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5 Ways to Develop Communication Around Employee Absenteeism

Business productivity suffers when the employee absenteeism rate increases. There could be multiple reasons confirming that. Some are medical, personal, health, gender pay, inclusivity & diversity, or shift hours/location issues.

But businesses eventually have to focus on reducing employee absenteeism to boost active employee engagement and contribution. However, without strengthening internal communication channels around that topic, that would not be possible.

So, companies need to talk about the reasons for increased absenteeism. There has to be an open dialogue about it. 

Employees need to trust the company to speak out and confess their internal issues regarding absenteeism. Otherwise, both company and employees suffer, which leads to losses for both parties. 

The best case here would be for HRs to give the listicle below a read. 

Know-how in 5 different ways they can initiate and invite more transparent talks and communication in the workplace. That is even more important when employees are applying for leaves unnecessarily, and the company has not used an optimized source to find out why. 

5 Ways To Develop Communication Around Employee Absenteeism:

1. Have a system to promote transparent and quick feedback.

Quick/pulse surveys and questionnaires help HRs decipher employees’ take on the company’s leave management system. They can narrate what challenges they face when applying for leaves and why certain leaves are important for them – if it’s happening regularly.

After reading the insights from these surveys or polls using the uKnowva HRMS, HR professionals can make concrete decisions. For example, these tasks would help the company deal with elevating employee absenteeism scores if executed at the right time.

Plus, taking part in polls and surveys boost employees’ confidence in the firm they work for. They feel that their voice or vote holds a value that can change possibly stagnant company culture.

2. Talk about absenteeism.

Employees might not feel comfortable talking about leaves. But HR professionals need to take initiatives to discuss absenteeism. The discussion can involve papers, presentations, articles, or literature on the pros and cons of leaves allotted to employees.

This learning teaches employees if they should take leaves often – if yes, how much should it be for the firm they’re working for.

And if employees are regularly taught absenteeism cases in the industry, there will be a great impact on the company’s employee absenteeism rate. But, on the other hand, it will surely slow down when employees study real cases and their adverse impact on the company or employees’ professional life.

3. Take quick decisions.

HR professionals should be proactive in dealing with the increasing rate of absenteeism in the firm. Because otherwise, no sooner than later, good and top-hirers will start leaving. Then companies have to invest time and money repeatedly to find the best possible replacement.

It would not be the perfect solution. Instead, HR professionals should proactively and promptly track their employees’ leaves counts. With a steady and stable employee management system like in uKnowva HRMS, that’s possible.

With their proactiveness, HR professional shall know if their employees:

  • Are unhappy, unsatisfied, and not interested in engaging.
  • Are taking a lot of holidays without prior notice in a month or a given period.
  • Are not performing their assigned KPIs well.
  • Are not actively participating in team’s decisions by being absent on important days.

With those reports in hand, HRs can share them with TLs and employees to inform them about their efficiency and performance rates.

Otherwise, employees can be motivated to access these reports from their profiles in the HRMS. This activity would make employees more responsible when they know their punctuality and leave management is responsible for their next salary hike.

Plus, when employees stay in the loop for HRs decisions about their leave management, they trust and value the result even more. They can raise questions and queries on the spot if there is any misunderstanding – get it sorted before salary slip generation.

4. Ensure communication lines are open.

HRs are the first point of contact for employees to understand company policies and culture. This includes how the management checks or sees employee absenteeism.

For instance, some employees may have personal emergencies for a period: week, month, or a year (especially for pregnant women or upcoming parents). In this scenario, employees should feel free to connect with HRs and their TLs.

They must have clarity on their leaves to be applied for. Otherwise, they should share a referendum or policy document which states all the leave management system details properly.

When the communication channels are open, employees are not in doubt, fix, or grave confusion. They know they can reach out to HR any time. The HR would understand their issues and solve them on the spot.

Plus, they must also have direct or open communication with their relationship managers. Finally, because RMs or TLs approve their leaves, employees must keep them in the loop while applying for leaves: personal or urgent.

This way, HRs can keep a steady check on why their employees are taking leaves often. And they can teach the importance of showing up to work regularly.

5. Analyse the collected data:

Last, however, not the least option to develop deeper communication and open dialogues around employee absenteeism rate is this one. HRs must continuously study the data collected from the HRMS deployed by the firm.

From this data in leave management systems, HRs can describe and answer queries to questions like:

  • Why are employees applying for more leaves in a given month?
  • How many top-hires are taking more leaves off lately?
  • How many employees are taking uninformed or impromptu leaves?
  • How many leaves were allotted/rejected to a particular employee out of the total applied for?
  • When is the peak period for the firm when employees are regular and not taking many leaves?

Such insights are helpful for HRs and C-suite management to understand employee behavior. For example, they would know how their top-performers engage and contribute to the firm. Also, they can double-check if there’s a need to push some hires to work harder than before.

Conclusion:

The above-discussed points are best to understand how to develop and create open communication channels. Some points might be applied to your firm, while others might not be.

That’s okay. What matters is that HRs are proactive in dealing with unnecessarily rising employee absenteeism with stronger internal communication.

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