Your employees will have time off. It’s a given. Not only for yearly vacations, but also for sickness or injury, or for that dreaded appointment at the dentist. This means absence management turns into a big task for companies.  Absenteeism costs Canadian employers over $16 billion a year, with an average of 9.3 days (12.9 days in the public sector, 8.2 days in the private sector) of employee absences per year[1]. Just because employee absence is a given, it doesn’t mean it’s an easy task to manage.

Absence management covers many different absence types including authorized and planned and unplanned unauthorized leave. Many of these types include

• Short-term disability
• Long-term disability
• Critical illness
• Vacation
• Paternity, adoption and maternity leave
• Compassionate leave
• Educational leave

HR departments are under immense stress from many different sources, so easing pressure in certain areas is essential. Here’s are 3 ways that using HR systems can relieve the pain of absence management for your HR departments.

Record absences and reduce errors

Recording absences can be a time-consuming headache. You’ve got spreadsheets for employee data, time and attendance, measuring vacation allowance, benefits packages – believe it or not, there is such a thing as too many spreadsheets.

Solve these issues and combine all the data across your numerous spreadsheets in one single HR portal, where only the people who need to see it have access. Why not empower your teams with integrated Time and Attendance, HR and Payroll solutions from Mitrefinch?

If your employees are absent, you can clock the number of days, hours or shifts they’ve been off in their profile keeping track of how long they’ve been off for. The use of these systems means that you can easily record absences and reduce the inevitable human errors that are likely to occur.

Compare

Using HR management systems will also allow you to notice and compare how your employee absences compare with other companies in your sector. Knowing where you stand next to competitors or others for employee absences will help you to clock how to implement consequences and change of policies where needed.

Comparisons not just between companies but between your company’s departments are a benefit of HR systems too. By exporting reports of your absences, you can easily spot trends of which departments are taking more unauthorized absences than others. With this tool, spotting overworked and under-supported departments means you can provide support where needed. This could easily go untracked without these systems in place.

Managing consequences

Employee absence is a significant cost for companies, but only a third of employers monitor that cost. For absence management to be effective it needs to support the employees’ needs while complying with guidelines and procedures that avoid inappropriate use of sick pay or other benefits.

Through noticing how often your employees are taking absences, you’re able to see trends for employees taking more than usual or expected absences to put procedures in place.

Remember to keep the employees’ well-being considered while tracking absences. HR issues could bubble to the surface when noticing these changes, so be ready and have your employees’ best interest at heart to ensure they feel supported and valued.

If you’re interested in a HR system, contact us today to hear about our custom products and services today on sales@mitrefinch.ca or phone us on (866) 610 7603.

[1] https://www.workplacemedical.com/absence-management/