As an employer, your attendance policy protects you against absenteeism issues. A clearly written policy helps employees understand what is expected of them, whether they are running late, catch a cold or simply want to take a vacation.

Your attendance policy is also your best defense when protesting an unemployment insurance claim. Absenteeism issues are some of the hardest to protest when it comes to unemployment insurance. In a later blog, we’ll discuss why employers lose those protests.

To give your company the best chance of winning their protest, you need to include three key items in your attendance policy:

• Detailed descriptions of definitions and actions to be taken. Don’t be vague about any definitions in your attendance policy or about any actions your employees need to take to inform you about absences. Make the consequences of absences crystal clear as well. Though you might think creating a vague policy gives you more room to make decisions about individual employees, but it also opens up the door for abusing the attendance policy. Having this space to unjustly use the policy against employees makes you unlucky to win an UI protests related to absenteeism.

• Focus on the actions your employees should take. Give clear directions to employees about how and when they need to notify you of an absence or tardy. In a protest, if you can demonstrate that an employee failed to properly notify you, you have a better chance of winning your protest, especially if the employee tries to claim that their absence was beyond their control due to sickness, car problems or other factors. No matter what causes the absence or tardiness, your employee has a responsibility to inform you; not carrying out this responsibility is what led you to let them go.

• Set extremely specific rules for your No Call/No Show policy. Many employers lose attendance related protests because they treat No Call/No Shows like any other absence in their attendance policy. You need to set clear, specific rules about these absences. Define them as when an employee does not come to work nor do they call to notify the employee of their absence. Be sure your policy states that this absence is a voluntary quit. Make your No Call/No Show policy a “one strike and you’re out” policy to increase your chances of winning your protest.

While absenteeism protests can be frustrating for employers, a clear, detailed and focused attendance policy can help reduce the headache of protesting these UI cases. Use the tips from above to improve your chances of winning these cases and lowering your UI costs. For more information on attendance policies, protesting UI cases and more, please visit unemploymenttracker.com.