Managing Absence - Reducing and preventing absence

Absence is a cost for any business – both financially and operationally - and therefore reducing and preventing absence makes good commercial sense.

There are many ways that an organisation can look to reduce absence. In addition some organisations also take a pro-active approach to employees' wellbeing and support programmes that might actually prevent absence in the first place.

While considering absence it is also important to consider all types of situations that might prevent employees from attending work - sickness & non sickness absence– as all can cause disruption to any business.

In this article we will therefore take a brief look at the following areas relating to absence and absence management:

• Types of absence
  • Long-term and short term absence
  • Unauthorised absence
  • Other types of absence
• Monitoring
• Return to work interviews
• Terms and Conditions (payment during periods of absence, attendance bonuses
• Prevention - health and wellbeing programmes
  

The Holy Grail!

There is no single solution to absence and the holy grail of ‘zero’ absence is unrealistic – as we have to remember that we are dealing with people and there will be genuine periods where employees need time off.

This aside, every organisation should look to minimising absence – and generally it is the unplanned absence that causes the greatest disruption to the business – the odd day here and there, the appointment at the most inconvenient time of the day. …..

Hints for managing absence (reducing and preventing absence)

1. Monitor Absence

This is the most important aspect if you want to reduce absence – as before you can reduce it you need to measure it! There are various monitoring methods that can be used and ideally any information should be recorded electronically to allow for future analysis. A simple monitoring system is to require all employees to complete a form for both planned absence (e.g. holiday booking forms, appointments – an absence request form) and un-planned absence (such as sickness or emergency leave situations - a Company self-certification form).
Could link to example forms

Monitoring in itself will start to reduce absence as employees will know that any absence will be noted and could possibly be questioned.

2. Return to Work Interviews

A further monitoring tool is the return to work interview. This requires the employee to sit down with their manager to discuss any unplanned absence (and complete a self-certification form). The interview can include a number of areas such as:

• Discussing the reasons for absence
• Whether they visited their Doctor
• Whether absence was connected to work in anyway (e.g. stress, harassment, etc)
• Reviewing previous absence
• Discussing any forward action (they have to have treatment, will see their doctor, etc)

3. Analyse Absence Records

With a good monitoring system in place records can be analysed for trends and for the organisation to see if initiatives for reducing absence are being effective.

Decide on clear reporting information and collate this on a regular basis, for example a quarterly or six monthly report showing (per employee):

• Total days absence in the period (including the days and dates of absence)
• Reasons for absence (broken down into holiday, sickness, other)
• Patterns to absence (any Friday/Monday syndromes!).

If there is a computerised personnel systems in place, reports should be easy to generate on a regular basis (provided information has been entered!). Managers can then request a report for their department to review.

4. Act on the Information

The analysis of absence records can then be used to decide on what appropriate action may be needed in any situation, for example:

• The employee with a pattern of odd days absences on Fridays and Mondays for various reasons (e.g. cold, stomach upset). It may be appropriate to hold a meeting with this employee to point out their pattern and level of absence (possibly informally first, but advising the employee that formal disciplinary action may be considered if it continues)
• The employee who has lots of ‘doctors appointments’ at inconvenient times during the day. You may want to make some further enquires with the employee about the number and reasons for the appointments (is there an underlying medical condition?) and also to discuss whether appointments can be made for a more appropriate time.
• The employee who has been off for six weeks. In this situation you may want to consider requesting the employees consent to write to their doctor for a medical report in order to clearly understand the reason for their absence and when they may return (or arrange for them to see your occupational health advisor if you have one).
• The employee who is off on a regular basis for the same or similar reasons. This may indicate an underlying medical condition and you may want to refer them to your occupational health advisor.
• The person who has taken no holiday during the year. You may wish to remind them to book some holiday dates (as it is a health and safety requirement that they take at least four weeks off per year).

Note: the above should generally be discussed with the HR Department to ensure any appropriate procedures are followed.

5. Consider Terms of Employment and Policies

Your terms and conditions and policy documents should support your objectives for reducing absence. This may include taking a hard line on payments for employees during periods of short-term or odd-days absence.

You should consider the following:

• Have a clear absence reporting procedure – ask employees to speak to their manager if they cannot attend work. Leaving a message at reception or (worse still) a text message on your manager's phone should not be acceptable.
• Be clear about payment during periods of absence – sickness, attending appointments during working hours, emergency leave, compassionate leave etc.