Absence Management

Sickness absence in particular can be very costly and disruptive for smaller businesses and many of the companies I come into contact with seem very nervous about trying to manage this proactively in their business for fear that this will be seen negatively or bring consequences to them they are not equipped to handle.

Here are a few pointers to help you get to grips with promoting a positive attendance management programme in your business

1) Have a policy

Start by having a clear sickness and absence policy that explains what an employee needs to do and can expect to see if they are unable to work for any reason.

This helps you define an absence reporting procedure and set a professional code of conduct to help you best plan for the times when employees may not be fit to work.

2) Complete return to work interviews

Many businesses I speak to all say that they don’t really do anything when an employee returns from being off sick and that they are that far behind they just want to get them back to work as soon as possible.

A return to work interview is a small time out before your employee resumes their duties just to check in that they feel better and are well enough to work. For those who are genuine when they do not work due to sickness this is a reassurance to know you have their welfare at heart, for those who may consider sick days as additional holiday entitlement then this does put additional pressure that they have to meet with you to have this discussion.

3) Differentiate between long term medical issues and adhoc absence

Where you are aware of a medical problem or ongoing issues then you want to show a greater level of support to these employees and your approach to this type of absence would be very much focused on how you can help and support your employee to remain at work.

Adhoc absence is the most disruptive and you may often see patterns (such as Fridays or Mondays) and so keeping good absence records will help you identify this and act appropriately.

4) Take action

If you have a policy in place for managing attendance then ensure you follow this through.

Use options such as requesting medical reports to help manage issues and gain a better picture of the issues in hand.

High levels of adhoc absence can be dealt with as capability issues as this may start to impact and employees ability to do their role effectively. Consider using systems like Bradford Scoring that applies a uniform process of handling adhoc absence so all employees are dealt with consistently and fairly.

If you consider absence to be a problem in your business you can take advantage of a free consultation with us to get some advice and guidance on your options, simply call us to arrange on 0844 8797286.

Author – Sarah Birkenshaw
Date – 03/2015

Image courtesy of "David Castillo Dominici" at FreeDigitalPhotos.net