Who was off last Halloween?

A customer asked us a question we could not answer: "Who was off last Halloween?" They were planning this year's rota for one of the busiest weekends of the year and wanted to know where the gaps had been.

It is a good question, and it is now a report.

Any dates, any store

The absence history report covers any date range, for one store or all of them. It looks like the weekly absence summary our customers already receive, with one addition: a page that ranks people by number of absences in the period.

If you imported your absence records when you joined, the report reaches back before you started using Jaluru.

Three ways customers use it

• Planning peaks. Look at last year's bank holidays, school holidays and big sporting weekends. Absence clusters in predictable places.
• Store manager conversations. A ranked list for one store, covering the last quarter, is a far better basis for a conversation than an impression.
• Spotting patterns. The same person off on the same day of the week is easier to see on a list than in memory.

The daily view

History is half of it. The Absence Snapshot shows today: who is off in each store, who is due back, and whether their Return to Work conversation has happened. A store with two people off turns yellow, three turns red. It is built to be opened at the start of the day.

Why this matters more now

With statutory sick pay now payable from the first day of sickness, the cost of absence has gone up for every employer of hourly staff. Knowing where and when it happens is the first step to managing it.