From burnout to brilliance: The power of trust in leave management 

As a people manager leading a high-performing team in a fast-paced sector, effective absence and leave management is crucial. At edays, I’ve found that fostering a culture of trust and understanding regarding sickness and leave not only enhances team morale but also boosts productivity, significantly. 

This article talks about my own experience as a people manager leading high performing teams across the UK and EU.

A special mention for burnout 

Chances are that your high performers will be at higher risk of burnout yet less likely to be open about this. Your people managers are the first and most important asset in both spotting burnout, and more importantly, being proactive about it when they do. I have both come across this, and experienced it many times throughout my career – both when I was an IC (individual contributor) and when people managing.  

For me, this can be helped in some way by one simple word: trust. In my team trust is not earned it is given as a default. It is the cornerstone to creating and fostering an environment of understanding and leads to a much better culture. We all get sick, and we all need a break. 

The role of edays in effective leave management 

Utilising edays has been instrumental in my role (I would say this, but it is 100% true).  

The platform allows me to quickly manage and track leave/sickness/medical etc, meaning I can proactively plan resources, time, and energy throughout the year, month, and week. This proactive approach ensures that the team remains agile and responsive to the dynamic demands of our sector. It also allows me to set alerts that help me understand if my team is taking enough leave throughout the year, are they sick? Why are they sick, can I see any trends that mean as a people manager I need to take proactive and positive action? This visibility is gold for me here and I praise edays for giving me this.  

The importance of annual leave 

Encouraging team members to take their annual leave is vital for maintaining high performance. Research indicates that employees who use their annual leave can see a productivity boost of up to 40% and a significant 28% reduction in the likelihood of taking sick leave. EURES (EURopean Employment Services) 

Despite these benefits, a staggering 69% of workers do not take all their annual leave, leading to burnout and decreased job satisfaction. Meraki 

The data is very clear, take more annual leave to be more productive and a better contributor to the workforce.  

Managing sickness proactively 

Sickness is an inevitable aspect of any workplace. While tracking absences is important, adopting a proactive approach to employee wellbeing is key to creating a healthy workplace culture. Rather than simply reacting to health issues as they arise, organisations should implement preventive measures and interventions to address potential health risks before they escalate, as part of their leave management processes. Acas 

By fostering a supportive environment, we can reduce the incidence of sickness-related absences and maintain consistent productivity levels. 

Here’s my 4 simple strategies to reduce sickness absence 

Trust & rest: I’ve already spoken about the importance of trust but having that trust does create an environment where if someone is ill, they do not get the added stress of thinking they are letting the team (and manager) down. It removes the feeling people get when calling in sick from something they dread, to something they and the manager know is part of life. As a people manager you can take the lead and make sure your employee is well rested and ready to return to work at the right time. This is about more than a return-to-work form, you need to be able to unlock the right conversations that help you and your employee in a meaningful way. 

Get in the trenches: This one only requires you to take ownership over the energy input of your team, making sure that when the team feels stretched, you are there to help take on extra workload and clear your own diary or to-do list. My number one responsibility is to my team – this will go a long way to helping foster a better culture, it will also help you know when your team is being (or at risk of) burnout. 

Create a healthy working environment: Designing workspaces with ergonomics in mind can assist workers in remaining healthy while at work (Verve Healthcare). We make sure that working arrangements work for all. Your team needs to work in an environment and in a way (hybrid, remote or office) that fosters the best outcome from that employee, which brings me onto the next point. 

Offer flexible working arrangements: Providing flexibility in working hours and location can reduce the total number of sick days taken by the workforce significantly. It’s a very simple arrangement that in my experience, can work very well for both the employee and the employer.  HR Magazine 

Fostering a culture of trust and understanding 

Building a culture where employees feel comfortable taking necessary leave requires trust and understanding. By openly discussing the importance of rest and recovery, and by leading by example, we can create an environment where team members feel valued and supported. This not only enhances individual wellbeing but also contributes to a more cohesive and resilient team. 

HR’s role in helping people managers 

As someone who became a people manager simply from being a “good” IC I had to learn how to manage a team fast, and boy was it a learning curve.  

This is a common scenario, but it is not as common to see great ICs get leadership training. Even experienced people managers can benefit from this. It is about more than a course; it is about the mentorship offered within the organisation on an ongoing basis.  

Think of it as a simple funnel with your most experienced and successful leader at the top, which cascades downwards from (for example) SLT, to SMT/People Manager and then to ICs. A people manager needs to be supported, to be trained and to be able to know how to handle sometimes complex and tricky situations, much of which can be helped by both tapping into more experienced leaders and training. HR is key to unlocking this and driving it through the company. 

Conclusion 

Effective absence and leave management, supported by tools like edays, is essential for sustaining high performance. By promoting the benefits of annual leave and adopting a proactive approach to sickness, we can foster a culture of trust and understanding that empowers our teams and our businesses to excel.  

If you found this article useful, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or join in the conversion by sending your thoughts to marketing@e-days.com 

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