Managing Absence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Managing Absence - Assignment Example This leads to poor and staggered service to customers, as agency employees, being untrained and raw, could never do justice to customers without bungling or making glaring mistakes. Problem of delayed service is very common and Line managers have to deal with unpleasant customer complaints, which sometimes, run for days and months, causing immense man-hour loss over trivia. If not attended sincerely and find suitable solutions, Company will lose the carefully nurtured image and goodwill in the market, not to mention facing the unpleasant and enraged reactions from the customers. Temporary staff is unsuitable for another reason that it needs more guidance and managers have to frequently accompany them to see that serious errors do not occur. This naturally results in distraction and wastage of managers' precious working time. Recruitment and staff turnover of the Company in recent years has become noticeably frequent and this is financially undesirable1. It is a matter of serious concern that unforeseen absences are creating major problems to management and managers and hence, are unpleasant to the image of the Company. The gravity of the situation is acute as absenteeism can result in service failures, recovery actions, implications etc. There are instances when Company was even drawn into unpleasant legal battles and this shows that prevention and solution both are immediately needed. Managing absence and its effect on productivity and efficiency is no small concern, and it is desirable to get practical advice to deal with long and short-term absences, ill health and absence resulting from working stress. It is essential to assess the damage to Company and inconvenience to managers who are forced to reorganise the entire group to set it rolling. Costs of frequent re-organisations cannot be ignored either. The downward trend in Company performance is creating an unhealthy atmosphere2. Reasons and excuses of sickness should be considered against the real sickness, manager bullying, children responsibility, exhaustion, depression, old relatives and their responsibility, their hospitalisation, sickness of tiny children and partner or husband etc. Handling absenteeism with professional help and on the basis of research already done is essential. Diagnosing problems, identifying weak spots, controlling systems and spotting training requirements for heads of department, line managers and team managers on how to deal with persistent absentees is important. Consulting employment law consultants and human resource professionals and frequent meetings with employee relations officers is another form of tackling this evil. In house legal advisers should be consulted for further actions against the absentees. Possibilities of future damage repair like in-house training; continuing professional development focussed on developing the employee's full potential, encouraging interactions, advising on employment law issues and practical law issues could guide strategy mapping. This will also involve line management solutions, return to work interviews, and frequent monitoring. It is better to involve employee work commitment, peer pressure, and medical opinion etc. and arrive at a decision after going through every aspect of absenteeism including from the