Absence Management Is More an Issue of Not Just Ignoring It

Absenteeism is a cost for almost all businesses (except perhaps in totalitarian regimes). Employees can be absent on authorized and scheduled leave to which they are entitled. At other times, they might take unscheduled leave, still within permitted limits. Yet other times, they might just absent themselves.

All the absences cost money. Authorized absences have to be paid for under the law. Unauthorized absences cause losses through disrupting business operations. Expensive capital equipment might not be operated as planned. Scheduled calls on prospective customers might not be made. Other employees might have to be paid overtime premiums to do the work of the absent employee. Even temporary workers might have to be inducted.

Because the phenomenon is so universal, and because there are so many other issues pressing for attention, businesses typically tend to take the costs of absenteeism in their stride. They might not even take the trouble to work out the full costs of employee absences.

Part of the absences will still be there. Under law, you have to give paid vacations and other kinds of leave to employees. Even here, if things are properly planned and scheduled, the costs to the business can be minimized. For example, employee vacations can be staggered so that a key position is always manned satisfactorily at all times.

Unscheduled and unauthorized absences need equally (if not more) systematic handling to minimize their impact.

How Do You Manage Absences?

You can control things only if you know exactly what is going on. So the starting point for absence management is to get a clear picture about absenteeism.

• Your systems should tell you exactly who is absent and why. Does your system show you who is absent, in which department, for how long and why?
  
• The system should monitor the absences and analyze trends and other relevant aspects. For example, do any of the departments show high (or increasing) levels of absenteeism? Can any patterns, such as large-scale absenteeism on certain occasions, be identified? Do you have records of each employee's absence patterns?
  
• An attempt should be made to understand the underlying factors leading to absenteeism. Does your HR department interview concerned employees to find out what exactly is going on? Such interviews can reveal unexpected factors. For example, employees could be feeling aggrieved because they see certain employees getting away with unacceptable behavior while they themselves have to follow rules and regulations strictly.

When you have a clear picture of what is going on, you would also find ways to manage things better. Consistent application of policies to all employees could, for example, improve things because employees come to feel that they are being treated fairly.

The monitoring and analysis could provide insights into which policies need to be enforced more consistently, or highlight possibilities for redeployment of workforce to tackle specific problems.

Incidental Benefit: Better Compliance With Regulations

Employment of people is an area that is subject to numerous regulations. We already saw that employees are entitled to a certain amount of paid absences. When you start monitoring employees' attendance details and absenteeism, you are quite likely to become better aware of compliance issues, and also be in a better position to monitor compliance.

Conscious absence management is thus likely to lead to better compliance with employment regulations.

About the author:
Lucy Caudle, Marketing Manager at SMART, writes about the benefits of flexible
working and Absence Management Is More an Issue of Not Just Ignoring It

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