CIPD report blames 'ineffective management' for high absenteeism

A new report by people management experts Alastair Evans and Mike Walters has found that a large number of employers are simply ignoring absenteeism – which is leading to high costs through lost man hours.

The report, 'From Absence to Attendance', published today by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, found that some organisations deal with the issue effectively, while others ignore it.

Alastair Evans who is also senior lecturer in HRM at Thames Valley University, Ealing, said: "Absence levels that are left to spiral out of control, soon have a significant impact on the bottom line. To an organisation employing 1,000 people on average salaries, a yearly absence rate of 5% costs them as much as £1 million."

He added: "It's our view that HR practitioners with support form senior management can make a major contribution in bringing down absence levels in organisations where they are unacceptably high."

Up to 200 million working days are lost each year through absence excluding holidays, costing the economy an estimated £12 billion. Mike Walters, co-author and director of consulting firm Whitmuir, said: "Prevailing levels of absence do not have to be accepted as an inevitable fact of business life. Take Connex Railways as an example, they managed to cut their absence rates by 40% over four years. And Vauxhall motors who also managed to slash their absence levels by more than half over a set period."

Both authors believe that employers have a potential raft of initiatives that they could use to help them tackle the problem but most important of all is creating an attendance culture.

"People quickly get to understand whether or not rules operate in practice or whether they are just part of the management rhetoric that can effectively be ignored. In the case of absence, new comers to the company quickly learn what kind of behaviour is tolerated so tend to follow the behaviour of their peers," said Mr Walters.

'From Absence to Attendance' shows how managers can measure the impact of absence on their own organisations, including the causes and cost, while offering guidance on how to build an effective programme. As well as case study organisations, the book offers sample policies plus guidance on the legal and disciplinary aspects of absence management.

(GMcG)