Curbing Sick Leave Exploitation

Wednesday, January 17, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



If you happen to study your company sick leave application pattern, the spike will most likely be found on Mondays and Fridays. The reason is simple, because those two days lead to a longer weekend. The sudden disappearance of workers is also observed during school holidays and summer vacation period.

Unscheduled absence in the workplace is not something business should treat casually because it leads to lost in productivity and money. According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index surveyed 94,000 workers across 14 major occupations in the U.S. Of the 77% of workers who fit the survey's definition of having a chronic health condition (asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or obesity), the total annual costs related to lost productivity totaled $84 billion.  This figure is a fraction of all the sick leave applied by employees including the genuine and the abused ones.

It’s rather tricky for employers to suspect/accuse employees of abusing sick leave because most of the time employees can produce medical certification obtained from clinics. Be careful as to not be harsh in asking for explanation, as this could cause staff disengagement that will further put the company at a disadvantage. Rather, your company should think about creating a clear and concise company attendance policy that can nip the problem in the bud.

The attendance policy should address on tardiness issues, for example the number of absences observed from an employee, number of times coming in late, and number of early departures. The attendance policy should also tackle those who fail to get permission for leaving early or coming in late; fail to give advance notice of an absence when possible; fail to report an absence properly; and fail to submit medical certification upon request. When the employees know that the company does not take unscheduled absences lightly, the tendency of them abusing the sick leave could be reduced.

You also need to spend some time analyzing your company’s sick leave abuse trend and identify employees who happen to be in the spike more often than the others. What type of sickness are these employees usually have and take sometimes to schedule a meeting with them to understand more about their health status. Annual health check can also be initiated to get an idea of the overall health status of the workforce. Company can also create a program to curb sick leave abuse through positive reinforcement such as providing monetary reward to those who rarely take sick leave. Finding the root cause of sick leave abuse problems helps in addressing the core issues. If you find that sick leave abuse does happen in your company, it is recommended that the company offers them counseling or refer them to employee assistance program to rectify the matter once and for all.

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Discover the Easy Ways to Tackle Employee Leave

Wednesday, January 17, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



Taking leave from work is pretty awesome but for human resources in charge of managing employee leave, the task can be daunting and cumbersome especially in busy and festive month like December. The more employees you have, the tougher the job becomes. Avoid this administrative nightmare by deploying a feasible modern solution that could help you manage your workforce leave and maintain a productive workplace. A good leave management solution must let you:

1. Be clear about your company’s leave policies
Outline clear leave policies for everyone to adhere to. Define your leave policies and make them available for all employees as soon as they are onboard. How do you set your leave policies? Here are some pointers:

  • Leave Types: Define the different types of leaves your company provides and the allocation in days. For example annual leave at 12 days, sick leave 6 days, maternity leave 60 days, and etc. You can also create your own, if you wish to.
  • Accruals: Be clear about the rules of leave allocation. How many leave days do employees get each year by default? How long do they have to serve the company before they deserve additional leave allocation? When will the accrual be calculated? If the employees don’t use all their allocated leaves, how many days can be carried over to the following year?
  • Approval: An early “heads up” is always good. Specify how long in advance do you need your employees to notify their superiors for leave approval process. This would provide enough time allowance to work on other arrangements if needed, during the absence of a certain employees.

2. Determine observed holidays and possible peak working weeks from the get go! 
2018 has just started and it is important for any company to mark the calendar for observed holidays and determine the possible peak time for the company’s operation.  Set a limit for leave applications during these crucial times, set the crunch time and block any leave application during these time if necessary to ensure smooth operation and most importantly to avoid dissatisfaction coming from your employees.

3. Transparency is key to employee engagement
Now that your leave system is set, provide access to your employee to view their own leave information. Employees should be able to review their own set of leave balances and apply leave directly from the mobile app. With the information provided, it’s also easier for the employee to plan their leave for the whole year with company’s interest in mind.

Poor leave management or even worse, manual leave management can lead to frustrations from all parties involved if the matter is not taken care of properly. It’s time to automate leave management processes, set your rules and regulations, and let it runs automatically while giving you accurate outcome and balance at all times throughout the year. By having an amazing mobile app on leave management, it can further ease leave application and approval for both bosses/managers and employees.



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