Approaches to attendance management
A starting point for taking a wider view of ‘attendance management’ – rather than mere ‘sickness absence’ – is ensuring you have effective mechanisms for recording and analysing current patterns of absence. With this in place, you can start to gather feedback to identify which measures are most likely to address the root causes and ensure these are applied fairly across the organisation.
Profile looks for evidence that the organisation’s strategies, practices and values are aligned, and that people and managers understand their roles and responsibilities. Demonstrating effective people management may include providing evidence that:
- The organisation recognises the importance of staff wellbeing as a key part of the business strategy
- There is a strategy, applied by managers, for monitoring patterns of sickness absence
- People have a shared understanding – such as, but not necessarily, a written policy – of how the organisation supports people who are ill and help them to return to work when they are able to
- There is a common belief that the organisation manages attendance fairly and positively – supporting sickness absence in case of genuine illness, and promoting the kind of the working culture and flexibility which help avoid non-genuine sickness absence
- Capabilities of managers have been defined so they have the skills and confidence to apply the organisation’s strategies. For example with attendance management or work-life balance, whether capabilities have been defined appropriately in individual cases.
Understanding sickness absence
The most frequent causes of absence amongst both manual and non-manual workers are minor illnesses, issues of stress and ‘home/family responsibilities’, according to the CIPD Absence Management survey:
Manual workers:
- Minor illness (e.g. colds, flu, stomach upsets, headaches)
- Back pain
- Musculoskeletal injuries
- Stress
- Recurring medical conditions
- Work-related injuries/accidents
- Home/family responsibilities
Non-manual workers:
- Minor illness (e.g. colds, flu, stomach upsets, headaches)
- Stress
- Recurring medical conditions
- Back pain
- Home/family responsibilities
- Musculoskeletal injuries
- Mental ill health
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