Reduce absences and absenteeism

Absences are expensive: in terms of money, stress and unrest in the company. They also increase the risk of accidents. If you want to reduce them, absence management comes into play. Because this describes a system of specific tools that help you reduce the number of days absent from work in your company. And since managing and preventing absenteeism is part of every good HR manager's job description, we've put together this article for you. In it you can read all about the various methods for better management and thus reduction of absences.

What you should know so that your absenteeism decreases

The HR manager therefore plays a fundamental role in preventing and reducing absenteeism. If you want to reduce absenteeism in your company, the first thing you should know is this:

The absenteeism rate is only one of the symptoms of the working climate in a company or the functioning of a team. It therefore always deserves a more general analysis.

And in order to determine the level of absenteeism (high or low), each company must be able to compare itself with similar companies in the same sector and carry out a detailed and qualitative analysis of absenteeism in collaboration with its managers.

If you want to reduce absenteeism and absenteeism in your company now, you should also still consider the following important points:

• Absenteeism rates do not decrease through sanctions or excessive controls.
• Trivialization does not help with increased absenteeism
• Most of the time, employees give pretty clear signals in conversations about your "reasons" behind an absence.
• The HR manager needs to help managers qualitatively analyze their teams' absences and think about appropriate actions to take.
• Reliable tools are needed to monitor and quantify absences.

What this article should do for you - Improve absence management

This article is intended to help you improve your absence management. But in order to talk about better absence management, we first need to define where absence management actually starts and what impact absences can have:

Absence management begins, as just briefly indicated, with a willingness to act at the top. Indeed, reducing absenteeism due to illness or accidents and prevention are closely linked. Therefore, your company must have clear and quantifiable goals regarding your employees' absences and, at the same time, you must show your employees that they need them.

But before we start, do you know the cost and therefore the impact of an absence?

Accidents and illnesses not only cause suffering and social problems, but also cost money. The reason? Direct costs pile up due to higher insurance premiums, salary surcharges and insurance waiting times. In addition, there are indirect costs for replacement purchases, reorganization costs, production losses, property damage and other possible consequences. Studies have also shown that these indirect costs in particular are 1.5 to 5 times higher than the direct costs.

Are you therefore aware that you can increase your competitiveness through absence management?

Just think about it. You can save all these indirect and direct costs and, what is more, your employees will have more productive working days.

Effective absence prevention and management therefore significantly reduces insurance premiums and thus indirect costs and increases your company's productivity.

Therefore, one thing should also quickly become clear to you:

Shortening the duration of absences is always in your hands.

While the causes of absenteeism are varied and complex, one reason can always be isolated: The working atmosphere. Because this has a lot to do with the frequency of absences. Companies in which absences due to illness or accidents are rare generally have a more positive corporate culture. And that's where you come in.

Because while the employer is helpless on many points concerning absenteeism, the ball is in his court when it comes to corporate culture. Because this always reflects to a large extent the management style. Therefore, before trying to reduce absenteeism, it is important to look at the management policy that is being practiced.

But how do you actually reduce absenteeism and absenteeism in a company?

Like any process optimization, absence management requires an initial orientation, goals and a top-down strategy. Such a strategy is structured as follows:

In the event of an absence, the following points should first be clearly defined:

• What factors favor a quick return to work?
• Who should take care of the absent employee?
• How should this be done in practice?
• Who should be informed and involved?

The answers to these questions should then be incorporated into the following points:

1. corporate policy (concept and guiding principles).
The general objective of occupational health and safety is part of the company policy and should therefore be set out in writing. In addition, management should be informed about the importance of these objectives and the role of personnel. The answers to the above questions should also be discussed with them.

2. guiding goals
Specific goals for reducing absenteeism should be established along with the company's other annual goals and published along with the actions that will be taken to achieve them.

3. collective and individual line 
These absence goals are then communicated to business units and employees. Commitment to establishing and implementing these processes is then as important as setting goals.

Our conclusion and a concrete list of measures

By combining prevention and absence management, you as HR manager can help limit the number of absences and their duration. By doing so, you keep costs low and productivity high, thus making a decisive contribution to the health of your company.

Below you will find a list compiled by us at jacando of possible measures to improve the prevention and management of absences. This list briefly summarizes all the tips and tricks in this article:

1. Establish an absence monitoring system in the company with reliable tools for monitoring and reporting absences and centralizing them. Aim for efficient and rigorous reporting by setting up such a system. (Our jacando Admin software is especially suitable for this purpose).
2. Make managers aware of their duties so that they enter reliable data into the systems in real time.
3. Communicate absence monitoring and results to individual managers.
4. Formalize and share a procedure for reporting absences with all employees.
5. Inform and train managers on HR policies and goals.
6. Build a relationship of trust between HR and managers by regularly monitoring their work with their teams and discussing with them issues more general than absence management.
7. Train managers and provide them with tools to better conduct return-to-work discussions. Teach them not to minimize absenteeism and to conduct benevolent, quality return-to-work conversations that focus on the employee. Supervisors need to maintain contact with the sick employee. They receive conflicting messages from HR such as, "You are not allowed to call employees at home... There are personal data protections, etc." Your employee complained to HR after you called them at home...". In the wake of this, many managers give up and leave the issue to HR to avoid having to deal with issues they don't understand. They therefore give up trying to manage this problem, even though they need to manage the absence in a concrete way: replace the employee, distribute the workload, anticipate the future, etc. Prevent this by encouraging your managers to be proactive about absences.
8. Watching for and dealing with potentially "abusive" absences (e.g., frequent short absences), knowing that simply being mindful of them in a team will reduce them.
9. Regular monitoring of long-term illnesses in the Human Resources Department, in collaboration with the various partners (staff health service, insurance companies, IV) and informing superiors of the progress of cases, while respecting medical confidentiality.
10. Working with managers to improve their leadership skills and increase the working atmosphere: formalizing a vision and common goals to develop team spirit, implementing a communication plan for managers.
11. Appreciating and thanking employees for specific accomplishments that require their willingness.

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