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Guide to Reducing Employee Absences
Successfully reducing unnecessary absences is essential to your bottom line
By Sheryl Nance-Nash
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Employee absenteeism is much more than a mere inconvenience for an employer. While many employees have legitimate illness or emergencies, a lot of employees call in sick to tend to personal business and appointments, or because they are depressed, have substance abuse problems, or otherwise just don't enjoy their jobs anymore. You have to address the underlying issues if you want to reduce those unwelcome phone calls. Three things are essential: - Re-evaluate your benefits program
- Create an absenteeism policy
- Work on your culture
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
 Change to a
Truth be told, many times employees' responsibilities as parents, or to aging parents can be overwhelming. Your workers may simply be trying to juggle demands. Increasingly companies are turning to Paid Time Off (PTO) banks, where basically employees are given a set number of days off a year, to be used as they choose.
I recommend: See a sample PTO policy from the University of Rochester.
Develop a written absenteeism policy
Spell out the definition of excessive absenteeism and detail disciplinary procedures. As with other policies, it must be vigorously and consistently enforced.
I recommend: Use this sample absence policy to build your own.
Check your cultural climate
Truth is, sometimes, employees just don't want to come to work, because the atmosphere is toxic. What's a good way to check your company's cultural pulse? An employee opinion survey is a good start.
I recommend: HR consulting firm Insightlink Communications has published a thorough Guide to Conducting Employee Surveys.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Maintain attendance records. This will show you are serious and aware of their absences.
- Alternative work arrangements, like telecommuting and job-sharing, are worth exploring as options to curtail unplanned absences. If your workers have more flexibility, they are likely not to want to exploit absences and also be less likely to need to take a day, because they can manage their time better.
- Look for ways to build the team spirit, be it special events or activities inside or outside of the office. A sense of "family" can enhance an employee's commitment level.
The official source of Reducing Employee Absences is
the Workforce Management page at Business.com
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 Recommended Solution Providers | Back to top |
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Offers employers a "back up care solution" for their employees to help them avoid absences due to child illnesses, absent caregiver, school closures, or holidays.
Absence management solutions provide a single comprehensive view into the many types of employee absence, from vacations to FMLA, illness to tardiness.
Time and attendance software called Points Manager tracks employees' attendance infractions, assigns values to each infraction, and determines penalties according to predefined limits.
Directory of employee assistance programs, to which employers can refer employees who may be facing problems which cause them to arrive to work late.
Software that monitors attendance, time off, and scheduling. Includes a module to allow employees to track timecards and to request time off.
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 Best Sites to Learn More | Back to top |
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Site exploring many aspects of absenteeism, including establishing an absenteeism policy.
Articles covering such topics as stemming tardiness, providing child care and back up care and reducing absences due to illnesses.
Articles for managers to learn how to effectively handle employee absences.
View a sample absence policy as a model for your company.
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