The ‘most depressing day of the year’ is allegedly only a couple of weeks away. The gloomy weather, post-Christmas lull, financial worries and a struggle to get re-motivated after the festive period all apparently contribute to what is now commonly known as ‘Blue Monday’. So with more people expected to be absent from work on the 23rd of January than any other day this year, why not consider how you could improve your organisation’s approach to absence management?

The implementation of a proactive and intelligent software solution can in fact remove a lot of the headache for the HR team. Not only are processes fine-tuned and streamlined as a result of best practice workflows, but software can bring about subtle cultural changes that indirectly impact positively upon workplace absence.

When you introduce self-service functionality amongst your line management and wider workforce, employees know that information relating to absences and the ways with which these absences are handled, is much more visible. This slowly affects – even if subconsciously – organisations’ absence quotas. Cascade client Wakefield and District Housing for example experienced a decrease in sickness absence levels across the organisation following the introduction of manager self-service for sickness reporting – the absence rate average per employee fell from 10.5 to 9.75 days, a noted improvement.

As an employer, you should be aware of the cause of absences as part of your duty of care to employees, but it is also important to consider the undesirable pressures that may be placed on individuals who are in work and are struggling with an increased workload due to missing colleagues.

Of course, if you do suspect that your staff are in need of a boost, you could also have a think about what simple steps you could take to lift their spirits…
• If you usually wear formal business attire, consider having a ‘dress down’ day in the office to break the ordinary workplace routine and encourage employees to feel relaxed?
• Encourage staff to get some fresh air at lunch time, whether it’s a general 30 minute walk or lunch together in the local cafe – you could even treat them if the accounts department will allow it!
• Invite a local therapist to come into your organisation to talk to employees about their services – you could even ask them to deliver some stress-busting taster treatments such as a neck and shoulder massage or meditation session
• Why not hold a Monday ‘raffle’ whereby each employee in work receives a ticket to ‘win’ an extra day’s holiday the following month?
• Get the work social club agenda rolling – hold a brainstorm and suggest a different activity for the last Monday of each month, starting of course on the 23rd! This could be anything from playing board games accumulated at Christmas, to a workplace ‘come lunch with me’ where colleagues take it in turns to showcase their culinary expertise
• A change is as good as a rest so why not arrange a job swap for the day, especially if your workplace is experiencing a quiet post-Christmas period. This would be an excellent opportunity for an accounts executive to move to customer services, or your production manager to man reception for a day, whilst encouraging mutual workplace empathy and communication too.