How To Handle No Call, No Shows: A Guide For Managers

When an employee fails to show up for work and doesn’t give any warning or let anyone know why they won’t be there, it’s called a no call, no show absence. These events can have a serious effect on the rest of your team and the way your business works.

In this article, we discuss how to handle no call, no show employees and give you tips for preventing such absences in the first place.

Table Of Contents

• How To Handle No Call, No Show Employees
• How To Prevent No Call, No Shows

How To Handle No Call, No Show Employees

1) Create An Attendance Policy

One of the best ways to handle no call, no show (or NCNS) employees is to create an attendance policy that establishes rules and guidelines for showing up at work on time every day.

An effective attendance policy may include such topics as:

• Tracking work hours
• Tardiness
• Early clock-outs
• Late clock-ins
• Excused absences
• Unexcused absences
• Overtime
• Job abandonment

Take the last bullet point — job abandonment — as an example. Your attendance policy may define this type of offense and list what will happen after one, two, three, or more incidents (here’s an example to work from).

With such policies in place, you then have a foundation on which to base your decisions when it comes to NCNS absences.

2) Address No Call, No Show Events Directly

Whether no call, no show events are a problem already or might become a problem in the future, it’s important to address the topic directly in your company attendance policy.

In addition to defining what constitutes this type of absence, your attendance policy can also benefit from including instructions for handling emergencies, time-off requests, and scheduling conflicts — events that often precede an NCNS absence.

When your employees know the proper procedure for dealing with such circumstances, they’ll be better prepared to act correctly (i.e., according to your business’s policies) should something come up that prevents them from reporting for work.

Once you have an attendance policy in place that includes rules for NCNS absences, it can also be beneficial to consult with a lawyer who is well-versed in your state’s employment laws.

Having a professional review your policies can help you be sure that all your bases are covered legally in case the situation escalates to the point that you have to dock pay or even let someone go.

3) Establish Clear Penalties

If you haven’t already established penalties for no call, no show absences, do so right away and include them in your company’s attendance policy.

While you don’t want to always focus on the negative, potential penalties are the best — and, sometimes, the only — deterrent that will keep your employees from failing to show up for work without letting a manager know.

Some businesses choose to go the zero-tolerance route and set up severe penalties for the first offense (e.g., immediate termination).

Other businesses choose to allow NCNS absences in some situations if the employee makes up the time within a week of their return.

If you’re running a business where each employee performs a specific task rather than working as part of a group, this probably won’t work. Instead, it may be better to establish a set of penalties that increase in severity with the number of absences that occur.

Here’s an example:

• First offense: Verbal warning
• Second offense: Written warning
• Third offense: Meeting with supervisor
• Fourth offense: Suspension without pay
• Fifth offense: Termination

Whatever penalty policy you choose, make sure it’s clear and that everyone understands the consequences of their actions.

4) Review All Policies And Penalties With Employees

Before rolling out any policies or penalties, review everything with all of your employees. You may choose to go over the information one-on-one or in a large group.

Either way, consider having each employee sign a document confirming that:

• They’ve read the new policies and penalties
• They understand them
• They agree to abide by them

This is an important step in handling no call, no show issues — both now and in the future — so be sure not to overlook it.

Some managers think it’s enough to include the information in the employee handbook or send an email outlining attendance policies and procedures. But skipping the confirmation part of the process may open the door to potential problems down the road.

5) Maintain Control Of Your Emotions

When a no call, now show incident does occur, do your best to maintain control of your emotions.

Yes, an employee who doesn’t show up to work can cause significant problems for the team, but, as you’ll learn later on in this article, there are better uses of your time than getting angry.

Keep in mind that if you’ve gone through the previous four steps on this list, your employees know the rules. They know there will be consequences for their actions, but there may be a legitimate reason they couldn’t call to let you know they wouldn’t be in.

Try not to assume that an employee is just lazy or being spiteful. It’s not always easy, but maintaining control of your emotions can help you, your team, and your business get through the issue successfully.

6) Find A Substitute As Quickly As Possible

As soon as you suspect that a no call, no show absence is occurring, focus your energy on finding a substitute as soon as possible.

You may choose to ask an already-on-the-job team member to work another shift. You may choose to contact a part-time employee to see if they can come in on short notice. Or, you may choose to find a substitute some other way.

Whatever system you establish, make sure it is quick and easy to execute. The last thing you want to do when your business is short-staffed is spend a lot of time looking for someone to fill in.

7) Verify That The Absent Employee Is OK

After you’ve found a substitute to cover the shift, contact the absent employee to make sure they’re OK.

When you make the call, write the email, or send the SMS, approach the situation as if you were calling to find out if they need help.

A simple, “Hi, Ed. You didn’t show up for your shift this morning. I’m just calling to make sure you’re ok. Please call/write/text back as soon as possible and let me know,” is all that’s necessary, so don’t feel like you have to address all the issues all at once.

Remember, they may be dealing with an emergency of some kind and under a lot of stress when you contact them. Approaching the situation from a position of concern is the best way to defuse any anger or stress before it becomes a problem.

8) Enforce The Policy Consistently

Once your no call, no show policy is in place, enforce the penalties consistently for all employees.

Whether you have a zero-tolerance policy or a set of penalties that culminate with termination, it’s important that you apply those consequences to everyone — even if the offender is an otherwise stellar employee.

Termination on the first offense isn’t always the best policy — though it may do a good job of deterring NCNS absences — because no two emergencies are the same.

An excellent employee may encounter circumstances that make it impossible for them to get to work or even call.

In such cases, it may be better to start with a warning (e.g., written or verbal) or suspend them without pay for a day rather than jumping right to termination.

Regardless of the penalties in place, sit down with the employee after the first offense and discuss how their actions affected the morale and cohesion of the team.

Be sure to stress how their absence affected the business as a whole so the employee understands that there’s more involved than just their job — everyone’s affected.

9) Document All No Call, No Show Absences

Documenting all no call, no show absences may consist of two parts:

• Write down any information (what you did, what they said, etc.) in their file so you can refer to it later on if necessary
• Ask the absent employee for a signed note showing that they were where they said they were when they didn’t show up for work (e.g., a doctor’s appointment)

After you find a substitute and things have returned to normal, take a few minutes to write down the details of the incident.

Add that documentation — along with any signed notes from the employee — to their personnel file so you can refer back to it at a later date or if the problem persists.

10) Discuss Absences During Performance Reviews

When planning for the employee’s regular performance review, be sure to include any no call, no show absences on the agenda of items to discuss.

If the issue only occurred once, take a few minutes to talk about why it happened, what they can do to prevent such issues in the future, and how you appreciate that they didn’t get in the habit of missing work in this way.

If the issue occurred more than once, go over what was said and done each time they failed to show up for work. It’s also important to review any measures you took to get the employee back on track and encourage them to continue on the path to improvement and success.

How To Prevent No Call, No Shows

1) Build Employee Engagement

One of the best ways to prevent no call, no show absences is to build employee engagement throughout your business.

Engagement is a sense of being present in the moment, focused on the task at hand, and motivated to do the best work possible.

Loss of such a state of mind is often one of the first things to occur before they commit an NCNS absence.

If you notice engagement falling, you can counteract the downward trend by taking steps to build it up whenever possible.

If you’re unsure how to do this, try implementing one or more of these suggestions to get things going:

• Implement a frustration box
• Brainstorm with your team about engagement
• Create a clear hierarchy of responsibility
• Encourage innovation
• Improve your leadership skills

2) Play Team-Building Games

Playing team-building games is a great way to build up your team so that they don’t start to consider an NCNS absence.

Team-building games don’t have to be long and drawn out to be effective — just 10 or 15 minutes once or twice a week — but they do need to be fun and engaging for those who participate.

Here are some of our favorite ideas for in-person, remote, and hybrid teams alike:

• Typing race
• Puzzle race
• Emoji name that tune
• Then and now

If you’re unsure what your team might enjoy, you can always run a fun question-and-answer session with questions like:

• What is something you think is overrated?
• Dogs or cats?
• Would you rather join Metallica or the New Kids On The Block?
• What is the worst gift you’ve ever received?
• Do you fold your pizza?
• Thick pizza or thin?
• If you could be any animal for a week, which would you choose?

The point of all this is to get your employees to relax, have fun, and bond with their coworkers so that their job satisfaction and personal happiness stay as high as possible.

3) Focus On Employee Retention

When you dig deep into the subject of no call, no show absences, you’re likely to discover that employee retention lies at the heart of it all.

Armed with that knowledge, you can focus on the basics of keeping employees on the job longer as a way to deal with attendance issues in general and NCNS absences specifically.

Strengthening the foundation of attendance by dealing with the underlying issue — employee retention — goes a long way toward improving both the short- and long-term condition of your team and your business.

4) Promote Work-Life Balance

Promoting work-life balance goes a long way toward preventing NCNS absences from occurring in the first place.

When you focus on improving work-life balance, you can help prevent your team from burning out on the job to the point that they feel that not showing up is the only option.

There are so many ways to promote work-life balance — everything from offering flexible schedules to varying work distribution. Find the ones that work for your team and your business.

5) Improve Your Workforce Management Processes

Even if your team hasn’t experienced a no call, no show absence yet, you can take steps to prevent it from happening by improving your workforce scheduling and management processes.

Look closely at your scheduling and task-management processes and ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your current method of scheduling make it easy for employees to request time off?
• Does your scheduling give employees some input into the times they work?
• Does your scheduling system make it easy for employees to indicate availability?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, your team members may see the system you have in place as an unnecessary hassle and just decide that skipping their shift is easier.

6) Get To Know Your Team Members

Getting to know your team members is a great way to prevent no call, no show absences from happening.

In many cases, these types of absences may be the result of multiple factors both at home and at work.

For example, the employee may be having problems with a family member and feeling stressed. Or, the employee may have a problem with a coworker and feel disengaged. Or, they may be experiencing both issues at the same time

You won’t know unless you talk to them. Once you do know, you can take steps to help them with the goal of preventing the no call, no show absences altogether.

7) Build An Availability Chart

As we discussed earlier, one of the first things you should do when facing a no call, no show absence is find a substitute as soon as possible.

The best way to streamline that process is to build an availability chart before you need it. The simplest version is just a list of the employees you have on the payroll and the days and times that they’re available for work.

A more complicated version is a second full schedule that comes out along with the main schedule and that lists employees who may agree to come in on short notice during each shift.

8) Ask Employees To Find Their Own Subs

One way you can help reduce the impact of a no call, no show absence is to ask employees to find their own substitutes when they can’t work.

If a team member realizes they can’t make their shift, they should take it upon themselves to find someone who can cover for them while they’re gone.

If you choose to implement this type of policy, be sure to include language that requires the absent employee to let you know that Employee X will be working in their stead.

9) Allow Team Members To Self-Schedule

As we’ve mentioned throughout this article, no call, no show absences may happen for a wide variety of reasons, including:

• Work/personal life conflicts
• Emergencies
• Inclement weather
• Illness
• Coworker disputes

One way to address the first reason — work/personal life conflicts — is to allow your team members to choose the shifts they want to work and trade shifts with others (a.k.a. self-schedule) to create the best schedule for everyone involved.

Such freedom to choose goes a long way toward preventing absences of any kind from occurring in your business.

10) Try A Different Shift Structure

If your business is experiencing more than its fair share of absences, you may consider trying a different shift structure to see if that helps.

Options include:

• 4/10 schedule
• 2-2-3 schedule
• 9/80 schedule
• Flex schedule

Of course, these aren’t the only shift structures available and you can find more information about how to build a work schedule that’s right for your team and your business by checking out these articles from the Inch blog:

• 7 Types of Work Shifts and How Best to Schedule Them
• 7 Tips For Creating The Ideal Work Schedule For Your Team
• The Complete Guide To Shift Planning For Managers

Manage No Call, No Show Employees Better With Inch

In many ways, handling no call, no show employees actually starts before the first absence and depends a great deal on the policies you put in place and how you manage your team.

By extension, then, a powerful workforce management tool like Inch can help you organize and optimize your workflow and can play a major role in helping you handle and prevent no call, no shows.

We built Inch to simplify and streamline every aspect of your scheduling, task administration, time tracking, attendance management, and team organization.

Those features — along with cloud-based operation and broad device- and operating-system availability — can make handling no call, no show employees at work easier than ever before.

Inch even gives your team members the flexibility to clock in and out right from their mobile device. The app then goes on to notify you when an employee is tardy, forgets to clock in, or is altogether absent from work.

That’s powerful control in the palm of your hand.

For more free resources to help you run your business better, organize and schedule your team, improve attendance at work, and track and calculate labor costs, visit TryInch.com today.