Attendance management for hotels and resorts

The time office at the staff entrance

Hotels traditionally run a time office at the staff entrance, where staff punch in, collect locker keys and change into uniform. Keep that habit and put the punch there. Large properties do well with a biometric machine that pushes punches over ADMS, while smaller hotels can use a kiosk tablet whose QR code refreshes every 30 seconds, scanned with the mobile app. Decide whether staff punch before or after changing into uniform, write it down and apply it in every department, because ten minutes a day at the uniform counter adds up to a real argument by month end.

Night audit and duties that cross midnight

The night auditor works 11 pm to 7 am, and security and engineering often do the same. Flag these as night shifts in the shift catalogue. ZeniaHR files a night duty that crosses midnight to the date it began, so an 11 pm to 7 am duty is one attendance day, not two half days. Late marks run from 11 pm with the shift's own grace. Missed punch-outs cluster at 7 am, when the night team leaves as the morning team arrives; an hour after the shift ends, the employee and their manager get an alert while the correction is still easy to make.

Staff who live on the property

At resorts and many city hotels, some staff live in quarters on site. Being on the property is not being on duty, so attendance must come from punches at the time office, not from the staff gate register. Draw a check-in spot around the time office and limit app punches to it, so nobody can mark attendance from their room in the staff block. When a housekeeping supervisor is called back after hours for a VIP arrival, HR records the extra duty as a punch with a reason, or the supervisor raises a correction, and the hours can then be approved as overtime.

Heads of department and month close

Heads of department decide corrections for their teams: a room attendant who forgot to punch out, a banquet server whose punch failed in a power cut. Each correction passes from the reporting manager to HR within the monthly and back-date limits you set, and the original punches stay on record. Before closing the month, HR reads the department reports, waives penalties with a reason where the hotel was at fault, and finalizes attendance so payroll works from a frozen month.

• Absence grid by department and day
• Lateness and breaks by department
• Top 10 most often late across the property
• Over-break days, useful for split-shift F&B teams

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Create each property as a branch and each hotel department as a department, with heads of department as reporting managers.
2. In Shifts & Roster, add the A, B and C shifts for each department, flag night audit and security duties as night shifts, and give each shift its grace.
3. Install a biometric device over ADMS or a kiosk at the time office, and restrict app punches to a check-in spot drawn around it.
4. Under Policies in Settings, set late steps, free late marks, the missing punch-out rule and correction limits, and try them on last month before going live.
5. Leave late, missed punch-out and absent alerts on for employees and their heads of department.
6. Close each month only after corrections are cleared and penalties reviewed, so payroll reads a finalized month.

Read more about attendance in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions