Attendance issues

Both sickness absence and an absent employee can cause disruption to you and your company.  If someone’s missing from the workplace, then their absence will undoubtedly add pressure to their colleagues’ working day as they try to pull in any additional workload on top of their own commitments.  All in all, it’s a disruption that you could really do without.

What’s the cost?

Sickness absence in the UK is a HUGE cost to companies and employers of any size. 15.2 million Working days were reported LOST in 2013 – but how many weren’t reported and what will the figures be for 2014…?!

 What can you do?

We believe it makes good sense to manage and monitor sickness, absence and attendance by using good practice and procedures. 

Not only do you treat all employees fairly but they you also set out the rules as to what happens when someone if ill and unable to attend work or where you have a problem with their attendance – probably due to their failure to attend work.

There are simple bite-sized steps you can take to introduce and absence and attendance system, such as “return to work interviews” following a period of absence and ensuring a “self-certification” is completed in each instance or a “fit note” is provided for periods of more than 7 calendar day’s absence.

Introducing an absence management system and training managers/supervisors how to use them should also improve attendance and hopefully minimise absence.

Underlying longer-term problems?

There may be a raft of different reasons for longer periods of absence and in most situations it is likely that you’ll need to undertake further, more in-depth investigations. 

We work with and support skilled occupational health professionals who can support you and your absent employee to understand their medical condition, the implications for both parties and your mutual options for either a phased return to work or parting company should the employee be unable to return to work in the foreseeable future. 

How can we help?

We believe we can help companies address the absence and attendance gap dealing with absence and attendance issues – lost time productivity - through implementing process and procedure.  It has to be said that in probably 9 out of 10 cases the problem will be down to a human being!

Establishing good practices and procedures at the outset helps create a healthy employment relationship - It’s far easier to set the bar than to try to raise it.....!