by L Hurley

Created on: October 28, 2007

Have you ever worked late into the night to cover the work of an employee who called in sick? Perhaps you've been on vacation for a week and returned to find that your work has simply piled up in your inbox and you now have a backlog as well as today's work to face.

To ensure the wellbeing of your business and your staff you need to have policies and processes in place to cover all types of employee absence.

As a manager there are three types of absence you need to consider; expected absence, unexpected absence and unauthorized absence.

Expected absence
We all need vacation time to refresh and face the new challenges each year brings. The benefits of a break from work are diminished rapidly if workloads are not covered during this time. Vacation leave is planned well ahead and as a manager you have a number of options to cover the absent employee.

The team may be willing to split the workload to cover for an employee on vacation, knowing that they will receive the same consideration. Temporary agencies can provide short term cover for many positions, or another staff member may wish to step up as a development opportunity.

Unexpected absence
Occasionally staff will fall ill and will be unable to attend work. These absences are usually short term and in most cases you can assign urgent tasks to other team members. This is also the case for parents who need to stay home to look after sick children, and other unexpected absences.

Unauthorized absence
Before embarking on performance management when an employee does not comply with the absence policy you need to understand the underlying cause. Personal circumstances can sometimes disrupt a good employee's work ethic. Discussing the cause of the absences can lead to other solutions. It may be more appropriate for the employee to take some time off to deal with the matter and return to work when it has been resolved. In this way you can support the employee whilst gaining the ability to plan for and cover the absence.

If it is unwillingness rather than inability to comply with the company's absence policy performance management is appropriate. You need to reinforce expectations and boundaries and the consequences of non-compliance. Then follow through.

Employee absence does not always have to be a negative experience. There are many benefits to be obtained from an employee taking leave.

An employee taking sick leave is not spreading the illness to other staff or customers.

Vacation leave presents opportunities for staff development and multi-skilling, making unexpected absences easier to cover.

A rise in the frequency of unexpected absences can alert you to other possible problems in the workplace. A general dissatisfaction with the work or culture of the workplace can be as infectious as an illness and needs to be brought out into the open and resolved.

A well known, though little mentioned, benefit is the chance to review. It is common in cases of employee fraud for the perpetrator to avoid taking leave. More than one fraud has been uncovered when an employee has been directed to take vacation leave.

While managing employee absence can be problematic, a well prepared manager can reap the benefits and minimize the disruption and financial loss caused by employee absences of all kinds.

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