How to reduce absenteeism in the workplace

Most employers will know the feeling of arriving at work to find an unexpected message from an employee, stating that they won’t be coming in that day. And while the occasional sick day is a normal and justified part of working life, one of the quickest ways an organisation’s daily systems can be derailed is through repeated, unexplained absence that drains team morale and disrupts their working life. 

Rather than letting absenteeism get out of control and asking questions after, employers should be building a reliable workforce by addressing absence as soon as it begins and creating a supportive environment that employees feel comfortable communicating in. 

In this blog, we’re providing you completely action-oriented advice on reducing absenteeism in the workplace, helping you move from reactive policy enforcement to genuine employee support. 

What is absenteeism and why reducing it matters 

Absenteeism describes the pattern of an employee’s absence from work. Where regular absenteeism accounts for genuine sickness, unavoidable emergencies, and annual leave, unauthorised absence is a regular occurrence that is either unexcused or explained with very vague reasoning. This reasoning is often reasoning too small to justify the employee not coming to work.  

Absenteeism has a few identifying factors: 

1. The non-attendance is mainly unexpected. 
2. It can occur in single incidents or may follow a reoccurring pattern that becomes predictable upon further investigation. 
3. The absence can last a few days or sometimes extended periods of weeks or months. 
4. It can be driven by unauthorised reasons. 

Knock-on effects of absenteeism 

Unplanned absences naturally have a negative impact on the workplace and particularly on the fellow members of absent employee’s team. When a staff member doesn’t show up for work and doesn’t notify their employer, it can be difficult to organise last-minute cover. This can lower the morale of other employees, as their workload may increase to make up for their missing team member. 

In terms of operational impacts, absenteeism can lead to project delays and client dissatisfaction as workloads are not being managed and completed. Furthermore, managers may face the inability to plan timelines and schedules that need to be adhered to as they don’t know whether certain team members will come to work and effective systems that are in place may begin to fail due to the employee’s absence. This needs to be managed effectively. 

Identify the real cause before taking action 

There are many reasons that a workplace may be faced with absenteeism. As previously mentioned, annual leave, illness, and personal emergencies are all accounted for under the term absenteeism, but these genuine reasons to be off work are not the problem for businesses. 

The issue arises when employees are absent for unknown or unjustified reasoning and leave managers struggling to address underlying workplace or personal issues that have gone unnoticed. Here’s what to do first when absence occurs. 

Review return-to-work meetings 

If your return-to-work meetings are generally conducted as a tick-box exercise, you could be missing out on valuable insights as to why an employee is repeatedly absent. 

By treating these one-to-ones as meaningful discussions and creating a space where the employee feels comfortable and cared about, you may uncover personal or workplace challenges that are causing them to take time away from work. 

Standardise absence logging 

Categorised logging of absence makes trend identification a lot more simple for management when reviewing patterns across specific departments, teams, or time periods.  

By being able to clearly see why an employee has been off work, it’s easier to spot recurring issues, such as seasonal spikes, frequent short-term absences, or emerging health and wellbeing concerns. 

By taking these steps first, you will identify where the issue is coming from, either work life, personal life, or something else. This gives you a strong basis to work from going forward and allows employers to tailor conversations and questions if absence continues down the line. 

Train managers to have early conversations 

Your management team should be equipped with the skills to deal with all kinds of workplace conversations, especially in small businesses where there isn’t a designated HR team. Having reliable and proactive managers that can identify initial concerns and tackle problems before they grow is one of the most effective ways to tackle absence. 

Prioritising early informal intervention 

Line managers should be trained to not only deal with the effects of absenteeism, but also to take a proactive approach to resolving the problem. After the first or second incident of unauthorised absence, managers should use initiative and organise an informal one-to-one check-in with the employee, rather than waiting for formal policy to kick in.  

This can build trust between management and staff and often leads to a positive resolution of the situation, before it has a chance to carry on and worsen. 

Build core conversational skills 

When an employee is facing an issue that could affect their presence at work, speaking with their manager should be their first natural port of call. If they don’t feel comfortable enough to approach management with justified reasons for absence, there is a communication problem within your organisation. 

Make sure managers have the skills to provide empathetic communication and carry out active listening during key conversations so that employees have a space where they feel comfortable airing confidential hardships that are affecting attendance. 

Provide clear legal boundaries 

Where some managers may lack interpersonal skills, others may have them in abundance, but this can sometimes make conversations more difficult. Showing empathy is very important, but if managers can’t find the balance between professional and personal support, they risk overstepping legal boundaries or giving unqualified advice. 

Ensure that your management team is aware of exactly how much they can support an employee and what to do when the conversation moves beyond absenteeism. 

Promote employee wellbeing 

Early this year, it was reported that 32% of employee absence was down to stress, anxiety, and other mental illnesses. Stats like this show that there is an ongoing importance to create spaces where people feel their well-being won’t suffer, particularly workplaces where people spend a lot of time. 

Set reasonable boundaries 

Expecting and encouraging employees to completely disconnect from work when their day finishes is one of the simplest ways to set a direct boundary between work and personal life.  

You should not expect overtime from your employees or replies to digital communication any time they are not scheduled to be working. Ensuring that they get this time away from work leads to more positive outlooks on their work-life balance, not to mention improved mental health and reduced stress levels that decrease the risk of burnout. 

Provide accessible support systems 

Employees can’t make use of what they don’t know is available to them. Promote Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), mental health days, and mental health first aiders across teams and update them if anything changes. 

Sometimes, all it takes is a quick, meaningful conversation for an employee to feel comfortable enough to open up about their absence and why it’s happened. 

Improve employee engagement 

If your employees want to come to work, they will. An engaged workforce is naturally more invested in their roles, making high employee engagement one of the most effective long-term protections against unplanned absenteeism. 

There are a few simple ways that employers and managers can improve employee engagement:  

• By connecting roles to the bigger company picture, employees can see how their efforts are paying off and what they’re working for which is highly motivating. 

• Using digital or in-person communications to recognise the efforts of team members on a regular basis makes employees feel valued, noticed, and engaged with their team and workplace. 

• Often times, staff are as invested in you as you are in them. With structured career progression employees are more engaged with their long-term future at an organisation. 

• Show that you’re listening to your team by making reasonable organisational changes based on employee feedback. This builds workplace trust and almost always results in employees feeling happier in their workplace. 

Tackling presenteeism too 

All that being said, there is a fine line between an employee showing up for work because they’re engaged in their role and showing up while physically or mentally unwell simply because they feel pressured to do so. What we encourage clients who are dealing with absenteeism to do first is to look at their presenteeism. 

Presenteeism describes the presence of an employee at work while operating at a lowered performance. This can be caused by illness, burnout, overtime, or anxiety over job loss and usually, the employee is working despite needing time off to recover. 

It is important for employers to note that this shouldn’t be taken as a showing of commitment or enjoyment of a role, it should be dealt with as a concern as presenteeism is one of the biggest causes of absenteeism. Managers should lead by example and take their time off work seriously so that employees follow suit normalise taking full sick leave rather than pushing through days at the office with illness. 

Make absence reporting straightforward 

If procedures are easy to follow, they will be used to their full potential, and it really is as simple as that! By coming up with thorough but clear guidance for employees, they can be relied upon and held responsible for following absence procedures. This can be introduced by: 

Set clear reporting expectations. Even details that seem small, like outlining what time an employee must notify their manager by if they can’t make it to work, mean that teams can be held accountable for their actions. 

Make this guidance easily accessible. Having digital and physical access to absence policy covers all bases and means that employees have all information at their disposal, thus, they are making completely informed decisions when it comes to their absence. 

By regularly reviewing absence data, employers can move from reactive monitoring to proactive support. Mapping these trends against high-stress calendar periods or department workflows allows you to address operational strains early and adjust support offerings based on real data. 

Know when formal absence management is appropriate 

Sometimes, despite strictly following policies and informal methods of investigation and problem-solving, this isn’t enough to solve problems of unauthorised absence in the workplace. It’s not always a reflection of a workplace or managerial training, sometimes, it comes down to the employee and their professional conduct.

Managers should be able to identify when an attendance issue is too far gone for them to resolve it and instead, follow the necessary formal steps of escalation. To be prepared for this, your business should have a few procedures in place:  

1. Make sure there are clear contractual thresholds that set an absence issue from an informal process to a formal one. For example, 10 separate instances of unauthorised absence in a six-month period trigger a formal review. 
2. Make sure all internal disciplinary procedures adhere to the relevant ACAS guidelines and employment laws to protect both your employee and your business. 
3. Keep a clear and thorough record of all informal check-ins, offered adjustments, and offered support prior to initiating formal procedures. 

How Sapphire HR can support your business 

While it’s true that sometimes an employer is fighting a frustrating losing battle with an employee who won’t come into work, there’s nothing better from a management point of view than to make sure policies are in place and procedures are being followed. Looking at what you can do to make your workplace as supportive and engaging as possible is the best place to start. 

Our team at Sapphire HR support North East businesses with their absenteeism by supporting employers audit internal policies and guide supportive conversations between managers and employees. By knowing that your procedures are fully thorough and compliant, you can tackle unauthorised absence with confidence and re-engage your team in a transparent workplace where they’re comfortable communicating. 

To find out more about our training services and how we navigate complicated cases of absence, get in touch with our team today and start building a more engaged workplace.