1. Recognise these? Everyone’s got them but how do you deal with them?
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Wild Bill GhostBuffalo Skiver Sleeps-with-SmartphoneButch Presentee Annie Excuses
‘I don’t have time to go off sick!’ says Butch. His 100% attendance
record remains unbeaten and no illness will prevent him from losing
this title. He comes to work to spread his germs and tell anyone
who will listen how hard he works and how little it is appreciated.
If he stopped moaning or trying to work whilst ill, he might actually
get some work done for once! His colleagues wish he would just go
home, come back happier and healthier and stop bringing them down,
too.
Dodging every disciplinary bullet, Buffalo Skiver can recite absence
policies in his sleep. His time off is regular but he doesn’t trip triggers
and he feels it is his right to play the system. He knows everybody
else’s schedules by heart because that means he can leave early on
Friday, undetected. He has learnt many tricks to maintain the illusion
of ‘hardworking Buff’ and knows how to get others to do his work for
him. If only he could apply same creativity and dedication to his job,
he might become a star employee.
Sick, yet unable to relax, Sleeps-with-Smartphone is at home in bed
but nothing will stop her answering her emails. The flu is making her
drowsy and prone to mistakes but still she carries on. She dozes
off in the afternoon and when she picks up her phone again, she
starts replying to messages that have already been dealt with in the
meantime by her co-workers. Her customers are getting confused and
her colleagues frustrated with her interfering and mistakes. She thinks
she is doing them all a favour but she really isn’t helping.
It’s been months since Wild Bill Ghost was last at work. He went
absent with a knee injury whilst waiting for an operation. The best part
is that his manager left the company and forgot to suspend his sick
pay. The new manager has never met Bill nor contacted him to find
out how he is doing. He has hired someone new to do Bill’s job but
Bill still gets his paycheck every month. He can’t believe his luck! He
also knows that if he ever goes back, he’ll be due holiday pay for all
the annual leave he has missed during the absence. What a bonus.
Using every excuse under the sun, Annie is rarely seen at work.
One day her back hurts, then it’s migraines, or her all-time favourite:
stress. When she does turn up, it’s with a list of excuses for why she
hasn’t done her work. If it’s not the dog eating her homework, it’s
another dead grandmother (how many can one person have, really?)
Her boss is keen to help with her health but the doctors can’t confirm
what the problem is and the GP simply keeps signing her off work to
rest. And that is just fine with Annie - sick pay is part of her contract,
after all!
‘Sleeps-with-Smartphone’
Butch Presentee
Buffalo Skiver
Wild Bill Ghost
Annie Excuses
• 24/7 absence registration over the phone via 03-number at local call rates
• Up to 50% absence reduction in 3 months
• Visibility of problem areas by employee, absence cause, site
• Access to real time absence data and reduced administration
• Immediate email notifications, automated absence triggers and task reminders
• Online tools and task manager to ensure compliance with company policy
• Improved compliance with policies and procedures
Benefits of ‘Engage’ attendance management
inspiring healthy attendance

2. Joe Bloggs wakes up too unwell to go to work. It’s 7 am and he knows his
manager won’t be answering his phone yet so he sends the manager an SMS
instead. Joe goes back to sleep and switches his phone off. Joe’s manager
hasn’t picked up the message from Joe because he left his work phone in the
office yesterday. He walks in to find several missed calls from the client and
when he rings back he finds out why: Joe has not turned up for work at the
client site. He then rings the scheduling team to urgently find a replacement.
Unfortunately most of the stand-by team have already been deployed that
morning and the nearest to the job is 1.5 hours away. It will be 11:00 before
anyone can take Joe’s place. The scheduling team ask the manager if they
should be organising cover for the next day as well but Joe’s manager doesn’t
know the answer to that: the SMS only said he was ill today, there was no
mention of when he might be back and now he is not answering his phone.
How our Day-1 Absence Management works:
24/7 absence reporting
Online tools and
resource centre
Fast and effective referrals
Measurable results and
return on investment
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Engage is a web-based toolkit for measuring and managing absence. Employees report their absence via Engage and
the employee absence records are stored in a centralised database. The full data is accessible by authorised users
online at any time and managers get access to all the following features among others:
Absence notifications - Engage sends instant information across to line managers and site coordinators to ensure that
disruption due to absence is minimised. Daily digest emails summarise any outstanding tasks and any new absences
that require management action according to the policy.
Policy triggers - To help managers follow company policy, Engage triggers are
customised to pick up levels of absenteeism that require further action. The automated
flag system can also be configured to recognise high-risk indicators where case
management by HR should be started to minimise the likelihood of long term absence or
claims.
Instant alerts and task reminders via email and SMS
After: Absence reporting with HoneydewBefore: Absence reporting before Honeydew
Reports - The accumulated absence data can be reviewed via our easy reports. Our
reports have been built to analyse absence statistics either on an individual basis or by
organisation units and the data can be sliced and diced according to business interests,
be it cost of absence, key trends and drivers or compliance with company policy. We’ve
also designed different report packages with specific stakeholders in mind so each line
manager, MD or HR Business Partner has the right level information available when
necessary.
Executive Absence Summary
Report period: 13/08/2012 - 13/12/2012
Absence Level Development Top 10 Absence Causes
Cost of Absence
based on company average cost of absence day
Management Policy Compliance
RTW Interview Completion Absence Review Completion
Comprehensive report suite with up-to-the-minute statistics
Engage online toolkit
Dashboard – high-level instant snapshot on current absentees, outstanding tasks, task
performance, absence levels, and the top causes of absence.
Task manager – the line manager’s key tool for keeping up with tasks such as return
to work interviews and absence review meetings. Regular task reminders will ensure
compliance with company policy.
Absence records – complete absence histories with full details from registration to
return, including notes on management actions and exportable summary reports.
Resource centre – Engage offers an online e-learning area with video tutorials,
FAQs and guides to using the system and to help achieve best practice attendance
management.
Engage attendance management software
Joe Bloggs realises at 7 am that he is not well enough to go to work today. In
line with company policy, absence must be reported 2 hours before his start
time, so he calls his company’s dedicated Honeydew absence reporting line,
which is open 24/7. The call handler asks him questions about his absence
and expected return to work date and captures a contact phone number for
his manager to use later in the day, if necessary. 3 minutes later, Joe is back
in bed resting and his rostering team have already received SMS and email
notifications to alert them to the fact that Joe will not be coming in today. The
schedulers are ringing their reserve team to find someone to cover Joe’s shifts
for the next three days – the notifications tell them that Joe expects to be back at
work in 3 days’ time.