Preventative absence management
November 6, 2008
I was chatting to my friend the other day and she was having an absence problem with one of the new employees she manages. The employee had been absent through illness for around 40% of the time they had been employed, for a number of different reasons. However the employee was performing really well when they were in work, so my friend was reluctant to dismiss them, even though they were in the very first stages of their probationary period.
My friend was convinced that the problem with the employee was that they did not look after themselves properly. The person had been told by the doctor that they had a low immune system and this was probably contributing to their seemingly endless stream of chest and throat infections, but my friend knew the employee was out partying most weekends and could see their poor diet every day in the office.
I think this is a really interesting subject, and there has been a lot of coverage in the HR world about well-being and wellness as an alternative and proactive approach to sickness absence management, as opposed to the reactive monitoring and management techniques such as return to work interviews. I found a really interesting article on the People Management website from a while back which commented that clearly the numerous new ideas that companies are implementing such as in house relaxation and healthy eating campaigns are not having a massive effect on sickness absence rates. The article suggested that as with most new policies and procedures, having something available is a world away from actually seeing habits change and policies being implemented. The key thing is encouraging employees to take responsibility for their own health and well-being, and also to give them the possibility of doing so. This means managing employees in a way that stress is reduced, they are able to take breaks when needed and are able to access refreshment when required.
The notion of ‘self-care’ in and out of the workplace is based on building individual capability and responsibility for the choices in lifestyle, diet and exercise. There are many channels through which this can be built – such as performance management structures, staff and team meetings, introducing the ideas at induction stage, and through existing communication channels such as a company intranet or notice board. This should certainly form part of return to work interviews, which is what my friend actually did with her employee. The discussion covered the employee’s lifestyle and diet habits, and how this could be affecting their health. My friend also made it clear that this was important because the employee risked losing their job due to excessive absence, and so far the discussion seems to have worked, although it’s early days yet.
Employee absence can be managed in so many different ways; some are procedural and fall into the ‘monitoring’ class of techniques. Others are more preventative, and if organisations can encourage their employees to take more responsibility for their own well-being, this is a positive addition to the range of absence management techniques already utilised. With a complex subject such as sickness absence, I think the more approaches adopted, the better the outcome will be.
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