Here Are Five Steps To Help Manage It
The 2017 Absence Management and Wellbeing Survey found short-term absenteeism (also known as unplanned leave or personal leave) has increased to 9.7 days per employee per year.
So how should you manage this type of short-term absenteeism? Here’s our Five-Step Guide.
Step 1 – Be Clear On Your Expectations
You must have policies in place that clearly specify what a staff member should do if they are ill or cannot come to work for some reason. Remind all staff of these policies and explain how valuable each person’s contribution is to the success of your organisation. (If you don’t have these policies, contact End2End for help.)
Step 2 – Look For Patterns
In any business, there are likely to be some people who seem to take more time off than others. Before you can take any action, you need to identify and confirm whether your perceptions are correct.
Once you have accumulated your evidence, speak to the employee privately, respectfully but directly. Explain you are concerned about the number of days they have been away and how it is impacting on their performance. It is fine to ask an employee if there is anything you should know about any health or carer issues that are impacting on their reliability.
Step 3 – Review The Employee’s Responses
An employee can legally request a change in working arrangements to accommodate health or carer responsibilities as long as the request is reasonable. Therefore, you need to review his/her response in this light to see if you can find a workable solution.
Step 4 – Set Goals And Timeframes
All performance issues need to be managed by setting clear goals with reasonable timeframes. Then monitor the situation. Continue reviewing the staff member’s progress. As each milestone is achieved acknowledge and congratulate the employee’s efforts.
Step 5 – No Improvement?
If there are no signs of improvement, provide the employee with a written warning explaining what could happen if they do not improve. If there is still no change, convene another meeting to determine next steps. These can include further performance management or disciplinary actions such as termination.
Cool Heads Should Always Prevail
Managing staff performance and absenteeism can be extremely frustrating – making it easy to say the wrong thing in the heat of the moment. But that will work against you.
The End2End team are experienced in dealing with all sorts of employee problems. They know the law and are highly skilled at reading people. So if you are experiencing worrying absenteeism or performance issues, ask them to help you.
All it takes is a simple call. Call 02 8977 4002 today.