How to Stop Your Employees Taking “Sickies” Hundreds of thousands of Aussies are at it! A survey conducted by Hallis found that a whopping 42 per cent of the Australian workforce admits to taking unscheduled days off for reasons other than being sick. Many take the classic “Monday morning sickie”. Then there are those who are conveniently “ill” on the third day of the final Ashes test, on Grand Prix qualifying day, or the day after a public holiday. You might suspect an employee is pulling a fast one- but you can’t prove a thing. As much as you’d love to confront a member of staff – even sack them for repeated absences – there are important new IR laws you need to abide by. As unfair and frustrating as it is, this needs to be handled carefully and properly. Getting it wrong could leave you exposed to an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim – and a whole heap of bother you don’t need. There’s no doubt about it… having employees who take excessive amount of sick leave can be a real pain. And often, it seems like there’s not much you can do about it… But you don’t need to just give in! Instead of having to deal with the productivity sapping effects of sickies, you can actually reduce the number of them with a few clever moves… The Employment Law Practical Handbook will not only help you address incidences of absenteeism as they arise, it also offers plenty of practical, helpful advice to help you prevent high absenteeism rates in your department, so that they never get to the ‘epidemic’ stage. We’ve dedicated a whole section of the handbook to addressing the “sickie” issue – from prevention to how to deal with employees that continually abuse your trust. Here’s a quick sample of some of the things you can do to rapidly reduce the number of lost days in your business year (simply announcing these measures to employees will more than likely reduce the number of sickies in your workplace!) 4 Ways to Reduce Absenteeism in Your Workplace – quickly The Employment Law Practical Handbook will show you exactly what you can do to deal with absenteeism in your workplace legally – in simple, practical terms. Take this step-by-step process for example: Step-by-step: How to deal with employees who are consistently late and /or absent from work Step 1: Make sure you record and monitor the number of late periods and /or unexplained absences the employee takes. Step 2: Meet with the employee to discuss their absences. While doing so, re-enforce your performance expectations. Step 3: Outline the duration of the absences and explain how the absenteeism is affecting their work performance. Step 4: Discuss a time-frame for a return to satisfactory performance with the employee. Step 5: Consider (in conjunction with the employee) if there is anything you could reasonably do to help them meet their job requirements. Step 6: Do not terminate the employee for a breach outside the time-frame set for improvement. Warn them instead. Step 7: Keep written records of all the meetings. Step 8: If after all these steps the situation does not improve, ask the person to meet with you to discuss the issue of their lateness/absenteeism. Invite them to bring a support person. At the meeting indicate that you believe that the issue has not been resolved satisfactorily and you believe that you have grounds to dismiss. Invite the person’s response to that fact. Make sure you listen and consider their response before determining whether they should be dismissed. But that’s not all! In the Employment Law Practical Handbook, you will also find the answers to the following questions: Order your free trial today to discover what else the Employment Law Practical Handbook includes! You will find out:
