Employees may have the right, either under legislation or under their contract of employment, to be absent from work for several reasons. They may have the right under employment legislation, for example, to take time off to have a baby (maternity leave), to care for their children (parental leave), to deal with family emergencies (requests for flexible working) or to carry out public duties (time off for public duties). Although there is no statutory right to time off for illness or injury, many employers give their employees the right to some form of sick leave under their contract of employment. The management of sickness absence is discussed elsewhere in this Guide (managing sickness absence).
In addition, some employers find that they can minimise disruption to their business by operating flexible working practices that give employees time to attend to other personal matters. These range from providing flexible working hours to giving compassionate leave or authorising absence for medical appointments.
Employees may also, however, be absent from work without a legitimate reason. They may take the odd day off work without authorisation, feign ill health to take advantage of the company's sick pay scheme or arrive late at work without good cause.
Whatever the reasons for employees' absence, high levels of absence within a company are costly. There may be substantial direct costs, in terms of lost or disrupted production and additional staffing costs to fund overtime working, sickness benefits or staffing cover. Indirect costs can also be significant, including low workforce morale and investment of management time to deal with the effects of the absence. It is therefore important for a company to manage employees' absences effectively.
A company that is concerned about high levels of absence and wishes to take action to tackle the problem at an organisational level should begin by examining the evidence. For example:
- Is the problem a general one affecting the entire workforce, or do only a few employees or certain areas of the business have substantial levels of absence?
- Has management tolerance of slack attendance created a culture in which frequent absence is the norm?
- Are sickness absences long term or short term? Are they mainly covered by medical certificates or are there a large number of odd uncertificated days off, perhaps clustered around public holidays?
- Are there any discernible causes for the absences that are within the company's power to control, such as working conditions or management style?
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has produced an advisory booklet on absence and labour turnover, which suggests that employers who are seeking to reduce absence levels should ensure that they:
- provide good physical working conditions;
- take into account ergonomic factors when designing workplaces;
- maintain rigorous health and safety standards;
- provide sufficient training for new recruits, and especially young people;
- establish an ethos of teamwork;
- design jobs so that they motivate employees and provide job satisfaction;
- critically review training, career development and promotion policies, communication procedures and welfare provision, and improve them where necessary;
- adopt and implement policies on equal opportunities and procedures to prevent harassment; and
- ensure supervisory training is adequate and that supervisors take an interest in their employees' health and welfare.
Once a company has identified the nature and possible causes of its absence problem, it can develop a strategy to deal with it, whether that be through tackling the causes of absence or by taking tighter control of the management of it. The objective should not be to punish those with legitimate reasons for being absent, but rather to create a climate in which attending work regularly becomes the norm and those who are absent from work without good cause can expect to be challenged and, where appropriate, disciplined.
In order to manage absence effectively, a company needs to have a reliable system for recording and monitoring absence levels. While this can be done centrally, it is preferable to make it an integral part of the responsibilities of managers and supervisors, since it is they who are responsible for managing absence. Records should show who has been absent and why, and whether the absence was short term or long term.
These records can then be used as a basis for identifying patterns of absence at the level of the individual, the department or the company, and for picking up promptly levels of absence that are unacceptably high. Accurate absence records will also significantly enhance the company's ability to defend any allegation of unfair dismissal or disability discrimination, if an employee is disciplined or dismissed for poor attendance.
Absence records are personal data that must be obtained, held and used in a way that complies with the Data Protection Act 1998 (data protection ). The Data Protection Code (code of practice ) recommends that absence records should be kept separately from sickness records and should be made available only to those who need to see them in order to carry out their managerial responsibilities. (The handling of sickness records is discussed here). The company is likely to meet the conditions for processing general absence records, either because the employee has consented to this or because the company needs to process the data to pursue its legitimate business interests.
Employees should be informed at the beginning of their employment that a record will be made of their absences and told the purposes for which the record may be used.
A company is more likely to be in a position to manage absence effectively if it has clear rules and procedures for dealing with absence of whatever type, which are communicated to employees and which it applies consistently. For example, employees should be clearly informed of what procedure they should follow if they want to take holiday or apply for compassionate leave, and what requirements on notification and medical evidence they must meet in order to qualify for sick leave or pay.
All employees should be made aware of any company rules that treat certain types or levels of absence as disciplinary offences. If certain levels of absence have certain consequences, such as triggering a particular stage of the disciplinary or absence procedure, then employees also need to be aware of this.
Where an employee's attendance record or timekeeping is giving cause for concern, the company's first step should be to discuss the situation with him or her, in order to establish the reason for it.
Where the employee's absences are due to illness or injury, the case should be dealt with as one of sickness absence (managing sickness absence). If the employee reveals another reason for the absences, such as harassment or bullying, then the company will need to take steps to deal with that issue. If the harassment is on grounds of sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion or disability, the employee could allege unlawful discrimination. If the company takes no action to deal with the harassment or bullying, or the steps it takes are inadequate, the employee might decide to resign and claim unfair constructive dismissal.
Where a disabled employee's attendance or timekeeping is poor for reasons relating to his or her disability, then the company will need to consider whether any reasonable adjustments are appropriate (duty to make adjustments ). An employee with impaired mobility might, for example, be frequently late for work because of difficulties in using public transport in the rush hour. It might be reasonable for the company to alter his or her working hours to allow travel at quieter times.
If it appears that there are no legitimate reasons for the employee's poor attendance or timekeeping, then the company may decide to deal with the case through the disciplinary procedure. Handling discipline is dealt with elsewhere in the Guide ( Discipline ).