Absence Management and Workforce Management

That absence management is a key component of workforce management does not really need an explicit mention. However, planned and unplanned absence is a universal fact of work and many organizations might take it as something that cannot be avoided.

There are ways to minimize both absence and its impact. First, we need to look the factors that cause absence, particularly unplanned absence that is more disruptive to work.

Reasons for Absence

• SHORT-TERM SICKNESS: Short-term sickness is a major contributor to unplanned absence. An employee might call in sick, or produce some kind of certificate to prove the sickness
• LONG-TERM SICKNESS: This kind of absence is usually covered by a certificate
• UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCE OR PERSISTENT LATECOMING: The employee might just absent himself or herself without any excuse, or might be a habitual latecomer
• AUTHORIZED ABSENCE: Employees are entitled to different kinds of leave under the provisions of employment laws. These include annual vacations, maternity (and paternity) leave, educational leave, and so on. These kinds of absence can be scheduled and alternative work arrangements can be made through advance planning

Measuring Absence and its Cost

Many organizations do not take the trouble to find out the cost of employee absence, the reasons for the absence and ways of reducing its impact. With proper focus, absence is controllable to some extent, and the resultant benefits can be significant.

By accumulating absent hours (including late hours) and comparing it to total available hours during the period, we can calculate the percentage of time lost owing to absence. By comparing the percentage for different periods, the trend of absence can be monitored.

By department and section wise monitoring of the trend, it might even be possible to identify some of the reasons underlying high absenteeism. For example, poor working conditions or a bad manager or supervisor might be aggravating the problem in a department or section.

Absence can also be measured by individual workers. The number and length of absences of each employee during a 52-week period is noted. Problem employees can be identified and the reasons underlying their absence can be investigated.

Policies and Actions for Absence Management

Surveys have revealed that sickness is a major factor for absence. The studies also indicate that stress-related absence is increasing compared to earlier periods.

Absence management starts with clear policies for allowing employees to take time off due to sickness. The policies should meet the minimum requirements under the law, and can be more liberal to attract better employees.

The policies must be communicated clearly to employees. In particular, employees must be fully aware of the procedures for availing sick leave, such as whom to notify, when a doctor’s certificate or examination by company doctor is required and also any return-to-work interview requirements.

Implement systems to measure absence by departments/sections and by employee. Seeking the help of occupational health professionals to reduce the incidence sickness and stress can help reduce incidence of occupational health and injury problems.

Unacceptably high and persistent levels of absence need to be handled through disciplinary procedures.

Conclusion

Absence management is an important component of workforce management. Absences can occur owing to different factors. Managing absences start with the organization measuring the levels of absence and identifying the reasons for it. Once a clear picture is available, organizations would find it easier to tackle unacceptably high levels of absence.

Studies indicate that sickness and stress are major contributory factors to absence. These are unplanned absences and cause more disruption. We look at sickness absence in more detail in a separate article.

Originally posted 2009-03-20 15:46:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Appraisals: Evaluating Procedures

An appraisal is an official document given by an appraiser that estimates the replacement value and quality of an item. An appraiser makes a report after examination and detailed analysis of the property.

Types of Appraisals

Drive by Appraisals: This is an abbreviated appraisal that requires less data and inspection by the appraiser. The data is generally collected verbally or from records.

Professional Appraisals: Appraisals for personal property like estate tax, donation, sale of insurance, damage claims and equitable distribution.

Sustainability Appraisals: They are essential for national legislation that includes environmental, social and economic concerns.

Job Performance Appraisals: These appraisals are needed for performance rankings. They help in decision making regarding promotion, confirmation, transfer and salary fixing. These appraisals also give feedback regarding behavior of subordinates. This information helps in training, recognizing the skill of workers, their deficiencies and growth. These also play an important role in counseling subordinates. It also gives an insight into the behavior of employees.

The purposes of performance appraisals are:

· Creating and maintaining a satisfactory performance.

· Contributing to employee growth and development through training and management programs.

· Proper understanding of subordinates.

· Guidance to employees regarding jobs

· Facilitate fair compensation based on performance and interview techniques.

· Providing information regarding retrenchment.

Evaluating the work of individuals is a regular feature of companies. The appraisals made can be formally structured or an informal process. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects of job performance are evaluated during appraisals. Performance appraisal here means evaluating the amount of work and effort the individual has put in and is not evaluating the result. Performance appraisals give an insight into the employee’s weakness and strengths. Job evaluation is the amount of profit the organization is deriving by assigning the job and determines the range of pay while performance appraisal is evaluating how well the job is being done by the employee.

The content to be appraised has to be decided by a company before the program is approved. This is done on the basis of a job analysis. Appraisals help the employer to understand and improve his employee.

Originally posted 2009-01-28 15:53:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

A Mobile Merchant Account

If you operate a mobile business and worry about taking credit card payments the old fashioned way, rest assured that a mobile merchant account can provide you with up-to-date technology that will give you the lowest retail rate and instant card feedback while in the field. You won’t have to worry that you might not learn that a customer’s credit card is rejected when you return to the office. Nor will you have to leave a statement and hope the customer remembers to send in a payment. Now you can apply for a mobile merchant account that will provide you with up-to-date wireless equipment that can provide confidence and security while you are processing payments on the road.

When you are ready to apply for a mobile merchant account, you will be happy to know that many companies can give you an answer the same day. As long as your company has a decent credit history and is able to pay monthly fees for account services, you should have no problem in getting approved for a merchant account. If you conduct business while on the road, for example, by delivering floral arrangements, making service calls, or providing transportation, you can collect credit card payments at the point of sale rather than waiting to send a bill or hoping the customer will have the correct amount of cash or pay with a check that won’t bounce. If you plan to attend a trade show, a conference, a convention, or a seminar where you will be selling products, you can take along a wireless credit card processor to make sure you get paid the same day. Wireless units come with or without printers. They will let you get the lower retail swiped rate, along with immediate authorization and sales confirmation, instead of paying the keyed-in rate if you call the credit card number into the office for processing.

Your mobile merchant account will help you save money and time. You can handle the credit card processing yourself instead of hiring accounting staff to send out bills and call for collections when checks bounce from the back. You can even get additional mobile equipment to support your business transactions while in transit, like a pager or an e-check processor. Most units are small and easy to transport in a vehicle of just about any size. They fit neatly on a table for indoor business purposes, too. No special training is required for operating them. Just read the instructions or talk to the account associate to learn how you can start accepting credit card payments quickly and easily.

The rates for utilizing a merchant account are not prohibitive. Plan to discuss the fees with your lender to be sure you understand the pricing for each type of service. Your credit card processor may be billed at so much per transaction, or you might be able to request a monthly percentage rate. Find out why so many business owners are using credit card processing equipment that can be obtained with the help of a mobile merchant account.

Originally posted 2009-04-01 15:43:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Time Management – A Way Of Life

Time management is the meticulous way of performing the tasks in the available number of hours. It has become a necessity in today’s fast-paced life, as a person ends up performing many roles. One has to be committed to fulfill all the responsibilities with 100% perfection. While doing so, people find themselves perplexed as to how to approach and manage all the things and still enjoy ample leisure hours.

Time management has become the gravest necessity. It basically aims as how the available hours are made use of in such away that all is done correctly as per the need of the hour.

Adopting the Skills in Our Lives

Time management involves a lot of planning and organizing. One has to sit down and chalk out the plan. The most vital factor is bridging the gap between expected and achieved. There are certain steps that help us to manage time perfectly:

· Target: The first and the foremost step is to fix a target in terms of what has to be achieved and in how much time. This could provide an outline, on the basis of which further planning would be undertaken.

· Planning: After ascertaining the needs and the hours, it is the time to attain a perfect balance between the two. Time is allocated to each task to be performed so that the goal is achieved. However, flexibility has to be exercised, as the actual time taken could be different from planned.

· Setting Priorities: Another important aspect is arranging the tasks to be performed in the descending order of priority. When one understands the significance of each event, managing the time becomes easy.

· Time Schedule: Preparing a timetable helps to complete the work on time and meet the goal effectively.

Time management as a whole aims at avoiding wastage of time and proper utilization. The business community also adheres to techniques like resource planning for managing resource. A number of software are used for time management.

In a nutshell, the time normally wasted can be can be put to effective use by making most of time management.

Originally posted 2009-07-06 01:45:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Action Vs. Inaction

Spring is a great antidote to long cold winters. It’s the same with action and inaction. Action is a powerful antidote to the stagnation of inactivity. Being creatively alive involves abandoning a position of inaction in circumstances which have traditionally immobilized you. The name of the game is action. Doing. Overcoming your inertia and acting will give you a whole new lease on being creatively alive.

Action is the single most effective antidote to depression, anxiety, stress, fear, worry, guilt, and of course, immobility. It is virtually impossible to be depressed and active at the same time. Even if you wanted to, it is difficult to keep on moping, complaining, lolling around and wallowing in self-pity if you get active and do something. Anything! Just doing is such an important part of being a fully functioning person.

In fact, that lack of action is not a result of depression; it is the cause. Don’t be paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. Taking action, gives you momentum. Initiating the effort attracts opportunities and synergistic things happen.

Inactivity, on one hand, is most often a choice rather than an inescapable fact of life, while action is a definite way to avoid being victimized by yourself or others. If you decide to do something about your problem or challenge, rather than grumble about it, you’ll be on the road to changing things around for yourself. When you take action, you also take control. Thinking keeps you a prisoner of the past. Action puts you in control of the future.

If you find yourself asking, “Yes, but what can I do” the answer is very, very simple. Anything is a lot more effective than nothing.

This old proverb has a lot of truth in it: Even when you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Originally posted 2009-01-12 15:47:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter