Coping with Unplanned Absences

Unplanned absence from work could cost the UK economy as much as £12 billion a year

When your organisation can no longer meet its deadlines, or provide customers with the high quality of service they expect, you have a problem. Unplanned absence also has a bad effect on morale, putting the rest of the team under pressure as they struggle to deal with the additional workload. Unplanned absence can occur as a result of force majeure (for example, when an airline is hit by strike action), or because of poor employee motivation and commitment.

This pocket guide, based on best practice guidelines, looks at what you can do to ensure your employees fulfil their obligations and turn up as required. It then gets to grips with the question of how your organisation should handle unplanned absences before and when they arise. While you may not be able to prevent unplanned absence altogether, the advice contained in this guide will help you to keep the extra costs and disruption associated with unplanned absence to a minimum.

Benefits to business include:

• Reduce the incidence of unplanned absence

  When employees take “duvet days” or “pull a sickie” to watch the Cup Final, productivity and morale suffer. This pocket guide tells you some simple measures you can take to put a stop to Monday morning syndrome at the office.

• Ensure continuity of service

  Following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, there was travel chaos throughout Europe. This is only the most dramatic example of those unplanned absences that are caused by circumstances beyond an employee’s control. However, you cannot afford to let something like this stop your business in its tracks. By following this pocket guide’s advice you can ensure continuity of service.

• Take advantage of available technologies

  Thanks to the laptop and the smartphone, people who cannot make it to the office can still carry on working. This pocket guide offers you useful advice on how to make the best use of IT when your company is confronted with an unforeseen absence.

• Bring the employee back into the fold

  Use this pocket guide’s recommendations to manage your employee’s return to work after a period of absence.