Absence records ‘unimportant’, find survey
23/07/08 | 00:00
Almost a quarter of businesses do not see tracking employee absence as important, even though nearly two thirds believe their staff treat sick leave as an extension to their paid holiday, the survey by HR software firm Midland HR and people solutions provider FirstCare found.
Despite the figures, nine in 10 businesses believe it is in the best interests of staff that sickness is recorded, while more than 80% believe tracking sickness is important when evaluating workforce efficiency.
Just half have ‘quite’ or ‘very’ high confidence in the accuracy of their absence monitoring system, compared to 94% ten years ago. However, almost a third said they monitor absence all the time, while more than 40% said they monitor it either ‘quite’ or ‘very’ frequently.
Lawrence Knowles, managing director at MidlandHR, said: “It is surprising that such a relatively large number of those questioned see tracking absence as unimportant, especially in light of the high number of suspected non-genuine absences.
“Clearly this research highlights a need for organisations to get their houses in order and start to properly track and assess absence levels, so that they can accurately ascertain the impact sickness is really having on their business.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008