Solving Attendance Problems

January 31, 2008

"Eighty percent of success is showing up." -- Woody Allen.

Few problems are as challenging for a manager or supervisor as dealing with an employee or team member who is frequently absent from work.

It's frustrating because these individuals are typically good performers when they are at work. If only they knew how much more successful they could be. If only they would apply themselves and make the effort to come to work on a regular basis. But that's the problem. They often don't try hard enough to get to work.

Absenteeism refers to an excessive number of unscheduled absences from work due to sickness or some other reason. Often, there is a pattern to the absences, for example Mondays, Fridays, and the day just before and after a holiday. These are people who abuse the organization's sick leave policy.

To be fair, only a small number of people are sick leave abusers. In fact, most workers demonstrate an acceptable, if not excellent attendance record.

Still, you can't ignore the problems caused by a sick leave abuser. These individuals drag down productivity, interfere with the ability of others to get their own work done, and sometimes result in higher costs in terms of overtime and temp workers who have to fill in.

Worse yet, an absentee employee can kill the morale of your best workers who wonder why something isn't being done to enforce the organization's attendance standards.

What can you do?

In order to improve attendance levels, a lot of attention has been placed on the reasons why people are frequently absent from work. It turns out that sick leave is used for many reasons, only a few of which have anything to do with sickness. According to a national survey of unscheduled absences sponsored by CCH, Inc.* here are the most frequently reported reasons why people call in sick:

Personal illness - 34%
Family issues - 22%
Personal needs - 18%
Entitlement mentality - 13%
Stress - 13%

Most managers feel that if they can remove some of the obstacles people face, they can promote better attendance. That's why many companies have adopted flexible work schedules and created in-house child care facilities, for example.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe all of these are worthwhile efforts. I'm all for anything that helps workers balance the many competing demands in their lives.

However, something doesn't quite add up here. Don't people with excellent attendance records experience the same problems as the absentee workers? Don't they also have to deal with personal illnesses, family issues and stress? Of course, they do. Yet, in spite of these problems, they are still able to make it into work on a regular basis. Why is that?

Obviously, there must be another explanation. Perhaps we're looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of looking into why some people don't come to work, what if we asked the people who DO come to work, "Why do you come to work everyday? Why don't you take more time off?"

My guess is that if we posed that question to someone with perfect attendance we would likely get a puzzled look and a response like, "What do you mean?" For people with good attendance,It's like they wake up in the morning with a small voice in their heads saying, "you need to get to work." They've heard that voice so many times they aren't even conscious of it any more.

Nevertheless, I believe that people come to work on a regular basis because:

• They believe they make a difference; that their presence counts.
• They understand how their work contributes to the overall success of the organization.
• They believe they will be missed if they are absent.
• They owe it to the supervisor.
• They are committed to the job; and
• Their work is an important part of their life.

If that's true, then the the opposite is probably true for people are frequently absent from work. We can assume then, that the underlying reasons why people are frequently absent is because:

• They don't believe their presence makes much of a difference.
• They don't understand how their work contributes to the success of the organization.
• They believe they won't be missed; that no one really cares if they are absent.
• They don't think the supervisor cares.
• They have little emotional attachment or commitment to the job.

As a result of these beliefs, they don't derive much personal satisfaction out of the job. And therefore, any minor obstacle or convenient excuse for being absent will do.

What You Need To Do

To solve the attendance problem, you need to change their perceptions. You have to help the absentee worker understand that good attendance is important. Following are some strategies on how to do that, including some sample phrases you can use. Use these strategies only with individuals who have a high number of unscheduled absences - they aren't necessary for people with a good attendance record and they might even resent them.

For sick leave abusers:

• Tell them you count on them to be at work on a regular basis. Explain how their work contributes to the overall success of the organization. "We count on you to be at work on a regular basis. You keep the whole department running smoothly by handling calls. That is an important part of our ability to provide good customer service."
   
• Explain how unscheduled absences places a hardship on you and others in the group. "When you're not here, the work piles up; others have to step in and assume the additional workload; calls go unanswered," etc.
   
• Ask them to notify you in advance whenever they have a schedule conflict such as a doctor's appointment or known child care issue so you can negotiate the time off or at least give yourself more time to prepare for the absence.
   
• Whenever an important event or deadline is coming up, issue a preemptive strike by telling the person that you are counting on them - especially if you have reason to believe they may call in sick that day. "On Monday we will be extremely busy. I'm counting on you to be here at work that day."
   
• Whenever they call in sick, ask them to speak with you directly. If they leave a voice message, return the call.
   
• Wish them a speedy recovery and let them know they can come in later in the day if they feel better. A half-day absence is better than a full day's absence.
   
• After each absence, make sure they know they were missed. Make a personal visit to their workstation. "We missed you yesterday. I'm glad you are back. We need you here."
   
• Don't reward people for unscheduled absences by reassigning their work to others, unless absolutely necessary. Whenever possible, they should still be responsible for the same volume of work. If the nature of the work is such that it can't wait until the person comes back to work, then look for other ways to balance out the workload, in fairness to the other individuals who have to pick up the slack during the absentee worker's absence.
   
• When you begin to see a pattern to the unscheduled absences, take prompt action. Don't wait until later to address the problem, hoping it will go away on its own. It won't. Arrange to meet privately with the individual. Review the dates the person has been absent and explain that the unscheduled absences have become excessive. For more information on how to do this, refer to the Absenteeism page on the Expert Supervisor website. Paste the following link into your web browser: http://www.expertsupervisor.com/module_home.aspx?ID=abs&scope=pub

On any given day when one of your workers is considering calling in sick, these strategies will provide encouragement to find a way to make it into work.

*For more information about the CCH survey of unscheduled absences, see the results online at: http://www.cch.com/press/news/2007/20071010h.asp

Stephen K. Foster
Canopy Software, Inc.
1493 Market Street
Tallahassee, FL 32312
(850) 893-5699

E-mail me at: Steve.Foster@ExpertSupervisor.com.