Absence from work and poor attendance is a profit zapping duo for any company or entrepreneur. As an employer, your failure to address attendance problems in the short-term could lead to a failure of your business in the long-term. In other words, ignore your employee’s poor attendance at your peril.
While it is true to say that in most cases there is a legitimate reason for an employee to be absent from work, there are unfortunate instances in which an employee will fail to provide a sufficient reason for their poor attendance. In such stressful situations you, as the employer, must remain calm and professional and be proactive in managing the employee with his or her attendance issues.
Listed below are four common ways that you can handle attendance problems with such employees.
1. Invest In Software
An employer is only as good as his or her admin. Failure to invest in up-to-date easily accessible software that records the attendance of your employees is a failure in and of itself. By installing software like that offered by Advance Systems, you will have a vital resource that will not only record attendance rates, but will provide evidence that will form the basis to any potential disciplinary procedures you decide to bring against a problematic employee. Furthermore, absence management software can provide regular notice prompts for planned absence, allowing you to plan ahead and move resources wherever appropriate.
2. Attendance Reviews
Annual attendance reviews are a fantastic way of discussing the subject of attendance with all of your employees. As these meetings should be conducted with every member of staff, you as the employer will not be accused of bullying or harassing any one individual on the issue of poor attendance. Furthermore, attendance reviews will also, via attendance percentages, for example, ensure that employees are regularly reminded of their responsibilities when it comes to their own attendance.
3. Communication
It can often be a lonely position as an employer, and sometimes it is easy to remain distant from your employees. Communication with your staff is therefore essential if you wish to successfully handle attendance problems. Sometimes an employee might be struggling with his or her personal life, which is affecting their attendance. Similarly, they might be experiencing some unseen problem within the workplace itself, such as bullying, which is driving them away from coming to work.
If you are able to decipher what is causing the attendance issues, you will be in a far better position to support the employee with his or her attendance, and crucially edit routes and prioritize resources to limit the impact to your business. If you fail in your responsibility as an employer to communicate with your employees and encourage them to open up and confide in you, you will forever be dealing with the symptoms of an employee’s attendance issue rather than the source of them.
4. Standards
As an employer, you have the ultimate power and responsibility to foster a positive, supportive and open working environment for your employees. In short, you set the standards of your business practice. This means creating positive and bespoke working relationships with your employees that will gain you their respect, and a natural inclination on their part to avoid poor attendance. Remember employees are people and they will follow people first, rules second. If you can create a happy and respectful workplace, high standards will naturally follow and attendance problems will be kept to a minimum.
It is estimated that attendance problems in the UK alone amounted to 137.3 million working days lost in 2016 (Office for National Statistics). This trend is set to rise on a global scale, meaning that many businesses of all sizes are at risk of being dealt a chronic blow that could result in cuts to profit as well as jobs. In this article, you have read four manageable and feasible ways in which you as an employer can minimize the effects of this ticking time bomb upon your business. After all, failure to deal with problematic attendance is failure to plan for the future.