Hassle Free HR – Absence Management

Do you measure how many days’ worth of productivity you lose because of employee absence and poor punctuality? If not then this may be a hidden cost to your business – possibly impacting negatively upon your business efficiency and profitability.

The results from the CIPD’s annual Health and Well-being at Work Survey Report dated September 2023 (which relates to Absence Management), showed an average employee absence of 7.8 days per year per employee. Employee absence comes at a direct cost to your business, and there are other indirect costs such as agency labour, over-time for other employees and management time etc. What is the average number of days lost per employee, per year in your business – is it higher or lower and what is it costing you, directly and indirectly? Do you have a specific ‘worst offender’ who you want to manage but don’t know where to begin? Are you fearful of getting it wrong?

Although there is no legal requirement to have an Absence Management Procedure in place, if you do not handle absence problems appropriately or effectively, in a legally compliant way, you may become the victim of an unfair dismissal claim, a constructive dismissal claim or a discrimination claim in an employment tribunal!

Hassle Free HR can support you with your absence management by providing you with a compliant framework for managing absence effectively and which incorporates the latest associated post-pandemic advice. This will include a comprehensive Absence Management Procedure which will consider the management of short-term and long-term absence. It will also consider the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 specifically relating to the management of absences which relate to a protected characteristic and therefore ensure, if the procedure is followed, that your management actions will not be lawful.

We will also provide you and / or your management team with training on how to monitor and measure absence in your workplace, how to identify patterns and trends, how to manage employees who are absent, both whilst absent and when they return to work, how to make reasonable and appropriate ‘reasonable adjustments’ and how to effectively manage the problem formally, in line with your Company policy.

In summary, Hassle Free HR can help you to reduce the problem and cost of absence to your business. For further information, please contact [email protected]