[GRAPHIC] \umta1.gif [GRAPHIC] \umta2.gif Transit Employee Attendance Management Volume 2: Transit Attendance Management Information System Final Report June 1 986 Prepared by Littleton C. MacDorman and Dianne S. Schwager MacDorman & Associates 4808 North 29th Street Arlington, Virginia 22207 Prepared for Urban Mass Transportation Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 400 Seventh Street SW Washington, D.C. 20590 Distributed in Cooperation with Technology Sharing Program U.S. Department of Transportation Washington, D.C. 20590 DOT-T-89-03 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report has been prepared as a modification of the report entitled "Training Workbook" prepared for the Absenteeism Reduction Demonstration Project for the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT) and sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration. The project benefited from the contributions of the project contractors Littleton C. MacDorman; Templar Associates, Ltd; and Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. who conducted the previous research under the direction of PAT and the project steering committee composed of representatives from PAT, Central Ohio Transit Authority, Metropolitan Dade County Transportation Administration, Tri-County Metropolitan District of Oregon, and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration. This project and the Absenteeism Reduction Demonstration Project were funded through the Urban Mass Transportation Administration under the direction of Philip G. Hughes and Alice J. Royal. This report was produced by MacDorman & Associates under subcontract to Cambridge Systematics, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 3 Transit Attendance Information and Historical Practices 3 Concern for Absence Reduction and Improved Information 3 III. ATTENDANCE TERMS AND DEFINITIONS 9 Absence Definitions and Categories 9 Attendance Data 15 Measures of Absence 16 IV. ATTENDANCE REPORTS 23 Attendance Management: Uses and Concerns 23 Model Attendance Reports 23 V. INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 39 Background: Current Attendance Recordkeeping 39 TAMIS Overview 40 LIST OF EXHIBITS EXHIBIT NUMBER PAGE II.1 Extent of Operator Absence 6 II.2 Increase in Absence 7 III.1 Absence Terms 11 III.2 Illustrative Categorization of Absence Definitions 12 III.3 Example of Regular Operator Absence Rate Calculation 18 III.4 Example of Extraboard Operator Absence Rate Calculation 19 III.5 Example of Administrative Employee Absence Rate Calculation 20 IV.1 Attendance Reports: Users and Concerns 24 IV.2 Employee Absence History (Option A) 27 IV.3 Employee Absence History (Option B) 28 IV.4 Group Supervisor Policy Absence Report 30 IV.5 Group Supervisor Corrective Action Report 31 IV.6 Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report 32 IV.7 Best and Worst Attenders Report 33 IV.8 Worst Day Absence Report 35 IV.9 Absence Distribution Report 36 IV.10 Absence Trend Report 37 IV.ll Daily Total Operator Absence Rate 38 V.1 Operator's Data Card 41 V.2 Employee Attendance Record 42 V.3 Prototype Transit Attendance Management Information System 44 I. INTRODUCTION This document presents a prototype Transit Attendance Management Information System (TAMIS), which can serve as a model in developing monitoring and reporting procedures to improve the management of employee attendance and to mitigate the effects of absence. TAMIS provides a basis for more consistent, comprehensive, and straightforward collection, reporting, and utilization of absence data on individual employees, groups of employees, and the entire work force of a transit property. Shortcomings in employee attendance management as generally practiced at transit properties are identified and discussed to demonstrate the uses of TAMIS. This report includes the following sections: . II. Background and Context. This section discusses the importance of managing employee attendance and the need for improved information to support this effort. . III. Terms and Definitions. This section defines employee absence and offers some absence categories that can be used to segregate, simplify, and better utilize information. It also defines data requirements and measures that are used to report on attendance patterns. . IV Attendance Reports- This section suggests ways to report data on employee absences for individuals and groups of employees. It discusses how these data may be used by transit properties to improve attendance management practices and encourage more frequent report preparation. . V. Information System Requirements. The final section discusses current attendance recordkeeping and provides general information on determining the structure of a data base for more effective management of employee attendance. -1- II. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT This section provides a background discussion on the historical attendance data collection and reporting practices of transit properties and the factors leading to the current interest in improving attendance management and reducing employee absence. TRANSIT ATTENDANCE INFORMATION: HISTORICAL PRACTICES An organization’s ability to manage employee attendance is largely determined by the quality, timeliness, and accuracy of its attendance information system. Although some transit properties have developed highly sophisticated and effective attendance information systems, significant opportunities for improvement exist at many properties. Several factors have affected the development of transit attendance information systems and caused these systems to vary in sophistication, consistency, economy of terminology, usefulness, and accuracy. Some problems with the attendance information systems common to transit properties are: . There are too many types of absence defined and too many terms for those types. Many terms are redundant and often not clearly defined or understood by the recorders or users of the data. The abundance of terms makes monitoring and managing attendance difficult. . Little or no data is recorded in many absence categories, rendering them relatively meaningless for data analysis and attendance management. . Categories of absence may be left out of the information system and monitored only informally. . Often there are several absence information systems at a single transit property, each using different absence categories. The terminology and definitions used by various departments and divisions may not be consistent. . Supervisors or timekeepers who record absence often have unique methods of coding data on employee attendance cards; standardization would improve data quality and insure consistency. . The use of manual recordkeeping limits and often prevents the use of attendance data within the transit property. In particular, manual procedures preclude system-wide analysis of attendance performance and absence trends and patterns of individuals or groups. CONCERN FOR ABSENCE REDUCTION AND IMPROVED INFORMATION Numerous factors have led to transit properties’ current interest in improving attendance management and reducing absence. The most important of these factors is transit properties’ goal to provide public transportation, in accordance with a published schedule, in a cost-effective manner. Absence and tardiness by employees decrease the likelihood of attaining this goal since they -3- are likely to cause transit service to be late, missed, and generally viewed by the public as unreliable. Other factors that reinforce the current interest in improving employee attendance management and reducing absence include: . concern for the increasing costs of employee benefits; . greater fiscal conservatism and interest in cost savings; . improved technology for managing information. Each of these factors is discussed below. Greater Fiscal Conservatism and Interest in Cost Savings Anticipated reductions in federal funding over the past several years and greater fiscal conservatism at other levels of government have resulted in heightened interest in containing and reducing costs to preserve transit service levels. Labor-related costs are the largest single category of transit expenses, typically ranging from 60 to 80 percent of total operating budgets. Transit properties seeking savings opportunities will focus on areas where the greatest potential for savings exists. As labor is such an important cost for transit properties, an area that has been identified by many transit properties as offering savings is the cost associated with employee absence. In 1980, a report titled The Study of Operator Absenteeism and Workers’ Compensation Trends in the Mass Transportation Industry was prepared by the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT) with the assistance of an UMTA grant. This report brought national attention to the magnitude of the transit industry absenteeism problem, indicating that the average vehicle operator was absent 28.57 days in 1978, or 11.9 percent of the average annual scheduled workdays, not including vacations and holidays. Absenteeism in the transit industry, particularly among vehicle operators, is widespread, with absence rates somewhere between two and three times those generally found in American business and industry. The major cost categories affected by absenteeism in transit properties are: . direct costs specifically associated with absence, including payroll costs to the absent employee for sick leave, injury on duty, and other excused absence, such as jury duty or funeral leave. . identifiable indirect costs, such as increased overtime premiums, guarantees, and allowances, as well as increased fringe benefit costs of substitute employees, which are discussed below. . administrative costs, which are difficult to measure but are affected by absenteeism, such as recruiting, hiring, training, accounting, dispatching, and maintenance. _______________ This report is cited extensively below with respect to the estimated costs and associated impacts of absenteeism on the transit industry in the United States. -4- The top figure in Exhibit II.1 illustrates the components of operator absence; the lower figure illustrates the nationwide implications of operator absence. The total identifiable costs of operator absence estimated in the 1980 study were approximately $187 million, or $1,780 per operator, in 1978. Other absence, although proportionately lower, may add an estimated one-third more to these costs. As indicated in Exhibit II.1, additional administrative and payroll costs could not be estimated. In addition to these cost impacts, employee absence affects transit service quality and workplace environment. More specifically, employee absence often: . reduces service reliability through inability to fill the schedule due to operator absence or a substitute operator’s lack of familiarity with the route. . diminishes employee morale. High absence levels require operators to work the extra-board, which is generally (although not universally) disliked. While the views of operators varied widely, the 1980 PAT study indicated that those who disapproved of their coworkers’ absence expressed sincere frustration, viewing absenteeism as disregard for the occupation of bus operator and for the service offered to the public. Information about transit industry absence in 1981-82 indicated some mitigation of the problem, possibly a result of the high rate of unemployment throughout the country. The problem has not been entirely alleviated, however, and absence rates are still very high. At many properties, employee absence continues to elude management’s efforts to improve attendance. Concern for the Increasing Costs of Employee Benefits Many organizations within and outside the transit industry have become more sensitive to the costs and uses of employee benefits, since benefits affect the total cost per employee of an organization as well as the need for substitute employees. As these costs have increased with increased sick leave used and increased medical costs for injured employees, many organizations are seeking to reduce the costs of benefits, within the provisions of their labor agreement. Employee benefits for paid leave and compensation for job-related injuries represent a significant portion of the costs of employee benefits at most transit properties. The costs associated with these benefits have risen substantially in the recent past. Exhibit II.2 indicates that between 1974 and 1978, the two principal categories of absence studies (sick leave and job-related injury) increased by an estimated 24 and 149 percent, respectively. During this same time period, the costs associated with these absences increased 54 and 238 percent. Improved Technology for Managing Information The availability of improved computer technology for managing information reasonably cost-effectively and conveniently, has allowed organizations to consider new approaches to monitoring and evaluating organizational performance, including the performance of individuals and groups of employees. -5- [GRAPHIC] \umta3.gif [GRAPHIC] \umta4.gif SOURCE: Port Authority of Allegheny County, The Study of Operator Absenteeism and Workers Compensation Trends in the Mass Transportation Industry. -6- [GRAPHIC] \umta5.gif -7- Many organizations are centralizing and automating their recordkeeping practices and dispensing with outdated manual records. As discussed above, transit properties’ attendance information collection and recording practices have been often characterized by decentralized manual methods of recording data resulting in inconsistent data and general inaccessibility to information as manual reports are cumbersome to summarize for individuals or groups of employees. The availability of improved technology is allowing transit properties to improve data management and the usefulness of information to managers, supervisors and employees. -8- III. ATTENDANCE TERMS AND DEFINITIONS An important objective of this document is to establish attendance terms and definitions that can be used by the transit industry. This includes: . absence definitions and categories - types of absence along with an approach for grouping absence into categories; . attendance data - data that need to be collected and retained for use in measuring and reporting attendance performance; and . measures of absence - measures that can be used to report attendance information on individuals and groups of employees. Clarifying how absence is defined will assist transit management in better monitoring and managing employee attendance. More meaningful comparisons can be made between transit properties with respect to employee absence rates and trends. The terminology and definitions proposed here are incorporated in the TAMIS reports discussed in the next section. ABSENCE DEFINITIONS AND CATEGORIES As mentioned in the previous section of this report, the current data collection practices of many transit properties are flawed in two ways. . Incomplete Data. Categories of absence may be left out and only informally monitored, leaving attendance information incomplete. . Superfluous Data Categories. Second, there are too many different terms for the various categories of absence, that have evolved over time generally from past practices, payroll requirements, and contractual terminology. Many of the terms are redundant and often they are not clearly defined or understood by the recorders or users of the data. One of the objectives of this document is to overcome both of these deficiencies by beginning with the very broadest possible base for defining employee absence and then clearly defining a limited number of distinct categories or types of absence to structure an attendance information system. Employee absence can be most broadly defined as "any time during which employees do not perform the responsibilities of their position." The employee may be at the place of employment performing a different job for a designated time period or may be at any other location for any non-work purpose. The definition serves as the foundation for comprehensive recordkeeping on employee attendance by considering all instances when employees are not performing their designated responsibilities. By beginning with this broad definition, the attendance information system can be used not only to monitor and manage absence of individuals, which is the traditional use of these data, but also to: -9- . analyze workforce requirements; . more accurately assess the costs and use of labor to the transit property; . more realistically plan for future workforce needs, and . support the collective bargaining process. This broad definition of absence is divided into meaningful categories so that the data can be used by transit properties. The purpose of creating a limited number of categories is to aggregate detailed classifications of absence into more manageable groupings that managers may use for planning, management and control purposes. In Exhibit III.1, absence terms are identified in six categories, with an additional category for tardiness. None of the detail of the data need be lost, since each major absence category can include more detailed types of information, if needed, for specific employment policies or labor contract provisions, payroll timekeeping, or for supervision of individual employees. Exhibit III-2 presents the categories of absence and tardiness together with sample codes that can be included in each category. Specific codes may be unique to different transit properties. Contractual Absence All of the items in this category refer to absences allowed by management policy or the labor agreement. Consequently, the specific types and number of days of absence allowed vary from property to property. Most of the absences are scheduled in advance. Because employees may incur absences of 25 or more days per year in this category, it is important that data on these absences be used for planning work schedules and extra operator assignments. The following types of absences may be defined within this category and coded as follows: . C1 vacation . C2 holiday . C3 birthday . C4 jury duty . C5 military leave . C6 union business . C7 safety meeting . C8 bereavement leave In an ideal scheduling environment, vacation time, as well as other absences in this category, would be evenly distributed across all days of the year. However, because the demand is seldom constant, it is only by tracking this category of absence that long-term patterns of contractual absence can be determined and more accurate staffing decisions made. -10- EXHIBIT III.1 ABSENCE TERMS SIX CATEGORIES OF ABSENCE . Contractual Absence . Sick Leave . Injury on Duty . Management-Requested Absence . Personal Absence . Non-Scheduled Work TARDINESS ____________________________ Tardiness is important to the transit industry because service must be delivered on schedule. Generally, each incident of tardiness is recorded for discipline purposes and identified as lost time for reasons of personal absence. -11- Exhibit III.2 ILLUSTRATIVE CATEGORIZATION OF ABSENCE DEFINITIONS Contractual Management-Requested Absence Absence C1 vacation M1 suspensions C2 holiday M2 held off C3 birthday M3 management excused C4 jury duty day off C5 military leave C6 union business C7 safety meeting C8 bereavement leave Personal Absence Non-Scheduled Work P1 personal business W1 temporary transfer P2 personal court appearance W2 light duty P3 jail term W3 training or retraining P4 late and did not work W4 tardy and other work P5 absent without leave (AWOL) W5 acting dispatcher P6 illness in the family W6 acting instructor P7 transportation-related problem W7 acting route foreman P8 child care-related problem W8 traded routes for the day P9 routine dental and medical W9 company court appointments W10 miscellaneous assignment Sick Leave Tardiness S1 paid sick T1 tardy (also miss, miss-out, S2 unpaid sick sleep-in, sharks, etc.) Injury on Duty I1 injury on duty (also occupa- tional injury, industrial injury, etc.) -12- Sick Leave This category represents one of the largest areas of employee-controlled absence, and the one with the greatest potential for abuse. Furthermore, because many transit properties have provisions for a fixed number of paid sick leave days, the costs of this category of absence can be substantial. Including all sick leave absences within a single general category has several advantages. First, the payroll department can determine which employees qualify for absence benefits. Second, management can identify potential abusers of the attendance policies. Third, management can determine how much this benefit costs. Sick leave should be reported whether the absence is paid or not paid. The terms illness and non-work related injury are often used to describe sick leave. Injury on Duty Because certain health problems and injuries are an inherent part of work at a transit property, there will be absence caused by industrial injury or illness. This type of absence is often covered by workers’ compensation benefits. As these costs can be extremely high, and such absences are often long in duration, accurate data are needed to monitor and manage this type of absence. The terms often used for absence in this category include injury on duty (IOD), industrial injury, and occupational injury. Management-Requested Absence Management-requested absence refers to efforts by management to reduce the number of employees on a scheduled workday. There are two general types of absence in this category. The first type of management-requested absence occurs when management reduces the work force on days when the number of vehicle operators is greater than the work available. Vehicle operators may be persuaded to leave work for the day, without penalty or reward, to reduce labor costs. This type of absence reflects management’s difficulty in properly scheduling employees for work. The second type of management-requested absence results from the disciplinary suspension of employees. This type of absence must be recorded and monitored for an employees job history and performance record. In the attendance information system it is important to know how many hours were lost at management’s request and if patterns for requested absence exist. The following types of absences should be included in this category: . M1 suspensions . M2 held off . M3 management excused day off (no work available) Personal Absence This category includes a wide variety of excused and unexcused absences. Disciplinary policies often focus on personal absence because it is generally acknowledged to be employee-controlled. Absences commonly included in this category are: -13- . P1 personal business . P2 personal court appearance . P3 jail term . P4 late and did not work . P5 absent without leave (AWOL) . P6 illness in the family . P7 transportation related problem . P8 child care-related problem . P9 routine dental and medical appointments Non-Scheduled Work At times employees report for work, but do not work their regularly scheduled job. For example, a vehicle operator may not drive a bus on a given day but may work somewhere else on the property, perhaps in a supervisory or training capacity. From the property’s and the employee’s point of view, work was performed and no absence occurred. However, from the garage superintendent’s viewpoint, an employee’s job was unfilled and the work had to be delayed or filled by another employee. The following types of absences may be included in this category: . W1 temporary transfer . W2 light duty . W3 training or retraining . W4 tardy and other work . W5 acting dispatcher . W6 acting instructor . W7 acting route foreman . W8 traded runs for the day . W9 company court . W10 miscellaneous assignment Tardiness Tardiness is a special form of absence defined as reporting late to work. Many transit properties define tardiness by the amount of time lost before reporting for work, e.g., one to two hours. Employees reporting after the passage of the designated time limit may be considered absent. In many transit properties, -14 tardy employees may not work at all or may work only if another work assignment is available. Whether employees work on days they are tardy is often subject to existing labor contract provisions, work rules, or transit property policy. Transit properties have diverse terms used to refer to tardiness, generally in reference to vehicle operators. These terms include misses, miss-outs, sleepins, lates, sharks, and so on. ATTENDANCE DATA Five primary data items should be collected daily about the attendance of individual employees. These data are necessary to monitor and evaluate extent and patterns of absence among employees and groups of employees. Scheduled Work Time These data indicate the total time employees are scheduled to work. In most work environments, employees are scheduled and paid for eight hours per day or forty hours per week. The transit industry is somewhat unique in that: . Regular vehicle operators scheduled work time is typically determined by the work assignment selected. . Extra operators’ work time is generally scheduled the day before the actual time worked or by contractual provisions guaranteeing minimum daily or weekly pay. . All other employees’ work time is typically seven and one-half or eight hours per day. . Unscheduled overtime may be required by any employee to complete work assignments. For purposes of reporting and analyzing employee absence, transit properties should use scheduled clock hours worked (or absent) for regular operators, scheduled clock hours or guaranteed pay hours (or absent), whichever is greater, for extraboard operators, and guaranteed pay hours worked (or absent) for all other employees. Unscheduled overtime should not be included in determining absence rates. Absence Hours These data indicate the extent of absence based on the number of scheduled work hours missed. Absence hours are often used as the basis for disciplining an employee for poor attendance. The usual criterion is the total number of hours or days absent compared to an established standard. Since the total hours worked must be tracked to determine the amount of an employees pay, information on hours absent is generally available in some form within most organizations. Data on total hours of absence are generally more useful for managing individual employee attendance than for managing the attendance of groups of employees. The aggregate data on the total hours of absence for a division or department provides little useful information on absence patterns, or on causes -15- of absence. Aggregate data on hours of absence are more useful when the type of absences are identified. Absence Incidents These data indicate the extent of absence by the number of absence events or occurrences without regard to the duration of an absence. An absence incident may last from several hours for personal reasons to months in duration for sickness or injury on duty. One incident of absence is normally recorded for each type of absence (e.g., sick), regardless of duration, that is uninterrupted by a return to scheduled work. For example, an employee with Saturday and Sunday days off, would incur one incident of sick absence if both Friday and Monday were missed due to illness. Tardiness Hours These data indicate the extent of tardiness based on the amount of scheduled work time missed. Although this measure is not often used by transit managers for disciplinary purposes in the way that tardiness incidents are, it is worth recording because it supplements absence hours as a means of monitoring total lost time. Tardiness time is frequently available from timekeeping records at transit properties. Tardiness Incidents. These data indicate the extent of tardiness based on the number of times an employee reports to work after the designated or scheduled start time. Disciplinary actions taken by transit managers are frequently based on this measurement. MEASURES OF ABSENCE Consistently accurate measurement of absence and tardiness is important because supervisors and managers need to take appropriate and timely actions, if necessary, and these actions may not be based on error. This section of the report provides information on measures of absence that may be used to monitor and evaluate individual and group attendance performance. Data representing total incident and hours of absence and tardiness must be collected. Two measures must be derived because they provide an appropriate basis for comparing or differentiating performance between employees or groups. These measures are absence duration and absence rate. Absence Duration The analysis of duration allows management to understand and differentiate the attendance behavior of two employees, or examine overall absence patterns. Absence duration can be calculated by dividing the number of hours absent by the number of incidents of absence. If Employee X has been absent 187.2 hours for the year and has had three incidents of absence, the average duration of absence is 62.4 hours. An investigation of attendance records might indicate that the absence was caused by a recurrent illness. Alternatively, Employee Y may have the same number of hours of absence for the same period of time, but have 21 incidents. This would mean that the average duration of absence was 8.9 hours. -16- The analysis of absence duration distinguishes the absence patterns of the two employees, and may suggest different management actions. Absence Rate Absence rates should be developed for groups of employees and compared over time to determine patterns of absence, cyclical changes in attendance, and differences in attendance performance at an organization. Absence rates are determined by dividing the total time absent in specific categories by the total scheduled work time. Typically, sick leave, injury on duty, and personal absence are included in determining absence rates and evaluating employee attendance performance. Absence rates are important for decisionmaking and management because rates normalize attendance performance. For example, Division A employs 350 operators who were absent 65,000 hours in the last 12 months, while Division B employs 280 operators who were absent 59,000 hours during the same period. From this, it might be concluded that Division A had a greater absence problem because it had more aggregate lost time than did Division B. However, if Division A operators were scheduled to work 746,000 annual hours while Division B operators were scheduled to work 584,000 annual hours, Division A’s absence rate was 9.7 percent, which is less than Division B’s 10.1 percent. Therefore, an analysis of absence rates indicates that Division B had poorer overall attendance than Division A. Three examples of absence rate calculations are given in Exhibits III.3, III.4, and III.5. Each exhibit presents absence rate calculations for a four-week period based on total absence and policy absence.2/ In the first two cases, the sample transit properties did not count holidays, vacations, scheduled days off, and tardiness in the absence policy rate. The last transit property did count tardiness time in the policy absence rate. Example of Regular Operator Absence Rate William J. Brown is a regular vehicle operator who selected a run at sign-up time composed of 8 hours and 15 minutes of clock time work. On the first Wednesday of the reporting period, Brown was 30 minutes late to work because of a traffic accident. He was subsequently assigned work from the extraboard that same day. On Friday of the second week, Brown called in and reported that he was sick and unable to attend work. He also telephoned on Monday and Tuesday of the third week that he was still too sick to work. Brown returned to work on Wednesday. During the four-week period, Brown had one incident of tardiness, one incident of absence, and lost 25 hours and 15 minutes of scheduled work. his total absence time rate was 15.3 percent (25.25/165.00) and his policy absence time rate was 15.0 percent (24.75/165.00). Had Brown not secured work from the extraboard on the first Wednesday he was tardy, the transit property would have charged him with a personal absence of 8 hours and 15 minutes for the day. In addition to the tardiness incident, some transit properties may charge Brown with __________________________ Policy absence is referred to as only those absences which will be counted and used by management for measuring performance. For example, transit properties frequently use only certain absences such as personal or sick leave for disciplinary actions. -17- [GRAPHIC] \umta6.gif -18- [GRAPHIC] \umta7.gif -19- [GRAPHIC] \umta8.gif -20- the time lost based on the difference between his scheduled work time and the time he actually worked. Example of Extra Board Operator Absence Rate Robert C. Smith is an extraboard operator who is normally given a work assignment the day before he is actually to conduct the work. Some days, he fills in known open work created by the absence of a regular operator, some days he works open trippers which are not part of regular runs, and some days he is assigned to a stand-by position with no particular driving assignment in order to protect against unanticipated tardiness or absences of other vehicle operators who are assigned to operate scheduled runs. To calculate an absence rate requires that scheduled work time be used in the computation. The general rule for extraboard operators is to use either the scheduled work time (posted the day before the actual assignment) or the effective minimum daily guarantee,3/whichever is greater. In this example, Smith’s scheduled days off are Wednesday and Thursday. He is also scheduled for a week’s vacation, which he takes during the four-week period. The transit property has a rotating extraboard system, which means that Smith's work assignments may change on a daily basis as is indicated in the scheduled work time column of Exhibit III.4. Times shown that are greater than 8 hours mean that Smith was scheduled to fill in an open run normally worked by a regular operator or that the several trippers he was assigned to work actually totaled more than 8 clock hours. During the four-week period, Smith was absent twice and was tardy twice. On the first Friday of the period, he was assigned a Saturday run lasting 8 hours and 30 minutes. Since he was taken ill after the Friday work assignment and did not report for work on Saturday, Smith was charged with an absence of 8 hours and 30 minutes. Smith was also sick on the next day, Sunday, but because he received no Saturday assignment for Sunday work, he was charged with a Sunday absence equal to the minimum daily guarantee of 8 hours. Smith’s next incident of absence was 40 hours of vacation, which were not charged as a policy absence to his record. The transit property collects this data for payroll purposes and also uses it for future manpower planning and scheduling. Lastly, Smith was tardy for scheduled work twice for periods of 15 minutes and 8 minutes, which are not included in this transit property’s absence policy. Tardiness is handled separately in the labor agreement discipline code. Smith’s total absence rate for the four-week period is calculated as 34.91 percent (56.88/162.19). His policy absence rate is 13.42 percent (16.58/122.91). 1 Example of Administrative Employee Absence Rate James M. Jones is a clerical employee with, normal 7 hour and 30 minute work days. During the four-week period in this example, Jones incurred three ____________________________ The effective minimum daily guarantee is normally 8 pay hours. If there is a 40 hour weekly guarantee required by the labor agreement and full-time operators normally work five days per week, then 8 hours is still a good value to use. -21- incidents of absence and one incident of tardiness. On Wednesday of the first week, Jones received permission to leave work two hours early for a scheduled doctor’s appointment. The policy of the transit property is to charge Jones with the personal absence even though he received permission to leave. The following week, Jones takes sick leave on Friday which extends through Tuesday of the following week. He returns to work on Wednesday and works until early afternoon at which time he is unable to continue because of a recurrence of the previous sickness. He takes off three hours early to go home and does not return to work until Friday. Jones is reported as having two incidents of illness, losing 22 hours and 30 minutes the first time and 10 hours and 30 minutes the second time. Although it may be argued that Jones’ two incidents were related to the same sickness, he nevertheless returned to work on Wednesday for 4 hours and 30 minutes. Lastly, Jones reported to work 45 minutes late on the last Tuesday of the four-week period. The transit property's policy is to record Jones as having one personal absence incident with 45 minutes of lost personal absence time. In this example, Jones’ total absence and policy absence rates are the same for the four-week time period. His absence rate was 23.83 percent (35.75/150.00). It should be noted that absence rates calculated on an average lost time per employee basis (e.g., 9 days per employee or 72 hours per employee) may not be acceptable for comparing employees or groups of employees, because the amount of scheduled work time for employees may be different. In the previous three exhibits, each employee was scheduled for differing amounts of work time. Therefore, average absence rates per employee can be somewhat misleading if care is not exercised to use equivalent employees in the absence rate denominator. -22- IV. ATTENDANCE REPORTS The objective of this section of the report is to provide a sample of prototype attendance reports that may be used by transit supervisors and managers for monitoring and managing employee attendance. These reports contain information that may be beneficial to transit properties to improve attendance management. The specific data needs and reporting formats should be considered and determined by each transit property. The section begins with a discussion of data users and their concerns and concludes with examples of model attendance reports. ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT: USES AND CONCERNS At most transit properties, the management of employee attendance is rarely the responsibility of one person. Rather, it is the collective responsibility of many supervisors and managers whose primary functions are more often the delivery and operation of safe and reliable public transportation service. Since good employee attendance is important to providing reliable transit service, it is necessary that supervisors and managers have appropriate tools to assist them in fulfilling their duties efficiently. Such tools include appropriately designed and useful employee attendance reports based on an accurate and timely information reporting system. Supervisors and managers at various levels in transit organizations have different concerns and needs for attendance information. The model reporting forms given in the sections that follow are designed to meet the concerns of transit managers, supervisors, and employees (see Exhibit IV.1). MODEL ATTENDANCE REPORTS The following model reports are included for monitoring and managing employee attendance: . Employee Absence History (Option A) . Employee Absence History (Option B) . Group Supervisor Policy Absence Report . Group Supervisor Corrective Action Report . Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report . Best/Worst Attenders Report . Worst Day Absence Report . Employee Absence Distribution Report . Absence Trend Report Each model report format may be refined to better serve the attendance information needs of specific transit properties. With the exception of the first two reports, -23- EXHIBIT IV.1 ATTENDANCE REPORTS: USERS AND CONCERNS Transit Property General Manager: . Are the absence rates for each division increasing or decreasing? . How does each division’s absence rate compare with the other divisions? . What are the costs associated with current absence rates? . What is being done to lower costs associated with employee absence? Division Superintendent or Department Manager: . How has absence changed during the past year for my division/department? . How does the absence of my division compare to other employee groups and divisions? . Does absence vary by day of the week or season? . How closely can I estimate my personnel needs on any given day? . Is the absence rate for the division as a whole acceptable? . What is the cost of the absence rate for my division? . Is this cost increasing or decreasing? . Are there attendance patterns that can be identified and improved? The Labor Relations/Personnel Department . How does attendance relate to contract provisions that require discipline or different pay procedures? . Is timely absence data available to take consistent action as required by the disciplinary procedures? . Are accurate attendance data on all employees collected to ensure that an arbitrator will not overrule a case on the grounds of unacceptable information? Supervisors . Which employees attendance has improved? . Have employee injuries increased? . Are there employees who abuse the attendance policy? . Is absence information on which discipline is based accurate and timely? Employee . Is there an accurate record of my attendance so that I am paid properly? . Is my attendance record treated in a manner consistent with the records of other employees for purposes of good/perfect attendance awards, discipline, or attendance evaluation? -24- (Employee Absence History Options A and B), where only one of the reports should be developed, each of the other reports is recommended for managing and analyzing individual and group attendance performance. Common Features of the Model Attendance Reports Before presenting the suggested report formats and describing the sections of each report, several features common to all or several of the model reports should be mentioned. Report Distribution. It is important to distribute attendance data throughout the transit property in a timely manner. Although reports may be needed more frequently, the following schedule for report distribution is suggested: . Reports on individual absence history should be updated daily and filed in each employee’s folder on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. These reports may be provided daily to the appropriate manager or supervisor, if required. With timely updates, this report can eliminate the need for the manual operator data card or the employee attendance card. . Group supervisor policy absence reports should be updated daily and may be provided to supervisors daily, if desired. This report summarizes employee attendance and may eliminate the need to review individual absence history on a daily basis. . Group supervisor corrective action report is an exception report that should be updated and provided daily to supervisors for any needed corrective actions. . Other attendance reports on individual or group performance distributed to division superintendents and line managers should be provided weekly or as needed. . Attendance reports distributed to the department heads (i.e., personnel, labor relations, and so on) and the general manager should be provided monthly or as needed. Use of Fixed Versus Rolling Calendar. Attendance reports may use a fixed calendar format for reporting cumulative data (i.e., fiscal year-to-date). For example: . July is always listed as the first month . at the beginning of each calendar year, only information dating from July 1st is displayed . all previous attendance history is archived The discipline codes of many transit properties require information on absence during the most recent 12 months. This is called a rolling calendar or moving period since the last period (e.g., month) is dropped as the next is added to reports. These properties should use and display the last 13 months of absence history on their attendance reports and archive all historic attendance data. -25- Absence data using a 24-month rolling calendar may be even more useful for analysis and comparison purposes. However, transit properties that have negotiated a fixed or 12-month rolling calendar for discipline purposes should develop attendance reports that meet the needs of their discipline codes. The cumulative absence data presented in each of the model reports may be based on a fixed or a rolling calendar and includes whatever period of time is specified by the transit property. Absence Rates. Incidents and duration in all categories of absence must be recorded in the TAMIS for timekeeping, labor force sizing, and other attendance management needs. However, only absences used to evaluate employee attendance performance are included in determining individual or group policy absence rates. This means that sick leave, injury on duty, and personal absence are generally included in determining absence rates; contractual absence, management-requested absence, and non-scheduled work may not be included. Some transit properties may prefer to show both total absence and policy absence rates. The model reports have been designed to accommodate a variety of absence rate displays, e.g., total absence rates, policy absence rates, moving period absence rates, absence year-to-date (YTD) rates, etc. Attendance reports for a transit property should be designed to meet specific needs and should be designed so that comparisons can be made using previous period or cumulative data entries. Employee Absence History (Option A) The Employee Absence History report (Option A or B) is the most important report on employee absence because it captures each employee’s entire attendance history. All other data in other TAMIS attendance reports are generated from this data base. Consequently, if the Employee Absence History report contains errors or problems, so will all other reports. This report is prepared for distribution to appropriate line supervisors and managers. As discussed above, in most transit properties, these data are currently recorded and updated manually on an operator data card or employee attendance card. Exhibit IV.2 illustrates the Option A Employee Absence History report. The content of the report is divided into three sections. The top section of the report contains basic identification information required for reference or consolidation of employees into groups, divisions, or departments. The middle section of the report provides detailed information about individual absence including absence dates, absence type and description, amount of time lost, and any management actions or comments. The bottom section of the report contains a summary of information by absence category for total absence and policy absence, which may be used in incentive and/or disciplinary programs for attendance. Also shown is the use of both rolling calendar (moving period) and fixed period (YTD) absence data. Employee Absence History (Option B) The Option B Employee Absence History report is shown as Exhibit IV.3. The report presented is the same as Option A except that data are shown in a calendar format rather than in a narrative format. Option B format looks similar to many current transit property operator data cards and does allow for some visual confirmation of the number and extent of employee absence. The detailed information that might be provided in a custom-designed Option A report is limited -26- [GRAPHIC] \umta9.gif [GRAPHIC] \umta10.gif -27- [GRAPHIC] \umta11.gif here. The use of absence codes in Option B will require either the printout of such codes with each computer run of the report, a permanent reference chart of absence codes, or committing the codes to memory. Group Supervisor Policy Absence Report This report, whose format is shown in Exhibit IV.4, is specifically designed to provide summary attendance information about those employees who supervisors work with daily. The form is divided into three sections. The upper section contains reference information about the group whose employees appear in the lower sections of the report. The middle section contains absence information by employee for the current period, for a moving period (i.e., rolling calendar based on policy or the labor agreement), and for a fixed period (e.g., year-to-date). Also included in the middle section is information regarding tardiness and whether any management actions are pending (i.e., incentives or discipline). The bottom section of the report provides detailed absence information by type for the moving period. Categories of absence shown in this section may be selected from total categories. Group Supervisor Corrective Action Report This report is designed to notify supervisors of employee absence when management actions are required. The report, as shown in Exhibit IV.5, is triggered only when an employee(s) meets or exceeds the absence level specified in the labor agreement or other established policies. The computerized system keeps track of absence and tardiness incidents as well as lost time in accordance with the steps of prescribed discipline and reports on the nature and timing of required management actions. The entry on the report would remain until the appropriate action is taken, at which time the entry would be recorded on the employee’s attendance record. Reports to upper-level management would show pending corrective actions. Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report This report is designed to meet the needs of management above the supervisory level. As shown in Exhibit IV.6, the report format is divided into three sections. The upper section contains descriptive information necessary for identification purposes. The middle section of the report lists absence information by group/division/department, as appropriate. The format shown provides for comparative data by fixed period, i.e., this period versus last period and this year-to-date versus last year-to-date. The format could be modified to report moving period information and percent absence. This section also contains information about the number of management actions pending for each of the reported groups. The lower section of the report provides detailed absence information about absence type across all groups. This information, like that in the middle section, can be modified to report data on a moving period and/or cumulative basis and could also include tardiness. Best and Worst Attenders Report This report may be used to identify employees with the best and worst attendance records. The report format, as shown in Exhibit IV.7, can be used for -29- [GRAPHIC] \umta12.gif -30- [GRAPHIC] \umta13.gif -31- [GRAPHIC] \umta14.gif -32- [GRAPHIC] \umta15.gif -33- particular groups, divisions, and departments and could be developed to report only certain absence categories or groups of categories. The report could be designed to report perfect, excellent, and poor attenders for specified periods of time (e.g., quarterly, annually) based on desired criteria, as shown in the example form. Such reporting can aid not only in identifying employees for possible counseling or discipline, but also in identifying those employees qualifying for attendance incentive rewards. Worst Day Absence Report Frequently, transit managers desire to know more about absence patterns, in order to focus their attention on possible abuses or plan for additional employees (e.g., extraboard operators) in order to cover open work. Exhibit IV.8 provides an example of a report that could be developed that focuses on worst day absences. In the exhibit, information is provided on the highest absence day-of-the-week, days before and after scheduled days off, and days before and after scheduled holidays. This report makes it possible to evaluate whether there are significant differences between certain days or between a period and a former period. Such information is useful in determining whether management policies, programs, and actions are achieving the effects desired. Employee Absence Distribution Report This report is designed to identify the distribution of absence and tardiness among employee groups as well as changes that may occur in the distribution between time periods. It could also be designed to provide absence distribution information between moving time periods. Exhibit IV.9 shows an example of employee distribution and cumulative distribution for tardy incidents, absence incidents, and absence time. Larger employee percent values in lower incident and time categories indicate good attendance performance. Conversely, larger employee percent values in higher incident and time categories indicate bad attendance performance. If provided regularly (monthly, quarterly, annually), this report can assist in identifying the effects on attendance of changes in policies and programs. Employee Absence Trend Report This report is designed to display changes in employee absence rates graphically. The graph may be used to show total absence, policy absence, or absence by category. It may be used to show absence trends over several years or absence for a single year by employee group, division, or department. The periods may be monthly, as shown in Exhibit IV.10, four-week periods, or biweekly. Exhibit IV.ll shows daily total percent absence for bus operators of a single division of a major U.S. transit property. Although this level of detail may be useful for management to better understand daily variations in absence rates, it is less useful for observing trends in absence rates. -34- [GRAPHIC] \umta16.gif -36- [GRAPHIC] \umta17.gif -35- [GRAPHIC] \umta18.gif -37- [GRAPHIC] \umta19.gif -38- V. INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS A major objective of this report is to describe a Transit Attendance Management Information System(TAMIS) that can be used by transit properties as a tool for managing employee attendance. The TAMIS has been designed to provide both specific information on individual employees and aggregate data for analyzing group attendance by division, department, or throughout the transit property. Using the TAMES, transit properties will be able to: . identify employees, work groups, divisions, and departments with good and poor attendance performance. . identify cyclical absence patterns and historical trends . identify the reported reasons for absence . evaluate attendance improvement efforts The TAMIS can be used by transit properties wishing to establish new attendance information systems or properties to enhance their current attendance data reporting and analysis capabilities. Transit properties with sophisticated attendance information systems may compare the TAMIS to their own systems. These transit properties may adapt some ideas from the TAMIS to better utilize their current information systems. Their section of the report describes the basic conceptual principles and requirements of the TAMIS. The development of software to fully implement the system will require considerable care from numerous employees, including line management, labor relations, personnel and computer support staff. Some aspects of the TAMIS will probably need to be tailored for each property. The remainder of this section discusses. . Background on current attendance recordkeeping- Methods currently used for reporting attendance data and methods which typically result in ineffective information systems, particularly for managing groups of employees. . TAMIS overview-The basic elements of the TAMIS and how they relate to each other are described, along with the benefits of automation and limitations of a manual attendance information system. BACKGROUND: CURRENT ATTENDANCE RECORDKEEPING Attendance reports generated by an attendance information system should be derived from a single reliable data base. However, many transit properties current use several data bases, often non-matching because of present methods of gathering and processing the date. The benefits of the TAMIS become apparent when contrasted with these attendance recordkeeping practices. Therefore, the flow of attendance information common to the transportation departments of many transit properties is described below. (The recordkeeping practices of other departments, such as maintenance or administration, are typically less complex.) -39- The transportation dispatcher records most absences, generally from telephone call-in-messages, and maintains a simple list of operators, operator numbers, and reasons for absence. The list is consulted as extra operators are needed to fill open work assignments. At the end of the dispatcher’s work shift, the information on the absentee list is transferred to: . the operator’s data, which may be a calendar-formatted record of absence used within the division largely for employee supervision and discipline. Exhibits V.1 and V.2 illustrate typical absence record cards. . the operator’s time card or exception reporting sheet, which is later sent to determine compensation. . the transit property’s management information system, if one exists, may use the information in various performance reports. Typically, line managers treat the operator data cards as the only valid record of employee absences. Discrepancies between the operator data card in the division, the information in the payroll department data base, and the MIS reports often exist because: . The absence codes used on the operator cards are generally more detailed an often different from the absence codes used by other departments. . When absences are reclassified and changes made to employee records, changes are often mot entered into all attendance data bases. The shortcomings of this method of attendance recordkeeping and reporting are: . A count of the number of days absent or incident of absence is generally the only measure considered in determining when to counsel am employee on poor attendance. . There is little regular access to the operator data cards because they are stored in the divisions. . It is very difficult to compile division performance statistics as these data re often hard to obtain and generally difficult to tabulate. TAMIS OVERVIEW The Transit Attendance Management Information System comprises three basic elements: . the date requirements and input documents, which are the source of the data; . the central file, which includes all of the data in the attendance information system; and -40- [GRAPHIC] \umta20.gif -41- [GRAPHIC] \umta21.gif -42- . the data reports, which document the output of the information system. Exhibit Y.3 illustrates the relationship of these elements. Data Requirements The input or source documents for a data base must contain all of the information needed for the central (or master) file. Given transit attendance data needs and the structure of the TAMIS, the information required includes: . the master file of scheduled work assignments including the scheduled days and hours timekeeping report of work; and . the daily s, recording all exceptions to the master file of scheduled work such as absence, tardiness, or overtime assignments. There are three fundamental requirements for source documents for the TAMIS: . First, all timekeeping reports (i.e., time cards or exception reports) should include all appropriate absence category codes; absence category codes must be fully integrated with payroll codes. This ensures that attendance information is available for the many routine, complex calculations that must be made using the attendance data and that employee payroll will be fully compatible with attendance records. . Second, all employees that record or manipulate the attendance data, particularly the dispatchers and division superintendents, must use the prescribed categories and definitions for absence. This ensures that the attendance data base is consistent with payroll. . Third, for automated systems, the MIS must be able to handle corrections to the computer file containing employee attendance histories. Meeting these requirements will facilitate the development of valid and congruent attendance reports and data base. Master File With respect to the TAMIS, the term "master file" refers to the central employee attendance file containing all of the employee attendance history data discussed under data requirements. This file serves as the data base for generating auxiliary files that are in turn used to develop subsidiary reports and analyses. The intent of the TAMIS, as distinct from current attendance recordkeeping practices described above, is to have a single master file used to meet the transit property’s attendance data needs. This report assumes that data on other aspects of performance such as accident records, customer complaints, commendations, and rule violations are kept in other manual or automated information systems. These aspects of performance are important to transit properties and may ultimately be integrated with the attendance master file by some transit properties. -43- [GRAPHIC] \umta22.gif -44- The TAMIS is generally intended to be used in an automated information environment since computerized management information systems are more flexible, more powerful, and less expensive in the long run. Ideally an on-line data base should be used for the TAMIS with each employee’s attendance history stored on a single master file in a computer. Department managers or superintendents could call up an employee’s attendance history on their office terminals, where the data file would be summarized and displayed on the terminal. This system would replace manual operator data cards, which are generally a source of duplicate data. Future development of an on-line system would allow the division superintendent or department manager to make corrections to the on-line data base from this terminal. However, this second step is not-necessary to the successful installation and use of an on-line data base and display system. Since some transit properties may not have computerized employment or payroll systems that can be easily adapted for attendance data collection and analysis, the concepts presented in the TAMIS can also be used in a non-computerized attendance information system. However, some reports may be too expensive for a manual system to provide in a timely manner. In particular, those transit properties currently without computerized attendance information systems will require some modifications to the Employee Absence History report, and several of the tabulations in other reports will not be feasible. For example, analyses requiring aggregation of attendance data for individuals across days, such as the summary analysis, will be difficult. Although the manual report can provide this information, it would be costly to manually recompute rates every month. If the current reports on attendance are generated from an automated information system and run in batch mode from tape-drive data storage, the TAMIS will require that: . the number of fields and columns in the individual employee record be increased to accommodate data on the additional absence codes and the scheduled hours worked . a statistical software package or additional programming be purchased to calculate a mean and an F-test . the software system be capable of displaying information in graphic formats . standard programming efforts be made to enable all the features of the TAMIS to be used at all levels, i.e., individual, division, and property-wide If the automated information system is an on-line system, and the data base is available for direct data entry or an immediate program run, the TAMIS has slightly different requirements; primarily in data storage or memory since an employee’s entire daily employment history must be available as a single case for the employee Absence History report (Option A or B) to display on-line. Transit properties may wish to consider purchasing some optical laser disk memory systems. This data storage technology allows large amounts of memory to be available at reasonable cost. A second form of data memory problem may exist for selected reports in the TAMIS. For example, when the Employee Absence History report is run, the entire -45- year-to-date attendance record is read into the program, compiled, aggregated, sorted, and displayed. If division managers or superintendents have computer terminals, it is possible that any employee’s report might be called up a number of times in one day, or that up to 20 or 30 reports be called up in a 24-hour period. This should be feasible for most CPUs, without serious system degradation. However, when a Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report is needed, serious system degradation problems will occur, because each day’s record for each employee must be read and compiled to calculate the year-to-date or moving period information. Therefore, these higher-level reports should be run only once a reporting period, preferably at night, and preferably in hard-copy so that the results can be archived to minimize reruns of the program. *U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1989-617-000/88537 -46- NOTICE This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. The United States Government does not endorse manufacturers or products. Trade names appear in the document only because they are essential to the content of the report. This report is being distributed through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Technology Sharing Program. DOT-T-89-03