Attendance Point System

How an attendance point system works

Each type of attendance event has a fixed point value. A common scale for hourly workforces:

• Tardy or leaving early (under 2 hours): 0.5 point
• Missing more than half a shift, or an unplanned full-day absence with proper notice: 1 point
• Absence with late notice (under 2 hours before shift): 1.5 points
• No call no show: 3 points

Consecutive days for the same illness often count as one occurrence, and a doctor's note may reduce or remove points depending on the policy. Points expire on a rolling basis, typically 12 months after each event, and many employers also remove a point for every 30 or 60 days of perfect attendance. That gives people a way back, which matters for retention.

Thresholds then map to progressive discipline: for example a verbal warning at 4 points, a written warning at 6, a final warning at 8, and termination at 10. For a ready-made version, see our attendance points policy template.

Worked example

Devon, a warehouse associate, has this record over the past 12 months: two tardies (1 point), two full-day call-outs with notice (2 points), and one no call no show (3 points). Total: 6 points, which triggers a written warning.

Three months later, the oldest tardy rolls off (minus 0.5) and Devon earns a perfect-attendance credit for 60 clean days (minus 1). Balance: 4.5 points. If Devon is later absent for three days for a condition that qualifies under the FMLA, those days add nothing. Getting that last part wrong is where most legal trouble starts.

Why hourly employers use points

In contact centers, distribution centers, manufacturing and retail, a missing person on shift has an immediate cost: longer queues, missed shipments, overtime for coworkers. A point system is popular because it is objective and easy to administer across many supervisors. Nobody has to judge whether a reason was good enough, and employees can see exactly where they stand.

It also creates consistency. When fifty supervisors each manage attendance on their own judgment, outcomes vary widely, and inconsistent discipline is a common basis for discrimination claims. Points put everyone on the same scale. Many employers pair points with a separate rule on no call no shows, for example treating three consecutive no-shows as job abandonment.

What the law says you cannot count

"No-fault" does not mean every absence counts. In the US:

• FMLA. Department of Labor regulations prohibit counting FMLA-protected leave under no-fault attendance policies. Intermittent FMLA leave for a chronic condition is the most common mistake.
• ADA. Leave or schedule flexibility can be a reasonable accommodation. The EEOC has sued employers whose rigid point systems led to firing employees with disabilities without considering accommodation.
• Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Since 2023, covered employers must reasonably accommodate known pregnancy-related limitations, which can include time off for appointments.
• State and local paid sick leave laws. Many prohibit counting protected sick time as an occurrence.
• Other protected time. Jury duty, military leave under USERRA, workers' compensation absences, and in some states voting time or domestic violence leave.

Rules vary by state and city, so your policy should list protected absences explicitly and your timekeeping system should code them so they never generate points.

Making a point system work well

• Publish it clearly in the handbook and in training, with the point table and thresholds.
• Let employees see their balance, ideally in a self-service app tied to your time and attendance system.
• Require a supervisor review before any termination to check for protected absences and accommodation requests.
• Use credits for perfect attendance so a bad month does not follow someone for a year.
• Watch the data. If new hires in their first 90 days hit thresholds far more than tenured staff, the problem may be scheduling, commute or onboarding rather than attitude.

Point systems are one approach; the Bradford Factor is another that weights frequent short absences more heavily and is more common outside the US.