11+ Best Absence Management Systems & Software [2024]

The unscheduled absenteeism rate for hourly workers in the United States is 9%. So if you're managing an hourly workforce, you probably know how stressful it can be to switch around a workday when learning of a last-minute absence. The pressure of ensuring every employee is attending work on time and for the right shift can be overwhelming–especially when you’re also directing employee retention efforts, managing labor law compliance, and much more.

Fortunately, absence management systems can help reduce those stresses for managers, HR teams, and the employees that need to call off. Employees can easily communicate with their supervisors and employers can see exactly when and why employees are absent. They can address any potential issues proactively–effectively avoiding the “call-off chaos” that can accompany unexpected absences.

However, not all absence management software is created equal. It’s important to look for a platform that’s easy to use, meets employees and supervisors where they are, and enhances employee communication.

If you’re ready to be done with all the stress and confusion of absence management, this post is for you! We’ll review some of the best systems on the market so you can stay on top of your tasks and reduce absenteeism in your workplace.

Why Is It Important to Have an Effective Absence Management System?

At some level of scale, your team should graduate from notebooks and spreadsheets to a real absence management system. These are the six reasons why:

Accurate Payroll

Some businesses still track attendance and absences manually, which means payroll is at the mercy of human error. The last thing you want is to miss payments or pay an employee less than they’ve earned.

Absence management systems help employees accurately track how often every employee works on one centralized platform. The HR teams and supervisors that prepare payroll can easily see the hours an employee has worked or has been absent, and then manage payroll accordingly.

Organized, automated absence management can help reduce payroll errors and ensure compliance. With less manual admin work, HR teams will have more time to focus on other important parts of their role.

Easier Workforce Management

Absence management software can make it easier for both employees and employers to:

• Track public holidays

• Generate leave reports

• Perform administrative tasks

• Ensure compliance and monitor non-compliance

• View upcoming absences

• See time-off balances

• Track work hours

When absences are managed correctly, businesses can enjoy the benefits of improved accuracy, greater efficiency, and increased productivity within their workforce. And employees can enjoy their time off without the stress of a complicated and confusing call-off system.

Supports Employment Laws & Compliance

Compliance and employment laws are in place to keep employees and their data safe, as well as keep organizations protected from potential lawsuits. Absence management software protects from noncompliance by accurately tracking absences, medical leave, sickness absences, and more.

Efficient HR & Admin

No more endless spreadsheets to manually update! Centralized, secure absence management systems make it easier to track attendance, perform administrative tasks, and safely access employee documentation.

Self-service Access for Employees

Self-service technology allows workers to make suggestions, schedule their own hours or lunch breaks, and track their shifts. Giving employees greater ownership over their attendance tracking can improve employee retention and engagement, and even reduce absenteeism.

Reporting & Insights for Employers

Do you have employees consistently clocking in late or taking extra-long breaks? Attendance management software collects, analyzes, and creates reports on all types of attendance data so supervisors can discover attendance trends–before they become an issue.

Best Absence Management Systems & Software for Absence Tracking

The right absence management software should make everyone’s life less complicated. It should be easy to use for both employees and managers and quick to implement and adopt–so you can get your time back.

Let’s take a look!

TeamSense

TeamSense offers the best absence management tools for manufacturing and warehousing teams. Businesses with hourly, remote, or mobile workforces can reduce absenteeism and downtime without headaches, endless paperwork, or confusing technology.

TeamSense enables your employees to track attendance where they are: on their mobile phones. Our absence management capabilities allow employees to report absences via text–eliminating the need for company email addresses, phone calls, and complicated phone apps. Employees simply text a keyword to their company’s number and fill out a short, intuitive survey. Managers are alerted immediately and then can use TeamSense’s additional text messaging communication tools to easily fill open shifts.

We designed TeamSense to provide communication methods that both employees and supervisors easily buy into. Just send a text or call the IVR–and we’ll handle the rest.

Key Features & Services:

• Call-off via text and simple absence survey workflows. No apps required!

• Automated IVR system

• Employee engagement surveys and recognition programs

• Mark-your-self safe feature for safety check-ins

• Self-service access for employees to request time off or view employee handbooks, policies, and forms

• Attendance insights and reporting

• 19 language options

Pricing:

• Basic: Streamlined attendance management via text for $3/user/month

• Pro: Attendance management with real-time insights and trends for $5/user/month

• Advanced: Digital connection with your frontline workforce for $8/user/month

Connected and engaged employees just get more done! It’s time to make the switch to TeamSense.

Timetastic

Timetastic is an absence management system specializing in PTO and vacation tracking.

Timetastic sends out weekly reminders and notifications for when an employee takes time off and automatically updates all calendars whenever someone requests time off.

Managers can then track how many days their employees have taken off and how many PTO days employees have left.

Key Features & Services:

• Customizable personal calendars

• Integration with Google Calendar, G Suite, Outlook, and more

• Preloaded holidays

• Manages various absences including sick leave, maternity, unpaid leave, etc.

• Automatic calendar feed updated whenever an employee request time off

Pricing:

• 30-day free trial

• $1.30 per user/per month

Calamari

Calamari's approach to employee absence management is designed to help HR divisions track attendance and time off. Their absence calendars track vacations, days off, remote work, and more. Managers can keep track of employee shifts or breaks and approve or deny time requests, while employees can clock in and out of work, schedule or request time off, and calculate PTO.

Key Features & Services:

• Employees can automatically clock in and out

• Payroll export

• Timesheets

• Automated entitlement

• Absence calendars

• Data reporting

Pricing:

• Annually

  • Leave management: $1.7 per employee, per month

  • Clock-in/Clock-out: $2 per employee, per month

  • Core HR: 1.7 per employee, per month

• Monthly

  • Leave management: $2 per employee, per month

  • Clock-in/Clock-out: $2.5 per employee, per month

  • Core HR: $2 per employee, per month

Jolt

Jolt is an absence management system that shows managers where their employees are and offers built-in features to prevent incorrect time tracking. Managers can flag or block time punches that don't align with employees' work schedules so employees can explain why they had to clock in late.

Jolt also offers a communication manager, data reporting, and direct employee messaging.

Key Features & Services:

• Customizable reports

• Employee database and directory

• Onboarding

• File sharing

• Online time tracking

• Real-time reporting

Pricing: Pricing information isn’t included on their website.

Absence Management Systems & Software for HR Workflows

Some absence management software systems are focused on improving human resource workflows. Freshteam, PurelyHR, and Eddy all do a great job of doing exactly that.

Freshteam

The Freshteam platform offers various services that help HR teams recruit talent and stay organized with employee data. HR employees can track and score interviews, create employment offers and applications, search through a catalog of employees, and more.

Key Features & Services:

• Candidate and employee search

• Candidate sourcing

• Onboarding checklists

• Recruitment reporting

• Talent pool management

• HR automation

• Offer management

• Self-scheduling

• Interview scheduling

Pricing: Freshteam doesn’t offer pricing details on its website.

PurelyHR

PurelyHR was originally launched as Time-Off in 2010. In addition to tracking and identifying workplace absenteeism trends, PurelyHR supports recruiting efforts, employee management, and more. PurelyHR can track employee performance, share warnings and reminders, provide data reports on employee training, and send out training materials.

Key Features & Services:

• Staff directory building

• Shared leave calendar

• Advanced reporting

• 360-degree feedback

• Goal setting and tracking

Pricing:

• Annually: $4.50 per employee

• Monthly: $5 per employee

Eddy

Eddy is an HR software that helps manage hiring, onboarding, payroll, time-tracking, and attendance. Eddy Hire is their applicant tracking and recruiting platform that works best for local businesses, Eddy People supports HR and people management, and Eddy Payroll offers payroll management features.

Key Features & Services:

• Employee directory and profile building

• Job boarding postings and internal job boards

• Interview scheduling

• New-hire management

• Digital time tracking

• PTO management

Pricing: You can try all three pricing packages for free, but you’ll have to contact their team for final pricing details.

Budget or Free Absence Management Software & Systems

For businesses that are working with a smaller budget, here are some of the best free absence management software.

Excel or Google Sheets

Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel are popular software tools for data management. They both help you organize your data, use mathematical formulas for calculations, identify trends, and customize reports and pivot tables. Spreadsheets can be turned into graphs, charts, tables, and much more. Interested in trying it out for your absence management? Check out this free downloadable Google Sheet employee attendance tracker.

Key Features & Services:

• Data filters

• Goal-seek analysis tool

• Shortcut keys

• Customizable page layouts

• What-if scenario proposals

• Reports & dashboards

• Trend predictions

Pricing: One-time payment of $159.99

LeaveBoard

LeaveBoard is an online leave management system that provides automated leave tracking and employee time-off booking. Employees use the LeaveBoard app to send vacation requests that managers can then manage through the HR dashboard. They also offer employee databases, absence reports, an entitlement calculator, and a staff leave planner.

Key Features & Services:

• HR dashboards

• Time-off manager

• Overlaps warning

• Custom time-off policies

• Employee directory management

Pricing:

• Free

• Pro: $1.35 per employee, per month

• Enterprise: Request a demo

OfficeTimer

OfficeTimer is a free, web-based office management system that offers time tracking, leave administration, expense tracking, customer billing, and project management. OfficeTimer helps teams manage their employee's attendance, accurately bill clients for projects, and stay organized year-round.

Key Features & Services:

• Track attendance live

• Classify expenses

• Project costs and revenue tracking

• Accurate project billing

• Project planning

Pricing: Free

actiPLANS

actiPLANs offers a small free plan for employee management. Employees can create and approve leave plans on the go, while supervisors can assign and re-assign shifts with a few simple clicks. actiPLANS also allows you to set custom rules for your workplace and employees.

Key Features & Services:

• Leave management

• Shift assignment

• Activity planning

• Status tracking

• Event scheduling

• PTO automation

Pricing:

• Free 30 day trial

• 1-3 users: Free

• 1-40 users: $1.5 per user, per month

• 41-200 users: $1.2 per user, per month

• 200+ users: Fixed cost that requires you to speak with a representative

How to Reduce Absenteeism in the Workplace

The right absence management system can show you absence trends within your teams, protect and save documents on employees, help with managing payroll–and reduce absenteeism in the workplace.

But there are a few other effective strategies for reducing absenteeism every manager can try. Let’s take a look!

Promote Work-Life Balance

Healthy and committed employees are the best employees. Encouraging employees to step away from work and refocus means they can come back reinvigorated–both physically and mentally.

So how do you encourage a healthy work-life balance for your employees? Pay attention to their sleep habits and consider offering flexible hours for employees with busy personal lives. Provide employees with opportunities to take breaks, go on vacation, and enjoy workplace wellness programs.

It’s also helpful to set clear expectations for your employees regarding attendance. Employees should know their shifts, understand the attendance policy, and be able to communicate with you when they need to. This can help teams avoid stressful “no call no shows” and encourage employees to use their PTO. It’s there for a reason!

Conduct Honest Check-ins with Employees

Building relationships with your employees can make it easier to identify and discuss attendance problems before they get worse. Regularly ask how they feel about their performance, work attitude, interest, hobbies, and more. The more you know about your employees, the easier it can be to find a solution to any problems.

Check-ins can promote an open dialogue where employees can express their concerns–and vice versa. It can also be a great opportunity to get employees to understand policies, rules, and best practices.

Invest in Employee Engagement & Retention

When you hire someone, invest in them! Set learning goals for your employees, teach ownership, and build relationships with them. Allow them to grow and learn new skills they can apply in their job and their lives.

It’s also helpful to regularly get feedback from both current employees and employees that have left or are leaving. Learn from these conversations and then implement some new employee retention strategies, like:

• Setting work incentives

• Reviewing your benefits package every once in a while

• Keep your pay competitive

• Have a cohesive onboarding process

• Host regular team building activities

• Be open to feedback from employees

Use the Best Absence Management System

The best absence management systems are simple. They shouldn't leave you stressed or confused when trying to track time and attendance. You should be able to monitor your employees, discover absenteeism trends, and easily manage leave requests.

For effortless absence management, TeamSense is the best solution. Our text-based employee call-in system saves you from both spreadsheets and complicated technology. All your employees need to do is send a text, fill out and submit the mobile form, and you’re alerted instantly.

Plan your workday, prevent downtime, and reduce no-shows–all without missing a beat. With TeamSense, it’s just that easy.