap" arrangement.

Generally, this problem occurs in a manufacturing company where workers are uneducated and lack seriousness. That this problem should happen in an IT company is a matter of surprise.

Review of Policies

The situation merits not just reviewing the leave policy but also the policy on employee recruitment, the policy on employee welfare, etc. Please check whether you are paying as per market standards.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar