The management of absence from a company is complex, as it costs the business large amounts of money each year, but it’s something that is simply unavoidable.
Although it is a fact of life that people become ill or have accidents and may need time off work, it’s still an issue which requires careful management. Establishing an absence policy, and managing it carefully, will minimise the effect of employees being absent from the workplace.
Short-term absence
All business owners accept that people become ill occasionally and require time off work to recuperate. However, if it becomes a frequent occurrence, it can cause problems for the company. Absence can lead to disruption in the workplace, with others having to cover for that person’s duties. If this is a long-term situation, or the worker has regular periods of sick absence, colleagues may become demotivated as they are doing more work on a regular basis. The extra workload could even cause others to have health problems.
A business plan takes into consideration a specified number of employees with a planned output. If employee absence is high, productivity drops and the company may fail to meet expectations at the end of the period. The costs associated with employee absence vary in each sector, but all experience a reduction in productivity, disruption and possibly other effects too, like poor quality output due to colleagues working longer hours to cover for absence.
Long-term absence
When an employee is off work for a while, it can be difficult to get them back into the workplace. The company has to restructure the workforce to absorb the extra workload, which can have an impact on colleagues. You may have to consider employing a temporary member of staff to cover long-term absence, which will require recruitment and training costs.
Management of absence
Putting a strict but fair absence management plan in place will help to reduce absence from the workplace. Careful monitoring will help to reduce sickness absence in most companies, and management outsourcing will reduce the impact on the company, as you can outsource the management of sick absence.
Introduce a management plan to the whole company, so employees know what to expect if they are absent from work. Establish procedures to assist those who are ill and require help to return to work. Make sure all employees phone in to work before 10:00am on the day they are going to be off, so that their workload can be reallocated. Offer assistance where possible, and introduce measures to help improve the health of employees, like a healthy eating club.
You can also provide an incentive to discourage absence, by providing a bonus to those who haven’t had sick days or under a certain number of days off. Such schemes could see employees who haven’t had time off placed into a raffle and cash incentives or a voucher given as a ‘thank you’.
Absence is one of the largest costs to a company and a plan of action to tackle it is necessary for most. If you would like some advice, contact us to arrange a meeting.