Absence Management

Absence Management during Covid-19

We all want to do our part to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and as an employer, you play a key role. With our unique and innovative Ultra HR Infection Control & Alerting system , you can support staff to follow Covid-19 guidelines and protect your workforce.

When an employee reports an absence via the automated system, they are prompted to complete a symptom checker in line with Covid-19 guidelines. Any symptoms, and Ultra HR immediately advises the employee to stay home, self-isolate and seek medical advice.

With Real-time alerting, Line managers can take action to meet government guidelines. The Communications feature of Ultra HR comes into its own here, enabling your message to be sent to select individuals or the entire workforce. Better still, a simple feature exists so you can check to see who has read the message and provides a prompt facility, if needed, to remind employees of vital information instantly. Giving you peace of mind.

We all hope that the Covid-19 threat will be over soon. But that doesn’t mean this feature will be obsolete. It’s relevant for any contagious illness. So, you can carry on protecting your workforce and your productivity. A great diagnosis.

Contactless clocking also means one less thing to worry about in your infection control processes. Employees clock in and out using their mobile, ID card or biometric security system.

The Ultra HR Shift Management software allows you to create unlimited shift patterns to suit your business needs. This is an invaluable tool during the Covid-19 pandemic, so you can plan new schedules, making your workplace Covid safe. That’s another load off your mind.

Enabling remote working for the long term

Before the initial Covid-19 lockdown, around 5% of employees were home working (CIPD reports). Now, a massive 49% of employees work primarily from home. And it doesn’t look like we’ll return to the former norm, with up to 13 million workers in the UK hoping to continue working flexibly after the pandemic (Direct Line Group research). Meaning your investment in time and attendance software will pay dividends long into the future.

On the flip side, it also ensures you are supporting staff to manage some of the difficulties of working from home. A recent working at home wellbeing survey showed that nearly half of home-based staff reported unconventional working patterns. This included long and irregular hours which could lead to mental and physical health issues. Monitoring staff hours can highlight areas of concern, allowing them to be addressed before they affect productivity and wellbeing. Making you a successful business as well as a great employer.

The cost of sickness absence in normal times

Before the impact of Covid19, sickness absence levels were at a 20-year low of just 5.8 days per employee in the UK (CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work Survey 2020).

However, the cost of sickness absence to a company is more than simply the amount of sick pay for days lost. Management and HR time are significant contributors to the costs for businesses. Furthermore, sickness absence impacts on wider productivity and engagement levels of other staff who must cover for the absent team member.

Remove the burden of recording sickness absence

Recording sickness absences can be a challenge for HR departments and line managers. Manual processes to input the absence data, monitor triggers and keep track of actions at various stages within your sickness absence policy are not only time consuming but prone to inaccuracy. Any errors could result in inaccurate pay or inconsistent application of your sickness absence policy. And that does not make for happy staff!

That’s just the basic monitoring. What about analysing your sickness absence data to identify trends and guide your strategic approach to absence management?

Release the true value of HR

Isn’t it time to reduce the amount of time spent on basic HR admin tasks and release the potential of your HR Team to truly add value to your business?

The CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work Survey 2020 shows several concerning trends that need the full attention of HR professionals. The increase of ‘presenteeism’ (working whilst sick) and ‘leaveism’ (working whilst on annual leave or sickness absence) are both on the rise and causes of great concern.

Mental ill-health continues to be the most common reason for long term absence and a focus on strategic wellbeing is necessary in this epidemic. The CIPD report that only 44% of organisations are taking a strategic approach to wellbeing. Whilst this is encouraging, most companies still have work to do. And that’s where HR software can help.

Managing Absences with HR Software

Absence management software can significantly reduce administrative time. Self-service access means staff or line managers can input periods of absence directly. The Ultra HR Sickness & Absence module also automates a ‘return to work’ process, removing more administrative work from your line managers - Leaving them to get on with running your business. Which is a result!

Once the basic recording is taken care of, Ultra HR then provides you with intelligent insights into absence levels and trends based on the globally recognised Bradford Factor scoring system. From there you can develop your strategic approach to managing absences.

Just imagine how much time that will free up for you to focus on adding real value to your business?

Don't let time run away with you. Take away the pain of managing absences.