Every day I go for coffee to (at least) one of my clients. There we have conversations with various employees ín or outside of absenteeism and I chat about all sorts of things. I also talk regularly with managers about their frequent absenteeism. How do they view this? What do they do to reduce frequent absenteeism and does this actually have an effect? I also regularly talk to managers and HR professionals who really want to tackle frequent absenteeism, but don't really know how.
What is frequent absenteeism?
Absenteeism frequency reflects the number of times a person calls in sick. We see frequent absenteeism if an employee is absent through illness three or more times within a year. This year is not a calendar year, but the past year. Nor does it matter whether this employee has been absent three times for one day, or three times for a month.
In addition to an employee's sick leave frequency, an average of all employees in an organization or of working Netherlands can also be measured. According to the latest figures (CBS), the average sick leave frequency of working Netherlands is now 1.5 in 2022. This means that each employee has reported sick an average of 1.5 times in the past year.
What exactly does absence frequency say?
Your organization's absence frequency can say something about the health and well-being of employees, for example, as well as the culture of the organization. In addition, absence frequency can also say something about an organization's performance and productivity.
It is often thought that a high frequency of absence is bad and a low frequency of absence is good. This is certainly not always the case. There are always multiple facets that affect absence frequency. I am going to explain this using the absence threshold.
The absence threshold, is the threshold employees experience to call in sick. It can be high or low. There are a myriad of factors that influence this, both at the team and individual level. For example:
- Can I call in sick via WhatsApp or should I always call?
- Do I enjoy my work?
- Does my supervisor think of solutions when I am in trouble?
- Can and should I set boundaries at work?
Of course it is good when there is an absence threshold , and you can think together about other solutions instead of the absenteeism report. However, the threshold should not be too high. If the absence threshold is too high, it may also mean that employees do not dare to call in sick or they are afraid of being condemned by the (partial) absence.
There is no ready answer to what your absenteeism frequency says about your organization, so there is also no ready plan on how to address frequent absenteeism . Therefore, an organization should start a conversation with its employees about frequent absenteeism to get a picture of the causes at the organizational and individual level. But how do you do that?
Frequent absenteeism or care call
By conducting the frequent absence conversation, you can find out at the individual level and ultimately at the organizational level what your frequent absenteeism is all about and together make an impact on this. Here is just a list of various "causes" that I regularly encounter when I conduct frequent absence interviews with supervisor and employee:
- Employee has been given a different morality from home;
- Employee does not know of the existence of care leave, for example;
- Long wait times in care or financially short on specific treatments;
- Colleagues also report sick regularly (sick call culture);
- Employee does not indicate his or her needs to supervisors and sees no option other than frequent sick calls.
You do not figure out these causes by starting to point fingers at the frequency of absenteeism and indicate that it cannot happen again. Nor is a solution to frequent absenteeism that "employee should start eating more apples. Dare to have the good conversation and indicate what you actually think about the choices and behavior. That way, you will find out the real causes of frequent absenteeism and you can work together to create a plan for improvement. If causes recur regularly in the organization, for example, it is advisable to organize employer interventions that employees can make use of.
Door het frequente verzuim te beïnvloeden doet u iets aan de instroom in het verzuim en bent u niet doorlopend met dezelfde verzuimdossiers in de weer. Daarnaast kan ik u beloven dat, wanneer u het goede gesprek voert, u er gemotiveerde en blije medewerkers voor terug krijgt! Kom meer te weten over de effectieve aanpak van De Arbodienst op onze website en laat u inspireren door één van onze andere artikelen over verzuim en preventie.
