What does absence monitoring do?
- Watches absence data and flags patterns that may need attention
- Notifies the people you choose when a pattern is detected
- Lets you enable monitoring and configure rules separately for each absence type
- Surfaces flagged patterns ("signals") on the employee's profile and time-off pages
Absence monitoring helps managers and HR spot trends early, without tracking absence by hand. Rules are configured per absence type, so they can match your own policies for sick leave, parental leave, and so on.
The monitoring rules
Four rules can be turned on per absence type:
High total days - Signals when an employee reaches 30/60 total absence days in a 12-month period.
Frequent short-term absence - Signals when an employee has 4 or more separate absence periods within 90 days.
Weekday pattern - Signals when more than 50% of absence days fall on Mondays or Fridays, with at least 10 days in the period.
Relapse after long-term period - Signals when an employee returns to absence within 30 days after a period of 14 days or longer.
Each rule can be toggled on or off independently for the absence type.
Setting up monitoring
1. Go to Company settings > Time-off > Availability types
2. Open the absence type you want to monitor (e.g. Sick) and select Monitoring
3. Turn on Enable monitoring for that type
4. Under Rules, toggle the patterns you want to monitor
5. Under Recipients, choose who gets notified:
- Direct manager - Notified immediately when a signal is triggered
- 2nd-level manager - The manager's manager receives the same signals
- HR contacts - Specific people who receive all signals for this absence type
Repeat for each absence type you want to monitor. Types you don't enable are left untouched.
Signals
When a rule is matched, Aboard creates a signal and notifies the recipients you chose.
- Signals appear on the employee's profile and time-off pages
- Each signal shows what was detected and when
- Select Mark as handled once a signal has been dealt with, and add an optional note describing how you addressed it
Signals are visible to managers and HR who can access the employee's time-off page. They are not shown to the employee or to people with limited profile access.
FAQ
Q: Does the employee see when a signal is raised?
A: No. Signals are visible to managers and HR with access to the employee's time-off page, not to the employee themselves or to limited-access viewers.
Q: Do I have to monitor every absence type?
A: No. Monitoring is off until you enable it, and you enable it per type — so you can monitor sick leave only, for example.
Q: Who receives the notifications?
A: Whoever you select per absence type: the direct manager, the 2nd-level manager, and/or named HR contacts.
Q: What does "Mark as handled" do?
A: It clears the signal from the active list and records who handled it, along with an optional note that's visible to anyone with access to that employee's time-off page.
Q: Where can HR see all signals across the company?
A: Under Analytics > Time-off > Signals, which shows totals, a trend chart, and the full list, with filters by signal type, department, workplace, and employee.