“Headlines have been awash with talk of the January blues and the effect that the post-Christmas gloomy winter has once again had on workplace morale, motivation and mood. But if recent CIPD statistics are anything to go by, this topic should not just be of interest in the New Year.

Research not only shows that employee absence has risen once again from 6.6 to 6.9 days per employee per year; it has also revealed that only 25% of organisations achieved last year’s absence target and a mere two fifths monitored the cost of absence.

As we look forward to the rest of 2016, absence management is therefore likely to be an important topic for HR teams – or at least it certainly should be. HR teams are well placed to reduce the impact that absences have on morale, productivity and ultimately, the bottom line. But how?

By proactively nurturing employee engagement levels, HR professionals can minimise the likelihood of absences becoming a problem from the outset. When engaged, individuals feel a sense of belonging, which invokes a willingness to give discretionary energy and effort to the company. To strengthen such feelings, HR teams need to ensure they connect, communicate, involve, develop and reward employees, in ways best suited to that individual.

Academic thinking is also increasingly pointing to the need to incorporate workplace wellbeing initiatives into this preventative engagement drive. If employees are healthy and happy in their work they are less likely to be absent when they are simply feeling a little under the weather. Once again, a ‘one size fits all’ wellbeing programme may not suit everyone, so it is important to consider a number of options that satisfy different employees’ needs. Cycle to work schemes, fruit deliveries, corporate gym memberships, access to counselling and office-based exercise clubs, are just some of the ideas currently proving popular in UK businesses.

Caution must be expressed however, that engaged employees do not exhibit the opposite workplace behaviour of presenteeism. It is important that employees realise they can be absent from work due to health reasons that require their rest and recuperation.

The age-old saying goes that prevention is cheaper than cure. It’s more straightforward too. However, if absence has already been as a problem, what then?

The most crucial piece of advice in any absence scenario is for HR professionals to act consistently, clearly and fairly in their approach. Absences need to be proficiently managed to minimise the impact they will have on the wider workforce, but this could quite easily become a discriminatory minefield.

To ensure a legally compliant process, HR teams should ensure there is an up-to-date and compliant sickness absence policy in place, which clearly states how absences will be handled and who needs to do what. A transparent process is also required for remunerating staff whilst absent, whether this is via contractual full pay or Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

All absences should be monitored to understand at the earliest opportunity, if a pattern is becoming apparent. If a trend arises, any underlying issues should be investigated. HR teams should seek evidence of incapacity caused by a health complaint or other cause of workplace disengagement such as line manager issues. Return to work interviews play a key part in this exploratory exercise, and medical reports will provide further much-needed evidence. But continued contact with the employee is also essential, if engagement levels are to be maintained and/or rectified.

Finally, records/paper trails of the process should be kept from start to finish, as this will act as crucial evidence if a problem escalates to an employment tribunal.

If this advice sounds great – or even very familiar and obvious – but there is concern surrounding how to manage all this in practice, the final piece of advice is to consider the role technology can play:

• A comprehensive HR system can manage employee engagement data such as involvement with wellbeing programmes. The technology can then monitor when memberships, for instance, are due to expire, to ensure renewal processes are implemented rather than forgotten.
• All relevant company documents such as absence policies can also be centrally stored in the system, for ease of communication and transparency, and documents/records/minutes can be held against employees’ individual records to maintain audit trails.
• ‘At a glance’, easy-to-digest information can be presented and understood within seconds, without the need to review lengthy reports or files, ensuring nothing is missed.
• When HR teams are busy, the software can proactively notify the right person to take the right action at the right time, according to when certain trigger points are met. Such trigger points could include ‘employee incurred more than X sickness episodes in last X months’ or ‘employee reached Bradford Factor score above X’. Best practice workflows can then guide the appropriate individuals through what to do next.
• And technology can actually interrogate employee data too, to uncover any possible trends that may otherwise remain unnoticed and enable action to be taken.

It’s not an easy topic to address, at all. However, empowered with advice, information and guidance, HR teams can overcome this long-standing workplace challenge.”

If you would like more advice to shape your absence management strategy in 2016, tune into an advice-led webinar recorded by Marc, employment law expert Caroline Acton from Consilia Legal, and HR professional Paul Addy, founder of Positive People HR. Alternatively, why not download the speakers’ white paper: Improving employee absence in 2016.