6 top tips for tackling employee absence

Employee absence is a major HR issue

Although employee absence levels have not reached the peak levels experienced in 2011 and 2013, it is still a major HR issue for organisations to tackle. HR professionals need to understand why employees are absent and how it affects their business.

The CIPD has recently released its regular report investigating levels, types and reasons for employee absence. The findings provide some interesting reading for organisations and employees alike.

Based on survey replies from 578 organisations across the UK, the CIPD report found that absenteeism is currently at an average of 6.9 days per employee which is an increase of .3 days per employee from last year.

Causes

As is often the case, the most common causes of short term absence (less than seven days) are minor illnesses such as headaches, migraines, colds, flu and stomach upsets.

In line with last year’s findings, acute medical conditions such as stroke or heart attack, stress, mental illness, musculoskeletal injuries and back pain are amongst the most common causes of long term absence of four weeks or more.

Interestingly, there has been a rise in reports of illegitimate absence (pulling a sickie to you and me!), from 11% in 2014 to 14%, especially amongst non-manual workers.

How does it affect the organisation?

The average cost per employee per year is currently at a five-year low of £554 across all sectors and organisations. Even though this is lower compared to previous years, it is clearly still a lot higher than employers would like it to be. The CIPD advises readers to be cautious of this figure, though, as they raise the possibility that some respondents may have misread the question as costs for the whole organisation rather than per employee which would account for some of the high variation.

Perhaps surprisingly, absence is not the only issue addressed in this research. Presenteeism is when employees come into work even though they are ill. A third of organisations surveyed reported an increase in people coming to work with an illness in the past twelve months, most coming from organisations where working long hours is normal. This has ramifications for the organisation in that those who had noted an increase in absenteeism are almost twice as likely to experience stress related absences than those who hadn’t. This is clearly a separate issue for employers which needs to be effectively tackled.

What can be done?

Amidst all this talk of absence and illness, there are things that your organisation can do to help tackle employee absence:

• Wellbeing benefits – According to the CIPD report, most organisations offer one or more wellbeing benefits to all their employees. In relation to absence management this can have a positive effect. Organisations that reached their employee absence targets were more likely to offer a range of wellbeing benefits such as private medical insurance, free fresh fruit and healthy eating advice.

• Return to work interviews – The CIPD found that amongst the most effective tactics are to offer return to work interviews which can be used in order to welcome the employee back, check they are ok and get a better understanding of their issue and how to deal with it.

• Changes to work patterns – Changes to working patterns is also an effective tactic to use in order to combat employee absence, for example offering flexible working hours or a change in environment.

• KPI’s – Using absence as one of your organisation’s key performance indicators (KPI’s) has been found to have a positive effect on managing absence. The CIPD report found that those companies who had a firm absence target and measured absence as one of their KPI’s were much more proactive in their absence management programmes.

• reviewing your absence policy – is it fit for purpose or does it need an upgrade? If you don’t have one, you need to set about creating one

• Investing in training – As previously mentioned, stress is a big cause of employee absence. Investing in training for line managers to effectively identify and manage stress within the workforce is a great way to reduce absence in the long run.

How can we help?

Don’t let sickness absence plague your business, Amba have highly qualified HR professionals to help you:

• Define whether you have an absence issue or not

• Understand the type of absence causing you issues

• Find ways to fairly and legally reduce absence

• Draw up absence policy & procedure

If you are experiencing absence related issues in your workplace and think that we may be of assistance to you then please give us a call on 01454 808658 and we will be happy to help you.

*If you wish to read the full CIPD report please click here