Absence abuse identified as a key concern for UK businesses

NOTTINGHAM, U.K. - Nov. 16, 2015 - PRLog -- Almost half (47%) of respondents in a recent survey said they would prioritise absence management when evaluating a HR workforce management system. What's more, 44% of those surveyed also claimed that absence abuse - taking unnecessary days off work - was a key concern in their business and something that requires immediate attention. With staff absenteeism at a cost to UK employers of an estimated +£30 billion, it’s unsurprising that absence management is fast becoming a HR priority.

Results from the survey suggested that the main drawback to employers when managing staff leave is a lack of communication. Real-time absence information is required by managers in order to manage holidays, non-attendance and sickness effectively, to uncover trends and build reports necessary for Payroll and other HR teams.

Many businesses are still relying on manual methods such as spreadsheets and paper forms to administrate staff absence. These methods are generally inefficient and can often over-complicate the process.  As well as this, manual approaches to managing absence allow staff to more easily abuse the system in place and can hinder necessary communication with managers. Ultimately, systems that don’t monitor and manage staff absence effectively are unable to deliver the quantity and quality of data that’s becoming increasingly important to business and HR managers.

Absence management systems (http://www.e-days.co.uk) can help to eliminate the problems that HR and managers experience daily. All absence data is real-time, allowing employers to gain full insight into reasons why staff are absent from work, allowing further actions to be taken and helping to reduce absence levels across an organisation by as much as 24%.