Tips for reducing employee absence at the workplace

When you employ staff, you need them to show up to work. Sounds obvious, right? 

Unfortunately, it won’t always happen. But it’s not always out of your control. As an employer, you can actually control employee absences more than you might think.

Absenteeism in the workplace is when a staff member makes a habit of not showing up to work when they’re expected. 

It includes taking sick leave, arriving late, leaving early, taking long lunch breaks or missing meetings or appointments.

It generally doesn’t include explained absences, such as the occasional sick day or scheduled leave.

Employee absences cause costly disruptions for businesses. Unplanned absences mean planned work isn’t able to be completed, which impacts more than just the staff member at fault.

Their co-workers are also impacted, and frustration can grow to resentment and a sense of distrust. Staff need to be able to rely on each other to get work done, and having someone perceived as a shirker - rightly or wrongly - makes it difficult to form good working relationships.

Related: The employers’ guide to public holidays

The more of an issue it becomes, the more likely the employee at the centre of it will be absent more often.

Workplace absenteeism also becomes a financial issue when the quality of work is impacted. Beyond that, there is the potential lost work as a result, administrative costs in handling the absence, and the costs of replacing the employee if it comes to that. 

Before you look to find solutions to absenteeism in the workplace, the first step is understanding why staff are absent.

They might be staying away from other staff members who are making things difficult for them at work.

Parents may have to sacrifice work at late notice to look after their children. See our parental leave management guide for tips navigating work commitments alongside parenthood.

It’s common for staff to feel overwhelmed by their workloads, and one way of dealing with it might be to just stop showing up. 

Mental health is a hard issue to talk about, and staff may not feel comfortable raising what they’re going through. It can also lead them to make poor decisions, such as refusing to go to work.

Sickness is perhaps the most common cause of absenteeism, and forms a key part of staff absence management plans. See our sick leave management guide  for more information.

Bereavements can be touchy subjects to deal with. Staff may be off work for some time if they’re dealing with an unexpected death, particularly if it’s someone they were close to.

So what can you actually do about reducing workplace absence? Plainly, you can’t prevent someone from suffering a bereavement, but you can make the workplace a positive, uplifting environment that encourages staff to turn up and give their best every day.

By implementing an attendance management policy, you make sure staff know the impact an absence might have on their colleagues and the business itself. 

Your policy should include expectations for notifying absences and clarify the acceptable reasons for missing work. Making a policy is just the first step though - it should be shared and understood by all staff when they begin their employment.

In order to identify regular absenteeism, you need to keep track of it. If it gets to the point of taking disciplinary action, you’ll have to be able to cite specific dates and times of absences. 

This means recording instances of absences and the circumstances around them. Include as much detail as possible. One of the benefits of a leave management system is being able to document these instances easily.

If a staff member is absent, you’re well within your rights to ask them why. Start by coming from a place of support - absences can come at sensitive times, and it’s better to look to help someone in the first instance, rather than laying blame or disciplining them.

You can also reinforce expectations around your absence management policy and prevent absences from becoming a bigger issue.

Knowing workplace stress is a contributor to absences, try to keep workloads to a manageable level. There will always be busy periods, and if a staff member is under strain for a period of time, consider offering a reward or time off to recover. 

In any case, people tend to produce their best work when they’re not overwhelmed, so minimising stress levels can have other benefits to the wider business.

Encouraging staff to take regular leave helps to keep them fresh and reduce absences. Taking sick leave when they’re unwell helps them to recover faster. It’s better to have them off sick for a short time initially rather than a long time down the track when things have gotten worse.

Holidays also keep staff refreshed, though many employees often don’t take regular time off. You can plan around someone taking annual leave much easier than an unplanned absence.

Staff incentives are always a good way to encourage good performance. Just be wary you don’t punish people for not coming to work for reasons that were out of their control. 

If a staff member suffers a bereavement, missing out on a reward could just be salt in the wound. Be sensitive.

Your reward may not require someone to be at work every single day of the year, which allows them to take leave for genuine reasons.

Feedback shows staff their efforts are appreciated. For example, if someone who is sick still completes a piece of work from home, let them know they’ve done a good job and encourage them to take time to recover. 

Your goal shouldn’t be to encourage staff 

A fast, simple way to implement and utilise an absence management policy is with leave management software. 

Smartly software makes it easy for employees to book leave, and for managers to approve it. This is one of the biggest benefits of a leave management software for employees, because often manual leave processes are time-consuming and not user friendly.

Staff may simply not book leave, or managers may not get notifications about planned time off.

An attendance management policy isn’t about making staff come to work more, it’s about managing absences to minimise the impact it has on work. Smartly helps to plan ahead for absences, reducing absenteeism and allowing businesses to operate smoothly. 

Find out more about how Smartly can help with your payroll and leave management today.

Not using Smartly yet?

If you want to learn more about how your day-to-day tasks can be made simpler, you can chat to us to get some insight on how payroll software could benefit your business. Smartly can make the complex tasks seem simple including payroll, timesheets, leave and more! Smartly takes care of most of the faffing, so you can focus on the important stuff.