Absence costs money and most organisations will be taking some steps to manage their levels of employee non-attendance. But does the pressure on reducing absence lead to another problem – ‘presenteeism’?

Presenteeism might be an awful word but it could also be a growing, if yet acknowledged, problem.Presenteeism – coming to work when sick or unproductive – is estimated to cost UK employers £15 billion a year in lost productivity; that’s one and a half times more than absenteeism.

Causes of being at work but not being productive can be myriad: personal financial difficulties, work-related stress, perceived workplace pressure (from senior managers, line managers and colleagues) to attend work when unwell are key contributing factors.Additional fears over job security and redundancy during the recession – particularly if absence is a measure in redundancy selection criteria – is also likely to have an impact. It may be, too, that the new fit note regime will have an effect – but as this is a more supervised form of return to work it should have better results.

The fact is that when managing any form of underperformance there are challenges. Hard-pressed employers may say that if someone is working at 80% capacity, that’s 80% better than them not being there at all.Another challenge is “how ill is ill” in the age of mobile working and an ability to make some response to e-mail almost wherever or however you are. And if you are the only one doing a particular activity, then struggling to work can seem better than having to come back to a huge pile of work.

But underperformance of any sort needs managing. It is as well to be aware that there are likely to be a wide range of underlying issues – as well as incompetence or lack of motivation - at play. So how can employers tackle the challenges of presenteeism?

Key recommendations are:

• Look at how you are applying absence management policies and how, or whether, these are properly understood by managers.
• Make sure line managers have the capability and confidence to deal with day-to-day people issues.
• Embrace the new fit note regime as a constructive approach to managing return to work where this should be phased or adjusted as required.
• Establish clear descriptions of performance expectations and expected ways of working. Use key performance indicators where possible.
• Develop individually based performance management plans. Remember that 80% of your people issues are likely to come from 20% of your staff. You have to get into 1 to 1 work to make progress.
• Doing nothing is not an option.

If you are experiencing presenteeism or performance issues in your workplace, contact your HR Advantage consultant for advice.