A point system for employees is set up by a small employer who has decided that the crew needs a rule and that the rule should be a number. The decision that follows is which numbers, and most of the templates online hand over someone else's without saying what they do. This page is about setting them: what changing a weight, the threshold or the window does to how quickly an employee reaches the line, and how point systems for employees that look different are the same five numbers set differently. The free attendance policy template on this site states whichever the employer chooses from their own figures, with no account.
Start from the ratio, then choose the scale
The weights carry the policy's judgement about harm, and the ratio between them matters more than their size. This site's worked example uses 1 for an unexcused absence, 0.5 for a tardy and 2 for a no-call: a no-call is twice an absence and four times a tardy. An employer could double all three and double the threshold to 16, and nothing about the policy would change except the arithmetic getting harder to do in a lead's head. Choose the ratio first, as a statement of what the crew can absorb, and then pick the smallest whole or half numbers that carry it; the calculator on this site shows the same employee under either scale.
The threshold sets the count of each event that ends employment
With the weights fixed, the threshold decides how many of each event reach the line alone. At 8 on the worked example that is eight absences, sixteen tardies or four no-calls in the window; at 6 it is six, twelve and three; at 10 it is ten, twenty and five. Point systems for employees are usually compared by the threshold alone, which hides the weights: a threshold of 10 with a no-call at 3 is stricter on no-calls than a threshold of 8 with a no-call at 2. Set the threshold by asking how many no-calls in a year the crew can carry from one person, then check what that implies for tardies, and adjust a weight rather than the threshold if the implied count is wrong.
The window decides whether anyone ever gets back to zero
A rolling 12-month window lets each point age out on its own anniversary, so an employee who had a bad quarter and a clean nine months is near zero again by the next year. A calendar reset lets everyone start at zero on a date, which rewards the employee who was at 7 in December. No window means the threshold is reached by everyone eventually. Most small employers choose rolling and then find the spreadsheet does not apply it; that is the case for keeping the record somewhere that does. The Bureau of Labor Statistics table linked below publishes national absence rates, for an employer who wants the threshold to sit against a benchmark rather than a guess.
The events any point system must hold outside the count
However the five numbers are set, some absences score nothing by law: leave protected under the FMLA, absences that are a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, service absences under USERRA. The Department of Labor's and the EEOC's pages linked below describe each. A point system for employees is only as defensible as its handling of those, so the policy should say they are recorded, held at zero with the reason, and never counted, and the record should hold them that way. A system set up with the numbers right and the exceptions missing will produce the write-up that fails first.
Questions people ask about point system for employees
What is a good point system for employees?
One whose weights carry a clear ratio (this site's example: a no-call at 2, an absence at 1, a tardy at 0.5), whose threshold implies a count of each event the crew can actually carry (four no-calls, eight absences, sixteen tardies in twelve months at a threshold of 8), and whose window is rolling so points age out. The free template states it from the employer's figures.
How do point systems for employees differ from each other?
Only in the five numbers: the three weights, the threshold and the window. An occurrence policy is all weights at 1; a no-fault policy is the same numbers with only legal exceptions excused. Compare two systems by the count of each event that reaches the line, not by the threshold alone.
Can I set up a point system without software?
Yes: write the five numbers down (the free attendance policy template prints them), score each event by them at the roll call, and work the total in the window with the free points calculator. RollCallWorks Pro keeps the events and totals against every employee so the window is applied without anyone remembering to.