Managing absence: The critical role of technology

What happens when your employees are sick? Are they expected to call their line manager who should then record and monitor the absence? Do they call the office and leave a message with a colleague, which eventually gets forwarded to their line manager (if the colleague remembers) and perhaps even onto HR (if the line manager remembers)? Even with a well-documented process, can you be sure it is really followed? Or does the employee or line manager make one call that logs the call electronically, routes details to a pre-agreed list of managers, notifies operations of the need to provide cover, maintains near real-time statistics around the costs of absence and kicks off a series of workflows that alert HR to do everything from carrying out a return-to-work interview to checking the health insurance implications? The difference in these two approaches is the difference between monitoring absence and effectively managing it. One relies on people getting things right – the other relies on a sophisticated but cost-effective set of technologies that automatically ensures your procedures are followed. Not only is the automated approach more efficient, it also ensures HR has the up-to-date information it needs to intervene in individual absence cases, whether that means disciplining an employee who abuses the system or stepping in to assist someone struck down by long-term illness.