Thus – the system you use to record and manage your staff absence is of paramount importance. Give it thorough consideration.

A variety of absence management systems are available to companies; paper-based, spreadsheet, desktop-based systems, online systems and wider HR systems. However – this series will focus on the latter: online and wider HR systems.

Many wider HR systems exist which have a built-in absence management module. Such systems cover other HR aspects like clocking in systems and payroll.

For some, the function provided by these systems may be sufficient. But for many, it won’t be. To demonstrate this, at e-days we have a track record of corporate customers approaching us because they’ve discovered limitations with their HR systems.

You may think: With a wider offering, a larger HR system is a better option. But is it really?

To larger HR systems, staff absence is one module out of many. The effectiveness of managing your company’s staff absence may be compromised by it simply being a module.

Staff absence management systems – take our software solution e-days for example – consider staff absence as their primary focus. They are much more flexible when it comes to managing absence. Say, for example, you have complex working patterns in your organisation – these absence-focussed systems are likely to be much more capable in managing absence in line with these patterns, whereas a larger HR system may not have the functionality to adequately cope.

That breaks me nicely into this series which considers why managing staff absence separately from wider HR may be of benefit to your organisation.

Some interesting arguments and evaluation points in the following topic areas will be visited in this series:

• Company structure
• Working patterns
• Self-service
• Admin tools
• Cost
• On-going development

Until next time…

Click on the links to discover more on the stories from various sources around the web.

One organisation in three has no plans to deal with Olympics disruption

40% of companies are expecting issues with staff absence, yet one-third have no plans whatsoever to deal with staff absence and other disruptions. Those who are taking steps include measures such as increased flexible working and temporary staff.

2012 employment law changes: 6 things employers need to know

Maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay increase. The Government has confirmed that the standard rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay will increase from £128.73 to £135.45 per week from 1 April 2012. Statutory sick pay will increase from £81.60 to £85.85 per week from 6 April 2012.

Presenteeism figures increase due to downturn, finds Nuffield Health

A study of 1,600 employees found 30% of staff are now more inclined to go to work sick as a result of the current economic climate. The age group most likely to go into work sick are those aged between 16 and 24 and it’s most common in the retail sector.

UK employees amongst most stressed in the world, global survey of 60,000 reveals

A four year study found that workplace stress has risen by 10% since 2008 and that the UK is amongst those most highly affected. Having such high stress levels is known to decrease productivity and increase absenteeism.

On a personal level, we’re well into the festive season. Celebrations with friends and family have begun and we’ve all embraced the festive traditions; mulled wine, mince pies and of course, tins of Quality Street.

On a business level, what better time to review your company processes? And, often, this is what companies will do.

You will look in depth at your current processes and identify where they may be improved. Consequently, changes to current processes, and where necessary, new processes and systems will be introduced.

This post will focus on my area of expertise which is an area we can all, as business people, relate to: staff sickness management. You may find this more beneficial if you are currently using spreadsheet and paper-based systems.

Your current staff absence management system

So, here’s a fact no company can ignore: Sickness absence costs companies money. Thus – sickness absence management is important.

What process do you currently have in place? Below are the categories of systems that companies generally use:

• Paper-based
• Spreadsheet
• Desktop application
• Online system

The earlier categories, namely paper-based and spreadsheet, are known to be the cheaper options. They have a small initial set-up cost and very little on-going cost for running the system.

But with all things considered, is this really a cheap option? What are the implications of using such a system to manage sickness absence?

It’s important to understand this, at a glance, it may seem like the cheapest option. But, they are often not a cost-effective means of managing absence.

Implications of using such a system can be as follows:

1. Problems with accuracy of data recorded – this could lead to future, unanticipated problems such as accident at work claims
2. Admin time spent on maintaining system – processes aren’t automated, each holiday and sickness absence must be checked and booked manually
3. Limited ability to access data across the company
4. Limited ability for HR and senior management to analyse data – reports must be formed on an ad-hoc basis & can consequently be very time-consuming

The above implications are hidden costs of using these systems. You may notice that you have experienced some of the above problems. Or, you may be experiencing them but aren’t aware of it as it’s the ‘way it’s always been done’. Either way, these potential implications cost you money.

How can I avoid hidden costs & identify the most cost-effective process?

Comparatively, using desktop and online systems may seem like a more expensive option on the surface. However – when you dig a little deeper, it is evident that such systems have real potential to save you time and money.

Many time-consuming tasks are automated; regular admin tasks such as checking and booking holiday and the producing of reports for HR & senior management. Furthermore, by automating many tasks & prompting the correct data to be entered, this keeps room for human error to a minimum.

Thus – a system such as this has the potential to deliver significant operating cost savings and improved process efficiency to Direct Trade, improving productivity and impacting the bottom line.

To sum up…

New Year is always a good time for change… A fresh start, some may say.

So, if you’re looking to have a more efficient 2012 and want to discuss more about how switching to an online system may benefit you, please get in touch and one of our team will be happy to help.

There can be a number of other reasons for staff absence; mental health (includes stress), physical health and as a result of working environments. There are also many ways to combat these issues.

However, stress is what this post will focus on.

Stress and staff absence come hand-in-hand. And staff absence can cost small companies £1,500 a year – it’s serious business.

So what preventative measures are you taking to ensure it minimally affects your company? If the answer is ‘none’ or ‘not many’, then the following is definitely worth a read!

What can I do to combat stress in my company?

What causes stressed employees in your company? Research this. You can then proactively put initiatives in place in an attempt to prevent stress, as much as is possible, in the future.

In some cases, this is not always possible. Stressed employees can be inevitable. In this scenario, there are a number of processes and procedures you can put in place to manage this.

Identify those suffering from stress

First and foremost: You should attempt to identify your stressed employees. But this may not be an easy task.

They are unlikely to come forward and admit that they’re suffering from stress. It’s possible that they’re not even aware of it themselves. So you must take it upon yourself to do something about it.

Inconsistent work performance. Loss of motivation. Excessive hours spent in the office. Lateness & taking longer lunch breaks. Sensitivity. Irritability. These are all signs you should look out for that indicate that an employee may be suffering from stress.

Be a caring employer

Offer flexible working patterns. Allowing employees to fit their work life around their home life (and vise versa) may help them avoid becoming stressed with conflicting commitments. This will be particularly applicable to working parents.

Offer support. This could be in the form of counselling or mentoring. Face-to-face or telephone counselling will allow your employees to confidentially air their concerns and consequently, deal with them.

On an individual-to-individual basis, you can review their workload. They may have more food on their plate than they can eat! The volume of their workload may be unachievable; thus they are unable to cope. You can then address this accordingly.

Apply to your company… And wala!

Well maybe it’s not quite as simple as that. But I hope the above helps you to minimise the negative impact of stress; ultimately leading to staff absence in your company.

Comments welcome.

Your company motto should be: Be proactive, not reactive.

We all know the results of last year’s extreme weather. People snowed into their homes. Cars abandoned. Minus-silly-degree weather.

And then there was the impact on companies. In fact, it was reported that 1/10 companies were ‘seriously’ impacted by the extreme weather conditions.

Sure, some problems are unavoidable. Staff sickness due to the flu-season. Staff cars snowed in. No public transport running. Thus, staff cannot physically get into work.

Ultimately, the biggest impact most companies will notice is absence of staff.

So, what can you do to avoid this disruption? It’s simple: Be prepared.

Are you prepared?

STEP 1

Your premises themselves. This should be first on your agenda.

They need to be winter-proof. Stock up on grit. Bleed the radiators. Fill in any holes in the walls. You know the drill.

Your staff need to be safe and comfortable at work. So, don’t jeopardise this by cutting corners in prepping your premises for winter.

STEP 2

Second on your to-do list: Ensure your building insurance is up-to-date.

This way, any damages that may occur from extreme weather conditions will be covered.

STEP 3

And last but not least, create contingency plans in case staff are unable to get into work.

They may not be able to get into work for a number of reasons. But whatever the reason may be, prepare and plan for it.

An example might be a call centre issuing remote handsets to some of their staff to take home and use if they can’t get into work. This way, staff are still able to be productive even if they’re not physically in the workplace.

Use of online systems may also be of benefit. Our product, e-days, can be remotely accessed from any internet-enabled device. Thus, staff can book their holidays and record their sickness from home without any need to be on your company’s intranet/network.

Good Luck

Extreme weather is forecast to hit later this month. Make sure you’re ready for it!

Good luck! And let us know how you get on.

However one of the most important elements consistently overlooked is: Simplicity.

What is meant by Simplicity?

How easy is it for any given member of staff to access and use the system as intended?

Try and concentrate on the real back-to-basics questions:

• How many clicks does it take to get to the desired menu?
• How many distractions, irrelevant options and other hurdles are included alongside the truly functional elements?
• How clear and concise is the display and the Help section?

A common offender is the humble HRIS database.

So, why is it important?

Often much thought is given to the reporting tools, the data collection forms, the automated workflow paths, the failover mechanisms – all important elements, but all absolutely useless if the system isn’t simple enough for staff to want to use it… Even to enjoy using it.

Take, for example our own system: e-days, an online system for staff absence management. It is praised by clients for its simplicity – as well as multiple functionalities. Judge it for yourself, if you like, through this free demo.

Ensuring that staff are keen to use the system and demonstrating that it benefits them individually (as well as the company) will mean that the data entered is accurate and up-to-date. This will have a significant impact on the quality of the other tools in the system – much more so than how many extra bells and whistles it has compared to another system.

Consider the bigger picture

The lesson of this post has to be: Try not to get too caught up in complex functionalities… Think about the bigger picture.

Don’t get me wrong – this is easy to do. And sure – these functionalities are all important.

But remember – You and your staff will be using this system regularly. It needs to be easy to use with a simple structure and rationale and ultimately, it needs to offer a smooth user experience.

This post will look at a real-life case study – it will demonstrate how not recording your data accurately (or not recording it at all!) can all go so terribly wrong…

A case study

A recent discussion with a manufacturing company uncovered a typical example of how the lack of one small but vital piece of information led to significant problems later on.

The cause of the problem was actually very simple: an episode of sickness absence was not reported as being related to an accident at work.

The consequent effect is that the company was not prepared to deal with the compensation claim some 6 months later.

It took a significant amount of effort to track back and understand how the situation had occurred and what the business had done about it at the time, which of course in this case was nothing.

The result is a re-designed absence form that now runs to some 7 pages, to be filled in by the manager for each and every instance of sickness absence. Clearly this is going to be counter-productive unless the manager is given some assistance and guidance when completing the form.

How can I avoid this happening in my company?

Answer: Simplify the process by using a sophisticated, non-paper based system tailored to absence management. This can save precious time but more importantly ensure two things:

• All the correct data is gathered accurately
• The data is stored securely for future reference

To help you understand the benefits of using such a system, I will tell you a bit more about our product – e-days.

e-days can help by applying intelligent workflow processes to the form as it’s filled out electronically (instead of on paper), by:

• Opening relevant sections for completion, depending on answers given elsewhere
• Displaying different sections to employees and managers and notifying the relevant person at the right time
• Launching notifications depending on answers given e.g. in the case above, emailing the Heath & Safety team when the ‘Related to an accident at work?’ box is checked

Take action!

Hopefully this post has highlighted the importance of recording sickness data accurately.

If you are using such a system already – congratulations, you’re a lot less likely to face issues stemming from inaccurate data in the future.

If not – don’t set yourself up for future problems – take action.

Please feel free to contact us and we can talk through your current situation and find out whether using a system such as e-days would be something your company could benefit from.

Granted: There is still a while to go before the London Olympics start. And you may think that this post is a little premature.

But the Olympics 2012 is a big public event that is going to impact your business. So it’s definitely something you should start considering sooner rather than later.

Here are a few facts for you:

• 27^th July – 12 August 2012 ß the Olympic games
• 29^th August – 9^th September 2012 ß the Paralympic games

So, what issues are your company likely to be affected by?

Primarily, staff absence.

There will be the lucky few that have tickets to go and see some of the games. There will be others that simply want to watch the games on TV. Either way, for lots of employees, being at work is not where they will want to be during the 2 weeks of games.

What does this mean for you and your company? Well, you’re likely to be short-staffed. And this can lead to problems with workloads, clients and much more.

The solution: Prepare now! Decide on your strategy and policies. Communicate these to your staff. It’s like that phrase the teachers always used to use before your exams: ‘Fail to prepare… Prepare to fail’.

This post will briefly touch on a few different ways you could address the Olympics games in order to avoid the above.

Construct an ‘Olympic Games Policy’

You may well have had some holiday requests from your staff already. If you haven’t, it’s going to happen. And probably soon!

You should decide what your approach to these holiday requests is going to be. From that, you can create your company ‘Olympic Games Policy’. This should be communicated to all employees as soon as possible.

You may wish to simply address these on a first-come first-served basis. Although, this can sometimes be seen as unfair amongst staff.

Another option may be to create a deadline for requests. From there, you can collate all requests and strategically decide which requests to authorise and which are simply not feasible.

In both of the above cases, employees’ will appreciate a fast response to requests as well as it putting their minds to rest.

Introduce Flexible Working Patterns

If you choose to do this, it should be made clear to staff that this will only be a ‘one-off’. It may cause problems for you in the future otherwise.

Flexible working would involve employees taking time off to watch the games during normal working hours. They would then catch up with their workload before or after their normal working day.

If this is an option you decide to implement, it is likely that staff will utilise this rather than, in extreme cases, taking unauthorised absences.

Disciplinary Procedures for Unauthorised Absences

It’s easy to jump to assumptions here. Someone takes a sick day when a big game is on. You see this as a bit too convenient.

Well, the truth is… Maybe it is. Maybe they are ‘pulling a sickie’. But then again, maybe they’re not! There could be a genuine reason for their absence. It’s important to bare this in mind.

The best policy would be to treat every case fairly. Treat an absence the same as you would at any other time of the year.

Last but not Least… Good Luck!

Of course, there are other problems that you should consider whilst deciding on your procedures for the Olympics.

Example: You may be a London-located business. Traffic throughout London during the Olympic Games is going to be worse than ever. It may be more appropriate for you to introduce home-working throughout this time to avoid staff lateness and frustration.

The lesson really is – as long as you’re prepared, you’re unlikely to be affected too greatly by the games.

Here at e-days, we’ve been preparing. Have you?

Good luck. And remember to stay positive!

The end of the holiday calendar year is creeping closer and closer. Your staff are becoming aware that they have unused holiday. And, like every other year – what happens next?

There’s a mad rush! Everyone is taking off their holiday at once.

And what are you left with? An empty office!

Why does this happen?

Well, every member of staff will have a holiday entitlement for the year. The UK minimum is 28 days, including bank holidays, for full-time employees.

Often staff members will take a week’s holiday and a few days off here and there. This consequently leaves a remainder of their holiday unused.

“Several of our e-days clients highlighted holiday burn as an issue within their own company!”

As with many companies, yours may limit or not allow holiday carryover into the next year.

Thus, employees have holiday entitlement left over, which needs to be used by the end of the holiday year. In many companies, this will be November and December.

Typically, employees will leave it as long as possible – then within the last month, they will ‘holiday burn’ – all at the same time!

The result: you are short-staffed.

So, in essence, holiday burn is where employees with unused holiday will be put in a position where they have to use it by a certain date – and unfortunately for you, their employer, that is often at the end of the holiday calendar year!

So, what can I do about it?

By now, you may or may not have identified this as an issue within your company. If you have, I’m sure you’ll be wondering what you can do to combat it!

1) Encourage employees to take holidays earlier in the year

This may sound like stating the obvious, but quite often employees are not reminded that they have holiday they need to take until very late in the year.

Monitor how much holiday they’ve got remaining. From this, take action! It could be something as simple as an e-mail stating:

“You have 11 days annual leave left before the year end. Book holiday now via this link…”

You’ve made your employees aware of their remaining holiday. You’ve planted the seed that they could take some time off now if they wanted to. That may be all the encouragement they need!

And what’s it taken you… A few minutes to check their remaining entitlement and drop them an e-mail. That’s got to be worthwhile, surely?

2) Different holiday years for different employees

Why not give different holiday calendar years to different employees throughout the company?

Holiday burn would then be affecting different employees at different times. The impact on your company is likely to therefore be significantly reduced.

This is a more solid and long-term solution… And in fact a solution which is a little closer to home for us!

e-days will be incorporating this idea into its already feature-rich system.

It currently has in development a system whereby holiday calendar years can vary throughout the company. This can be determined through factors such as the employees start date and birthday.

Feel free to contact us to find out more about the e-days online holiday planner and absence manager.

Summary

So, we’ve looked at what holiday burn is and why it’s a problem within organisations. We’ve also looked briefly into a few proactive measures you can take in order to limit the impact of holiday burn.

I hope you have found this article useful. Please leave any feedback and suggestions you may have.

These are all questions you may be (and should be) asking yourselves no matter your level within a company. Business owner. HR manager. Employee.

This article will aim to give you an understanding of what it actually does and how you can use it to benefit your company.

What is the Bradford Factor?

Many peoples first thought is that it is just a bit of HR jargon. But in fact, it can be an extremely powerful tool.

In short, the aim of the Bradford Factor is:

To identify individuals with patterns of absence worthy of further investigation.

Short, frequent and unplanned absences are more disruptive that longer absences. That’s the reasoning behind the Bradford Factor. And in reality, that is typically the case.  It is usually easier to arrange cover for staff over longer periods than shorter and more regular bursts.

The Bradford Factor calculates a score based on a formula for each employee’s absence in a year. The higher the score, the more disruptive the absence.

Here’s the formula:

E x E x D = Bradford Factor score

‘E’ is number of episodes of absence

‘D’ is total number of days absent in a rolling 52 week period.

If you want to calculate your Bradford Factor, try the e-days Bradford Factor calculator.

I’ve calculated the Bradford Factor… Now what?

It’s now up to you to set the rules. You need to decide at what point an absence may not be genuine. This is the point at which you will investigate.

“There are no set rules, it is company discretion… So decide wisely.”

Creating ‘triggers’ is the best way to tackle this. These trigger points will be a certain score leading to a certain action.

Remember though, unrealistic trigger points can lead to staff feeling unfairly treated and de-motivated. And ultimately: Grievances.

Below are the UK Prison Service triggers:

• 51 points – Verbal warning
• 201 points – Written warning
• 401 points – Final warning
• 601 points – Dismissal

If you choose to use the Bradford Factor as part of your disciplinary proceedings as above, you must be fair.

Provide managers and staff with access to scores. Ensure absence reporting is consistent and accurate throughout your company and over time. Ensure the calculation is uniformed throughout your company.

So, do some research. Consult with staff. And set fair and realistic triggers.

So, how will all this benefit my company?

Well, it could dramatically reduce staff absenteeism… If used effectively, of course.

The UK Prison Service example proves this. They created the triggers and made all staff aware of them. The result: absenteeism reduced by 18%.

“If you want to reduce staff absenteeism, using the Bradford Factor could help!”

There are a number of ways that the Bradford Factor can help with absenteeism:

1. Proactively deters absenteeism. Employees are unlikely to take a day off unless absolutely necessary.
2. Utilises a set procedure to identify and tackle persistent absenteeism.
3. Identifies staff absence issues in certain areas/departments of your company. This is because it allows managers to compare employee attendance between departments and across your company.

So, the first step is to ensure you understand what the Bradford Factor actually is. Next, you need to ensure all absence reporting is accurate throughout your company. Then, you can set up trigger points. And finally… take action and reduce your staff absenteeism.

Of course, it is important to realise that using the Bradford Factor is just the first step in a disciplinary process. A full investigation should take place for each employee suspected of non-genuine sickness. Some absences may be genuine even though the scores indicate otherwise. An example of this may be an employee with a dependent.

I hope you found this article useful. Please feel free to leave any comments. And good luck with using the Bradford Factor within your company!