One organisation has made five recommendations to absence management professionals, one of which is to consider flexible working employee benefits.
Risk insurer Ellipse released a report in which it was suggests employers’ approach to staff illness could be improved.
The publication, called Sick notes: How changes in the workplace and technology demand a rethink of absence management, advised businesses to take five steps to improve the way they handle absence, Employee Benefits magazine said.
One was to make sure the procedure for dealing with the issue is clear and easy to understand, while ensuring proactive communication is maintained with personnel was also encouraged.
Furthermore, the protection provider recommended using technology to monitor absence and focus on worker engagement, including putting some thought into offering flexible working as part of an employee benefit scheme, the news provider noted.
Firms could also consider bringing in outside help if they think sickness management needs to be improved, it was suggested.
Some of the problems identified through a survey of 1,000 workers and 250 businesses were that 41 per cent of managers claimed absence procedures are never followed, 70 per cent of employers are dependant on non-human resources staff members to handle the issue and 45 per cent of bosses do not think the people responsible for dealing with illness are the best at doing so.
What’s more, 80 per cent of both personnel continue with their jobs when ill even though 80 per cent of their superiors think this is a bad thing.
Backing up Ellipse’s suggestions, many employees thought flexible working conditions would help reduce the amount of time people were off sick and 70 per cent of managers believe working from home would improve attendance rates.
Dr Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, who was involved in the authoring of the report, said: “Employers can address absence by ensuring that they do not instill a culture of long working hours, which ultimately lead to demoralised staff and increased sickness – and by training line managers to be fully able to deal with absence management rather than leaving it to chance.”
Diane Buckley, managing director of Legal & General Group Protection recently suggested engaging with employees is the key to avoiding absenteeism.
