Absenteeism and Attendance Management

Does your organization have a formal Attendance Management policy?

Mine doesn't, but they are a good idea. Does your organization have an absenteeism issue? If so, then an Attendance Management policy is an even better idea.

Absenteeism is a major problem in a lot of organizations. Low morale increases productivity costs in many ways, and unscheduled absenteeism is one of those ways, but it there is often a hidden cost to reduced absenteeism.

The goal of a progressive attendance management program is not to eliminate unscheduled absenteeism. For one thing, people still get sick, and there are a lot of costs to having sick people come to work despite their illness. The other problem is that people tend to come to work while sick in situations where their morale is low, because they feel there is a higher risk to staying home than there is misery in being at work while ill. Don't be that workplace that makes it a badge of honour to have never taken a sick day in five years. The sniffles may not be that contagious, but the damage to productivity that can be done by something especially nasty going through the office makes it not worth it, let alone the damage due to people feeling resentment because they feel they cannot stay home when they are ill.

One of the best ways to handle involuntary absenteeism, which is to say, absences that are not the fault of the employee, such as illness, family emergency, etc. is to introduce as much flexibility into working hours as possible given the demands of the job. Make it understood that being sick is permissible, but have an Attendance Management policy in place to handle the abuses of the system. Make allowances for the differences between sick days, personal days, family emergencies, etc. and have it all be clearly laid out and transparent for the staff.

Of course, if there are morale issues anyway, then absenteeism is not your only problem.

What do you think?