Consistency is key when it comes to Employee Absence Management

Want to make sure that employee absences don’t impact your bottom line too much? Here’s how to do that.

Did you know that manual workers tend to have 2.1 more absent days per year when compared to non-manual workers? In 2015, the average number of days that an employee had off was 6.9, but only when you crunch the numbers, can you begin to understand the real cost of employee absence.

If your company has a turnover of £5,000,000 every year and you come away with a profit of around £300,000,000 then you may think your company is quite healthy and sustainable. If you have 100 employees, then you’ll be making £30,000 profit per employee. If your absence rate is 8 days per person, per year, then you’d need to hire four people just to cover these absences. If you need cover for when they are not available either, then this number doubles. If your existing staff have to work overtime as a result, add 50% and altogether this means that you have to pay £110,400 just to cover your team being off sick. If you have to use internal staff on an overtime schedule, or if you need to use interim staff, then you can expect the cost to increase to a total of £276,000. If you can reduce your absent days from 8 days to 7, per person, then you can expect to save £22,000. This is nearly enough to pay one person’s salary, for an entire year.

Managing Short-Term Absence

It’s vital that you take the time to understand the reasons behind short-term absences. They can range from misconduct to genuine sickness. Effective management should really support the legitimate needs of your team while also ensuring that there is a clear and consistent procedure in place, should there be any unauthorised absence.

Managing Long-Term Absence

Studies have shown that after a couple of weeks’ absence, one out of five employees will stay off work for an indefinite amount of time, or they will leave their job eventually. If you want to mitigate some of this risk, then it is vitally important that you determine the extent of sickness, and that you also determine what kind of support is required. Managing absence over the long term can be a challenge and managers often need to have a high level of skill, understanding and capacity when it comes to implementing HR policies. This is especially the case in more delicate circumstances. Even with the best possible intentions, a manager may not have the interpersonal skills to handle the complexities that are associated with absence over the long term.

Managing Any Absences by Using the Bradford Factor

The Bradford Factor uses a mathematical solution that you can use to determine if someone has any absence patterns. The higher the score formula is, the bigger of an issue you have on your hands. So how does the Bradford Formula work?

S² x D = B

It’s very simple when you break it down.

S is the total number of separate days off a person has had. You will multiply this number by itself.

D is the number of days that the person has had off.

B is the Bradford Factor score.

Let’s break it down a little more. Let’s say, as an example that two of your staff have six days off over a period of six months.

Person A has off six days in a row but then comes back to work.

Person B on the other hand, has one day off a month, over six months.

Even though the number of days off are the same, the Bradford Factor will give Person B a higher score. This suggests that the impact of Person B is higher than that of Person A. One strong advantage of the Bradford system is that it is purely based on maths. It is possible for you to work out a score based on a formula. It may be that anyone who has a score of over 50, gets an informal warning with notes on how to improve their attendance. Anyone who has a score of over 200 gets a written warning, and anyone with a score of over 400 is then given a final warning. 600 points, as an example, could be enough for a dismissal.

So, what are the major pros of the Bradford system? To start with, the score helps to take away any subjectivity. Nobody can accuse you of taking specific action against them because you dislike them. You also cannot ignore the evidence when you see that someone has a high score. Managers will however, need to consider any discrimination risks in applying the Bradford Factor ,so it’s wise to look at each case and the reasons for absence before taking formal action in every case, and when in doubt take advice.

Using Tech to Prevent Absent Days

There are some major benefits to using tech to try and manage the number of days that your teams have off work, and the systems available will all help promote consistency and improve processes, promote fairness and transparency and in theory reduce cost and time spent. 

Keeping Sick Days in One Place

One bonus of using tech to try and stop any absent days is that it helps to keep all of your sick days in one place. You can also see how many days a team member has had off, why, and what impact this has had on your company. If you are not tracking things like this, then you may find that you end up putting your business at risk of significant profit loss.

Empowering Team Wellbeing

Another benefit of using tech to try and stop absenteeism would be the fact that it empowers your team. It helps them to understand the impact of their time off, how many days off they have had so far, what the company average is and more.

Ensuring your Team Are Going to be Covered

Another bonus of using tech to your advantage would be making sure that your team are going to be covered in the event of someone being off. Everyone will be able to see their role, and how it impacts the company. Things like this can be invaluable when you are trying to track your team and their absences so you can make the most out of your business profit.

So, monitoring employee absence doesn’t have to be hard, in fact, it has never been easier. If you want to empower your team, then consider adopting tech, so you can easily see which employees are hindering your profit margin.