No-Shows

A no-show is different from a reported absence, and the difference is that you do not know what has happened.

The first hour

Try to contact them. Once by phone, once by message. Not a barrage.

Cover the shift using the order of recourse you decided in advance.

Note the time and what you tried.

Do not conclude anything. People are late for reasons that turn out to be unremarkable and occasionally serious.

When to be concerned rather than annoyed

Out of character, for someone reliable.

No contact by the end of the day.

Circumstances you know about — a difficult period, a health issue, someone who lives alone.

Then a welfare check is appropriate: an emergency contact, or in the serious cases the authorities. This is rare and it is worth knowing you have the contact details before you need them.

Have an emergency contact for everyone, kept current, which is a five-minute annual task nobody does.

When they come back

Ask what happened, once, without an audience.

Most explanations are ordinary: a phone that died, an alarm, a family emergency, transport.

Some are not, and the conversation is the point. A no-show can be the first visible sign of something going badly wrong for someone.

Record the absence and the outcome briefly, without a verdict.

When it repeats

A pattern is different from an incident.

Two or three is a conversation about what is going on, with genuine curiosity rather than a warning.

Look for the cause: transport, caring responsibilities, a shift pattern that does not work, health, or something happening at work.

Only after that is it a conduct matter, and by then you will usually know whether it is.

The process worth writing down

What a person must do if they cannot attend, including who to contact out of hours.

What the employer does when someone does not arrive.

When an emergency contact is used.

Half a page, given to everyone, and reviewed when someone joins.

What not to do

Do not assume the worst, and do not announce it to the team.

Do not discipline before the conversation, because the explanation frequently changes the answer entirely.

Do not require a doctor's note for a single missed day where the law does not — it costs the person an appointment and tells you nothing.

Do not build an automatic trigger that counts no-shows toward a disciplinary threshold without a human reading each one. That has its own note, and the reasons are the same as elsewhere in this collection.

Keep emergency contacts current

A five-minute annual task that nobody does.

One contact per person, with a name and a number.

Checked once a year, because people change partners, phone numbers and circumstances.

Stored where whoever is on duty can reach it, not only in the owner's phone.

You will use it rarely, and the occasion when you need it is the occasion when not having it is serious.

A useful implementation prompt

During configuration, this project connection can prompt questions about fields, ownership and output. Confirm current capabilities with the provider and document every plan, integration or policy assumption behind the decision.

Independent reference

For an external point of reference, see ACAS guidance. Use a neutral employment source before moving from fact-finding to a formal response after an unexplained no-show.