Absence issues, both short and long term, cost businesses huge amounts of money but are often ignored because of not knowing how best to address them. Having clear guidelines will enable you to deal with such absences effectively. This in turn leads to a reduction in unplanned absence. Surprisingly your employees will appreciate knowing unjustified absence is not tolerated.

So how much does absence cost?

For 90% of businesses, a significant amount, according to research conducted by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development).

Their latest employee absence survey reveals that, on average, sickness absence costs employers around £522 per employee every year. Employee absence also costs employers 6.3 working days for every member of staff per year.

Were you aware that employees off work sick still accrue holiday? For example, an employee off long term sick for 12 months is entitled to be paid for the full holiday entitlement they have accrued if they have not had an opportunity to take it.

So, there are the figures. We think you will agree that this is a lot of money, a significant burden on the business and a lot of working time wasted!

The solution is a robust and comprehensive absence management policy. This can significantly reduce these levels of sickness and help to increase employee morale.

Healey HR will help you to manage sickness absence effectively with procedures personally designed for your business.