Recent reports show that there is a common lack of knowledge among the UK’s employers about levels of absence through sickness and the wider costs of healthcare.

This suggests a lack of focus on absence rates and on health generally.

A poll of 185 employers in the UK, representing a combined workforce of 650,000 employees, revealed that over a third of businesses do not know how many days employees are absent through ill-health annually, while 53% of respondents admitted that they do not measure the total cost of employee sickness absence. (to read more about this survey go to our –>Employee Management News <– site.

With the average level of employee absence staying at very high 7.7 days per employee per day and the annual cost of absence raising to £673.00 per employee per year companies willing to survive the current economic crisis should take steps in order to reduce absence rates.

As James Kenrick, Healthcare Consultant at Aon Hewitt, sais “It is clear that there is a need for healthcare measurement and for tangible improvement on the current situation – but without an accurate picture of sickness absence and healthcare costs, employers will struggle to make and measure improvements.

He added “Employers who are not measuring rates of absence through sickness should start as soon as possible. In our experience, once management is aware of high sickness rates and the corresponding costs, it takes only a modest degree of intervention to bring rates down swiftly”.

Modern time and attendance system bring you tools to tackle this issue effectively.

A computerised time and attendance management solution gives you much more insight into the issue than just a simple clocking in machine.

The data collected either via biometric/swipe card/proximity card readers, mobile and landline phones, PCs, PDAs is delivered to managers in an easy to understand highly customisable form.

The reports can include information on general absence rates, absence trends and costs, reoccurring absenteeism, lateness rates etc.

Add to that a built in Bradford Factor – a mathematical equation allowing you to evaluate how big impact each of the short-term absences has got on your business (in comparison to single incidences of prolonged absence)- and you can finally start might be ‘pulling sickies’.

The attendance management system can make it easy to track attendance patterns and discover problem areas early on – before absences get out of control.

This can give you the chance to discuss the situation with an individual and find out if there are ways to make positive changes – especially if there is an underlying reason for their poor attendance record.

In many cases, just knowing that automated employee absence management systems are in place is enough to deter staff members from taking unnecessary leave.