Absenteeism is a world-wide and well documented costly problem for employers. In a globally competitive market place companies strive to become as efficient as possible especially in tough economic conditions.

Absenteeism impacts upon organisations efficiency and cost effectiveness and also disrupts operations. A large portion of absenteeism can be attributed to ill health absences and with this, the employer is required to find a midway between the employee’s contractual duty to provide a service and their failure to do based on absenteeism related to ill health that can become excessive.

The process of managing and reducing absenteeism has to occur within the confines of a constitutional right to fair labour practices and other prescriptive labour legislation. A balancing act needs to occur between the operational needs of the employer and the rights of employees.

Ill health absenteeism becomes problematic once a threshold is reached at which point it becomes intolerable for the employer, thus deemed excessive. Excessive ill health absenteeism is not specifically defined and as such no universal concept of when absence is deemed to have reached the threshold of excessiveness exist and varies from one employer to the next based on the operational requirements of the specific organisation.

It is pertinent to categorize the issues as to whether it is to be dealt with in terms of misconduct or ill health incapacity. A misconduct process should only be applicable in instances where it can be proved that sick leave is used inappropriately or if the reason for absence is unknown. This is usually where blame can be attributed to the employee. In the event of illness of a medium to long-term nature, an ill health incapacity process may be the most appropriate process to apply as in such cases a clearly distinguishable illness exists. This usually exists when the employee is regarded as not to blame for the absence.

The following guidelines are suggested in order to manage and reduce absenteeism in the workplace: take note of when absence occurs and take action immediately; develop an absenteeism policy and ensure all employees are aware of such; monitor and enforce absenteeism policies consistently and fairly amongst the organisation; convene return to work interviews as they can provide understanding for reasons for absence; allow employees to select and swap shifts at short notice as such flexibility has been shown to reduce absenteeism; implement a wide range of business tools to monitor and control absence levels and trends; explore possibility of utilising perfect attendance levels for performance bonuses in order to incentivise attendance.

Managing absence is critical for all organisations, regardless of size and all can benefit from a well-designed and consistently monitored absence policy. Employers are advised to utilise labour law professionals for assistance in drafting and implementing such policies.

Jonathan Goldberg is the CEO of Global Business Solutions. Email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or see www.globalbusiness.co.za

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