SME employees abuse sick leave, managers fear

SME owners in Scotland are worried about the rising level of sickness-related absences recorded over the past 12 months, a new Close Brothers Business Barometer survey has revealed.

According to a news source, the research also revealed that close to 20 percent of managers participating in the poll believe that their organisation is severely affected by employees abusing sick leave.

Minor illnesses, such as the flu or cold, are the main reasons why employees take time off work, according to two thirds of employers, while post-operative recovery is cited as being the second most common reason for sick leave.

CEO of Close Brothers Asset Finance, Mike Randall said: “While the majority of sick leave taken is genuine, absenteeism is a growing problem for many Scottish firms and if not managed properly, it could have a serious impact on productivity levels.

“Managing staff absence can seem like a daunting task, but it’s too important to ignore. A carefully implemented absence policy could help to improve productivity, boost staff morale and protect your bottom line,” Mr Randall added.

Based on these findings, it’s becoming quite clear that managing sickness-related absences across organizations of any sizes is becoming an increasingly serious issue. However, Tensor plc has just the right solution for the job, since our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporates a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.

Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual’s or a department’s absence records.

Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness. As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

WinTA.NET supplies the relevant managers with information on employee’s absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you’d like to find out more about the Tensor workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we’ll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.