We have had a glimpse of some glorious weather which can only mean one thing; summer is on the way! However, for business owners it can throw curve balls trying to keep the business going when vast amounts of the workforce are absent. Having too many employees off at once can delay projects and throw deadlines off course, damage productivity and add strain to the rest of the workforce left picking up the slack, if absence is managed effectively.
Why does absence spike in the summer? Nice weather and popular sporting events which happen in the summer such as Wimbledon, the World Cup and this summer, the Olympics may encourage employees to take a cheeky hour off work here or there. But the biggest one is the six week school holiday and with childcare costs being so high, employees may book last minute annual leave, or even pull a sickie.
According to government research , 140 million working days are lost each year to sickness and cost businesses £9 billion in sick pay. Unplanned absence can have a significant impact on productivity and profitability, especially within small organisations. Large amounts of absenteeism can also affect the morale within an organisation.
As a business that needs consistency to ensure smooth operations, how do you identify patterns of concern in employee attendance and when should you look at introducing processes to manage it?
Most payroll and HR systems allow you to enter employee sick days, such as Opera 3 Payroll & HR . Recording your employee sick days accurately means the data is easily accessible for analysis and most systems allow you to extract the data to perform deeper analysis. For example, if there is an employee with more than average sick days you can conduct some in depth manipulation of the attendance data by creating graphs to highlight any trends.
Knowing where to start can be daunting. Some key factors to look at are:
Day of the week – Does your organisation see a higher rate of unplanned absence on Mondays or Fridays as employees look to extend their weekends? It can be difficult to prove whether someone was actually sick on these days so be mindful to watch for patterns.
Previous absence – Do any employees have long term medical illnesses which have resulted in frequent sick days? If so, perhaps you should look at introducing a private health care scheme to help employees get the treatment they need for a quicker recovery and return to work.
Type of illness – Make sure you conduct a return to work interview and record the illnesses your employees are suffering from to help highlight recurring trends. For example, if several employees have reported stomach bugs and cold/flu symptoms then it could highlight issues with workplace hygiene. Remind your employees about the spread of infection and look for new cleaners if necessary. Whereas, if a high level of stress related sick days are recorded you might want to think about introducing a policy to address the work-life balance.
Department – If some departments witness higher absence rates than others then it could indicate a red flag. There could be issues with motivation or the management within these departments which indicate greater concerns. In this instance you could look at conducting employee surveys to uncover the deeper reasons behind the sick days.
Popular events – As mentioned, popular sporting events usually occur in the summer months during the daytime. You could consider installing televisions or radio in staff areas for your sport fans so they don’t need to miss out on the action whilst working.
Weather – Was it the hottest day of the year? Some employees might see this as a good chance to hit the beach or beer garden!
We have compiled a list of tips to help you manage employee absence and processes to implement in a bid to reduce unplanned absence this summer.
A sick day must mean the employee is physically unable to do their job. Set the expectations clearly to employees about what constitutes a reasonable sick day with examples if necessary. Similarly, you should also set boundaries of when not to come into work such as in the case of a 24 hour bug - the government guidelines state to isolate for 48 hours. A V&D bug could wipe your entire workforce out within days.
Having a formal phone in reporting process in place rather than a casual text to a manager requires more effort and may therefore discourage people from phoning in sick unless they genuinely are unwell, and it also gives you an opportunity to speak to your employee and find out what’s going on.
It is essential to have a clear absence policy that is shared with all employees across the organisation to let everyone know what is expected of them. It should state who they ask for annual leave and how and how much notice is required. Most workplaces ask for at least one week’s notice of annual leave depending on the length of leave being requested.
You should be clear about the maximum number of staff members who can be absent from each team at any given time to ensure the business can continue running smoothly without too much disruption. To do this you must have clear visibility of booked employee absence so you can cross reference who else is off before approving a leave request, such as a group shared calendar or HR software.
In a bid to achieve fairness all employee absence requests should be approved on a first come, first served basis and if you have to decline leave requests then make sure you fully explain your reasons why.
Managing employee annual leave can be a time-consuming process and can result in time being lost elsewhere. Introducing employee self service systems can take some of the onus off your HR team by allowing employees to manage their own holiday entitlement and book holiday online. It reduces the piles of paper sitting on desks and makes approving or declining holiday simple and quick at the click of a button.
Unplanned employee absence can create all manner of challenges for businesses such as missed deadlines and lower productivity, which in turn will affect the bottom line. Putting processes in place to minimise absence and recording and analysing absence accurately to identify trends is crucial. For more information about how Opera 3 Payroll and HR or our self-service solution Payroll Self Service can help you, please contact us today to arrange a free non obligation demo.
Posted On: May 15, 2024
