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                Transit Employee
      		Attendance Management

		Volume 2: Transit Attendance
		Management Information System

		Final Report
		June 1 986

		Prepared by
		Littleton C. MacDorman and Dianne S. Schwager
		MacDorman & Associates
		4808 North 29th Street
		Arlington, Virginia 22207



		Prepared for
		Urban Mass Transportation Administration
		U.S. Department of Transportation
		400 Seventh Street SW
		Washington, D.C. 20590



		Distributed in Cooperation with
		Technology Sharing Program
		U.S. Department of Transportation
		Washington, D.C. 20590



		DOT-T-89-03




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


     This report has been prepared as a modification of the 
report entitled "Training Workbook" prepared for the 
Absenteeism Reduction Demonstration Project for the Port 
Authority of Allegheny County (PAT) and sponsored by the Urban 
Mass Transportation Administration.  The project benefited 
from the contributions of the project contractors Littleton C. 
MacDorman; Templar Associates, Ltd; and Peat, Marwick, 
Mitchell & Co. who conducted the previous research under the 
direction of PAT and the project steering committee composed 
of representatives from PAT, Central Ohio Transit Authority, 
Metropolitan Dade County Transportation Administration, 
Tri-County Metropolitan District of Oregon, and the Urban Mass 
Transportation Administration.

     This project and the Absenteeism Reduction Demonstration 
Project were funded through the Urban Mass Transportation 
Administration under the direction of Philip G. Hughes and 
Alice J. Royal.  This report was produced by MacDorman & 
Associates under subcontract to Cambridge Systematics, Inc.


		TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION							PAGE

I.  INTRODUCTION		 			    1

II. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT		 		    3

    Transit Attendance Information and Historical Practices 3
    Concern for Absence Reduction and Improved Information  3

III. ATTENDANCE TERMS AND DEFINITIONS		 	    9

     Absence Definitions and Categories		 	    9
     Attendance Data					   15
     Measures of Absence				   16

IV. ATTENDANCE REPORTS					   23

    Attendance Management: Uses and Concerns		   23
    Model Attendance Reports				   23

V.  INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS			   39

    Background: Current Attendance Recordkeeping	   39
    TAMIS Overview					   40


			LIST OF EXHIBITS

EXHIBIT
NUMBER							PAGE
II.1   Extent of Operator Absence			    6
 
II.2   Increase in Absence				    7

III.1  Absence Terms					   11

III.2  Illustrative Categorization of Absence Definitions  12

III.3  Example of Regular Operator Absence Rate 
	Calculation					   18

III.4  Example of Extraboard Operator Absence Rate 
       Calculation		           		   19

III.5  Example of Administrative Employee Absence Rate 
	Calculation					   20

IV.1   Attendance Reports: Users and Concerns		   24

IV.2   Employee Absence History (Option A)		   27

IV.3   Employee Absence History (Option B)		   28

IV.4   Group Supervisor Policy Absence Report		   30

IV.5   Group Supervisor Corrective Action Report	   31

IV.6   Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence 
       Report						   32

IV.7   Best and Worst Attenders Report			   33

IV.8   Worst Day Absence Report				   35

IV.9   Absence Distribution Report			   36

IV.10  Absence Trend Report				   37

IV.ll  Daily Total Operator Absence Rate		   38

V.1    Operator's Data Card				   41

V.2    Employee Attendance Record			   42

V.3    Prototype Transit Attendance Management Information 
       System						   44



			I. INTRODUCTION

	This document presents a prototype Transit Attendance 
Management Information System (TAMIS), which can serve as a 
model in developing monitoring and reporting procedures to 
improve the management of employee attendance and to mitigate 
the effects of absence.  TAMIS provides a basis for more 
consistent, comprehensive, and straightforward collection, 
reporting, and utilization of absence data on individual 
employees, groups of employees, and the entire work force of a 
transit property.  Shortcomings in employee attendance 
management as generally practiced at transit properties are 
identified and discussed to demonstrate the uses of TAMIS.

	This report includes the following sections:

  . II.  Background and Context. This section discusses the 
         importance of managing employee attendance and the 
         need for improved information to support this effort.
 
  . III. Terms and Definitions. This section defines employee 
         absence and offers some absence categories that can be
         used to segregate, simplify, and better utilize 
         information.  It also defines data requirements and 
         measures that are used to report on attendance 
         patterns.
 
  . IV  Attendance Reports- This section suggests ways to report 
        data on employee absences  for individuals and groups of 
        employees.  It discusses how these data may be used by 
        transit properties to improve attendance management 
        practices and encourage more frequent report 
        preparation.
 
  . V.  Information System Requirements. The final section 
        discusses current attendance recordkeeping and provides 
        general information on determining the structure of a data 
         base for more effective management of employee attendance.

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		II. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

	This section provides a background discussion on the 
historical attendance data collection and reporting practices 
of transit properties and the factors leading to the current 
interest in improving attendance management and reducing 
employee absence.

TRANSIT ATTENDANCE INFORMATION: HISTORICAL PRACTICES


	An organizations ability to manage employee attendance 
is largely determined by the quality, timeliness, and accuracy 
of its attendance information system.  Although some transit 
properties have developed highly sophisticated and effective 
attendance information systems, significant opportunities for 
improvement exist at many properties.  Several factors have 
affected the development of transit attendance information 
systems and caused these systems to vary in sophistication, 
consistency, economy of terminology, usefulness, and accuracy.

	Some problems with the attendance information systems 
common to transit properties are:

  . There are too many types of absence defined and too 
    many terms for those types.  Many terms are redundant 
    and often not clearly defined or understood by the 
    recorders or users of the data.  The abundance of 
    terms makes monitoring and managing attendance 
    difficult.
 
  . Little or no data is recorded in many absence 
    categories, rendering them relatively meaningless for 
    data analysis and attendance management.
 
  . Categories of absence may be left out of the 
    information system and monitored only informally.
 
  . Often there are several absence information systems at 
    a single transit property, each using different 
    absence categories.  The terminology and definitions 
    used by various departments and divisions may not be 
    consistent.
 
  . Supervisors or timekeepers who record absence often 
    have unique methods of coding data on employee 
    attendance cards; standardization would improve data 
    quality and insure consistency.
 
  . The use of manual recordkeeping limits and often 
    prevents the use of attendance data within the transit 
    property.  In particular, manual procedures preclude 
    system-wide analysis of attendance performance and 
    absence trends and patterns of individuals or groups.

CONCERN FOR ABSENCE REDUCTION AND IMPROVED INFORMATION

	Numerous factors have led to transit properties current 
interest in improving attendance management and reducing 
absence.  The most important of these factors is transit 
properties goal to provide public transportation, in 
accordance with a published schedule, in a cost-effective 
manner.  Absence and tardiness by employees decrease the 
likelihood of attaining this goal since they

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are likely to cause transit service to be late, missed, and 
generally viewed by the public as unreliable.  Other factors 
that reinforce the current interest in improving employee 
attendance management and reducing absence include:

  . concern for the increasing costs of employee benefits; 
 
  . greater fiscal conservatism and interest in cost savings; 
 
  . improved technology for managing information.


 Each of these factors is discussed below. 

Greater Fiscal Conservatism and Interest in Cost Savings

	Anticipated reductions in federal funding over the past 
several years and greater fiscal conservatism at other levels 
of government have resulted in heightened interest in 
containing and reducing costs to preserve transit service 
levels.  Labor-related costs are the largest single category 
of transit expenses, typically ranging from 60 to 80 percent 
of total operating budgets.  Transit properties seeking 
savings opportunities will focus on areas where the greatest 
potential for savings exists.  As labor is such an important 
cost for transit properties, an area that has been identified 
by many transit properties as offering savings is the cost 
associated with employee absence.

	In 1980, a report titled The Study of Operator 
Absenteeism and Workers Compensation Trends in the Mass 
Transportation Industry was prepared by the Port Authority of 
Allegheny County (PAT) with the assistance of an UMTA grant.  
This report brought national attention to the magnitude of the 
transit industry absenteeism problem, indicating that the 
average vehicle operator was absent 28.57 days in 1978, or 
11.9 percent of the average annual scheduled workdays, not 
including vacations and holidays.

	Absenteeism in the transit industry, particularly among 
vehicle operators, is widespread, with absence rates somewhere 
between two and three times those generally found in American 
business and industry.  The major cost categories affected by 
absenteeism in transit properties are:

  . direct costs specifically associated with absence, 
    including payroll costs to the absent employee for 
    sick leave, injury on duty, and other excused absence, 
    such as jury duty or funeral leave.
 
  . identifiable indirect costs, such as increased 
    overtime premiums, guarantees, and allowances, as well 
    as increased fringe benefit costs of substitute 
    employees, which are discussed below.
 
  . administrative costs, which are difficult to measure 
    but are affected by absenteeism, such as recruiting, 
    hiring, training, accounting, dispatching, and 
    maintenance.
_______________
   This report is cited extensively below with respect to 
   the estimated costs and associated impacts of absenteeism 
   on the transit industry in the United States.

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The top figure in Exhibit II.1 illustrates the components of 
operator absence; the lower figure illustrates the nationwide 
implications of operator absence.

	The total identifiable costs of operator absence 
estimated in the 1980 study were approximately $187 million, 
or $1,780 per operator, in 1978. Other absence, although 
proportionately lower, may add an estimated one-third more to 
these costs.  As indicated in Exhibit II.1, additional 
administrative and payroll costs could not be estimated.

	In addition to these cost impacts, employee absence 
affects transit service quality and workplace environment.  
More specifically, employee absence often:

  . reduces service reliability through inability to fill 
    the schedule due to operator absence or a substitute 
    operators lack of familiarity with the route.
 
  . diminishes employee morale.  High absence levels 
    require operators to work the extra-board, which is 
    generally (although not universally) disliked. While 
    the views of operators varied widely, the 1980 PAT 
    study indicated that those who disapproved of their 
    coworkers absence expressed sincere frustration, 
    viewing absenteeism as disregard for the occupation of 
    bus operator and for the service offered to the 
    public.

	Information about transit industry absence in 1981-82 
indicated some mitigation of the problem, possibly a result of 
the high rate of unemployment throughout the country.  The 
problem has not been entirely alleviated, however, and absence 
rates are still very high.  At many properties, employee 
absence continues to elude managements efforts to improve 
attendance.

Concern for the Increasing Costs of Employee Benefits

	Many organizations within and outside the transit 
industry have become more sensitive to the costs and uses of 
employee benefits, since benefits affect the total cost per 
employee of an organization as well as the need for substitute 
employees.  As these costs have increased with increased sick 
leave used and increased medical costs for injured employees, 
many organizations are seeking to reduce the costs of 
benefits, within the provisions of their labor agreement.

	Employee benefits for paid leave and compensation for 
job-related injuries represent a significant portion of the 
costs of employee benefits at most transit properties.  The 
costs associated with these benefits have risen substantially 
in the recent past.  Exhibit II.2 indicates that between 1974 
and 1978, the two principal categories of absence studies 
(sick leave and job-related injury) increased by an estimated 
24 and 149 percent, respectively.  During this same time 
period, the costs associated with these absences increased 54 
and 238 percent.

Improved Technology for Managing Information

	The availability of improved computer technology for 
managing information reasonably cost-effectively and 
conveniently, has allowed organizations to consider new 
approaches to monitoring and evaluating organizational 
performance, including the performance of individuals and 
groups of employees.

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SOURCE: Port Authority of Allegheny County, The Study of 
Operator Absenteeism and Workers Compensation Trends 
in the Mass Transportation Industry.

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-7-


	Many organizations are centralizing and automating their 
recordkeeping practices and dispensing with outdated manual 
records.  As discussed above, transit properties attendance 
information collection and recording practices have been often 
characterized by decentralized manual methods of recording 
data resulting in inconsistent data and general 
inaccessibility to information as manual reports are 
cumbersome to summarize for individuals or groups of 
employees.  The availability of improved technology is 
allowing transit properties to improve data management and the 
usefulness of information to managers, supervisors and 
employees.

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		III. ATTENDANCE TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

	An important objective of this document is to establish 
attendance terms and definitions that can be used by the 
transit industry.  This includes:

  . absence definitions and categories - types of absence 
    along with an approach for grouping absence into 
    categories;
 
  . attendance data - data that need to be collected and 
    retained for use in measuring and reporting attendance 
    performance; and
 
  . measures of absence - measures that can be used to 
    report attendance information on individuals and 
    groups of employees.

Clarifying how absence is defined will assist transit 
management in better monitoring and managing employee 
attendance.  More meaningful comparisons can be made between 
transit properties with respect to employee absence rates and 
trends.  The terminology and definitions proposed here are 
incorporated in the TAMIS reports discussed in the next 
section.

ABSENCE DEFINITIONS AND CATEGORIES

	As mentioned in the previous section of this report, the 
current data collection practices of many transit properties 
are flawed in two ways.

  . Incomplete Data. Categories of absence may be left out 
    and only informally monitored, leaving attendance 
    information incomplete.
 
  . Superfluous Data Categories. Second, there are too 
    many different terms for the various categories of 
    absence, that have evolved over time generally from 
    past practices, payroll requirements, and contractual 
    terminology.  Many of the terms are redundant and 
    often they are not clearly defined or understood by 
    the recorders or users of the data.

One of the objectives of this document is to overcome both of 
these deficiencies by beginning with the very broadest 
possible base for defining employee absence and then clearly 
defining a limited number of distinct categories or types of 
absence to structure an attendance information system.

	Employee absence can be most broadly defined as "any time 
during which employees do not perform the responsibilities of 
their position."  The employee may be at the place of 
employment performing a different job for a designated time 
period or may be at any other location for any non-work 
purpose.  The definition serves as the foundation for 
comprehensive recordkeeping on employee attendance by 
considering all instances when employees are not performing 
their designated responsibilities.

	By beginning with this broad definition, the attendance 
information system can be used not only to monitor and manage 
absence of individuals, which is the traditional use of these 
data, but also to:

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  . analyze workforce requirements;
 
  . more accurately assess the costs and use of labor to 
    the transit property;
 
  . more realistically plan for future workforce needs, and
 
  . support the collective bargaining process.
 
	This broad definition of absence is divided into 
meaningful categories so that the data can be used by transit 
properties.  The purpose of creating a limited number of 
categories is to aggregate detailed classifications of absence 
into more manageable groupings that managers may use for 
planning, management and control purposes.  In Exhibit III.1, 
absence terms are identified in six categories, with an 
additional category for tardiness. None of the detail of the 
data need be lost, since each major absence category can 
include more detailed types of information, if needed, for 
specific employment policies or labor contract provisions, 
payroll timekeeping, or for supervision of individual 
employees.  Exhibit III-2 presents the categories of absence 
and tardiness together with sample codes that can be included 
in each category.  Specific codes may be unique to different 
transit properties.

Contractual Absence

	All of the items in this category refer to absences 
allowed by management policy or the labor agreement.  
Consequently, the specific types and number of days of absence 
allowed vary from property to property.  Most of the absences 
are scheduled in advance.  Because employees may incur 
absences of 25 or more days per year in this category, it is 
important that data on these absences be used for planning 
work schedules and extra operator assignments.  The following 
types of absences may be defined within this category and 
coded as follows:

  . C1 vacation
 
  . C2 holiday
 
  . C3 birthday
 
  . C4 jury duty
 
  . C5 military leave
 
  . C6 union business
 
  . C7 safety meeting
 
  . C8 bereavement leave

		
	In an ideal scheduling environment, vacation time, as 
well as other absences in this category, would be evenly 
distributed across all days of the year.  However, because the 
demand is seldom constant, it is only by tracking this 
category of absence that long-term patterns of contractual 
absence can be determined and more accurate staffing decisions 
made.

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			EXHIBIT III.1

			ABSENCE TERMS


		SIX CATEGORIES OF ABSENCE

  			. Contractual Absence
  			. Sick Leave
  			. Injury on Duty
  			. Management-Requested Absence
  			. Personal Absence
 		 	. Non-Scheduled Work

		TARDINESS 

____________________________

  Tardiness is important to the transit industry because 
  service must be delivered on schedule.  Generally, each 
  incident of tardiness is recorded for discipline purposes and 
  identified as lost time for reasons of personal absence.

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			Exhibit III.2

	ILLUSTRATIVE CATEGORIZATION OF ABSENCE DEFINITIONS
	

		
Contractual	                  Management-Requested
Absence			          Absence

C1 vacation		          M1 suspensions
C2 holiday			  M2 held off
C3 birthday		          M3 management excused
C4 jury duty		             day off
C5 military leave
C6 union business
C7 safety meeting
C8 bereavement leave


Personal Absence	       Non-Scheduled Work

P1 personal business		  W1  temporary transfer
P2 personal court appearance	  W2  light duty
P3 jail term			  W3  training or retraining
P4 late and did not work	  W4  tardy and other work
P5 absent without leave (AWOL)	  W5  acting dispatcher
P6 illness in the family	  W6  acting instructor
P7 transportation-related problem W7  acting route foreman
P8 child care-related problem	  W8  traded routes for the day
P9 routine dental and medical	  W9  company court
     appointments	    	  W10 miscellaneous assignment
		
Sick Leave	                   Tardiness

S1 paid sick		          T1  tardy (also miss, miss-out,
S2 unpaid sick		    	      sleep-in, sharks, etc.)

Injury on Duty

I1 injury on duty (also occupa-
   tional injury, industrial
   injury, etc.)

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Sick Leave

	This category represents one of the largest areas of 
employee-controlled absence, and the one with the greatest 
potential for abuse.  Furthermore, because many transit 
properties have provisions for a fixed number of paid sick 
leave days, the costs of this category of absence can be 
substantial.  Including all sick leave absences within a 
single general category has several advantages.  First, the 
payroll department can determine which employees qualify for 
absence benefits.  Second, management can identify potential 
abusers of the attendance policies.  Third, management can 
determine how much this benefit costs.

      Sick leave should be reported whether the absence is paid 
or not paid. The terms illness and non-work related injury are 
often used to describe sick leave.

Injury on Duty

	Because certain health problems and injuries are an 
inherent part of work at a transit property, there will be 
absence caused by industrial injury or illness.  This type of 
absence is often covered by workers compensation benefits.  
As these costs can be extremely high, and such absences are 
often long in duration, accurate data are needed to monitor 
and manage this type of absence.  The terms often used for 
absence in this category include injury on duty (IOD), 
industrial injury, and occupational injury.

Management-Requested Absence

   Management-requested absence refers to efforts by management 
to reduce the number of employees on a scheduled workday.  
There are two general types of absence in this category.  The 
first type of management-requested absence occurs when 
management reduces the work force on days when the number of 
vehicle operators is greater than the work available.  Vehicle 
operators may be persuaded to leave work for the day, without 
penalty or reward, to reduce labor costs.  This type of 
absence reflects managements difficulty in properly 
scheduling employees for work.  The second type of 
management-requested absence results from the disciplinary 
suspension of employees.  This type of absence must be 
recorded and monitored for an employees job history and 
performance record.

    In the attendance information system it is important to know 
how many hours were lost at managements request and if 
patterns for requested absence exist.  The following types of 
absences should be included in this category:

  . M1 suspensions
 
  . M2 held off
 
  . M3 management excused day off (no work available)

Personal Absence

	This category includes a wide variety of excused and 
unexcused absences.  Disciplinary policies often focus on 
personal absence because it is generally acknowledged to be 
employee-controlled.  Absences commonly included in this 
category are:

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  . P1 personal business
 
  . P2 personal court appearance
 
  . P3 jail term
 
  . P4 late and did not work
 
  . P5 absent without leave (AWOL)
 
  . P6 illness in the family
 
  . P7 transportation related problem
 
  . P8 child care-related problem
 
  . P9 routine dental and medical appointments
 
Non-Scheduled Work

       At times employees report for work, but do not work their 
regularly scheduled job.  For example, a vehicle operator may 
not drive a bus on a given day but may work somewhere else on 
the property, perhaps in a supervisory or training capacity.  
From the propertys and the employees point of view, work was 
performed and no absence occurred.  However, from the garage 
superintendents viewpoint, an employees job was unfilled and 
the work had to be delayed or filled by another employee.  The 
following types of absences may be included in this category:

  . W1 temporary transfer
 
  . W2 light duty
 
  . W3 training or retraining
 
  . W4 tardy and other work
 
  . W5 acting dispatcher
 
  . W6 acting instructor
 
  . W7 acting route foreman
 
  . W8 traded runs for the day
 
  . W9 company court

  . W10 miscellaneous assignment

Tardiness

     Tardiness is a special form of absence defined as reporting 
late to work.  Many transit properties define tardiness by the 
amount of time lost before reporting for work, e.g., one to 
two hours.  Employees reporting after the passage of the 
designated time limit may be considered absent.  In many
transit properties,

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tardy employees may not work at all or may work only if 
another work assignment is available.  Whether employees work 
on days they are tardy is often subject to existing labor 
contract provisions, work rules, or transit property policy.

Transit properties have diverse terms used to refer to 
tardiness, generally in reference to vehicle operators.  These 
terms include misses, miss-outs, sleepins, lates, sharks, and 
so on.

ATTENDANCE DATA

	Five primary data items should be collected daily about 
the attendance of individual employees.  These data are 
necessary to monitor and evaluate extent and patterns of absence
among employees and groups of employees.

Scheduled Work Time

	These data indicate the total time employees are 
scheduled to work.  In most work environments, employees are 
scheduled and paid for eight hours per day or forty hours per 
week.  The transit industry is somewhat unique in that:

  . Regular vehicle operators scheduled work time is 
    typically determined by the work assignment selected.
 
  . Extra operators work time is generally scheduled the 
    day before the actual time worked or by contractual 
    provisions guaranteeing minimum daily or weekly pay.
 
  . All other employees work time is typically seven and 
    one-half or eight hours per day.
 
  . Unscheduled overtime may be required by any employee 
    to complete work assignments.

For purposes of reporting and analyzing employee absence, 
transit properties should use scheduled clock hours worked (or 
absent) for regular operators, scheduled clock hours or 
guaranteed pay hours (or absent), whichever is greater, for 
extraboard operators, and guaranteed pay hours worked (or 
absent) for all other employees.  Unscheduled overtime should 
not be included in determining absence rates.

Absence Hours

	These data indicate the extent of absence based on the 
number of scheduled work hours missed.  Absence hours are 
often used as the basis for disciplining an employee for poor 
attendance.  The usual criterion is the total number of hours 
or days absent compared to an established standard. Since the 
total hours worked must be tracked to determine the amount of 
an employees pay, information on hours absent is generally 
available in some form within most organizations.

	Data on total hours of absence are generally more useful 
for managing individual employee attendance than for managing 
the attendance of groups of employees.  The aggregate data on 
the total hours of absence for a division or department 
provides little useful information on absence patterns, or on 
causes

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of absence.  Aggregate data on hours of absence are more 
useful when the type of absences are identified.

Absence Incidents

	These data indicate the extent of absence by the number 
of absence events or occurrences without regard to the 
duration of an absence.  An absence incident may last from 
several hours for personal reasons to months in duration for 
sickness or injury on duty.  One incident of absence is 
normally recorded for each type of absence (e.g., sick), 
regardless of duration, that is uninterrupted by a return to 
scheduled work.  For example, an employee with Saturday and 
Sunday days off, would incur one incident of sick absence if 
both Friday and Monday were missed due to illness.

Tardiness Hours

	These data indicate the extent of tardiness based on the 
amount of scheduled work time missed.  Although this measure 
is not often used by transit managers for disciplinary 
purposes in the way that tardiness incidents are, it is worth 
recording because it supplements absence hours as a means of 
monitoring total lost time.  Tardiness time is frequently 
available from timekeeping records at transit properties.

Tardiness Incidents.

	These data indicate the extent of tardiness based on the 
number of times an employee reports to work after the 
designated or scheduled start time.  Disciplinary actions 
taken by transit managers are frequently based on this 
measurement.

MEASURES OF ABSENCE 

	Consistently accurate measurement of absence and 
tardiness is important because supervisors and managers need 
to take appropriate and timely actions, if necessary, and 
these actions may not be based on error.  This section of the 
report provides information on measures of absence that may be 
used to monitor and evaluate individual and group attendance 
performance. Data representing total incident and hours of 
absence and tardiness must be collected.  Two measures must be 
derived because they provide an appropriate basis for 
comparing or differentiating performance between employees or 
groups.  These measures are absence duration and absence rate.

Absence Duration

	The analysis of duration allows management to understand 
and differentiate the attendance behavior of two employees, or 
examine overall absence patterns.  Absence duration can be 
calculated by dividing the number of hours absent by the 
number of incidents of absence.  If Employee X has been absent 
187.2 hours for the year and has had three incidents of 
absence, the average duration of absence is 62.4 hours.  An 
investigation of attendance records might indicate that the 
absence was caused by a recurrent illness.  Alternatively, 
Employee Y may have the same number of hours of absence for 
the same period of time, but have 21 incidents.  This would 
mean that the average duration of absence was 8.9 hours.

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The analysis of absence duration distinguishes the absence 
patterns of the two employees, and may suggest different 
management actions.

Absence Rate

	Absence rates should be developed for groups of employees 
and compared over time to determine patterns of absence, 
cyclical changes in attendance, and differences in attendance 
performance at an organization.  Absence rates are determined 
by dividing the total time absent in specific categories by 
the total scheduled work time.  Typically, sick leave, injury 
on duty, and personal absence are included in determining 
absence rates and evaluating employee attendance performance.

	Absence rates are important for decisionmaking and 
management because rates normalize attendance performance.  
For example, Division A employs 350 operators who were absent 
65,000 hours in the last 12 months, while Division B employs 
280 operators who were absent 59,000 hours during the same 
period. From this, it might be concluded that Division A had a 
greater absence problem because it had more aggregate lost 
time than did Division B. However, if Division A operators 
were scheduled to work 746,000 annual hours while Division B 
operators were scheduled to work 584,000 annual hours, 
Division As absence rate was 9.7 percent, which is less than 
Division Bs 10.1 percent.  Therefore, an analysis of absence 
rates indicates that Division B had poorer overall attendance 
than Division A.

	Three examples of absence rate calculations are given in 
Exhibits III.3, III.4, and III.5.  Each exhibit presents 
absence rate calculations for a four-week period based on 
total absence and policy absence.2/  In the first two cases, 
the sample transit properties did not count holidays, 
vacations, scheduled days off, and tardiness in the absence 
policy rate.  The last transit property did count tardiness 
time in the policy absence rate.

	Example of Regular Operator Absence Rate

	William J. Brown is a regular vehicle operator who 
selected a run at sign-up time composed of 8 hours and 15 
minutes of clock time work.  On the first Wednesday of the 
reporting period, Brown was 30 minutes late to work because of 
a traffic accident.  He was subsequently assigned work from 
the extraboard that same day.  On Friday of the second week, 
Brown called in and reported that he was sick and unable to 
attend work.  He also telephoned on Monday and Tuesday of the 
third week that he was still too sick to work. Brown returned 
to work on Wednesday.

	During the four-week period, Brown had one incident of 
tardiness, one incident of absence, and lost 25 hours and 15 
minutes of scheduled work.  his total absence time rate was 
15.3 percent (25.25/165.00) and his policy absence time rate 
was 15.0 percent (24.75/165.00).  Had Brown not secured work 
from the extraboard on the first Wednesday he was tardy, the 
transit property would have charged him with a personal 
absence of 8 hours and 15 minutes for the day.  In addition to 
the tardiness incident, some transit properties may charge 
Brown with
__________________________
      Policy absence is referred to as only those absences 
      which will be counted and used by management for 
      measuring performance.  For example, transit properties 
      frequently use only certain absences such as personal or 
      sick leave for disciplinary actions.

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the time lost based on the difference between his scheduled 
work time and the time he actually worked.

	Example of Extra Board Operator Absence Rate

       Robert C. Smith is an extraboard operator who is normally 
given a work assignment the day before he is actually to 
conduct the work.  Some days, he fills in known open work 
created by the absence of a regular operator, some days he 
works open trippers which are not part of regular runs, and 
some days he is assigned to a stand-by position with no 
particular driving assignment in order to protect against 
unanticipated tardiness or absences of other vehicle operators 
who are assigned to operate scheduled runs.  To calculate an 
absence rate requires that scheduled work time be used in the 
computation.  The general rule for extraboard operators is to 
use either the scheduled work time (posted the day before the 
actual assignment) or the effective minimum daily 
guarantee,3/whichever is greater.

       In this example, Smiths scheduled days off are Wednesday 
and Thursday.  He is also scheduled for a weeks vacation, 
which he takes during the four-week period.  The transit 
property has a rotating extraboard system, which means that 
Smith's work assignments may change on a daily basis as is 
indicated in the scheduled work time column of Exhibit III.4. 
Times shown that are greater than 8 hours mean that Smith was 
scheduled to fill in an open run normally worked by a regular 
operator or that the several trippers he was assigned to work 
actually totaled more than 8 clock hours.

         During the four-week period, Smith was absent twice and 
was tardy twice.  On the first Friday of the period, he was 
assigned a Saturday run lasting 8 hours and 30 minutes.  Since 
he was taken ill after the Friday work assignment and did not 
report for work on Saturday, Smith was charged with an absence 
of 8 hours and 30 minutes.  Smith was also sick on the next 
day, Sunday, but because he received no Saturday assignment 
for Sunday work, he was charged with a Sunday absence equal to 
the minimum daily guarantee of 8 hours.

             Smiths next incident of absence was 40 hours of 
vacation, which were not charged as a policy absence to his 
record.  The transit property collects this data for payroll 
purposes and also uses it for future manpower planning and 
scheduling.  Lastly, Smith was tardy for scheduled work twice 
for periods of 15 minutes and 8 minutes, which are not 
included in this transit propertys absence policy.  Tardiness 
is handled separately in the labor agreement discipline code.

        Smiths total absence rate for the four-week period is 
calculated as 34.91 percent (56.88/162.19).  His policy 
absence rate is 13.42 percent (16.58/122.91). 1

Example of Administrative Employee Absence Rate

      James M. Jones is a clerical employee with, normal 7 hour 
and 30 minute work days.  During the four-week period in this 
example, Jones incurred three
____________________________
    The effective minimum daily guarantee is normally 8 pay 
    hours.  If there is a 40 hour weekly guarantee required 
    by the labor agreement and full-time operators normally 
    work five days per week, then 8 hours is still a good 
    value to use.

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incidents of absence and one incident of tardiness.  On 
Wednesday of the first week, Jones received permission to 
leave work two hours early for a scheduled doctors 
appointment.  The policy of the transit property is to charge 
Jones with the personal absence even though he received 
permission to leave.

	The following week, Jones takes sick leave on Friday 
which extends through Tuesday of the following week.  He 
returns to work on Wednesday and works until early afternoon 
at which time he is unable to continue because of a recurrence 
of the previous sickness.  He takes off three hours early to 
go home and does not return to work until Friday.  Jones is 
reported as having two incidents of illness, losing 22 hours 
and 30 minutes the first time and 10 hours and 30 minutes the 
second time.  Although it may be argued that Jones two 
incidents were related to the same sickness, he nevertheless 
returned to work on Wednesday for 4 hours and 30 minutes.

	Lastly, Jones reported to work 45 minutes late on the 
last Tuesday of the four-week period.  The transit property's 
policy is to record Jones as having one personal absence 
incident with 45 minutes of lost personal absence time.

	In this example, Jones total absence and policy absence 
rates are the same for the four-week time period.  His absence 
rate was 23.83 percent (35.75/150.00).

	It should be noted that absence rates calculated on an 
average lost time per employee basis (e.g., 9 days per 
employee or 72 hours per employee) may not be acceptable for 
comparing employees or groups of employees, because the amount 
of scheduled work time for employees may be different.  In the 
previous three exhibits, each employee was scheduled for 
differing amounts of work time.  Therefore, average absence 
rates per employee can be somewhat misleading if care is not 
exercised to use equivalent employees in the absence rate 
denominator.

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		   IV. ATTENDANCE REPORTS

       The objective of this section of the report is to provide 
a sample of prototype attendance reports that may be used by 
transit supervisors and managers for monitoring and managing 
employee attendance.  These reports contain information that 
may be beneficial to transit properties to improve attendance 
management.  The specific data needs and reporting formats 
should be considered and determined by each transit property.  
The section begins with a discussion of data users and their 
concerns and concludes with examples of model attendance 
reports.

ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT: USES AND CONCERNS

	At most transit properties, the management of employee 
attendance is rarely the responsibility of one person.  
Rather, it is the collective responsibility of many 
supervisors and managers whose primary functions are more 
often the delivery and operation of safe and reliable public 
transportation service.  Since good employee attendance is 
important to providing reliable transit service, it is 
necessary that supervisors and managers have appropriate tools 
to assist them in fulfilling their duties efficiently.  Such 
tools include appropriately designed and useful employee 
attendance reports based on an accurate and timely information 
reporting system.

	Supervisors and managers at various levels in transit 
organizations have different concerns and needs for attendance 
information.  The model reporting forms given in the sections 
that follow are designed to meet the concerns of transit 
managers, supervisors, and employees (see Exhibit IV.1).

MODEL ATTENDANCE REPORTS

	The following model reports are included for monitoring 
and managing employee attendance:
 
  . Employee Absence History (Option A)
 
  . Employee Absence History (Option B)
 
  . Group Supervisor Policy Absence Report
 
  . Group Supervisor Corrective Action Report
 
  . Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report
 
  . Best/Worst Attenders Report
 
  . Worst Day Absence Report
 
  . Employee Absence Distribution Report
 
  . Absence Trend Report
		
	Each model report format may be refined to better serve 
the attendance information  needs of specific transit 
properties.  With the exception of the first two reports,

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			    EXHIBIT IV.1
		ATTENDANCE REPORTS: USERS AND CONCERNS

Transit Property General Manager:

  . Are the absence rates for each division increasing or 
    decreasing?
 
  . How does each divisions absence rate compare with the 
    other divisions?
 
  . What are the costs associated with current absence rates?
 
  . What is being done to lower costs associated with 
    employee absence?

Division Superintendent or Department Manager:

  . How has absence changed during the past year for my 
    division/department?
 
  . How does the absence of my division compare to other 
    employee groups and divisions?
 
  . Does absence vary by day of the week or season?
 
  . How closely can I estimate my personnel needs on any given 
    day?
 
  . Is the absence rate for the division as a whole acceptable?
 
  . What is the cost of the absence rate for my division?
 
  . Is this cost increasing or decreasing?
 
  . Are there attendance patterns that can be identified 
    and improved?

The Labor Relations/Personnel Department

  . How does attendance relate to contract provisions that 
    require discipline or different pay procedures?
 
  . Is timely absence data available to take consistent 
    action as required by the disciplinary procedures?
 
  . Are accurate attendance data on all employees collected to 
    ensure that an arbitrator will not overrule a case on the 
    grounds of unacceptable information?

Supervisors

  . Which employees attendance has improved?
 
  . Have employee injuries increased?
 
  . Are there employees who abuse the attendance policy?
 
  . Is absence information on which discipline is based 
    accurate and timely?

Employee

  . Is there an accurate record of my attendance so that I am 
    paid properly?
 
  . Is my attendance record treated in a manner consistent with 
    the records of other employees for purposes of good/perfect 
    attendance awards, discipline, or attendance evaluation?

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(Employee Absence History Options A and B), where only one of 
the reports should be developed, each of the other reports is 
recommended for managing and analyzing individual and group 
attendance performance.

Common Features of the Model Attendance Reports

	Before presenting the suggested report formats and 
describing the sections of each report, several features 
common to all or several of the model reports should be 
mentioned.

	Report Distribution. It is important to distribute 
attendance data throughout the transit property in a timely 
manner.  Although reports may be needed more frequently, the 
following schedule for report distribution is suggested:

  . Reports on individual absence history should be 
    updated daily and filed in each employees folder on a 
    weekly or bi-weekly basis.  These reports may be 
    provided daily to the appropriate manager or 
    supervisor, if required.  With timely updates, this 
    report can eliminate the need for the manual operator 
    data card or the employee attendance card.
 
  . Group supervisor policy absence reports should be 
    updated daily and may be provided to supervisors 
    daily, if desired.  This report summarizes employee 
    attendance and may eliminate the need to review 
    individual absence history on a daily basis.
 
  . Group supervisor corrective action report is an 
    exception report that should be updated and provided 
    daily to supervisors for any needed corrective 
    actions.
 
  . Other attendance reports on individual or group 
    performance distributed to division superintendents 
    and line managers should be provided weekly or as 
    needed.
 
  . Attendance reports distributed to the department heads 
    (i.e., personnel, labor relations, and so on) and the 
    general manager should be provided monthly or as 
    needed.

       Use of Fixed Versus Rolling Calendar.  Attendance reports 
may use a fixed calendar format for reporting cumulative data 
(i.e., fiscal year-to-date).  For example:

  . July is always listed as the first month
 
  . at the beginning of each calendar year, only 
     information dating from July 1st is displayed
 
  . all previous attendance history is archived
 
	The discipline codes of many transit properties require 
information on absence during the most recent 12 months.  This 
is called a rolling calendar or moving period since the last 
period (e.g., month) is dropped as the next is added to 
reports.  These properties should use and display the last 13 
months of absence history on their attendance reports and 
archive all historic attendance data.

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	Absence data using a 24-month rolling calendar may be 
even more useful for analysis and comparison purposes.  
However, transit properties that have negotiated a fixed or 
12-month rolling calendar for discipline purposes should 
develop attendance reports that meet the needs of their 
discipline codes.  The cumulative absence data presented in 
each of the model reports may be based on a fixed or a rolling 
calendar and includes whatever period of time is specified by 
the transit property.

	Absence Rates.  Incidents and duration in all categories 
of absence must be recorded in the TAMIS for timekeeping, 
labor force sizing, and other attendance management needs.  
However, only absences used to evaluate employee attendance 
performance are included in determining individual or group 
policy absence rates.  This means that sick leave, injury on 
duty, and personal absence are generally included in 
determining absence rates; contractual absence, 
management-requested absence, and non-scheduled work may not 
be included.  Some transit properties may prefer to show both 
total absence and policy absence rates.

	The model reports have been designed to accommodate a 
variety of absence rate displays, e.g., total absence rates, 
policy absence rates, moving period absence rates, absence 
year-to-date (YTD) rates, etc. Attendance reports for a 
transit property should be designed to meet specific needs and 
should be designed so that comparisons can be made using 
previous period or cumulative data entries.

Employee Absence History (Option A)

	The Employee Absence History report (Option A or B) is 
the most important report on employee absence because it 
captures each employees entire attendance history.  All other 
data in other TAMIS attendance reports are generated from this 
data base.  Consequently, if the Employee Absence History 
report contains errors or problems, so will all other reports.  
This report is prepared for distribution to appropriate line 
supervisors and managers.

	As discussed above, in most transit properties, these 
data are currently recorded and updated manually on an 
operator data card or employee attendance card.  Exhibit IV.2 
illustrates the Option A Employee Absence History report.  The 
content of the report is divided into three sections. The top 
section of the report contains basic identification 
information required for reference or consolidation of 
employees into groups, divisions, or departments.  The middle 
section of the report provides detailed information about 
individual absence including absence dates, absence type and 
description, amount of time lost, and any management actions 
or comments.  The bottom section of the report contains a 
summary of information by absence category for total absence 
and policy absence, which may be used in incentive and/or 
disciplinary programs for attendance.  Also shown is the use 
of both rolling calendar (moving period) and fixed period 
(YTD) absence data.

Employee Absence History (Option B)

	The Option B Employee Absence History report is shown as 
Exhibit IV.3. The report presented is the same as Option A 
except that data are shown in a calendar format rather than in 
a narrative format.  Option B format looks similar to many 
current transit property operator data cards and does allow 
for some visual confirmation of the number and extent of 
employee absence. The detailed information that might be 
provided in a custom-designed Option A report is limited

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here.  The use of absence codes in Option B will require 
either the printout of such codes with each computer run of 
the report, a permanent reference chart of absence codes, or 
committing the codes to memory.

Group Supervisor Policy Absence Report

	This report, whose format is shown in Exhibit IV.4, is 
specifically designed to provide summary attendance 
information about those employees who supervisors work with 
daily.  The form is divided into three sections.  The upper 
section contains reference information about the group whose 
employees appear in the lower sections of the report.  The 
middle section contains absence information by employee for 
the current period, for a moving period (i.e., rolling 
calendar based on policy or the labor agreement), and for a 
fixed period (e.g., year-to-date).  Also included in the 
middle section is information regarding tardiness and whether 
any management actions are pending (i.e., incentives or 
discipline).  The bottom section of the report provides 
detailed absence information by type for the moving period. 
Categories of absence shown in this section may be selected 
from total categories.

Group Supervisor Corrective Action Report

       This report is designed to notify supervisors of employee 
absence when management actions are required.  The report, as 
shown in Exhibit IV.5, is triggered only when an employee(s) 
meets or exceeds the absence level specified in the labor 
agreement or other established policies.   The computerized 
system keeps track of absence and tardiness incidents as well 
as lost time in accordance with the steps of prescribed 
discipline and reports on the nature and timing of required 
management actions.  The entry on the report would remain 
until the appropriate action is taken, at which time the entry 
would be recorded on the employees attendance record. Reports 
to upper-level management would show pending corrective 
actions.

Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report

	This report is designed to meet the needs of management 
above the supervisory level.  As shown in Exhibit IV.6, the 
report format is divided into three sections.  The upper 
section contains descriptive information necessary for 
identification purposes.  The middle section of the report 
lists absence information by group/division/department, as 
appropriate.  The format shown provides for comparative data 
by fixed period, i.e., this period versus last period and this 
year-to-date versus last year-to-date. The format could be 
modified to report moving period information and percent 
absence.  This section also contains information about the 
number of management actions pending for each of the reported 
groups.

       The lower section of the report provides detailed absence 
information about absence type across all groups.  This 
information, like that in the middle section, can be modified 
to report data on a moving period and/or cumulative basis and 
could also include tardiness.

Best and Worst Attenders Report

	This report may be used to identify employees with the 
best and worst attendance records.  The report format, as 
shown in Exhibit IV.7, can be used for

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particular groups, divisions, and departments and could be 
developed to report only certain absence categories or groups 
of categories.  The report could be designed to report 
perfect, excellent, and poor attenders for specified periods 
of time (e.g., quarterly, annually) based on desired criteria, 
as shown in the example form.  Such reporting can aid not only 
in identifying employees for possible counseling or 
discipline, but also in identifying those employees qualifying 
for attendance incentive rewards.

Worst Day Absence Report

	Frequently, transit managers desire to know more about 
absence patterns, in order to focus their attention on 
possible abuses or plan for additional employees (e.g., 
extraboard operators) in order to cover open work.  Exhibit 
IV.8 provides an example of a report that could be developed 
that focuses on worst day absences.  In the exhibit, 
information is provided on the highest absence 
day-of-the-week, days before and after scheduled days off, and 
days before and after scheduled holidays.  This report makes 
it possible to evaluate whether there are significant 
differences between certain days or between a period and a 
former period.  Such information is useful in determining 
whether management policies, programs, and actions are 
achieving the effects desired.

Employee Absence Distribution Report

	This report is designed to identify the distribution of 
absence and tardiness among employee groups as well as changes 
that may occur in the distribution between time periods.  It 
could also be designed to provide absence distribution 
information between moving time periods.  Exhibit IV.9 shows 
an example of employee distribution and cumulative 
distribution for tardy incidents, absence incidents, and 
absence time.  Larger employee percent values in lower 
incident and time categories indicate good attendance 
performance.  Conversely, larger employee percent values in 
higher incident and time categories indicate bad attendance 
performance.  If provided regularly (monthly, quarterly, 
annually), this report can assist in identifying the effects 
on attendance of changes in policies and programs.

Employee Absence Trend Report

	This report is designed to display changes in employee 
absence rates graphically.  The graph may be used to show 
total absence, policy absence, or absence by category.  It may 
be used to show absence trends over several years or absence 
for a single year by employee group, division, or department.  
The periods may be monthly, as shown in Exhibit IV.10, 
four-week periods, or biweekly.  Exhibit IV.ll shows daily 
total percent absence for bus operators of a single division 
of a major U.S. transit property.  Although this level of 
detail may be useful for management to better understand daily 
variations in absence rates, it is less useful for observing 
trends in absence rates.

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		V. INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

       A major objective of this report is to describe a Transit 
Attendance Management Information System(TAMIS) that can be 
used by transit properties as a tool for managing employee 
attendance.  The TAMIS has been designed to provide both 
specific information on individual employees and aggregate 
data for analyzing group attendance  by division, department, 
or throughout the transit property.  Using the TAMES, transit 
properties will be able to:

  . identify employees, work groups, divisions, and departments 
    with good and poor attendance performance.
 
  . identify cyclical absence patterns and historical trends
 
  . identify the reported reasons for absence
 
  . evaluate attendance improvement efforts

	The TAMIS can be used by transit properties wishing to 
establish new attendance information systems or properties to 
enhance their current attendance data reporting and analysis 
capabilities.  Transit properties with sophisticated 
attendance information systems may compare the TAMIS to their 
own systems.  These transit properties may adapt some ideas 
from the TAMIS to better utilize their current information 
systems.

		Their section of the report describes the basic 
conceptual principles and requirements of the TAMIS.  The 
development of software to fully implement the system will 
require considerable care from numerous employees, including 
line management, labor relations, personnel and computer 
support staff.  Some aspects of the TAMIS will probably need 
to be tailored for each property.  The remainder of this 
section discusses.

  . Background on current attendance recordkeeping- 
    Methods currently used for reporting attendance data 
    and methods which typically result in ineffective 
    information systems, particularly for managing groups 
    of employees.
 
  . TAMIS overview-The basic elements of the TAMIS and how 
    they relate to each other are described, along with 
    the benefits of automation and limitations of a manual 
    attendance information system.
 
BACKGROUND: CURRENT ATTENDANCE RECORDKEEPING

       Attendance reports generated by an attendance information 
system should be derived from a single reliable data base.  
However, many transit properties current use several data 
bases, often non-matching because of present methods of 
gathering and processing the date.  The benefits of the TAMIS 
become apparent when contrasted with these attendance 
recordkeeping practices.  Therefore, the flow of attendance 
information common to the transportation departments of many 
transit properties is described below.  (The recordkeeping 
practices of other departments, such as maintenance or 
administration, are typically less complex.)

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            The transportation dispatcher records most absences, 
generally from telephone call-in-messages, and maintains a 
simple list of operators, operator numbers, and reasons for 
absence.  The list is consulted as extra operators are needed 
to fill open work assignments.  At the end of the dispatchers 
work shift, the information on the absentee list is 
transferred to:

  . the operators data, which may be a calendar-formatted 
    record of absence used within the division largely for 
    employee supervision and discipline.  Exhibits V.1 and 
    V.2 illustrate typical absence record cards.
 
  . the operators time card or exception reporting sheet, 
    which is later sent to determine compensation.
 
  . the transit propertys management information system, 
    if one exists, may use the information in various 
    performance reports.

Typically, line managers treat the operator data cards as the 
only valid record of employee absences.  Discrepancies between 
the operator data card in the division, the information in the 
payroll department data base, and the MIS reports often exist 
because:

  . The absence codes used on the operator cards are 
    generally more detailed an often different from the 
    absence codes used by other departments.
 
  . When absences are reclassified and changes made to 
    employee records, changes are often mot entered into 
    all attendance data bases.

The shortcomings of this method of attendance recordkeeping 
and reporting are:

  . A count of the number of days absent or incident of 
    absence is generally the only measure considered in 
    determining when to counsel am employee on poor attendance.
 
  . There is little regular access to the operator data 
    cards because they are stored in the divisions.
 
  . It is very difficult to compile division performance 
    statistics as these data re often hard to obtain and 
    generally difficult to tabulate.
 
TAMIS OVERVIEW	

	The Transit Attendance Management Information System 
comprises three basic elements:

  . the date requirements and input documents, which are 
    the source of the data;
 
  . the central file, which includes all of the data in 
    the attendance information system; and

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  . the data reports, which document the output of the 
    information system.

Exhibit Y.3 illustrates the relationship of these elements.

Data Requirements

The input or source documents for a data base must contain all 
of the information needed for the central (or master) file.  
Given transit attendance  data needs and the structure of the 
TAMIS, the information required includes:

  . the master file of scheduled work assignments 
    including the scheduled days and hours timekeeping 
    report of work; and
 
  . the daily s, recording all exceptions to the master 
    file of scheduled work such as absence, tardiness, or 
    overtime assignments.

There are three fundamental requirements for source documents 
for the TAMIS:

  . First, all timekeeping reports (i.e., time cards or 
    exception reports) should include all appropriate 
    absence category codes; absence category codes must be 
    fully integrated with payroll codes.  This ensures 
    that attendance information is available for the many 
    routine, complex calculations that must be made using 
    the attendance data and that employee payroll will be 
    fully compatible with attendance records.
 
  . Second, all employees that record or manipulate the 
    attendance data, particularly the dispatchers and 
    division superintendents, must use the prescribed 
    categories and definitions for absence.  This ensures 
    that the attendance data base is consistent with 
    payroll.
 
  . Third, for automated systems, the MIS must be able to 
    handle corrections to the computer file containing 
    employee attendance histories.

Meeting these requirements will facilitate the development of 
valid and congruent attendance reports and data base.

Master File 

      With respect to the TAMIS, the term "master file" refers 
to the central employee attendance file containing all of the 
employee attendance history data discussed under data 
requirements.  This file serves as the data base for 
generating auxiliary files that are in turn used to develop 
subsidiary reports and analyses.  The intent of the TAMIS, as 
distinct from current attendance recordkeeping practices 
described above, is to have a single master file used to meet 
the transit propertys attendance data needs.

        This report assumes that data on other aspects of 
performance such as accident records, customer complaints, 
commendations, and rule violations are kept in other manual or 
automated information systems.  These aspects of performance 
are important to transit properties and may ultimately be 
integrated with the attendance master file by some transit 
properties.

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	The TAMIS is generally intended to be used in an 
automated information environment since computerized 
management information systems are more flexible, more 
powerful, and less expensive in the long run.  Ideally an 
on-line data base should be used for the TAMIS with each 
employees attendance history stored on a single master file 
in a computer.  Department managers or superintendents could 
call up an employees attendance history on their office 
terminals, where the data file would be summarized and 
displayed on the terminal.  This system would replace manual 
operator data cards, which are generally a source of duplicate 
data.  Future development of an on-line system would allow the 
division superintendent or department manager to make 
corrections to the on-line data base from this terminal. 
However, this second step is not-necessary to the successful 
installation and use of an on-line data base and display 
system.

	Since some transit properties may not have computerized 
employment or payroll systems that can be easily adapted for 
attendance data collection and analysis, the concepts 
presented in the TAMIS can also be used in a non-computerized 
attendance information system.  However, some reports may be 
too expensive for a manual system to provide in a timely 
manner.  In particular, those transit properties currently 
without computerized attendance information systems will 
require some modifications to the Employee Absence History 
report, and several of the tabulations in other reports will 
not be feasible.  For example, analyses requiring aggregation 
of attendance data for individuals across days, such as the 
summary analysis, will be difficult.  Although the manual 
report can provide this information, it would be costly to 
manually recompute rates every month.

	If the current reports on attendance are generated from 
an automated information system and run in batch mode from 
tape-drive data storage, the TAMIS will require that:

  . the number of fields and columns in the individual 
    employee record be increased to accommodate data on 
    the additional absence codes and the scheduled hours 
    worked
 
  . a statistical software package or additional 
    programming be purchased to calculate a mean and an 
    F-test
 
  . the software system be capable of displaying 
    information in graphic formats
 
  . standard programming efforts be made to enable all the 
    features of the TAMIS to be used at all levels, i.e., 
    individual, division, and property-wide

       If the automated information system is an on-line system, 
and the data base is available for direct data entry or an 
immediate program run, the TAMIS has slightly different 
requirements; primarily in data storage or memory since an 
employees entire daily employment history must be available 
as a single case for the employee Absence History report 
(Option A or B) to display on-line.  Transit properties may 
wish to consider purchasing some optical laser disk memory 
systems.  This data storage technology allows large amounts of 
memory to be available at reasonable cost.

         A second form of data memory problem may exist for 
selected reports in the TAMIS.  For example, when the Employee 
Absence History report is run, the entire

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year-to-date attendance record is read into the program, 
compiled, aggregated, sorted, and displayed.  If division 
managers or superintendents have computer terminals, it is 
possible that any employees report might be called up a 
number of times in one day, or that up to 20 or 30 reports be 
called up in a 24-hour period.  This should be feasible for 
most CPUs, without serious system degradation. However, when a 
Division/Department/Executive Manager Absence Report is 
needed, serious system degradation problems will occur, 
because each days record for each employee must be read and 
compiled to calculate the year-to-date or moving period 
information.  Therefore, these higher-level reports should be 
run only once a reporting period, preferably at night, and 
preferably in hard-copy so that the results can be archived to 
minimize reruns of the program.


            *U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1989-617-000/88537

-46-


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