By Peter Stanway, Personnel Consultant at Professional Personnel Consultants
Peter Stanway presents his top tips for managing attendance; the tips referred to are derived from a 1994 Industrial Society survey.
These tips should be read in order of importance, as in my experience time has done nothing to change this ranking.
1. Accurate recording
This is crucial for two reasons. Firstly, taking effective action against poor attendees requires you to have an accurate record so that people are being addressed fairly and consistently. Secondly, if you work on inaccurate information you do not know whether matters are improving or deteriorating.
It is essential, therefore, to have a good system for capturing and recording absences. These should be expressed as a percentage, although information on absence frequency, i.e. number of occasions or days off can also be useful. If your businesses true average figure is above 4%, you have a problem.
2. Return to work interviews
Employees must be seen as soon as possible upon their return to work. There are three good reasons for this:
• To ensure that they are fit for work. Allowing someone to work who is not safe to themselves or others is a risk
• To show appropriate concern for the good attendee
• To let the poor attendee know that they have been missed and the consequences of repeated, unacceptable absence.
It is prudent to use a form for this meeting and to follow a system. These interviews need to be handled sensitively and in the case of poor attendees, firmly. It should be stressed that the business takes attendance at work very seriously and that non-attendance could lead to action being taken under the disciplinary procedure.
Return to work interviews may provide the opportunity to explore ways in which the business can help the individual to attend work as required and to discuss ways that the member of staff can better manage their own attendance.
You may need to stress that it is non-attendance which is of concern, not their honesty. People with good attendance records can be praised, and recognised for same, which should reinforce the desired behaviours.
3. Written policy
Very few organisations have a formal policy on absence control. Businesses can however, outline standards and procedures in the following places:
• The provision in contracts which detail sick pay
• Rules about notification
• Disciplinary procedures and policies
Establishing a formal policy should help to determine whether there are any gaps or inconsistencies in current practice/policy. I would advise that the policy should be discretionary and reviewed regularly. To be effective it needs to be communicated, as the key requirement is that it is understood and applied by management and staff.
4. Training of line managers
There is no point in having a policy if line managers are not equipped to use it. Apart from the need to ensure that they fully understand the policies and procedures, they need to have the background skills to go with it. Such skills should include counselling, discipline, interviewing, coaching and a fair appreciation of all the relevant employment law.
5. Motivation
Most of us know that it is the best motivated of our colleagues who attend work most regularly. Management are responsible for providing the motivation that makes us less prone to illness and more likely to come in when we are ‘a bit under the weather’. Generating a positive environment in which your staff can perform and develop doing worthwhile work will go a long way to controlling attendance levels.
6. Discipline
This can work on a number of levels:
• Giving people a degree of self-discipline
• Peer pressure to conform
• Return to work interviews and counselling/absence review meetings
• Use of the disciplinary procedure
There are three basic types of action to be taken in respect of poor attendance:
• Discipline for abusing the system and procedures of the employer
• Discipline when using the stages of the procedure in respect of people with an excessive amount of time off work
• Dealing with long term sickness, that is prolonged absence
There are a number of options for dealing with long-term sickness:
• Let them run out of sick pay and remain dormant on the books
• Allow sick employees to transfer to a pension fund or permanent health scheme
• Dismiss workers after very careful investigation and consultation
Employers must be consistent in their approach to sickness handling.
7. Communication
Communicating absence rates to managers so that they know how they are performing compared to target or company averages will tend to produce action. Providing your managers do not rush off and dismiss anyone with a bad record just to make their figures look better this will generally be positive. Secondly, communicating that information to the workforce will tend to have a positive effect.
8. Commitment
Making absence a Key Performance Indicator will send a very clear message to most people. Making sure that it is regularly reviewed, in conjunction with the other measures outlined in this feature should have a beneficial impact on absence levels, sick pay and productivity.
9. Performance appraisals
Introducing an appraisal system, which builds in absence as a factor, can be a useful tool. It can work in two ways; targets for managers and targets for individuals. If managers recognise that an unacceptable level of absence is going to adversely affect their pay rise, bonus or career prospects they are more likely to take it seriously. Employers must check that managers do not put their energies into ‘manipulating’ the figures.
10. Teamworking
Peer pressure is very powerful in ensuring that unreliable colleagues get the message they are not meeting group norms. Employers need to strike a balance between operational efficiency and imposing just enough burden on remaining colleagues that an effect is felt. Management are still responsible but do not underestimate peer pressure; good managers work with it.
It may be a surprise to many that I have not included financial incentives such as attendance bonuses in the above. There are two reasons for this:
(i)Why should you pay someone twice for turning up to work?
(ii)They only work in the short term
Finally, one free tip. Provided accurate records are in place, employers can write to employees with the best attendance records at the end of each business year to congratulate and recognise their excellent levels of attendance.
