Attendance management improves productivity

A recent absence survey by Aviva draws attention to productivity and performance. According to their survey responses, over a quarter of employers (27%) report an effect on productivity when a member of staff is ill and absent, and 22% say that it impacts the business financially. One in five companies (21%) is also affected by a lower service level to customers.

These statistics are not striking as such. If anything, Honeydew believe that the impact on productivity is much wider and deeper than most businesses realise. What is interesting, though, is a shift in focus. Aviva’s 2009 report on UK Health of the Workplace quoted only 17% of employers thinking that employee productivity will fall due to stress, for example. The 2010 report remarked on an attitude among business leaders to focus on productivity over employee wellbeing but no direct correlation was made between absence and productivity. In UK Health of the Workplace 2011, we start to see a shift towards thinking about absence in new terms and 12% of respondents who had implemented an absence management system, recognised an improvement in productivity.

This trend in thinking is clearly a move in the right direction and it’s further supported by the fact that “over three quarters of employees (78%) believe that productivity is directly related to their level of health” (Aviva 2011).

So how to drive absence management that improves productivity?

SumTotal whitepaper on absence suggests that an absence management system can become “a ‘smart tool’ that enables businesses to improve operational efficiency and productivity and leverages workforce performance to affect the bottom line.” They go on to recommend that employers gain better understanding of the issues that lead to absence and the direct and indirect costs involved. To that end a technology solution is the best way to achieve full insight and to drive “cost-reducing and productivity-enhancing processes”.

If you want to try a smart and user-friendly absence management system, try Engage FREE for 30-days today!