New Study Shows Work Shift Reminders Decrease Absenteeism, Tardiness

Staff Report

Tuesday, June 20th, 2017

Driven by the increased access and usage of mobile devices, a report by Ximble finds that usage of shift reminders reduced late time by 21% and reduced total missed shifts by 16%.

Summarized in its released "2017 Key Insights on Employee Attendance and Tardiness" report, the study looked at data from employers in the US and Australia that utilized the Ximble Scheduling and Time Tracking software. The report includes data from over 400 companies, and approximately 6,500 employees that used the Ximble software over a period of two
years.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2015 that productivity losses linked to absenteeism cost employers $225.8 billion annually in the United States," said Peter Swaniker, founder and CEO of Ximble. "For companies, especially those that rely on a shift scheduling system, it has become a multimillion dollar effort to find solutions to absenteeism and lateness. Because we now maintain nearly 24/7 access to our mobile devices, sending reminders to employees via the mobile medium is an effective way forward in combating absenteeism related monetary losses for both employers and employees."

In addition, the report found that:

  • Overall, employees were late an average of 114.2 minutes. Employees that had shift reminders enabled were late an average of 95.9 minutes, while those who did not have them enabled were late an average of 121.4 minutes. This was an improvement of 21%.

  • Average employee lateness in the US was lower than the overall average, with US employees being late an average of 101.2 minutes.

  • On average, employees missed a total of 29.3 shifts per employee, with US employees missing an average of 26.64 shifts per employee. Those with shift reminders missed an average of 21.4 shifts while those without reminders missed 25.6 shifts. This was an improvement of 16.4%.

  • The total loss of income due to missed shifts for employees in the US averaged $2,146.61 based on their pay rate. Total loss of income due to late arrivals was $926.93.

  • An average of 20.19% of all time clock punches recorded by Ximble were made via mobile devices.