You’ve seen it before. One person calls in “sick” the morning of a packed shift, another strolls in 30 minutes late again, and now you’re scrambling to cover.
Without a clear employee attendance policy, it’s chaos. Inconsistent attendance can become a routine, and before you know it, employee absences start to drag down team morale and productivity.
If you’re looking to fix the problem without micromanaging every clock-in, a structured employee attendance policy template can save you a lot of headaches.
This blog provides exactly that: a ready-to-use, legally aware, and practical template for any company size. Let’s dive right in.
Free Employee Attendance Policy Templates for Clear Workplace Guidelines
What Are Employee Attendance Policy Template Templates?
An employee attendance policy template is a pre-formatted document that helps you with the following:
- Outlines a company’s rules and expectations around employee attendance and punctuality
- Includes clear guidelines on scheduled shifts, reporting absences, and time off requests
- Explains how to handle unexcused absences, excessive absenteeism, and attendance violations
- Define terms like excused absences, job abandonment, early departures, and consecutive days of absence
- Reference compliance with federal laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to help HR teams stay aligned
Templates are commonly used to create consistent documentation in employee handbooks, HR manuals, and internal policies. They also support the progressive discipline process, including verbal warnings, written warnings, and final written warnings.
🔍 Did You Know? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the national absence rate to be 3.2% in 2024, up from 2023’s absence rate of 3.1%. The leading causes of absence are injury and illness.
What Makes a Good Employee Attendance Policy Template
An effective employee attendance policy template is clear, specific, and compliant with legal requirements. It defines expectations for regular attendance, outlines how to report unexpected absences, and establishes rules for adhering to scheduled shifts.
The key elements of a good employee attendance policy template include:
- Definitions of excused vs. unexcused absences
- Rules around scheduled shift times and work hours
- Reporting absences and advance notice requirements
- Guidelines for time off requests, jury duty, and religious observances
- Process for handling excessive sick leave, early departures, and unexpected absences
- Tracking rules via clock-in, clock-out apps, or attendance tracking systems
- Steps in a progressive discipline policy (e.g., verbal warning, written warning, final written warning)
- Policies for exempt and non-exempt employees
- References to federal laws, including the FMLA and the ADA
- Notes on doctor’s note requirements and reasonable accommodations
- Flexibility for alternative work arrangements and remote attendance systems
- Clear procedures for addressing attendance issues on a case-by-case basis
Employee Attendance Policy Template Options Worth Saving
If you want to skip the struggle with blank pages and get straight to implementation, these ready-made employee attendance policy templates are a solid starting point. Let’s dig in:
1. Company Policy Template
’s Company Policy Template provides a centralized space to write, edit, and manage policies. You can link related resources, tag team members, and keep your attendance policy, paid time rules, and FMLA compliance notes all in one place.
If you’re looking for an even more integrated solution, has got you covered!
For teams ready to track attendance without the clunky spreadsheets, Timesheets is a great feature. It offers an integrated way to manage employee attendance infractions, time logs, approvals, and reporting, right from the platform you already use for projects.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Draft and store policy documents in a collaborative document
- Tag HR leads for quick and effective reviews and updates
- Get full version control for transparent policy changes
🔑 Ideal for: Teams who want one straightforward workspace for policies, tasks, and updates.
📑 Case study: RevPartners slashed service delivery time by 64% using ’s templated client delivery playbooks. By turning complex, repeatable workflows into structured templates, they eliminated the chaos of manual handoffs and scattered communication.
Tasks are now auto-assigned, notify the right people at the right time, and track progress in real time. This shift reduced the time spent organizing work and ensured nothing fell through the cracks.
2. Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures Template
The Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures Template is a comprehensive workflow tool designed for organizing and managing detailed employee policies.
If your shared calendar tracks work hours, this employee handbook template locks in the expectations behind them. It helps you figure out how shifts are defined, how delays are handled, and what counts as excused time off.
Use it to make attendance policies part of a broader, enforceable framework that’s clear, accessible, and adaptable.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Assign tasks to team members for writing or reviewing content
- Create a safe working environment by ensuring employees know all policies
- Manage employee handbooks, policies, and different procedures
- Use status tags to track revisions of time and attendance rules
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams building full employee handbooks that go beyond attendance and include policies on PTO, payroll, and procedures.
🔍 Did You Know? Almost half (47%) of all overtime is used to cover employee absences. Not only does that drive up labor costs, but it burns out the rest of the team.
3. Employee Handbook Template
The Employee Handbook Template from is designed for fast onboarding and smooth internal communication. HR teams can plug in their policies, edit sections in real-time, and make updates quickly.
The template includes pre-built sections, such as Work Hours and Communication Guidelines, for detailing expectations around punctuality, remote work, and leave.
With a built-in table of contents and team collaboration tools, it keeps everything clear and easy to access. For companies that want consistency and speed, this document gets the job done without fluff.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Drop in and edit the attendance rules under Work Hours
- Use real-time comments to resolve attendance questions fast
- Add nested pages for PTO, tardiness, and scheduling details
🔑 Ideal for: HR managers who want to turn dry handbook content into an interactive document that’s easy to maintain and share.
Speaking of ’s functionality, a user says:
4. Employee Handbook Advanced Template
The Employee Handbook (Advanced) Template by goes far beyond basic policy documentation. It’s built for HR teams that need structure and scalability.
You can assign tasks, track deadlines, and manage the entire handbook creation process like a project, with customizable views like List, Calendar, and Gantt. It also supports real-time collaboration and automated workflows, which means less micromanagement and faster rollouts.
Additionally, Docs lets you create, collaborate on, and connect documents directly to your workflows. From policy drafting to live editing and real-time feedback, you can turn static documents into actionable plans. Assign tasks, add custom widgets, embed media, and keep everything in a centralized place.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Highlight sections and tag new joinees on questions to resolve doubts quickly
- Set up a Calendar or Gantt view to visually manage rollout timelines for attendance policy updates and related training
- Make the handbook engaging with GIFs, charts, and other visuals
🔑 Ideal for: Growing teams or organizations with multiple departments needing an engaging and well-managed employee handbook that scales with them.
5. Employee Manual Template
The Employee Manual Template by is designed for companies that want an engaging document, not a static PDF that collects dust. This template lets you create a manual that evolves with your team. It blends rich formatting, task tracking, and automation so that policies stay current and everyone always has access to the latest version.
To support this kind of flexibility, integrates powerful features that turn your manual into a dynamic resource.
’s AI Knowledge Management turns your entire workspace into a searchable brain. From policies to wikis, it uses AI to deliver instant answers across all Docs, tasks, and comments—no more digging. You can import old files, manage version history, and lock down permissions, making your internal knowledge base smarter and easier to manage.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Outline expectations with organized sections and milestones
- Track updates with custom statuses to keep attendance policy revisions organized and visible
- Ensure that attendance policies align with legal requirements and company standards, and update them as laws change
🔑 Ideal for: HR and ops teams that want an easily editable, workflow-integrated manual that reflects current processes and scales with organizational changes.
💡 Pro Tip: Use automated timesheets with approval workflows to lock hours instantly and avoid last-minute payroll errors. This ensures that you no longer have to chase down missed punches or deal with messy spreadsheets.
6. HR Handbook Template
The HR Handbook Template by is designed for teams that need a centralized, always-accessible guide that covers everything from leave allowances to employee conduct.
It’s especially useful for HR departments managing rapid growth or multiple locations. Unlike traditional handbooks that are static and forgotten, this HR policy template lives inside your workflow.
You can organize content with tables, track edits, and instantly share updates with employees.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Outline policies with pre-structured sections and doc formatting
- Categorize content with Custom Fields for fast navigation
- Assign owners for specific handbook sections
- Collaborate with team leads using shared comments and tasks
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams creating or updating handbooks to improve company-wide transparency, reduce manual back-and-forth, and keep everyone aligned on current policies.
📮 Insight: 12% of workers say full remote work is ideal, while 48% prefer hybrid setups. However, for collaboration to thrive in remote or hybrid environments, you need the right tools.
As the everything app for work, eliminates silos. Keep your tasks, documents, chats, and projects centralized and searchable within a single workspace, so teams stay aligned—no matter where they work!
💫 Real Results: STANLEY Security saw an 80% increase in teamwork satisfaction thanks to ’s seamless collaboration tools.
7. Policy Memo Template
The Policy Memo Template by is designed for managers who need to quickly and clearly roll out internal policy changes.
If your company’s attendance policy changes often, this template provides a reliable format to clearly and quickly issue new rules. It’s built for clarity and structure, keeping shift guidelines, time-off rules, and attendance expectations all in one place.
You can tag people, set deadlines, and track acknowledgments right inside the memo. Unlike traditional shared calendar tools, this format works well for documenting and enforcing policy decisions.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Create uniform memos with customizable sections
- Tag stakeholders directly in policy drafts for review
- Attach shift schedules or leave forms right into the memo
- Use reminders to follow up on policy acknowledgments
🔑 Ideal for: Team leads and HR managers who need to communicate policy updates or new expectations to staff without confusion or scattered documentation.
🔍 Did You Know? U.S. businesses lose $225.8 billion a year to employee absenteeism. That’s $1,685 per employee, mostly due to unplanned absences, shift scrambling, and lost productivity.
8. Company Culture Template
’s Company Culture Template is perfect for teams who want to align on more than just deadlines. This template is a structured, editable space to document your organization’s core values, goals, and team expectations.
The template gives you project-style control over culture-building initiatives, featuring custom fields, shared documents, whiteboards, and real-time editing. Whether you’re scaling quickly or revisiting internal norms, this template gives your culture strategy actual structure.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Document company values, mission, and expectations
- Assign team norms like punctuality or shift coverage as tasks
- Use Custom Fields to track adoption of attendance-related behavior
- Set review reminders to update policies based on feedback or performance
🔑 Ideal for: Growing teams who want to define company identity in practical terms and keep everyone, from HR to leadership, aligned on shared values and expectations.
9. Time Off Request Template
The Time Off Request Template from is designed to remove the friction from leave management. No more scattered emails, missed approvals, or last-minute surprises. This is a fully interactive system that allows employees to request paid time off, track status changes, and receive notifications.
The setup of this time-off request template includes custom statuses such as Approved, In Review, and Rejected. It provides fields for tracking start and end dates, request types, and even digital signatures.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Submit and approve time off requests in a structured form
- Automatically notify team leads when a request is submitted
- View all pending, approved, and denied requests in organized dashboards
- Keep a searchable log of employee leave history
🔑 Ideal for: Teams that need a clear, automated system for managing employee absences, ensuring approvals are consistent, and keeping scheduling conflicts in check.
10. Excuse for Absence Letter Template
The Excuse Letter Template by gives employees and managers a polished, ready-to-use format for formally communicating employee absences. Whether it’s for medical leave, a personal emergency, or jury duty, this document keeps it clean and compliant.
The template helps standardize the reporting of absences. This makes it easier for HR to track and store documentation in the employee’s file, ensuring consistency with the attendance policy.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Fill in absence details quickly with a guided document format
- Include reason, date, and any required supporting documents
- Customize letters for school, work, or personal use
- Store submitted letters in a shared folder
🔑 Ideal for: HR departments or team leads who want to formalize the absence management process and avoid vague or inconsistent documentation when an unexcused absence occurs.
💡 Pro Tip: Build a quick-reference checklist version for managers dealing with attendance problems. Policies are great, but nobody wants to flip through 12 pages mid-shift. Create a condensed checklist of key actions for team leads to use when attendance issues arise.
11. Out of Office Coverage Plan Template
The Out of Office Coverage Plan Template from is your safety net for when team members step away. It helps you outline task delegation, timelines, and responsibilities without losing momentum.
With dedicated views like Out of Office Calendar and prior Approval Process, everyone knows who’s covering what and when. You can track request details, such as leave type, days of leave, and any pending tasks to be delegated, all in one streamlined system.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Assign responsibilities to backup team members
- Use a shared calendar to map out coverage timelines
- Set reminders and follow-ups tied to key dates
🔑 Ideal for: Managers and team leads who want seamless operations during planned absences without the usual last-minute scrambles or dropped tasks.
12. Out of Office Coverage Plan Task Template
The Out of Office Coverage Plan Task Template by is perfect for day-to-day shift planning and keeping project work uninterrupted when team members are away.
This task-level version is more granular, letting you break down responsibilities by specific deliverables, assign backups, and track progress using dependencies and priority tags.
It works well for short absences, unexpected time off, or rotating shifts where coverage needs to change frequently.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Assign backup owners to key attendance-related tasks
- Use Calendar view to schedule check-ins and deadlines
- Automate reminders for upcoming out-of-office dates
🔍 Did You Know? The average productivity loss associated with an unplanned absence is the highest at 36.6%, while the average productivity loss related to a planned absence is 22.6%.
13. PTO Calendar Template
The PTO Calendar Template by simplifies tracking who’s in, who’s out, and when. Designed for HR teams and managers, this template offers multiple views, including a PTO database, request form, and a calendar that shows upcoming leaves at a glance.
With Custom Fields for PTO reason, approver, and days off, you get full visibility into team availability and time-off requests without manual follow-up.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Approve, reject, or review requests with status updates
- View all employee leaves in a single shared calendar
- Collect time off details through a request form
- Centralize and manage PTO records for auditing and planning
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams managing a hybrid or distributed workforce that needs a clean, trackable, and shareable solution for handling paid time off and unexpected absences.
14. Employee Schedule Template
’s Employee Schedule Template is made for teams juggling shift coverage, availability, and workload balance—all without the spreadsheet chaos. Whether you’re managing hourly staff or cross-functional teams, this template helps you plan smarter.
It includes dedicated views such as Weekly Schedule, Employee Capacity, and Status Board, along with fields to track labor costs, hourly rates, and shift managers.
You also get built-in time tracking and automation features to avoid overscheduling and make scheduled shifts easier to manage.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Plan shifts based on employee availability and capacity
- Assign tasks tied to specific time blocks or weekly goals
- Track labor costs and flagged scheduling issues
- Use visual boards to review and adjust schedules at a glance
🔑 Ideal for: Team leads and HR managers who need to keep shift planning, time off, and daily task coverage under control, especially when juggling multiple departments or rotating schedules.
🎐 Bonus Tip: Create linked SOPs for edge cases. Instead of stuffing every “what if” into the main document, link to short SOPs for complex cases, such as extended medical leave, accommodations, or FMLA requests. This keeps the core doc clean but still thorough.
15. Maternity Leave Template
’s Maternity Leave Template takes the guesswork out of preparing for extended time away from work. It helps expecting team members organize key dates, delegate responsibilities, and communicate leave details with minimal stress. So you can enjoy time with the new member in your life without having to worry about work contingencies!
Built on a whiteboard and task system, the template supports milestone tracking, workload transitions, and planning for return to work.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Map out key leave dates and return plans
- Organize checklists for pre-leave and post-leave planning
- Keep stakeholders informed with real-time updates
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams and expecting employees who want a structured, no-hassle way to manage maternity leave without disrupting team operations.
16. Attendance Sheet Template
The Attendance Sheet Template by is a simple but powerful tool for logging employee attendance. Although it is built for school attendance, it can easily be customized to flag unexcused absences and review trends over time.
It includes Custom Fields like lesson of the day, classroom name, and email, which you can rename to “Department Name, Team, and so on. This makes it just as effective for training programs as it is for daily workforce attendance.
Whether you’re monitoring scheduled shift participation or late arrivals, this attendance sheet template gives you clear, searchable visibility into what’s happening on the ground.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Record attendance with one-click status updates (Present, Absent, Late, Scheduled)
- Collect contact details and assignment notes for each individual
- Visualize attendance logs through calendar or list views
- Spot attendance patterns and trigger follow-ups if needed
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams, instructors, or team leads who want a fast, organized way to track attendance, flag attendance issues, and maintain clean records without switching tools.
💡 Pro Tip: Use rostering software with real-time availability updates and conflict alerts to fill shifts faster and avoid scheduling overlaps, especially during peak seasons or staff shortages.
17. greytHR Attendance Policy Template
The Attendance Policy Template by greytHR is a formal, HR-compliant document. It’s perfect for organizations that need clarity on employee absences, scheduled shifts, loss of pay (LOP), and disciplinary procedures.
Offered as a downloadable Word document, it outlines attendance tracking rules, late arrival consequences, and approved excused absences under a progressive penalty system. The policy also includes specifics on job abandonment, clock-in compliance, and what counts as an unexcused absence.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Communicate attendance rules and LOP conditions
- Set up thresholds for late arrivals and early departures
- Apply a progressive discipline process tied to infractions
- Define how to handle FMLA, unscheduled absences, and medical leave
🔑 Ideal for: HR professionals or operations leads who need a plug-and-play attendance policy template that aligns with local law and internal procedures.
✨ Bonus Tip: Add real-world scenarios to your policy docs. Abstract rules don’t stick. Include examples like “What counts as an excused absence?” or “What happens if someone no-calls for two consecutive shifts?” to make expectations clearer and easier to enforce.
18. Workable Employee Attendance Policy Template
Workable’s Employee Attendance Policy Template is a well-rounded document designed to handle tardiness, absenteeism, job abandonment, and progressive discipline.
While shared calendars might show who’s working when, this template explains why and how, such as how to report absences, what qualifies as tardiness, and when time away becomes a problem.
If your organization relies on scheduling tools, this policy adds structure behind the scenes, allowing attendance to be managed with consistency.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Define terms like absenteeism, tardiness, and presenteeism clearly
- Set up protocols for reporting absences and requesting paid time off
- Establish consequences for chronic absenteeism or no-call-no-shows
- Equip managers with tools to handle attendance issues constructively
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams or business owners who want a comprehensive, people-first employee attendance policy template that enforces accountability.
💡 Pro Tip: Use version-controlled templates with approval history. Policy creep is real—track who changed what and when. Use Docs for version history and access controls so HR always works from the latest version.
19. Sample Employee Attendance Policy Template by Forbes.com
This Attendance Policy Template by Forbes is designed for HR teams that need a ready-to-fill framework with straightforward rules around absences, tardiness, and disciplinary action. It outlines basic expectations, from working hours and grace periods to job abandonment triggers and requirements for a doctor’s note.
The structure is plug-and-play, making it ideal for customizing by inserting values for grace minutes, notification cutoffs, and disciplinary thresholds. It also includes a built-in employee acknowledgement form to document compliance formally.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Define clear rules for excused vs. unexcused absences
- Customize thresholds for termination, warnings, and disciplinary meetings
- Set structured leave protocols for sick days, vacations, and early departures
- Include a signed acknowledgment to secure employee agreement on attendance terms
🔑 Ideal for: Small to mid-sized businesses that want a no-fuss attendance framework with room to add their own specifics and roll it out across teams immediately.
20. AIHR Attendance Policy Template
AIHR’s Attendance Policy Template brings clarity, accountability, and a legally aware foundation to your company’s attendance management. It’s crafted for HR teams who want to move beyond vague rules and build a scalable, enforceable policy.
The template includes legal considerations, time-tracking methods, disciplinary paths, and even predictive workforce analytics to help identify absentee trends. It also supports employee well-being by integrating counseling access and flexible response frameworks.
⭐ Why you’ll love this template:
- Track attendance via electronic systems, time clocks, or mobile apps
- Implement tiered disciplinary steps, including PIPs and termination triggers
- Maintain confidential records managed by HR with supervisor-level access
- Integrate FMLA and ADA compliance with documented support paths
🔑 Ideal for: HR leaders who need a formalized, compliance-ready attendance framework with flexibility baked in.
Build, Track, and Enforce Your Attendance Policy with
Creating a solid employee attendance policy doesn’t just save you from no-shows—it sets a clear tone for accountability, consistency, and team collaboration.
Whether you’re managing a small team or scaling across departments, having the right template can make your policy rollout quick and stress-free.
With these 20 ready-made attendance policy templates, you can define expectations, streamline approvals, and maintain compliance without starting from scratch.
Sign up for today to access templates, automate attendance tracking, and turn your policies into real, trackable workflows.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
