19+ Sample Sick Time Tracking

What Is Sick Time Tracking?

58% of US employees aged between eighteen to thirty years old used up to five days of sick leave last 2016 (source: statista). For your organization to know the alignment of sick time-related trends to the performance of your workforce and your business, sick time tracking is highly recommended to be implemented. Sick time tracking is a process that allows an organization to document the sick leaves used by their employees in a systematic and detailed manner. Items that are related and/or aligned with the main subject matter can also be showcased in the material for reference purposes. The processes of sick time tracking and management will require companies and establishments to use a sick leave tracker or any documents alike. Having an effective tracking document can make it easier for any organization to make sure that their sick leave or sick time tracking processes are well-maintained and accurately recorded.

Things to Consider During Actual Sick Time Tracking

Just like when making documents that your business will use for particular purposes and reasons, it is important for you to make sure that you will have a list of the variables and/or elements that you need to look into as you try to make a sick time tracking document. Being particular with all the areas and features of your sick time tracker can help you become more comfortable when using it. Here are some of the major things that you have to consider during the actual processes of sick time tracking:

1. The Identification on Whether the Sick Leave Is Paid or Unpaid

The document that you will use for sick time tracking should clearly specify if a given sick leave is paid or unpaid. To make your sick time tracking more accurate, make sure that you will request your employees who have been absent for a given or a number of days to check their leave credits and your updated sick time tracker.

2. The Specification of the Number of Paid Sick Leaves That an Employee Is Entitled With

Paid sick leave credits or entitlements are limited. With this, you have to let your human resource personnel or any person assigned to update the sick time tracker to be aware of the entitlements of each employee. The paid sick leaves entitled to an employee as per your sick time tracker should be similar with the paid sick leave count of the same employee based on his or her employment contract and attendance performance report.

3. The Presentation of All The Details and Documents Necessary for Proper Sick Time Tracking

You need to find or identify a management strategy that can help you present your sick time tracking details in the most presentable and understandable way possible. You have to consider the flow of your presentation so that the data of your sick time tracking document can be viewed and translated by your stakeholders accordingly.

Who Can Benefit From Sick Time Tracking?

Sick time tracking can be beneficial to a number of stakeholders. There are different ways on how a sick time tracking can be of value to each entity depending on their participation to the operations of the organization. To help you familiarize yourself with the people who can optimize sick time tracking for their advantage, here is a list of the entities who can experience the benefits of proper sick time tracking:

The human resource department: Sick time tracking can make a lot of human resource activities easier. For one, a sick time tracker can be used as a reference by the human resource department if the management asks how a particular employee is doing in relation to his or her attendance performance. Sick time tracking can also make it more efficient for the hr team to develop the payroll of employees with their sick leave credits already considered.The upper and lower management of the business: Sick time tracking can help business owners, management officials, managers, and supervisors to address issues about sick leave usage, sick leave abuse, and sick leave trends. With the details that a sick time tracker can provide, the upper and the lower management of the organization can see to it that sick leaves are used in the right manner, that the processes and policies for sick time filing are highly-honored, and that the employees are given the chance to rest if they are really sick.The members of the workforce: Employees can make sure that their paid sick leaves are considered and recorded by their employer if a sick time tracking report can be handed to them prior to a given cut-off or if they request for the details of their payroll. The workforce members can become more motivated to work and be engaged to the operations of the business if they feel that they are prioritized and taken cared of especially during days when they need to rest and be absent from work because of sickness.The customers and/or clients of the organization: Sick time tracking can also be beneficial to your customers in one way or another. In an instance, if you will track the sick leaves of your employees, you can properly schedule other employees so they can cover the workload of absent individuals at a given day. This can help your organization provide the needs of your customers even with the absence of a sick employee. Hence, sick time tracking is not only beneficial in the future as updating it from time to time can also enable you to make decisions that can positively impact the present or current operations of the organization.

8 Steps for Making a Detailed Sick Time Tracker

Your sick time tracking document should be detailed so you can get all the data that you need related to sick leave documentation with ease. Make sure that you will plot and describe all the steps that you need to take prior to the actual creation of your sick time tracker so you can prepare yourself and/or your team with the appropriate and strategic development of the specific document. Below is  standard eight-step procedure that can make it more efficient and faster for you to make your organization’s own detailed sick time tracker.

Step 1: Use an Editable Sick Time Tracking Template

Find the most suitable sick time tracking template that you can modify. Using a template can help you format the title, header, content specifications, and other areas of your sick time tracker in the most appealing and best manner possible. Make sure to edit the pre-formatted content of the sick time tracking template so that its specifications can fit your presentation and documentation requirements.

Step 2: Specify the Time Duration in Which the Attendance of Your Employees Are Tracked

Be specific when it comes to the identification of the month and year where the attendance of your employees are being tracked for purposes of payroll creation and attendance performance evaluation. It will be best if you can look into these details in consideration of your cut-off dates.

Step 3: Provide the Name of Your Employees

Alphabetically organize the name of your employees. You can also use a format feature that can show the list of your employees per department so you can make sure that you are tracking the sick leaves of the specific and correct individual. If you would like to, you can even include their work designations and employee numbers for better identification.

Step 4: Lay-out the Days When Your Employees Are Scheduled to Work

List down all of the operational days of your organization. With this, you can easily have a visual guide on when your workforce members are expected to be present at work. Make sure to identify work shifts and other considerations that can contribute to the clarity of your content presentation.

Step 5: Use a Legend or Any Symbol That Can Indicate the Absence of an Employee Within a Given Day Due to Sickness

Your sick time tracking can be presented in a single document or it can also be a part of your general attendance tracking material. With this, you need to have specific legends or indicators that can enable the management and the human resource department to easily look into the days when a given employee has been absent and decided to use one or a number of his or her sick leave credits.

Step 6: Identify the Type of Sick Leave Used By an Employee

Know whether the sick leave being filed by an employee is paid or not. Aside from decreasing his or her paid sick leave credits based on the number of days that he or she was absent from work because of sickness, the proper identification of the sick leave being used can help the hr department know whether certain pay-cuts need to be done or not.

Step 7: Leave a Blank Space or Content Block for Important Notes

To make your sick time tracking more usable, you can use a content block where you can take down notes. This can help you set certain reminders and follow-ups especially if there are still documents that are needed to be submitted by an employee so that his or her paid sick leaves can be formally credited and recorded. Consider the layout of your sick time tracker when adding this feature to the document.

Step 8: Test the Ease of Use, Effectiveness, and Efficiency of Your Sick Time Tracking Document Draft

Finalize the entirety of the sick time tracker. If you believe that your sick time tracker is already polished and highly-usable, try to execute a test run. Make any changes, if necessary. Looking into the quality of your sick time tracking for a number of times can help you make sure that you will have an output that can contribute to the effective management, recording, and reporting of your employee’s filed sick time.

Benefits of Effective Sick Time Tracking

Sick time tracking, if done right, can provide many advantages to your organization. This is why you have to develop a sick time tracking document, strategy, and procedure that can contribute to the impressive management of your employee attendance documentation and reporting. Here are the benefits that you can get with effective sick time tracking:

Sick leave tracking can help your organization lessen or even eliminate sick leave abuse in the workplace: Sick leave management begins with proper sick time tracking. If you can inform your workforce about your tracking processes that involve their sick leaves, then they will become more careful so to not commit any offenses considered as sick leave abuse. This can result in a more open and healthier employer-to-employee relationship as the rights and entitlements of each party have been highly-considered.Sick time tracking can enable the human resource department to make the payroll appropriately: Your sick time tracking strategies and activities can make it more efficient for the human resource department to calculate the attendance of your employees in consideration of their sick leave entitlements. Since the document that you will use for this process can present the paid sick leaves used by your employees, unnecessary pay-cuts can be eliminated which can result to a highly-accurate payroll.Sick time tracking can let the management be updated about the availability of sick leave entitlements of each of their employees: With the help of sick time tracking, employers can promote transparency with how they execute processes for their employees’ sick leave documentation. This is very important, especially when looking into the overall performance of employees who are up for regularization or promotion.Sick leave tracking can allow your business and your employees to give more importance to your sick time policies and regulations: Through the establishment of a strict sick time tracking process, your employees can become more particular with how they will use the paid sick leaves that they are entitles with. For them to make sure that they are following the correct procedures for sick time filing and updating, the possibility of reviewing and looking into your policies and regulations can be higher. This can then positively impact the usability of your employee handbooks and all the other materials that you have developed and provided to your employees which contain particular information about sick time tracking rules and reminders.

Dos and Don’ts for Excellently Implementing Sick Time Tracking

There are several things that can make or break the effectiveness of your sick time tracking. If you want to get the most out of the availability and usage of your sick time tracking document, you have to make yourself aware of certain guidelines. Some of the tips that you can incorporate in the actual implementation of your sick time tracking include the following:

Do’s

1. Do Make Your Sick Time Tracking Form or Document Systematic

Always give your focus on the systematic formatting of your sick time tracker. It is essential for your sick time tracking document and processes to be organized as any improper layout feature that caused an inaccurate updating move can already lessen the credibility and effectiveness of the document.

2. Do Ensure That Your Sick Time Tracker Is Always Updated 

Sick time trackers will be useless if they are not updated. What is the sense of using a sick time tracking document if it cannot provide you with real time data that you need for documentation, payroll, and other purposes? Hence, you have to always be on the lookout for the timely content management of your sick time tracker to make sure that all details that are needed for updating has been looked into and prioritized.

3. Do Review Your Sick Leave Policies Before Executing Sick Time Tracking

Your sick time tracking should always consider your existing sick leave policies. It will be very useful if you will first review your policies about sick leave usage so you can ensure that your tracking activities are considerate of your rules and regulations with regards the given matter.

Don’ts

1. Don’t Put Any Inaccurate Information in the Sick Time Tracker

Always check supporting documents and submitted requirements when updating your sick time tracker. You have to ensure that all the details of your sick time tracker are accurate as any lapses can result to payroll problems, employee attendance performance report inconsistencies, and questionable data documentation which can negatively impact your relationship with the members of your workforce.

2. Don’t Use a Sick Time Tracking Template That Is Confusing or Misleading

Be strategic and mindful when selecting the template or any other reference that you will use for the proper formatting of your sick time tracker. Your sick time tracking activities can be highly-affected by the document layout that you will use. Make sure that the template that you will choose is not confusing. The features and other layout specifications of the template should not be misleading so you will not find it hard or challenging to update the document when necessary.

3. Don’t Overlook Your Leave Management Strategies When Developing Your Sick Time Tracker

Sick time tracking is developed to ensure that your leave management strategies are aligned with the objectives of the business or a particular department. With this, your sick time tracker should contain features that can help you execute your leave management strategies accordingly.

Once you have finalized your decision to make a sick time tracking document, we recommend you to go back to the samples and templates that we have listed and made available just for you. All of the downloadable references that we have put together, alongside the related discussion above, can help you have an easier time when developing the best sick time tracking material that your organization can surely benefit from.