• Home |
• About Us |
• Our Clients |
• Our Team |
• Contact Us |
• Testimonials

Is your business suffering from high levels of unauthorised absenteeism?

It is estimated that employee absenteeism costs the UK economy around £12bn per year. On average this equates to around 8.5 days per employee at an average cost to the business of £600 per employee. However these are not the only costs incurred by an organisation- other factors to take into account are disruption and lost work as other employees try to cover for their absent colleagues.

One of the areas that many people are unsure about how to tackle are unauthorised absence or lateness- sometimes also called ‘Monday morning syndrome’ where individuals are regular later or absent from work on a Monday.

Some employees do take days off work, giving sickness as a reason, lateness and poor timekeeping are also common problems. Often this starts with occasional absences which, if left over time, often increase and become more regular. Trigger factors include:

• Problems concerning motivation.
• Quality of management and leadership.
• Working relationships.
• Working environment.
• Ergonomic factors.
• Health and safety issues.
• Job role.
• Training and career development (lack of).
• Policies and procedures.
• Other factors outside of work e.g. personal/family problems.

If employees know that absence will be noticed and follow up on upon return, they are less likely to take time off without good reason.

Some the measures that can be put in place to help reduce unauthorised absences or lateness include:

• Regular monitoring of individual absence or attendance records.
• Clear procedures which been brief and understood by all employees e.g. ensuring that people ring in by a certain time if they are going to be late or absent.
• Hold ‘Return to Work’ interviews – informal discussion with the employee on the day after they have returned to work.
• A rule concerning absences immediately taken before periods of holiday.
• Taking disciplinary action. Whilst this course of action should always be carefully considered it may be necessary. Further information about discipline and grievance can be obtained by contacting us on 02380 695929 or webenquiries@developingpeople.co.uk