Attendance rate
Attendance rate is the share of expected working days on which a person was present, written as a percentage. A month with 22 expected days and 20 days present gives a rate of about 91%. The figure depends entirely on what the denominator counts as expected.
Attendance rate is the crudest measure in the set, and that is exactly its use: one number, per person, per period, easy to chart and easy to compare across a department. Nothing subtle. Nothing to argue with.
The argument is always about the denominator. Should an approved leave day count as expected? Most teams say no. Should a public holiday? Almost nobody counts it. Should a day somebody worked but forgot to record? That one splits rooms.
Two teams using different denominators cannot compare their numbers. Agree the rule once and write it down. Nobody will remember it in March.
The measure also hides its own gaps. A day with no record looks just like a day somebody missed. Both drag the figure down by the same amount. So before you act on a low number, check how many missing days are missing records. In most teams the answer is higher than expected.
Where this shows up in PeopleMuster
PeopleMuster shows attendance rate on the check-ins KPI card, beside the raw record count it came from. The denominator is visible, not implied.
Questions people ask
Does approved leave lower an attendance rate?
Only if your denominator counts leave days as expected working days. Most teams exclude them, so an approved absence leaves the rate untouched. Pick one rule and apply it everywhere.
What is a good attendance rate?
There is no benchmark worth quoting. The denominator differs at every company. Compare a team against its own past months instead of a number you read somewhere.
How is attendance rate different from utilisation?
Attendance rate counts days present. Utilisation counts hours logged against work. Somebody can be present every day and still log very few useful hours.