Should you have a formal attendance policy? You may want to develop a policy for your own use, so that you can be sure you're treating employees fairly and similarly from incident to incident. However, we don't recommend that you put your policy in writing and give it to your employees, unless you have a large number of employees and absences have historically been a significant problem in your business. By putting a policy in writing, you can unwittingly create a contract between you and your employees.

This chart, based on figures from a CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey, shows the maximum and minimum cost per employee for unscheduled absences in small businesses and plainly shows that absenteeism can be expensive.

Since absenteeism costs you money, you should try to cut down on unnecessary absenteeism without violating any federal or state employment laws or causing morale problems. In order to do so, you must determine what the main causes of your company's particular absenteeism problems are. Only then can you try to address them in a constructive way.

You'll have trouble managing absenteeism costs if you can't track what those costs are and exactly where they are being incurred. You may need some kind of system in place to track employee absences, if your payroll records don't already do this.

Why have an absence policy? When employees are absent, it can hurt your business. This is especially true if your business has only a few employees. You want to make sure that employees are rarely absent so that you have few disruptions. An employee who is absent much of the time may not be a good investment of your employment dollars.

While the rules that govern each employee's conduct must reflect the kind of work your business does and the conditions under which it is performed, there are some basic rules that you'll see over and over again if you ask businesses about their work rules and policies.

Instead of having a lengthy, involved set of rules, you may opt for a simple list of rules and guidelines to make it clear to employees what kind of behavior you expect.

If you start a drug testing program, be sure it's fair, accurate, and legally defensible. Before setting up the program, you should consult with an attorney. In addition, you should be aware that some employers are legally required to set up drug testing programs.

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are a type of employee benefit designed to help employees and families of employees whose attendance and job performance are adversely affected by job stress, personal problems, or alcohol or substance abuse. Also, EAPs are generally incorporated into an employer's overall health promotion and wellness program and may be one of several methods used to reduce health care costs.

If you are a federal contractor (for $100,000 or more) or grantee, you must comply with the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988. Under this Act, you are required to:

You may want to consider having a written policy about drugs and alcohol in the workplace and you may be required to have one in certain instances. There are two types of policies you can have:

In order to educate your employees about your business's stance on substance abuse and any program you may have, you need to:

If your state law requires you to have a written policy on smoking, you'll need to create one. Because smoking is such a controversial subject, give your policy development the serious attention it deserves.

According to statistics, drug and alcohol abusers account for:

If you believe that smoking will result in more absenteeism or in higher benefit costs, you may not want to hire or keep employees who smoke.

Some states have laws that address smoking in the workplace. Those laws can be fairly far-reaching in some states. Click on your state on the map below to get information about:

If you are required by state law, or have decided on your own, to restrict smoking in the workplace, you may want to provide a designated smoking area to those employees who smoke. You could allow smoking at break times in:

Yes, you can restrict your customers from smoking. In some states, businesses such as restaurants must have nonsmoking areas. If you create your policy so that smoking is prohibited in certain areas on your premises or is completely banned, post your policy so that any visitors to your premises will see it and will comply.

Smoking in the workplace is a controversial issue. Most employers have a policy or rule about smoking that prohibits smoking in the workplace or limits it to certain designated areas. There are few employers left who allow unrestricted smoking in the workplace, and with good reason:

In addition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment, some states have similar (and sometimes more far-reaching) laws. The following states have laws regarding sexual harassment that apply to private employers. Remember that federal law is controlling, unless the state's law offers more protection to the employees, in which case the state law is controlling.

The best way to reduce your liability should harassment ever occur is to have policies and procedures in place that show that you did everything you could to prevent harassment from occurring. As an added bonus, having a policy against harassment will help you deal more effectively with any complaints you get from employees. Here's a "top ten" list of the essentials for preventing and dealing with harassment:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when one or more of the following is true:

Harassment complaints are a serious matter. Be sure to keep the following points in mind to appropriately address the claim:

An important part of preventing harassment claims and protecting your business is a written policy stating that harassment will not be tolerated. Remember, too, that your state may require you to have a sexual harassment policy. Any harassment policy should contain:

When people hear the word harassment, they usually think of sexual harassment. But sexual harassment is only one type of harassment, and it — along with all other forms of harassment — should not be allowed in your workplace.