The Top 10 Tips to Reduce Absenteeism

The latest employee absence survey from the CIPD reveals that on average absenteeism costs employers £659 per employee every year, with staff absence accounting for 8.4 working days for each member of staff annually – which represents 3.7% of the total working time. Employee absence is a significant cost to 90% of businesses, according to the survey.

This section outlines ten tips to help you in managing absence and tackling poor performance in the workplace.

Top 10 Absence Management Tips:
1 Create an absence policy and communicate it
2 Record and measure absence
3 Reduce absenteeism by enforcing and managing the staff absence policy
4 Follow employee absence with return to work interviews
5 Proactive absence management - reward excellent attendance
6 Be realistic – plan for unscheduled staff absence
7 Consider unpaid leave or options to buy more holiday time
8 Minimise absence by improving their working conditions 
9 Make controlling absenteeism a business priority
10 Keep your staff absence policy up-to-date  

1. Create an absence policy and communicate it
If you don’t have one already, create a staff absence policy to balance employee and employer needs. These written guidelines are the first step in managing absence and tackling poor performance. When compiling a policy to help reduce absenteeism, it is often best to do so in consultation with line managers, employee representatives, and trade unions if necessary. The guidelines are for your employees and should set out holiday entitlements, procedures for reporting absence and terms and conditions of employment. Policies must spell out employees’ rights and obligations when taking time off from work; they must also contain any information on terms and conditions relating to sickness absence management such as incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any provision for sick pay.



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