Absent staff - less of a managerís headache

With absence management topping the HR professionalsí priority list in the last 12 months, it is not surprising that almost all employers - more than nine in 10 (90%) take an active interest in managing their employeesí attendance at work, according to research published today (May 12 2004) by specialist journal, IRS Employment Review.

The same techniques for managing absence are rated as most effective across employers of all kinds and sizes. These combine positive assistance and more hands-on management control of attendance. The IRS HR Prospects Survey 2004, published by LexisNexis UK, finds that the four most popular methods include: return-to-work interviews (82%), improved record-keeping (67%), taking targeted action (62%) and offering rehabilitation (57.2%).

This research, conducted in early 2004, is based on a survey of 519 HR departments. The questionnaire was followed up by a focus group and one-to-one interviews. The results are available in the new issue (799) of IRS Employment Review www.irsemploymentreview.com). The survey is now in its third year; more than 100 of the organisations who took part in this yearís research also participated in 2003.

Other key findings:

Staff absences (past 12 months)

-More employers overall (2.3% more) believe that absence levels have worsened rather than improved

-A significant minority of employers - (40.3% more) - believes that absences due to stress have worsened

-More employers than not (a margin of 1.2%) believe that absences due to back problems have improved

-Employers are more optimistic (by a margin of 6.6%) that levels of bullying have diminished

-Just over one tenth more employers (a margin of 11.6%) found that long-term absence of four weeks or more has increased.

Expected changes in absence (next 12 months)

-HR managers are optimistic that absence rates - across all areas - will improve.

-A significant minority of employers (a margin of 47%) believes that overall absence levels within the workforce will improve

-Just under a tenth more of employers (9.5%) anticipate that absences due to stress will reduce next year.

-Almost a quarter (23.6%) more employers believe that absences due to back problems will reduce

-A fifth more of employers (21.1%) see levels of bullying diminishing further

-A third more (33.7%) employers believe long-term absences of four weeks or more will be reduced in the next 12 months.


IRS Employment Review Absence and Attendance editor, Neil Rankin said:

ìThere are important reasons why HR specialists are more optimistic about absence management. First, some organisations believe that they have introduced or improved as many attendance-management measures as are cost-effective to do so. These organisations consider that the issue will not go away, but cannot remain a top HR priority forever. HR managers also believe that as they have given priority to absence management, the results are about to be seen.

ìHowever, with this optimism, comes a word of caution. While employers generally expect their experience of absence to get better, they are less optimistic about stress-related absences.

ìAnd in relation to workplace bullying, while there is an optimism that this problem will reduce in the coming year, far more employers - a quarter of all those we contacted - were unable to provide an answer about bullyingís incidence than were uncertain about any of the other four issues. We have to wonder whether bullying is adequately monitored by organisationsí systems.î