Sick days, due to their unavoidable and unpredictable nature are a frequent challenge for many companies. Fortunately, however, their impact can be minimised with effective sick leave management, which also offers organisations an array of other benefits:
Employees know where they stand
An integral part of sick day management is having a clear policy on how time off from illness affects staff’s annual leave allowance. Namely, if they receive paid sick leave and how many days of sick leave employees are entitled to before it eats into their annual leave or goes unpaid. This, in turn, affects how likely staff are to come into work if they fall ill, which, as discussed below, has a few knock-on effects.
Increased productivity
Effective sick leave management will result in people only coming into the office when they’re fit to work and can perform optimally. In contrast, ineffective management results in staff coming into work when they’re still ill, which compromises their ability to do their job. Also, worse still, they run the risk of passing it onto their colleagues, amplifying the consequences to the company further.
Additionally, a clear sick day policy allows for the possibility of remote working, so staff can continue to do their jobs from home. This lets them retain some of their productivity without the discomfort of coming to work or the risk of spreading a bug to others. Instead, they can come back when they’ve regained their strength and recharged their batteries.
Improved morale
As employees who feel they have to drag themselves into work when aren’t going to be very happy, smart sick day management will result in greater staff morale. They’ll feel the company values their wellbeing and has their best interests at heart, making them more loyal as a result.
Save money
Ultimately, smart sick leave management saves companies money: If employees can work remotely, and indicates they’re doing so in a leave management system, your company saves on sick pay and prevents losing income through lost productivity – which quickly compounds over time.
Also, over the long term, happier employees will stay with the company longer, which saves on the cost on recruiting and subsequently training new ones. Better still, they’ll develop their skills the longer they stay, adding more value to the company and contributing to its growth. This is far better than an alternative scenario in which they seek work elsewhere, with their talents benefitting the competition.
