Flexible working, incentives and recognition 'needed' to avoid absences

Date: 03/02/2010

One-fifth of employees have admitted in a new survey that they have called in sick when they were not ill in the first place.

The survey, conducted by Kronos and reported this week on Management in Practice, found that over 70 per cent of respondents said they may take a day off spontaneously rather than planned, with Friday being top of the chart.

It was implied that a lack of motivation due to poor inspiration may be to blame for the attitude portrayed by respondents, calling into question the use of incentives and recognition.

Furthermore, 57 per cent of respondents recognised that colleagues who have taken time off ill therefore hit productivity, leaving fewer people in a company to get the job done and hitting morale hard.

Senior director of business development and operations at Kronos UK Simon Macpherson said that unauthorised absence is a major problem every day of the year in the UK and costs the domestic economy billions of pounds.

He continued: "None of us can afford to ignore the underlying reasons for employees taking time off and, as the survey highlights, employers ought to be considering the introduction of flexible working policies to help eradicate unauthorised absence in the workplace.”

Last month, executive director of corporate development at Henley Business School Linda Irwin told Personnel Today that soft skills from management may be a great way to inspire staff through a team building conference.

Posted by Michael Ewing ADNFCR-2060-ID-19595950-ADNFCR

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Flexible working, incentives and recognition 'needed' to avoid absences

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