Jonathan Goldberg

Absenteeism is a worldwide and well-documented costly problem for employers.

In a globally competitive marketplace, companies strive to become as efficient as possible, especially in tough economic conditions.

Absenteeism affects organisations’ efficiency and cost-effectiveness and disrupts operations. A large portion of absenteeism can be attributed to ill-health absences. The employer is required to find a balance between the employee’s contractual duty to provide a service and their failure to do based on absenteeism related to ill health that can become excessive.

The process of managing and reducing absenteeism has to occur within the confines of a constitutional right to fair labour practices and other prescriptive labour legislation.

A balancing act needs to occur between the operational needs of the employer and the rights of employees.

Ill-health absenteeism becomes problematic once a threshold is reached at which point it becomes intolerable for the employer, thus deemed excessive.

Excessive ill-health absenteeism is not specifically defined and as such no universal concept of when absence is deemed to have reached the threshold of excessiveness exists; it varies from one employer to the next based on the operational requirements of the specific organisation.

It is pertinent to categorise the issue according to whether it is to be dealt with in terms of misconduct or ill-health incapacity. A misconduct process should only be applicable in instances where it can be proved that sick leave has been used inappropriately or if the reason for absence is unknown.

This is usually where blame can be attributed to the employee.

In the event of illness of a medium to long-term nature, an ill-health incapacity process may be the most appropriate, as in such cases a clearly distinguishable illness exists.

This usually exists when the employee is regarded as not to blame for the absence.

The following guidelines are suggested in order to manage and reduce absenteeism in the workplace:

l Take note of when absence occurs and take action immediately.

l Develop an absenteeism policy and ensure all employees are aware of it.

l Monitor and enforce absenteeism policies consistently and fairly in the organisation.

l Convene return to work interviews, as they can provide understanding for the reasons for absences.

l Allow employees to select and swop shifts at short notice, as such flexibility has been shown to reduce absenteeism.

l Implement a wide range of business tools to monitor and control absence levels and trends.

l Explore the possibility of rewarding perfect attendance levels with performance bonuses in order to incentivise attendance.

Managing absence is critical for all organisations, regardless of size, and all can benefit from a well-designed and consistently monitored absence policy. Employers are advised to use labour law professionals for assistance in drafting and implementing such policies.

l Jonathan Goldberg is the CEO of Global Business Solutions. E-mail him at execoffice@globalbusiness.co.za or see www.globalbusiness.co.za