Managing Employee Absenteeism: 3 Ways for HR Managers to Do This Efficiently

During the day-to-day running of a business, most companies experience various daily issues that can contribute to inefficiency in the workplace. One such issue is employee absenteeism, which you may think is unfair to speculate about because most staff members have a valid reason for being absent from work, such as a family emergency or when someone falls ill. Keep Reading To Find Out More!

During the day-to-day running of a business, most companies experience various daily issues that can contribute to inefficiency in the workplace. One such issue is employee absenteeism, which you may think is unfair to speculate about because most staff members have a valid reason for being absent from work, such as a family emergency or when someone falls ill. However, absenteeism can often become a pattern behaviour in some staff members, and a valid reason can fail to be produced for frequent absences. In fact, the benchmark for absenteeism in the European Union is around 4.7%, and it can cause the business a significant amount of financial loss if allowed to continue over time. To help reduce this risk and manage employee absenteeism within your business, we've created this article outlining a few ways for HR managers to efficiently manage employee absenteeism that can help you make the problem better before it gets worse.

Create An Attendance Policy

The first step that HR managers should be taking to reduce the risk of employee absenteeism is creating an attendance policy or reviewing it if you already have one in place, and then working towards enforcing it. Ensure that you make a fair, ethical policy that outlines the businesses' expectations regarding attendance and any disciplinary actions that may occur should staff members not follow the procedure. You should also consider mitigating circumstances, such as if employees have children they have to take to school before coming into work etc., and how the affected employee could make up the missed time.

Outline in the policy what the company considers a scheduled absence, unscheduled absence, and tardiness, so that there is a clear distinction between all types of non-appearances and miscommunication is avoided. Once the new policy or revised one is ready, ensure that each staff member is made aware and make reading it mandatory, whether they've just joined the company or not. This means your employees will be more mindful that absenteeism is being taken seriously and that policy-breakers will be disciplined accordingly.

Enforce The Policy And Track Any Absences

Enforcing the policy and tracking employee absences is the most challenging part of managing absenteeism. Still, you must treat each absence case the same and follow the absenteeism procedure each time. However, it doesn't mean that you can't allow for mitigating circumstances or show a little empathy on certain occasions, and have a plan for these types of absences as well. For instance, you could outline that one or two events of unscheduled absence or tardiness are acceptable in your policy. Still, if it occurs a third time, it may trigger disciplinary action like a warning or a formal meeting.

Tracking any absences will also help HR management minimise the risk of absenteeism, as keeping records will allow you to identify repeat offenders or any patterns across the staff body. Your business may keep track of employee attendance in various ways, such as clocking in/out cards, through online HR software, or even via a time clock app. Any system your business uses ensures that every absence is recorded to make identifying issues easier for management. Alternatively, if your business is looking for a way to record employee absenteeism, you could consider implementing online HR software from leading providers such as myhrtoolkit, who have recently written about the mental health benefits of staff taking holidays, including reducing burnout and absence. Myhrtoolkit provide a range of services designed to optimise your HR department, ranging from absence management to holiday planning, which is bound to help your team manage absenteeism effectively.

Address Any Policy Breaches Immediatly

Another way to manage employee absenteeism efficiently is by directly addressing unscheduled absences or no-shows as soon as they occur or when the offending staff member is back at work. Allowing too much time in-between addressing the situation can lead to employees thinking that they've gotten away with it and could trigger another absence in short succession. You could do this by discussing the unscheduled absence with the employee concerned when they return to work. Ensure you refer to the company absence policy, why the incident has happened, what management expects of the employee moving forward, and any type of disciplinary action that the absence may have caused if necessary.

You could even enforce that employees have to fill out a return-to-work form detailing the reason for their absence, the time period, and any other relevant details after every unscheduled absence. Ensure that you refer to the absence policy within the return-to-work form and have employees sign and date the paper so that if further disciplinary action is required, you can refer to the form if needed. Addressing absences as soon as they appear will ensure that employees understand that absenteeism is taken seriously and that offenders will be disciplined accordingly, which will dissuade future absentees and help management manage employee absences.