Absence management is essential in today's workplace. However, there comes a time in any employee's professional life when they can't work out of the office anymore. When that happens, your company must have a good way of dealing with absent employees. If you handle this correctly, the disruption to your workflow can save you some serious money.
You need to listen to your employees and have excellent remote employee management tools that can handle multiple employees leaving all at once. Some employees don't want to return to the office, especially after the 2020 global pandemic.
This article will explore what absence management is, how it can save you money, and some other benefits it can bring.
What is Absence Management?
The definition is simple enough; absence management is a process where you track and manage all your employees' absences. This includes vacation, sick leave, and employees' accrued personal days. With absence management, you can set specific policies that will be enacted as well as procedures when an employee is absent. This way any obstructions will be minimal and all your employees will feel like their access to their earned time off is fair. This way, your company saves money. And while we're on the subject of saving money.
How Can it Help Save You Money?
According to some research, unscheduled absenteeism costs roughly $3,600 per year for each hourly worker and $2,660 for salaried employees. When you have a company of 100 or more employees, you can see how much that adds up yearly. When you are a small and struggling business, the right absentee tracking software will save you money even on 10 of your employees. It can mean the difference between solvency for the upcoming year.
Absence Management Programs and Policies
When you have clear policies and procedures in your place of business, you save money on finding last-minute replacements. This, in turn, will save you money on overtime other employees might need to make so that business isn't affected. When you minimize your replacement staff, you also reduce the cost of new recruitment and training. Employees who have ample time off rarely get burnt out.
- With the right leave tracking software, you also prevent overpayment of leave. Accurate leave tracking prevents both overpayment and underpayment of your employees.
- Have your employees track their comings and goings with adequate supervision. This way, employees can track their own time off whenever they want, relieving some of the impacts on your HR's administrative duties.
- You must have clear communication with all of your employees. Talk to your employees about their absences and how they will impact work. This way, they will be motivated to come back.
Benefits of Absence Management
There are numerous benefits when you have an excellent absence management program. First, you will improve your company's productivity by always having the right staff around, ready to fill in the gaps. That way, you will reduce the cost associated with absentee employees, as mentioned above. You will also be better compliant with all the rules and regulations of the country where your employees are.
Having good absentee policies will make employees more engaged and make better decisions while on the job. In addition, when your employees have ample time to take for themselves, they will suffer less burnout. This way, they will come to their workplace not hating it and contribute more overall.
Absence Management Report
An absence management report is a report on all the times your employees have been absent. These reports can be beneficial as they uncover a pattern of employee absences. That way, you can recognize the trends and duration of the wants and make better, more informed decisions about your staffing needs, employee benefits, and other HR-related matters. To have the best absentee report, it should include some basic things related to your organization. Those things are:
- Number of times your employees have taken their absences
- What type of absences (vacations, sick days, mental health days, etc.)
- How many days, what dates
- Who is the manager who approved them
- What financial impact will it have on your company
- Compare them to previous years
In conclusion
Overall, absence management is a valuable tool for any company. It is just one of the things you can implement in your day-to-day operations to improve your overall productivity. You need to use your HR system's potential to the fullest and use it to benefit you and your employees fully.