With the last of the long weekends behind us and labour weekend seeming so far away, the challenge of keeping the cold away seems far simpler than keeping your staff at work!
It is common to have high absenteeism post the Queen's Birthday weekend. The usual colds and viruses give way to the instinctual need to hibernate at home or take flight to a warmer climate.
If you are a team leader, supervisor or business owner responsible for employees reporting to you, you may have already had an influx of team members requesting balances of what annual leave they have owing and or can already see and hear the signs of potential absences start on a Thursday afternoon with a sniffle and then a 'no show' phone call on the Monday.
Sickness - There is no way that you can predict sickness and whilst most is genuine, there will be those employees that don't need much of a symptom to decide to stay home (to not spread it to others of course). However you may find that you can gauge those that are more 'susceptible' to sickness than others.
Provide incentive - Whilst we certainly do not condone having staff come to work sick, apart from potentially spreading viruses they are also not productive and can bring your customers down!
Provide incentives for staff to get through the winter as a team! Create winter incentive schemes Use the time to break into smaller groups and revisit training that needs 'brushing Up' such as sales and follow up skills Have the team plan out monthly (or fortnightly) theme events (in call centres that is relatively easy and everyone loves dressing up, decorating and of course including food and prizes). Have the team members run their own meetings (instead of the supervisor or team leader). Allocate or offer different tasks and opportunities for up skilling and cross skilling within the team or within other departments. Remind team members that they are entitled to take a sick day off to look after their children if they are sick. Most businesses are now more flexible with their Employment Relations policies and do understand that the 5 standard days sick leave per year is may not be practical. Review the absences at the same time last year and forecast accordingly with either contract or temporary agents are trained and on standby. Don't forget to reflect staff requirements through winter in your budget!
General Absenteeism & Holiday requests - Set some Expectations!
This is an area where you need to be proactive and open about the planning of time off and clarifying/setting expectations with the teams. It is also a good time to check with your Human Resources and perhaps clear some overdue leave for some team members that generally don't take a lot of their annual leave and which may be building up.
In all cases of management the key to good relationships with your teams is to set expectation and have open and honest discussions. Remind the team that without the customer there is no employment and invite them to plan with you to minimise impact and what it can mean to retaining and maintaining your precious customer base.