Practical Advice for Managing Sickness Absence
Every company has to deal with the unavoidable fact of sick leave. The best move you can do when an employee's health makes it difficult for them to remain productive and execute their duties properly is to grant them an appropriate amount of sick time.
However, than it would appear at first, sick leave is a more complicated problem. It is extremely expensive for businesses and can have numerous avoidable causes. So let's look at how to successfully manage sick leave, lessen its negative consequences on your business, and make sure your team members don't misuse it.
Employees may request sick time for a number of reasons, including:
- Actual medical issues and appointments
- Must tend to a sick family member
- Burnout, excessive workplace stress, and low job satisfaction
- A lack of comprehension of the company's vacation policy
There isn't much a company can do when an employee gets the flu or hurt other than to let them stay home and wish them a speedy recovery. An employer has to look into the issue and take greater control of the situation when a team member calls in sick simply because they don't want to go to work or are unaware of the consequences of doing so.
4 Useful Tips for Managing Sickness Absence
1.Create a thorough attendance policy
For effective absence prevention, a well-written attendance policy is essential. It specifies how your business wants to handle various forms of vacation time and what attendance standards your employees are required to follow.
Start such a policy-making process with a succinct explanation of the issues it seeks to address. Next, list the types of absences you deem excused and not, and give specific examples of each. In contrast to long-term illness that has been medically proven, long-term sick leave without a fit note may be considered an unexcused absence.
Describe all the disciplinary measures that should be taken in response to unexcused absences and excessive absenteeism before concluding the policy. This will deter your staff from calling in sick frequently and missing work without a valid excuse.
2.Inform employees of the sick leave policies
Share the attendance policy with your team members after it has been updated to reflect all pertinent requirements and leave request processes, and make sure they have unrestricted access to it for the duration of their employment.
Keep everyone informed of any modifications to your sick leave management strategy. Additionally, be sure to constantly express your company's sick leave policies to all new workers and give them their own section in your employee handbook.
3.Maintain thorough records of time off
Knowing how many sick days and personal days your employees take each month or year makes it simple to spot high absence. You may have a better understanding of the issue and take immediate action if you have access to exact and thorough time off data.
Your team members may easily book time off using IceHrm's user-friendly leave scheduling function. It allows for the acceptance of leave requests and has powerful reporting features that make it easy to see how many sick days, vacation days, and other forms of time off your employees use.
Visit this page to learn more about IceHrm's key time off features and how they may help you deal with absenteeism more effectively.
4.Communicate with sick team members
You may convey your worry for a sick employee's health and provide them some psychological support with even a simple email or phone contact. Additionally, staying in touch with sick workers is a terrific method to express your desire for a speedy recovery and return to work.
Balance is important in this situation, though. When employees are on legitimate leave, there's no reason to bother them. Invading an employee's personal space is not only rude, but it is also cause for making a harassment claim. To put it another way, make sure to remind ill team members of yourself and their delayed tasks, but do it in a kind and considerate way, without being pushy, and keep your distance.
Even while sick days are inevitable, how you handle them will influence the overall effects they have on your business and staff. Use the four suggestions we provided in this post to reduce costs and boost team morale.
So how do you effectively handle sick days?
Establish and publish your sick leave policies, discuss them to your staff, and underline the value of their health. The most important thing is to correctly and regularly log any instances of sick leave; this information will enable you to identify high absenteeism and effectively manage it.
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