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New research indicates HR professionals don’t trust line managers to record absence accurately
19-07-2008
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*Yet responsibility for sickness tracking is increasingly devolved to managers*
HR professionals don’t trust line managers to report accurately on absence and sickness. And this could be a major cause for concern in light of findings in new independent research, launched today, that line managers are increasingly being handed the responsibility for keeping tabs on attendance,
The survey, Absence Management – ten years on, commissioned by HR and payroll software provider MidlandHR and people solutions provider FirstCare, polled 164 senior UK business people on how their organisations manage absence. Many of the questions in the new report were first asked in a MidlandHR survey back in 1998
The report reveals that nearly half of those questioned (48%) say they cannot rely on managers to provide accurate information, up from one-third (33%) ten years ago. This is despite the finding that over half of line managers (56%) are increasingly being handed the responsibility of recording sickness, compared with 48% a decade ago – either on their own or jointly with the personnel department.
However, the research also found that four in five (80%) of respondents thought that line managers would better report on sickness if they had proper information about its impact on their department – an increase from 48% recorded in the original survey. Tellingly, only 20% of respondents said that line managers have access to real-time data, which suggests lack of accurate and up to date detail is at the root of the problem.
Lawrence Knowles, managing director, Midland HR comments “Where line managers are entrusted with the responsibility for monitoring absence, it is of paramount importance that they are given effective tools. This is especially important if they are expected to gain a real appreciation of the impact of sickness on business performance, profitability and their colleagues who have to cover for missing workers.”
Aaron Ross, managing director, FirstCare comments: “It is encouraging to see the growth over the last 10 years in appreciation of the importance of absence monitoring. But there is still work to be done to address the mistrust between HR people and line managers, otherwise employers and employees alike will suffer. ”
Only just over half have quite or very high confidence in the accuracy of their absence monitoring system with the public sector having less confidence than the private sector and large organisations less confidence than SMEs. Ten years ago 94% stated their sickness leave records were fairly or very accurate.
However, in terms of monitoring sickness, an encouraging 30% monitor it all the time (compared to 21% ten years ago) and a further 43% monitor it either quite or very frequently.
Aaron Ross, managing director, FirstCare comments: “The survey indicates that managers believe up to 50% of absences are for non-genuine reasons. This is in stark contrast to the more conservative figure of 13% suggested by the CBI survey. The difference could be explained as only companies with accurate methods of recording absence are able to complete the CBI survey.
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