Employees not turning up for work are a major cost to the UK economy. Current estimates suggest £12 billion a year is lost through absence. It is not surprising that employers need to focus on improving staff attendance.
After the long Christmas break and dark miserable mornings many people struggle to get back into the work routine. HR Advantage, a leading HR company based in High Wycombe, found that the major causes of people not wanting to go into work was; long working hours, stress and lack of job satisfaction. Many problems can be resolved by managers relatively quickly. Other factors contributing to absence may be less easy to correct such as illness, injury and personal issues at home.
How can your organisation avoid these problems? HR Advantage Managing Director Campbell Ritchie suggests the following:
- Know if you have a problem by measuring absence. Benchmark your results against similar companies and national statistics
- Conduct return to work interviews so absence is highlighted as an issue
- Establish clear absence guidelines
- Keep in contact with employees who are absent
- Train managers about how to deal with absence issues
- Tackle work-place issues contributing to absence
To deal with instances of long term absence employers may need to consider seeking the advice of occupational health specialists and the employee's GP. Returning to work after some time off can be daunting and an agreed return to plan benefit can both employee and employer.
