New software aims to tackle the problem of absenteeism
STAFF absenteeism is one of the most serious issues affecting businesses today.
Yorkshire employers are being urged to face the problem by a company which has developed a new software system designed to tackle the issue.
The Confederation for British Industry (CBI) estimates that absenteeism costs the UK economy between £13bn and £16bn a year.
In the public sector alone, more than 60 million days a year are lost – at a cost to the taxpayer of £3.5m.
Peter Mooney is head of consultancy at Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), which specialises in all employment law and health and safety matters.
ELAS has launched Absencesafe software which focuses specifically on attendance issues, using a system to give managers visual prompts which alert them to patterns of absenteeism and any current issues.
The software, which took £600,000 to develop, calculates how much each worker’s absenteeism is costing the company.
The system also allows bosses and HR managers to keep track of employee attendance and spot emerging trends quickly.
The software can also be useful in a number of other ways such as alerting employers as to when staff contracts are due for renewal, providing a full register of employee details and offering guidance on carrying out discipline and grievance procedures.
It allows people to track attendance – and non-attendance – at the touch of a button.
Mr Mooney said: “Considering reasons why an employee may be regularly absent is also important. Is someone having a particularly hard time with a client or customer? Maybe the opportunity to chat through any issues with a line manager or employer – and thereby finding a solution – could be all that is required to raise the confidence of the employee again. Reviewing your company’s approach to absenteeism to ensure that it is robust from a legal and HR perspective is also important.”
Ensuring line managers are fully up to speed with policies and checking that they know how to act when an issue occurs is also extremely important according to Mr Mooney.
He said: “We know from our experience working with businesses of all shapes and sizes how putting in place the right procedures, allied to the effective use of simple yet sophisticated software, can turn around the fortunes of companies across all sectors.
“Whereas a few years ago, such software would have cost a small fortune, today it is affordable to virtually every company, whether they have a handful of employees or thousands. Now companies have the ability to spot whether someone is regularly ringing in on a Friday or Monday morning claiming to have fallen victim to the latest flu virus. It quickly becomes clear who the genuine absentees are and which ones are swinging the lead.
“There is no longer any excuse for businesses, industry leaders and, indeed, the Government to accept Britain’s crippling “culture of absenteeism”. And employees need to be in no doubt that “pulling a sickie” far from being a joke has the potential to cost them their job and their livelihood.”
ABSENTEEISM FACTS
• According to the CBI, the cost to the British economy of staff absence is more than £13bn a year;
• Public Sector employees are the worst offenders with 60 million days a year lost at a cost of £3.5bn;
• Around 160 million days a year are lost through absence across the UK economy;
• While more than 90% of employees cite colds and the flu as their reason for missing work, the reality is at least half of all workplace absence has nothing to do with health;
• Major sporting events, such as the football World Cup, can cause a rise in absenteeism of more than 20%;
• Research last year showed a growing phenomenon dubbed “Friday Feeling” in which employees regularly find reasons for not returning from lunch on the final day of the working week.
