Employee Absence – The Highest Non-Recoverable Cost?
Yes, the title is justified! The impact of employee absence is the most enormous & non-recoverable cost for your business. But, working strategically can decline the price & rate of employee absence.
Employee absence in 2026 averages 9.4 days per year per employee, a record high driven by rising long-term health conditions.
The impact of employee absence is often decoded but fails to be understood. Missed days due to employee absence have a significant impact on the UK economy.
The best practice is to undertake ‘attendance management’ as opposed to the more negatively sensed ‘sickness absence’, but no matter how we name it, the cost to your lowermost line is staggering when employee absence occurs. Common causes of employee absence include sickness, accidents, bereavement, and family commitments.
Types of Absence
Absence in the workplace comes in many forms, and understanding these distinctions is essential for effective absence management. By recognising the different types of absence, employers can tailor their absence management policies, support employees more effectively, and ensure compliance with legal requirements. This approach not only helps in managing employee absence but also promotes a culture of transparency and employee wellbeing.
The main types of absence include:
**1. Sickness Absence:**This is one of the most common forms of absence, covering both short term absence (such as minor illnesses or injuries) and long term absence due to chronic health conditions or serious medical issues. Managing sickness absence requires clear processes, such as self certification for absences up to seven days and fit notes for longer periods. Employers should monitor absence levels, offer support through occupational health or an employee assistance programme, and make reasonable adjustments where necessary.
2. Authorised absences: Authorised absences are those approved in advance, including annual leave, parental leave (such as maternity, paternity, or adoption leave), bereavement leave, and time off for caring responsibilities or emergencies. Having a clear absence policy and an easy-to-use staff holiday planner helps both the employer and employees balance work and personal commitments, reducing the risk of burnout and boosting morale.
3. Unauthorised Absence:This type of absence occurs when an employee is absent without a valid reason or without following the correct procedures. Unauthorised absence can disrupt workflows and may require disciplinary action if it becomes persistent. A robust absence management policy, clear communication, and return to work interviews can help address underlying causes and prevent repeat occurrences.
4. Long Term Absence:Long term absence typically refers to employees who are off work for more than four weeks, often due to serious health conditions, mental health problems, or recovery from surgery. Managing long term absence involves regular communication, obtaining medical reports, and working with occupational health professionals to support a phased return to work or consider flexible working arrangements.
5. Other Absences:Other types of absence include time off for jury service, adverse weather, or public duties. These should be covered in your absence policy to ensure consistency and fairness.
By categorising and understanding the different types of absence, organisations can manage absence more effectively, support employees through health and wellbeing initiatives, and maintain productivity. Using a digital absence management solution like ScheduleLeave makes it easier to track, report, and respond to all types of absence, ensuring your business stays compliant and your employees feel supported.
How Can We Stop This?
The purpose behind managing the attendance should always be to look for the employee to return to work. Having the appropriate techniques in the right software establishment like ScheduleLeave will help to slope down your employee absence for many short-term absence matters.
Effective absence management requires a shift from reactive discipline to proactive prevention.
Keeping an eye on the short-term absences, targeting those whose absence shows a graph movement and assuring that the accurate documenting and reporting methods are followed can help. Setting trigger points for absence—such as a specific number of days or frequency of absences—can help manage employee attendance effectively by prompting timely reviews and discussions about frequent absences.
We all acknowledge that some illness absence is unavoidable, and most employees genuinely take leave which serves a purpose behind it, but merely calling in at a set time and talking to their manager can discourage the employee who doesn’t maintain a good friendship with the Monday.
Training managers in absence management strategies, including the use of trigger points and proactive approaches, is essential for effectively managing employee absence and supporting a healthy workplace.
Scheduleleave: Your Employee Absence Management Partner
Globally, leave & absence costs contribute to nearly 35% of a company’s payroll.
Yes, ScheduleLeave tags as the excellent employee absence management software that aids the pain areas of staffing professionals. HR professionals can use absence management software like ScheduleLeave to improve compliance with employment law legislation and organizational policies, ensuring best practices are followed. Before we unlock the reasoning behind this, let’s comprehend what an absence management system is.
ScheduleLeave is the most acceptable staff absence management software that satisfies securing and functioning with managing leaves. It assists the HR department in accumulating easy-to-use staff holiday planner software and streamlining the usage of the same old tedious spreadsheets, paper forms, and emails for approval. Automating absence management processes with ScheduleLeave can save valuable time for HR admins and managers.
ScheduleLeave is the key to tracking absences and leave in real-time, making your leave management a simple yet effective plan and predicting your employee holidays.
How ScheduleLeave Reduces Sickness Absence?
Multiple companies fail to adopt absence management systems significantly, which builds a negative impression on the business & employee performance.
The lack of adequate absence management systems like ScheduleLeave in business influences project deliveries & employee morale negatively. Using absence management software can help boost morale by supporting employees with clear processes, access to resources, and improved communication. Supporting employees through initiatives such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and mental health support is also crucial, as these help manage stress and anxiety and contribute to a healthier, more engaged workforce.
An absence management software provides several insightful analytics and reports, enabling HR managers to seamlessly track their employees’ leave. In addition to these features:
Streamlines the process and addresses an employee’s leave entitlements.
Fosters adequate work allowance while ensuring employees are given required days off for personal matters.
The software will facilitate employers to operate workloads more effectively while maintaining their workforce.
Assist businesses in becoming more efficient and adequate by keeping track of employees’ leave timetables without human errors.
Why ScheduleLeave?
1. No paper forms, No spreadsheets
ScheduleLeave is a device-friendly application, aiding all human errors that occurred while tracking the employee leave. Channelising the stock of paper approval forms and confusing spreadsheets isn’t your cup of tea, so we help you use our intuitive & straightforward staff holiday planner software and email notifications.
2. Personal Calendars
Every staff member has their personal calendars, summarising the annual leave allowances used and unused. The calendar updates instantly whenever a booking is created or cancelled. Employees can look back at where they utilised their allowance & plan ahead based on their leave unused.
3. Advanced Reporting And Integration
If you’re a manager or work in the HR department, you may be interested in some of the advanced reports we deliver within the staff holiday planner software. To help you get a quick glance & see busy time periods throughout your company year, notice what allocation has been consumed/left over, and view any potential abuse of leave, such as sick leave including the bradford factor score.
