Companies not monitoring employees attendance!

Traditionally, enterprises have been particular about the attendance of their employees, strictly monitoring the in and out time. But two Indian tech companies are changing these rigid industry norms. Read on to find out why and how...


Location: Office of a mid size tech company in Mumbai

It is 4 pm in the afternoon. Apurva, a software professional, is already packing his bags to leave for the day. No he is not sick, nor has he requested for a half day leave.

Since the time he joined this mid size tech solution provider, he has been leaving at exactly the same time. His coworkers are waving an enthusiastic bye and his manager isn't rolling her eyes, because he is leaving so early!

As Apurva leaves the office, he smiles to himself, because he is just in time to pick up his daughter from school and chauffer her back home.

And guess what, he doesn't have to punch in and punch out the attendance management system - a practice that many of us are habituated to, at our workplace!

You might ask - is this even real?

The answer is yes!

SAP Labs and Icertis are examples of two Indian companies who do not have a policy of attendance cards to monitor the presence or absence of employees on the campus.

Though this might sound too 'liberal' a policy, which might be subject to misuse, but the HR heads of these two companies vouch that there have been absolutely no case of misuse by employees.

SAP Labs: A large tech solution provider

SAP Labs India has about 5000+ employees in India, spread across various locations. The interesting part is that inspite of having such a large number of employees the company doesn't have a system of time attendance monitoring cards.

When asked, if lack of such control leads to chaos and misuse, T Shivaram, Head of HR, SAP Labs India said, "In fact, it is just the opposite. When we started with the idea of not having a policy of employee attendance tracking system, our aim was to communicate to the employees that the company shows faith in its workforce and believes that they are responsible."

"This led to building a huge trust factor between the employer and employee and they have, infact, become more committed to their work and the company. The best part is, so far, not even a single case of misuse has surfaced, which in itself is a proof of the impact of this policy," added Shivaram.

Icertis: A mid size tech company, headquartered in Pune

Icertis is a 5 year old company, in the business of providing enterprise solutions on Microsoft Cloud. Just like SAP Labs, the company doesn't track its employees' attendance.

In addition, Icertis follows an interesting work-time pattern where employees need to be present in the campus between 10.30 am and 3-4 pm. Explaining the logic, Sulekha Thakkar, director of HR and Administration, Icertis said, "This time slot is considered to be the core working hours where inter-team and intra-team coordination and collaboration needs to happen for successful completion of projects." Keeping this core working hours in mind, employees are free to choose the time they want to come to office and leave, in coordination with their managers.

"We have people in our organisation who work from 10.30 am to 4 pm, while we have employees who choose to come in early - by 8 am - and leave by 3 pm, just in time to pick up their children from school," adds Sulekha.

Apart from the work-life-balance, the biggest benefit that such a work culture brings is satisfaction and happiness among employees. Added to this, employees give their 100 per cent to work. In fact, they are thoroughly motivated to give their best.

These examples of how enterprises are breaking up the rigid systems and rules to give way to more flexible work environment is a reflection of the evolving work place practices.

A number of HR heads might view this practice, of not monitoring attendance of employees, with skepticism. At SAP Labs and Icertis, this has led to excellent employee engagement, benefitting not only employees but also the company as a whole, since the commitment of the workforce has gone up many notches.

Amrita Premrajan, TimesJobs.com Bureau

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