5 tips for best practice employee absence management
When it comes to employee absence management, having good practices in place can help to avoid some of the common pitfalls. Keeping track of holiday days, sick days and unpaid leave can become a real headache unless you have clear policies and procedures in place and a process that works for you. As a market leader in absence monitoring software since 2005, we’ve learned a thing or two along the way.
So, take a look at our best practice top tips and keep your staff absence management simple.
1. Have a clear absence policy
An absence policy is the foundation of good employee absence management best practice. Taking the time to set out clear procedures for all employees when requesting time off or reporting an absence due to sickness makes the process run much more smoothly for all involved.
Absence policies will need to cover things like:
- Who they report absences to
- How much sick leave can be taken before they need to supply a doctor’s letter
- Whether the company pays sick pay in addition to the statutory sick pay and for how long
- What to do if they need to take long-term sick leave
- How much annual leave they are entitled to
- How many unpaid leave days can they take in a year
Any questions that might come up when thinking about planned or unplanned leave should be covered in these policies for both staff and management to avoid any confusion.
2. Implement an easy-to-use employee absence management system for recording absences
To avoid absence management becoming just another thing to add to a never-ending to do list you want a system that makes it as easy as possible for people to access and log their absences and for management to be able to approve, track and monitor. You don’t have to have absence management software, but it can certainly make your life easier.
With an absence management solution, both planned and unplanned leave can be logged quickly and simply and all absence information will be securely stored in one place. Absence management software could also allow you to analyse absence data or set up triggers to monitor teams or individuals that have a high level of sick leave to offer support and resolve any potential barriers to work.
3. Support employees as they return-to-work after illness or injury
Staff that have been on long-term sick leave either due to mental health or physical illness or injury should have a clear return-to-work procedure in place to help them transition smoothly back into the workplace. This could consist of an interview to understand any special adjustments they might need to settle back into work.
While this is most relevant for staff returning from long-term leave, even absences dues to short illnesses or injury can require some accommodations in order to settle back in well and avoid a recurrence or further injury resulting in more time off.
4. Track, monitor and review your employee absence data regularly
Absence data can be used to identify patterns and understand causes of high absences. Are there times of the year where there are more staff on holiday (such as over the summer, school holidays and Christmas), do you need to plan for more cover during these times? Are there teams that have a higher rate of absence? Is this because the workload is too high? Is there a negative culture impacting that team? All this information is invaluable to understand and manage absences in your organisation. This allows you to ensure that teams can still handle workloads and that overall output and staff wellbeing is not negatively affected.
5. Nurture a positive workplace culture
A poor workplace culture or management disregard for employees’ health and wellbeing is often linked to a high level of absenteeism. A recent Health at Work Survey by PAM Wellness found that employees who are proactively helped to stay healthy feel more productive than those given little to no wellbeing support and that employees viewed benefits that helped them to stay healthy as being the most beneficial. Offering benefits like flexible working can help employees maintain a good work/life balance and avoid employee burnout.
But it’s not just about benefits, providing an environment where employees feel safe to have open discussions about mental health and long-term illnesses can help to manage absences more effectively. Having a supportive management team in place that understands and values employee wellbeing and ensures workloads are managed effectively can all help to reduce absenteeism due to stress and other mental health issues.
