How-and-Who-to-Deal-with-Employee-Absenteeism

How and Who to Deal with Employee Absenteeism?

How and Who to Deal with Employee Absenteeism?

What is employee absenteeism?

Staff absenteeism is a frequent lack of attendance at work without valid cause. Absenteeism excludes emergency leave from work and the occasional uncontactable or delay in response. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the absence rate for all full-time wage and salary workers is 3.2%. This means that, on average, 3.2% of the workforce is absent from work on regular workdays.

What does the Labour law say about absenteeism?

Willful and deliberate absence is a very serious offence when a employees choose to ignore his/her contractual duties to present himself/herself for work, and is therefore in breach of contract. Such actions will have severe consequences as it impacts the organization’s productivity and delivery.

Generally when an employee have up to eightunexcused absence over a running twelve month period are considered grounds for termination. Also, any employee who fails to report to work for a period of three days or more without notifying his or her supervisor will be considered to have abandoned the job and voluntarily terminated the employment relationship and may be subjected to short notice compensation to his/her Employer based on his last drawn salary.

Who is responsible for managing absenteeism in the workplace?

It is always the Immediate Supervisors. Many often think or feel it is Human Resource or the Bosses. In most companies, the responsibility for managing absenteeism falls primarily on immediate supervisors as they are often the first or only people who are aware that the employee is absent.

How do you find absenteeism rate?

Absenteeism rate = Total number of absences / Total number of work days of the workforce

In order to calculate absenteeism rate, you will need to divide the number of unplanned absences by the total number of workdays during the period.

Example if the total workday is 20 days a month and you have 10 staffs and the absenteeism total is 2 day, it will be 2/(20×10) = 1%.

In the event of excessive absenteeism based on the guideline outlined by the Employer, it is legal for any Employer to terminate the Employee for excessive absenteeism after reminders, verbal warnings and/or written warnings. Excessive absenteeism will also show in terms unsatisfactory performance for the employee and to the employee’s team.

How to deal with employee absenteeism?

Every organisation must have a policy regarding attendance policy that must be managed by the head and/or supervising officer proactively as once it gets out of hand, it is usually a nightmare and it often can spread as a culture within an organisation. Below are steps to manage and prevent absenteeism.

1. Have an Employee attendance policy 

Workplace attendance needs to be straightforward in terms of time to work based on schedule. The policy must be in place even if a company do not have an official HR department or if the company is small or medium or large. Having an official attendance policy outlines the expected work behaviour with disciplinary action consequences.

With a policy that’s fair to both the Employer and Employees that incorporate consideration of various attendance issues such as scheduled  and unscheduled absences with necessary disciplinary actions, that sets the tone and boundaries for all employees in respect of work attendance. Keep it as simple as possible that does not include issues which are subjective with definition of the major type of absence in clear, plain language with its consequences.

With any policy, the implementation is key. This must be part of the on boarding process and during annual townhall, the Company’s Absenteeism Rate is being reviewed and published with ongoing monitoring and enforcement by the Supervising Officer and/or Head of Department with the more severe cases being supported by the Human Resource Department.

Usually by the time it is escalated to the Human Resource Department, the issue would be at a very serious stage. Attendance is as a shared responsibility and that everyone is expected to hold up the bar as a team. It is not just the Head or Human Resource Department as most employees in an organisation are interdependent as a team.

Company must have every employees signed a confirmation as an evidence that each of them have read the policy, understand and that they agree to work in line with the Company’s Attendance Requirements.

2. Enforce your attendance policy consistently

A habit is built over time and Policy without enforcement is just a piece of paper floating around. In order to create a healthy employee absenteeism at the workplace, the Company especially the Supervising Officer must enforce the attendance policy consistently all the time proactively with compassion and empathy.

Where it is excessive, after reminders, verbal and written communications including but not limited to phone calls, meetings, one on one, townhalls, emails, messages and/or memo, ensure that there is a procedure for escalation for unscheduled absences where after two within a period of 2 months will trigger a formal review by the next level supervising officer and/or Human Resource Department.

Keep in mind that an unscheduled absence is different from a “no-show at work.” Common situations such as a message or text of lateness, calling in sick on the minimum level provide the Employer information that an employee won’t make it into work to plan alternatives while no-show often left the Employer and the entire team hanging not having any information from the employee at all.

It is better practice that all absenteeism or leave is based on call instead of text and/or messages as it provide instant communication loop. Employees are required to call within up to 3x over an hour window time before text, messages or email is being used to communicate absenteeism or leave as this provide instant assessment by the supervising officer on their team.

3. Keep track of employee absences  

When it comes to dealing with employee attendance, it’s important to keep records. Have a time attendance system that is also accessible by both the employee and their supervising officer and/or head of department that is being reviewed by Human Resource Department that will flag out any attendance issues or risks. This itself is a prevention strategy that will support good attendance.

With records, Employers can then take effective actions against employees including dismissal based on “just cause”. In addition, also monitor and review on various absences, including both scheduled and unscheduled absences so that Employer have sufficient evidence and record that supports any disciplinary and/or termination actions.

4. Handle any unscheduled absences and no-shows within 1 working days

What the Supervising Officer allowed, it will thrive in the work space. As a supervising officer, it is also important to set your limits and boundaries like a football referee in terms of what constitutes a yellow card and what constitutes a red card. Also note that your limit and boundaries must be in accordance to the attendance policy to provide an equal ground for all employees within the company.

Once the staffs return to work, it is crucial to have a one on one formal conversation about what, why it happened, with what’s next in the future including letting the employees know the consequences of their actions including disciplinary actions or a performance improvement plan.

If there is a pattern in an employees’ attendance, it is crucial to point it out and to go deep with them over a tough conversations and document your facts and findings as evidence to see how they respond. The point here is manage them before it is way off track. Keeping an open line of communication with your employees will also help employees being open and up front with their challenges so that both the Supervising Officer and the Employee can make things work.

If need be, this is also addressed in team meeting or in consultation with Human Resource Department if it is recurring.

5. Always reward good behaviour  

Recognizing employees for good attendance and performance by creating a way to point out and reward good attendance on a regular basis including being part of the Employee of the Month and/or Employee of the Year basis.

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