Tag: absence management

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What is an attendance point system? [Examples + Template]

Astronaut Husky staring up at numbers in the sky

Summary

  • Attendance point systems give employees points for being absent – too many points can result in being fired.

  • Benefits of an attendance point system include reduced absenteeism, increased employee engagement, and enhanced managerial objectivity

  • Point systems can be automated with the right attendance software.

Everybody loves points. Points are positive.  Points earn rewards. Points equal winning. This obviously holds true when it comes to workplace attendance, right?

Wrong. Turns out, attendance policies are like golf. You never want points. The more points you accumulate, the closer you come to getting life’s double bogey – unemployment. 

Many large and well-established companies in the US currently utilize attendance points in this way to discourage absenteeism and simplify disciplinary procedures.

Known as points-based attendance, it’s a method gaining popularity across hourly workforces today. 

In this article we’ll explore:

What is an attendance point system?

An attendance point system is an absence policy that penalizes employees with points every time they are late or absent for a shift. Accruing a certain number of these points results in disciplinary action, and with enough points, termination. 

 

Webinar: Points-Based Attendance Overview

 

Attendance point system examples

Amazon is perhaps the most well-known, albeit somewhat notorious, company with an attendance point system. 

Here is a breakdown of Amazon’s point system: 

  • 1 point = employee misses part of a shift
  • 2 points = employee misses a full shift without calling out at least 16 hours beforehand
  • 2 points with an “absence submission infraction” = employee misses an entire shift without calling out at least 2 hours beforehand

Points expire two months after the date they are assigned. If an employee receives three absence infractions and eight points within a two-month period, Amazon will consider firing them.

Walmart is another major company known for its points-based attendance policy which it adopted back in 2019. 

Here are the basics of Walmart’s attendance point system:

  • ½ point = employee arrives between 15 minutes to 2 hours late for a shift or leaves a shift between 15 minutes to 2 hours early. 
  • 1 point = employee calls out of work
  • 1 point = employee is late for over half their shift
  • 2 points = employee is a no-call/no-show

Walmart employees can receive up to 5 points before they are considered for termination. Points are reset to zero after six months. 

Attendance point system template

While both Amazon and Walmart’s attendance policies enforce strict adherence to schedules and effectively limit absenteeism, they often receive backlash for being unfair. 

If you are considering a points-based attendance policy for your business, it may be best to avoid copying Amazon and Walmart’s policies. Instead, adopt a basic point system and refine it over time. 

Here is a basic attendance point system template to get you started: 

 

Example Attendance Point System

disciplinary action for point accumulation

The timeline for removing points varies, but generally speaking, management should be lenient in this area. Points should typically be reset after roughly two months of perfect attendance. 

Special considerations should be made in the case of no call/no shows. On top of the points given, management should consider the following actions:

  • First no-call/no-show: verbal warning
  • Second no-call/no-show: written warning
  • Third no-call/no-show: termination

Legal considerations for an attendance point system

Are all absences created equal? 

Well, in theory, no. But in practice…sometimes. 

While attendance point policies are legal, they do have to comply with various laws protecting employees from discrimination. Unfortunately, some companies overlook these laws. 

Many “no-fault” or point-based attendance policies have no explicit provisions protecting special case absences from penalization. In essence, these policies unfairly treat all absences the same, no matter the situation. 

According to the EEOC, this is illegal. For an attendance point policy to be legal, it must excuse absences for legally protected reasons such as medical, disability, and sick leave. 

Here are the kinds of absences excused from disciplinary action: 

Family and Medical Leave Act

  • Military caregiver leave
  • Military qualifying exigency
  • Birth of a baby
  • Placement of a child for adoption or foster care
  • Care for a sick immediate family member
  • Serious health conditions

California Family Rights Act 

  • Pregnancy
  • Childbirth
  • Bonding with a new child

Americans with Disabilities Act

  • Substantially limited in one or more major life activities due to a physical or mental impairment

Non-compliance with any of these acts can result in some serious consequences. Back in 2011, the EEOC reached a $20 million settlement against Verizon for denying reasonable accommodations to hundreds of employees. 

At the time, Verizon had a “no-fault” attendance policy that made no exceptions for FMLA-protected absences. As such, employees found themselves repeatedly disciplined for taking medically-related absences.

Unfortunately, illegal attendance policies like this are quite prevalent in the workforce. 

In 2020, a study conducted by A Better Balance involving 18 major US employers showed that “over 80% of the attendance policies failed to make clear that employees will not receive points for qualifying disability-related absences.” Moreover, only 12% of the policies actually acknowledged that emergencies might prevent a worker from complying with company call-out procedures. 

It’s clear that not all employers utilize attendance point systems legally. If your aim is to deploy one in your organization, make sure to do it compliantly and fairly. 

Benefits of an attendance point system

If you choose to use an attendance point system, doing so could come with many benefits. Here are just a few you could experience: 

Reduced absenteeism

This is perhaps the most obvious benefit. Points give employees a clear and concise visualization of their attendance history, promoting punctuality. And with disciplinary actions clearly associated with certain point levels, employees will be extra careful to avoid point accumulation. 

Increased employee engagement

A point system helps employees feel more engaged in their work. Without clear tardiness and absenteeism policies, it is easy for employees to become lackadaisical in their attendance. With a point system, they are more likely to be invested in their attendance records and more likely to communicate with management when they might be running late. 

Whitepaper: Boost your employee engagement strategy

Enhanced managerial objectivity and transparency

A points-based attendance system holds management accountable too, not just hourly employees. With absenteeism points, subjectivity and managerial favoritism are eliminated, giving all employees an even playing field when it comes to disciplinary action.

Automate your point system with Workforce.com

Staff Point History Profile on Workforce.com

Assigning and keeping track of points can get pretty overwhelming when done by hand, especially if you are operating a company with over 20 employees. Luckily, there is a way around all this manual work.

With Workforce.com’s attendance point software, you can easily create a points policy that works for both managers and employees alike. The system is completely automated, assigning points based on deviations from scheduled time clock punches. You can even generate attendance reports, view employee point history, and set up alerts to notify managers whenever employees surpass a certain point threshold.

Cool stuff, right? Check out our feature walkthrough below to find out more, or contact us today to discuss how a point system could work for your business. We’d love to talk you through it.

Webinar: Points-Based Attendance Overview

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4 proven steps for tackling employee absenteeism

Summary

  • Identifying the cause of employee absenteeism not only helps uncover deeper-rooted issues — More

  • Establishing an employee attendance policy promotes transparency across your company — More

  • Keeping your employees engaged makes them more likely to be productive and present at work — More

  • Implementing a scheduling process that is reliable and flexible will tackle a number of issues that would otherwise increase the likelihood of employee absenteeism. — More

A common yet highly disruptive issue any business owner or human resources professional has to deal with is employee absenteeism. This sort of employee absence refers to unscheduled absences beyond what is acceptable and planned within a company’s policy. Acceptable absences include things like paid time off (PTO), sick leave, or unpaid time off someone might take as part of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Having regularly absent employees results in lost productivity, as unplanned absences create extra pressure and more work for other team members. This extra work could lead to burnout. The causes of excessive absenteeism can also be indicative of deep-rooted issues, such as low employee morale or a toxic work environment. 

Employee absenteeism is a perennial problem, but it is particularly damaging in the shift-based service industries. According to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, service industries have the highest absenteeism rate in the US economy. Workforce.com’s own research backs this up. In our 2021 survey, 31% of businesses listed disruption to shifts caused by employee absenteeism as one of their biggest problems.

With the right tools and data in hand, managers can reduce employee absenteeism as well as identify and tackle its underlying causes.  

1. Identify why employees are frequently absent

Your business is a complicated machine. Just as you wouldn’t try to fix a problem with your car or computer by randomly replacing parts, you can’t successfully address persistent absenteeism in your company without knowing where the problem is.

Using employee scheduling software can tie together all of your shift schedules and time clock information. This joined-up approach allows you to query that data in order to spot the patterns of absenteeism and identify the who, where, and when of the problem.

Identifying the frequent trouble spots is important as the root causes of absenteeism can occur at different organizational levels.

  • Specific staff members: If a particular employee is persistently missing workdays, it’s worth checking if there is a valid reason. There may be problems that can be addressed without escalating to disciplinary action.
  • Specific shifts: If you find that absenteeism is a recurring issue only on certain shifts, it could be a problem with a particular shift leader or similar personnel issues that are making employees avoid that shift.
  • Specific locations: If you see red flags for absenteeism at a particular outlet or office, this may be a sign of managerial problems at that location. It could be an indication of something more sinister such as workplace bullying or workplace harassment. There could also be a local or geographical context — is that location particularly hard to reach on public transport?

Now that you know more about the source of your employee absenteeism, you can start addressing it.

2. Establish a clear employee attendance policy

Absences have immediate financial costs for a business. Absences related to mental health issues alone results in a $47.6 billion annual loss to the US economy through lost productivity. There should, therefore, be no ambiguity over attendance.

Employees will always require sick days or will be unable to work due to personal issues. Regardless, they should know what is required of them in such cases through a clearly defined absenteeism policy. This way, they are also aware of the disciplinary procedure that will kick in should they not meet their end of the agreement.

Your company needs a clear and accessible employee attendance policy. A good attendance policy should include:

  • How much notice employees must give if they can’t come in
  • What absence rate or number of absences is considered unacceptable
  • How many days of “no-call” or unexcused absences will be considered grounds for immediate dismissal

When considering attendance data with regard to employee absenteeism, it is especially important to take absence frequency into account rather than just how many days were missed. Ten days of absence in a row caused by a serious illness tells a very different story than 10 days of last-minute absences spread across the year that always fall on Mondays, for instance.

3. Implement incentives like employee wellness programs

Increased workloads and burnout are major contributors to low morale and absenteeism. Therefore, looking out for your employees’ physical and mental well-being has long-term benefits for them as well as your bottom line. 

Implementing employee wellness programs is a great way to achieve this. Such programs promote and encourage your employees to maintain good physical and mental health. 

A wellness program can take on many different forms. Some common examples include:

  • Installing fitness centers at your offices — this might be trickier for small businesses. If you have the space and resources, it’s a great way to help your team stay in shape.
  • Commuting incentives — encouraging your staff members to get to work on foot or by bicycle instead of using their cars keeps them and the environment healthy.
  • Covering expenses for things like gym membership, yoga classes, or even sports equipment.   

4. Create a reliable and collaborative scheduling procedure

Unhappy employees become disengaged and prone to excessive absences, and erratic work schedules are frequent causes of this disconnect. Creating reliable and predictable shifts gives workers more control over their work-life balance and allows them to plan their time with less stress. Research makes the connection clear: lower employee engagement results in increased employee absenteeism.

Implement predictive scheduling

Investing in predictive scheduling will not be optional for companies operating in certain US states and cities. Predictive scheduling laws are already on the books in Vermont, Oregon, San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, San Jose, Seattle, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Eight states have pending legislation on the subject.

Whether you are legally obliged to implement such a system or not, it’s worth adopting the most common aspects of predictive scheduling:

  • Changes to schedules should be communicated well in advance.
  • Employees should have sufficient rest between shifts — between nine and 11 hours.
  • Avoid the practice of “clopening,” where the same employee closes up at night and reopens the next morning.
  • Offer available shifts to current employees before taking on temporary staff.

Following these basic rules will encourage a more engaged, happy, and loyal workforce and reduce employee absenteeism.

Offer collaborative scheduling

Absenteeism can also be a sign that employees are unable to work the shifts they’ve been assigned. One way around this is to give employees the ability to have more say in which shifts they work or even swap shifts with colleagues. Allowing this involvement in the scheduling process helps employees fit work around their other commitments.

Not only does this collaboration remove one of the common excuses for missing work or tardiness, but research also supports the idea that offering employees more control over when they work directly addresses the causes of employee absenteeism. A study by Future Forum shows how workplace flexibility means employees are more productive and more connected to their workplace culture. 

There are two methods of introducing more collaborative scheduling to your company — shift bids and shift swaps. With shift bids, the manager puts out a list of the shifts that need to be filled, employees bid to be assigned the ones most convenient to them, and then the manager makes the final choice from those who put themselves forward. With shift swaps, workers are able to trade shifts on an ad-hoc basis while the manager signs off on the swaps to ensure full staff coverage is maintained. In both cases, employees get more control over when they work without undermining the manager’s authority.

The prospect of changing the way your shifts are assigned can seem daunting, but employee scheduling software such as Workforce.com has features to streamline the process for easy implementation.

Employee absenteeism is your alarm call

A high level of employee absenteeism is a sign that something isn’t working in your business. Consider it a warning that staff morale is low, and there are scheduling and managerial issues that need to be addressed to stem the tide. Data from your employee scheduling software will identify these pain points, and the responses listed above will tackle not just the symptoms of absenteeism but the cause as well. Seize the opportunity to make your business work better, and you’ll not only solve your immediate absence problems but also create a happier, more engaged workforce for long-term benefits.

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Common scheduling problems: Addressing staff turnover and improving retention

warehouse workers, hourly employees

Employee turnover is a big issue for many employers who hire hourly workers and can help contribute to common scheduling problems like understaffing or last minute schedule changes. And the industries with the highest average turnover are the ones that generally have more hourly workers: 

According to the 2018 Mercer U.S. Turnover Survey, which looked at 163 U.S. organizations, the three highest turnover industries are: retail & wholesale (60.5 percent average turnover), other manufacturing (26.7 percent) and consumer goods (21.5 percent). Meanwhile, those with the lowest turnover include life sciences (14.5 percent), insurance (15.5 percent) and banking/financial services (16 percent).

For businesses, turnover means spending more time and money on the recruiting, hiring and training process. And it also means that making schedules may get complicated when the staff list is constantly changing and when surprise absences come up after someone has quit.

But company leaders and managers are not powerless here. Here are some ways they can address high staff turnover and avoid some of those pesky, common scheduling problems that make managers’ jobs just a little more complicated.

Understand why employees leave

One reason for turnover is when an employee perceives inequitable treatment in the workplace, according to the Academy of Management, which published the paper “Inequity and Its Relationship To Turnover Among Hourly Workers” in 2017. 

The paper explored this relationship within the major production shops of the Boeing company and found that at best inequitable treatment leads employees to not be their most productive selves. At worst, they will leave the job. There are a few ways organizations can address this, the paper added, such as by improving working conditions if necessary and by paying attention to how supervisors treat workers and responding appropriately. 

The adage “employees leave managers, not companies” is a subject of debate among the HR community, but research does support it, said Robert Teachout, legal editor at consultancy XpertHR. The studies above are just a couple that show the potential negative effects of bad management practices.

Bad management practices include not being supportive of employees and being too harsh on employees for making certain mistakes. It boils down to a general lack of respect, Teachout said. Employees want the same basic things, he added: to be treated with respect and fairness, to do something that matters at their job and to get the opportunity to learn, grow, develop and be promoted. 

Teachout used the example of the type of manager that remembers all the mistakes an employee makes but never recognizes the good things they’ve done. When an employee is reviewed unfairly like this, that may contribute to them wanting to leave the job. 

Also read: Absence management is increasingly vital for managers to understand

Provide training for managers

From the manager’s point of view, many of them have been promoted because they were good at their job. But they don’t get training on certain people management skills upon getting that promotion, Teachout said. It’s up to the higher-ups at a company to prepare managers with the needed communication skills like how to engage with employees or how to have difficult conversations with them. 

This type of training is more important for front-line managers than for more mid-level managers, Teachout added. Front-line managers have a direct relationship with staff and have the opportunity to make or break employees’ experiences working for the company. 

“[They] can do more damage. That’s where toxic workplaces get created a lot of the time. The frontline managers don’t know what they’re doing, and you give them a checklist and therefore they don’t act like human beings,” Teachout said.

Lack of hours and flexibility

According to a 2017 FSG and Hart Research Associates survey, 83 percent of employees said if they had more control over their work schedules, they’d be more likely to stay at their current job. 

Also, 61 percent of those surveyed said they’ve struggled at work because they have a hard time making enough money to pay for basics like rent and food. More hours are especially helpful to these people. “Offering existing workers additional hours, rather than hiring new workers, may be one way to save on costs and improve employee satisfaction,” the survey conductors wrote in an article for Harvard Business Review.

There are several strategies to respond to these employee concerns, the article stated. For one, companies can better train managers to support their teams and build a better team/workplace culture. Secondly, employers can offer hourly employees more opportunities for job growth within the company. Third, as lack of flexibility is one of the most common scheduling problems, organizations can be more open to offering predictable schedules to employees.

Also read: Shift scheduling strategies can be improved through technology

 Reconsider existing workplace policies 

While employees do often leave bad managers, bad policies make it even easier for employees to quit, Teachout said. These other factors could include low pay, a lack of benefits or the lack of the opportunity for advancement. 

For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the fact that many essential, hourly workers do not get paid sick leave or certain other benefits, Teachout said.

“One would think [that] out of self-interest alone, the restaurant and retail industries would look and say, even if we’re not required to provide paid sick leave, let’s provide paid sick leave. Because it only takes one person with an infectious disease coming in — because otherwise they don’t get paid — to shut down your business for months,” he said. “So isn’t it more cost-efficient to give them paid sick leave and say, ‘If you’re sick, stay home?’”

More than just putting policies in place, organizations must also train managers on how to apply these policies to the workplace equitably and fairly, he said. For example, a grocery store manager may allow through some flexible work policy for a woman to come into work and leave work a little early so that she can pick up her kid from childcare. If the manager does not allow the same for a father, that could be viewed as discrimination. Managers must make sure they are not violating the law when they’re dealing with company policies.  

“You want to create a workplace that people want to work at,” Teachout said. “If people feel this is a place they want to work at, they feel loyalty. They get a sense of teamwork, a huge piece of the puzzle that gets missed all the time. When people work as part of a team, they feel more loyalty and are more engaged than people working individually. ”

 

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Why an absence program is vital for any organization

software, compliance

Absence management programs and policies are increasingly significant for organizations, especially as more leave laws pass on a local, state and federal level. Managers dealing with absences from their staff must know what their company’s absence program means for their own role and responsibilities. 

Creating an absence program or policy can be complicated, and there are several types of leave that must work with each other. For example, how does a company’s paid time off policy align with paid family leave laws, short-term disability plans or the Family and Medical Leave Act? What if employees are using PTO when they should be using short-term disability?

Here is some guidance for employers who want to put something more formal in place and stay up-to-date on changing leave laws.

Creating a strong foundation

The foundation of any absence management program is that it takes into account all the local, state and federal leave laws that an organization must follow. Before a company decides what it wants to do, it must understand what it has to do, said Maura McLaughlin, partner with law firm Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP. Different laws may have different employee count thresholds, for example. 

There are many types of leave, and as new leave laws come into effect, organizations should look at their current policies in case an update is necessary, McLaughlin said. 

Staying up to date with new laws can be done a few different ways, said Simon Camaj, absence and disability practice leader at Mercer. A company can outsource management to a carrier/vendor whose job it is to stay informed on the leave law landscape. A company could potentially rely on three parties together — a vendor partner, a consultant partner and in-house counsel — to make the best decisions. Meanwhile, if a company keeps decisions internal and relies on its in-house counsel, that’s more burden on the attorneys.  

It’s up to a company to make the best decision for themselves, but there are costs and benefits either way. 

From must-haves to nice-to-haves 

The next step is deciding how your company wants to address those areas where the law offers organizations some discretion or flexibility, McLaughlin said. How will the company decide on accruals for paid sick leave — lump sum or hours worked? Does the company want to make a certain type of leave paid rather than unpaid? What else does the company want to offer? 

These decisions depend on the culture of the organization and what resources it has, McLaughlin said. What is common to see in the absence program or policy of many companies, though, is longer bereavement leave than the law requires and paid parental leave in states where it is not required. 

Documentation and communication 

What an organization also must consider is how it will document the necessary information for its records and communicate to employees what forms or notices they must fill out for different types of leave.

The onboarding process is one area where employees may be informed about their company’s absence management policies, McLaughlin said. Here they can learn who they go to when they must take time off or some type of leave — their manager, HR or someone else? They can also learn the correct modes of communication to reach out to that person, whether that’s a phone call, email or something else. 

Manager training

Finally, McLaughlin said, organizations can train managers and HR professionals to make sure they know what signs to take notice of that may signal a potential upcoming absence. Is an employee exhibiting some behavior that may predict that this person may be eligible for FMLA leave? For example, an employee may say something along the lines of, “I was in the hospital overnight” or “I need to be on bedrest for just a few days.” While these might not lead to any prolonged absence, if they do managers can be prepared, having considered the employee’s absence or potential reasonable accommodations beforehand. 

This training can also stress that managers cannot retaliate against employees and teach managers how to handle an absence in a non-discriminatory way. A major absence management challenge is managers being able to manage employees consistently so it doesn’t look like discrimination, McLaughlin said. 

How this type of training is conducted depends on what internal resources an organization has, McLaughlin said. It can come from an internal training function or from external training. Either way, there can be a baseline training session along with refreshers as laws or company policies evolve. 

The significance of absence management 

An absence program is vital to an organization. Managers don’t want to fall into the mistake of not managing this until it’s too late, McLaughlin said.

“You may have [an employee] who has not been held accountable, and now you’re at a point of it just being a real problem from an operations and business perspective. But you have no documentation of the fact that it’s been a problem or that you’ve given them all the leave they’re entitled to. And now you have a problem that could have been [avoided,]” she said. 

 

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Absence management is increasingly vital for managers to understand

shift scheduling, technology, custom fields

Absence management — the program and policies in place that control absences due to injury and illnesses — is a vital part of workforce management. Employees miss work for a variety of reasons, and managers must make sure they are on top of employee absences and keeping the business running.

That being said, there are certain aspects of absence management that tend to elude managers. Simon Camaj, absence and disability practice leader at Mercer, said that understanding intermittent disability claims is an area in which many managers lack understanding. 

Also read: Leave management should be as simple as submit, approve and hit the beach

This is problematic for both managers and employees. Employees may have a valid claim and a condition that allows them to take time off intermittently to tend to their condition. But a manager is running a business, and they must understand that their employee can legitimately take that time off and still be able to manage their business in that employee’s absence. 

Intermittent versus continuous claims 

A continuous claim happens in a situation where an employee needs short-term disability leave for a finite amount of time. They may, for example, not be at work for six weeks straight, giving the employer the opportunity to plan around their absence and prepare for their return. This is relatively straightforward, Camaj said. 

What often complicates disability leave for employers, though, is when an employee is physically present at work but eligible for intermittent leave. As the UC Santa Cruz human resources team explains, an intermittent leave may allow an employee to take time off in separate periods of time due to a single illness or injury, rather than one continuous period of time. Leave may include periods from an hour at a time, a day at a time or multiple days in a row, the HR guidance added.  

Communication between employees and managers is the biggest challenge here, Camaj said. Leave policies may not be clear on the role of the manager and employee regarding intermittent leave. 

Also read: Employers grapple with laws about work schedules 

The relationship between management and company leadership
Company decision makers should be clear on what the organization’s time off and employee leave strategy is and how it fits into what the organization is trying to accomplish.

“If you’re going to offer something to employees, they will naturally consider using it,” Camaj said.  “And you have to balance that with certain business goals and priorities.”

It must be made clear in the policy and communicated to both employees and managers what their role is in this absence management procedure, he said. Who does an employee call when they need to take their intermittent leave? What are they personally responsible for? Meanwhile, managers must know what rights employees have to take intermittent time off and what their strategy is to modify the schedule in case that happens.

Whichever absence management administrator or vendor a company uses has a role here and a responsibility to communicate important information to employees and managers, Camaj said. How does the administrator communicate with the employee who has the legal right to take a certain type of leave? How do they engage with the managers in charge of these employees? 

A paradigm shift 

There’s been a paradigm shift recently where there’s more awareness from employers of the importance of leave management and of employees being able to balance their work and personal lives and health, Camaj said. Evidence of this change includes the expansion of paid parental leave and caregiver leave laws across cities and states. 

”This is employers looking at employees and saying, ‘They’re at different stages of their lives and we have to meet people where they’re at.’” he said. “The paradigm shift is employers are seeing leave of absences as employee health events, and if you do a better job at managing leave as a health event, you have stronger productivity, and it helps everybody. It’s not just a leave program you have to have, It’s a strategy.” 

Also read: Time off policies promote convenience while enhancing engagement

This trend will continue, he said, as employee leave grows increasingly more complex with new local or state laws concerning paid time off and paid leave. The issues employers have managing employee absences are not going away. Still, Camaj said he’s seeing more employers step up to the plate.

”We have a greater focus where employers are looking at their leave policies; managers and employees are trying to understand what they have; and vendors are finally at a point where they’re trying to simplify and support leave administration in general with technology,” he said. “As an industry we’re making progress, but this is only going to continue becoming a bigger focus.”