An Investigation of Effective Absence Management Methods in Retail

This report examines absence management strategies within the retail sector, addressing the issue of increasing employee absenteeism and its impact on organizational performance. The report reviews various absence management methods, including triggering systems, flexible working hours, and return-to-work interviews. It explores the aim of the review, which is to suggest new ways in which absence can be managed more effectively among the client advisors team, and outlines objectives such as reviewing absence management methods, identifying current practices in the retail sector, and proposing new approaches. The report includes a literature review that discusses the effectiveness of return-to-work interviews, flexible working hours, and manager training. It also provides a critique of the literature and offers recommendations for businesses. The report includes line graphs and bar charts to present the findings and concludes with recommendations for improvement. The report emphasizes the importance of managing employee absence to improve overall performance.

Using information in HR
1

ABSTRACT
There are various issues arise in an organisation and for this, managers adopt different
methods and strategies. One of the issue is increase in absenteeism rate of employees that
directly affect the overall performance of company. It is essential for an entity to emphasise on
declining this rate in order to gain growth and success. The mangers use various absence
management methods in order to solve this issue such as Triggering system, flexible working
hour and so on. Along with this, it is essential for an organisation to give training to mangers,
which help them to maintain good relationship with employees and retain them for longer time
frame.
2

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................3
TITLE:.............................................................................................................................................4
1.0 Introduction to reserach.............................................................................................................4
1.1 Aim and objectives...........................................................................................................4
OBJECTIVES:.................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Key stakeholders..............................................................................................................5
2.0 Literature Review.......................................................................................................................5
Identify & review current AMM in the retail sector..............................................................6
Review after period of 6 months & include senior management...........................................7
3.0 Critique of the literature review.................................................................................................7
3.1 Justification of the research selected................................................................................9
3.2 Advantage and disadvantage of research selected..........................................................10
3.3 How could it be applied to businesses............................................................................10
4.0 Presentation of the findings.....................................................................................................10
Key stakeholders..................................................................................................................10
4.1 Line graphs.....................................................................................................................11
4.2 Bar charts........................................................................................................................11
5.0 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................12
5.1 RECOMMENDATION..................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
Appendix 1...........................................................................................................................16
Appendix 2...........................................................................................................................19
3

TITLE:
“An investigation of the effective Absence Management methods within the Retail sector” case
study on Retail industry.
1.0 Introduction to reserach
The macro environment of every business organization consist of lot of factors that lead to
affecting their internal functioning and the way functions are being managed by various leaders
and top authorities of the organization. There are lots of recent changes that are taking place in
the retail sector because of the external environmental factors. Present report is based on Retail
Industry that is going through lot of changes in the present scenario because of many economical
and technological factors that are taking place across globe. The present report is based on the
issues that are faced by Human Resource Department of such retail organizations as there have
been various methods that are absent in such retail organization. There is use of literature review
for developing and understanding of the basic reason for these issues and issues can be dealt in a
more effective manner. A review of various actions management methods that are part of the
retail sector and there are dynamic ways in which such absence management can be used in the
retail sector. There has been a critique that is developed in which there are three basic methods
that are selected and suggested for management of absence in organizations. Three solutions are
triggering system, return to work interview and further training the managers. These three are
some of the effective methods that can help in effectively utilizing the capabilities of a
organizations workforce so that they can manage the issue of absence in a more appropriate
manner.
1.1 Aim and objectives
AIM: The aim of this review to suggest new ways in which absence can be managed more
effectively amongst the client advisors team
OBJECTIVES:
1. Review the absence management methods
2. Identify & review current AMM in the retail sector
3. Propose new and dynamic ways in which AMM can be applied and implemented on
retail sector
4

4. Review after period of 6 months & include senior management
1.2 Key stakeholders
Stakeholders Level of interest Reason for interest
Line managers Medium The line managers take
interest as there is need to
decline absent percentage or
rate of the organisation.
Customers Low Effect customer service
provided
Employees Medium To enhance skills and
productivity level.
Higher authorities or senior
managers
High The reason for interest is to
satisfy customers and
develop brand image in an
effective manner
Company High Global human resource
performs better
2.0 Literature Review
RETURN TO WORK INTERVIEW
After considering an article given by Christopher F. McLaren, Robert T. Reville and
Sent A. Seabury, it is said that the most essential and crucial role for each and every organisation
is to reduce the every time of a injured. The injured workers always possess a negative impact on
the overall functioning of organisation as they are absent from the word and it leads to affecting
the overall functioning in a negative manner. It has been identified that after reviewing the whole
article it has been founded that use of Return to Work Interviews contributes in the reduction of
level of absence.
According to the present views of author it can be said that for mitigating of the cost
there is air is a solution of providing modified working task that is used frequently as 82%,
5

modified workstation as 50%, reduction of time by 45% and reading different job in the different
or same department uses frequently by 32%. After critically evaluating the article, it has been
identified that there are various reasons for conducting interview to those workers who are
returning back to the work. These reasons help in identifying that whether it is beneficial for the
organization or not to re-recruit their workers. This is from the server that has been conducted
related to return of work and over disability management practices in 40 self insured
organization. These are some of the employee return to work program that have been adopted by
some of these organisations for management of employees abseentism.
According to views of Marie Jose Durand, best practices related to management of absenteeism
are that patients have to draught job retention policy workers. This is a approach that is
characterized by the concern that sustaining support during absenteeism of employees and after
their returning to work. Another approach which needs to be emphasized by the higher
authorities of an organization is to develop an effective action plan where the main aim is to hire
those who fits the situation. This is the most essential factor founded after reviewing the whole
article in a detailed manner. Further there were there must be resources made available to
employees. Resources must be high in quality and possess positive impact on such employees.
There are certain steps that must be adopted by the organisation clutches initially there must be
calculation of the recovery period of employee there must be initial contact that has to be
established in step there complete evaluation of employee and please assign job aunt in step for
their must be of work return to work plan which must be prepared with accommodation and in
the last step there must be final resumption of the overall work that has to be done by employee.
The last step there was a follow-up of overall process of return to work of the employee
(Preview of best work-absence management and return-to-work practices for workers with
musculoskeletal or common mental disorders, 2014) . The most essential element which has
been identified by reviewing the article is that for every organisation it is very important to
examine what are the methodologies use by their managers. These tools must be used as a
beneficial method not as a tool to fear anyone.
According to view points of Trinh Tum, Kelly Maguire and Theebika Shanmugarasa, they
highlighted the role played by employers for helping people who are suffering from severe health
6

conditions and disabilities have to face sickness absence and health related laws of job. They
further discuss about different aspects that can actually be managed while managing the
employee absenteeism such as different areas are employees attitude for the well-being and
health of employee, understanding level of employers for their legal responsibilities, reason of
well being and initiative of employees, managing the absence of sickness and health conditions
of employees at the workplace use of different occupational health related services. On the basis
of views of A.D.B. MacLean it has been founded by going through the article that level of
sickness by .2% from 3.5% per employee per year which increases the number of absenteeism.
Clearly identified with the help of article that there are various factors which highly influences
the overall rate of absenteeism but the most crucial and important element is overall management
practices that has to be implemented properly and there is requirement of modifications in the
human resource practices for the establishment of communication among employee and
employer which creates positive environment among the workplace. There has to be focus on
overall attitude and behaviour of employees that can have a direct impact on the health of
employee (Sickness absence and health in the workplace: Understanding employer behaviour
and practice An interim, 2019). Furthermore, an approach is used by HR manager to collect or
record all the sensitive data in a line with GDPR. Storing all the information digitally, with the
help of password protection, is one of the ideal option. With the help of HR software, one can
fulfil a return to work form on the system which is easy and save time. These are the approaches
identified by examining the whole article.
7

FLEXIBLE WORKING HOURS
Opinion of A.D.B. MacLean in a article is that for every organisation it is crucial to
adopt flexible working hours system but can help in creating positive working environment.
There can be presence of culture of absenteeism it can be suggested that there are certain
strategies that can lead towards creation of a culture of attendance. Main purpose of this article is
to provide some information about the research conducted on a topic of absence management
practices. It has furthermore examined that the methodologies adopted for this is quantitative
data. There must be use of consistency approach that has to be adopted by every organisation for
creating and maintaining the employee awareness returning to work. Focus that there can be
higher absence which can lead to indicating the lion moral and lead to problems in organisation
and use of quick address of such issues of absenteeism in the context of organisation which is
very critical for success of any organisation. He also feel that absenteeism leads to damaging the
library of activeness 9th of Service Delivery when staff is not able to do their specific job, it is
very important that employees must not feel pressurized when they are returning to work at the
same time is must be used for managing their name after work.
As per the view point of Acas, (2015), flexible working is defined as a form of working
arrangement, which gives a degree of flexibility to employees to work accordingly. Findings of
the article says that various sort of flexible working arrangements used in different employment
sectors, which includes part time work, annualised work, flexible working hours. With the
assistance of quantitative research method data are being gathered in this article which covers all
the three elements. There are different types of flexible working that is part-time work, job
sharing, annualised hours, temporary working, home working, term-time working and many
more. The benefits of flexible working is employee retention, full utilisation of machinery,
enhancement in productivity etc. in addition to this, there are various challenges associated with
flexible working that is offering continuous level of service is difficult, increase in training, raise
in recruitment cost and so on.
As per the view point of Lucy Fitzgerald,(2019), it is essential to develop set actions
points for both long term and short term absence as it is determine that both types might cause
difficulties for employers. Providing flexible hours of working decline the level of mental
pressure of employees due to which they can work with full potential in an effective manner. in
8

addition to this, it increase productivity of employees that has a positive influence on the overall
productivity and performance of an organisation.
Training for managers
According to S Bevan and S Heyday, absence from work results into a complex set of
factors that directly reflect attributes of working environment, individual characteristics,
behaviour etc. one of the solution to decline the level of absenteeism is career satisfaction,
participation of employees in decision-making, promoting healthy working environment and
many more. The responsibility of line managers to use trigger points in order to determine
absence problems. It is important for line managers to ensure the problems of employees is
resolve rapidly and easily so that there is decline in absenteeism rate. For conducting the
investigation, a survey is going to be conducted by the investigator where they adopt primary
research method. According to the results of the survey it has been founded by the researcher
that almost one third which is 40.5% respondents says that they do not offer any sort of training
to the line managers on how they need to manage absence, whereas a quarter (24.4%) gives
training to some of their line managers. Therefore, at the end of the investigation, it has been
founded that one-third (35.1%) provide training on the absence management to each and every
line managers with the assistance of people management responsibilities.
Furthermore, after examining the view point of Graham Brown, (2017), it is said that the
Line managers is highly responsible for monitoring the attendance level, examine absence trends
as well as develop some strategies in order to reduce unauthorised absence. According to the
repot given by author, 35% of companies providing training on absence management to the line
managers of company. The reason of providing training is reduce absence, organising effective
return-to-work interview, building self-confidence and adhering to procedures.
According to the Militain BV,(2019), training for managers help them to learn more
about how to properly manage sick leave of employees. The managers take training with an aim
to decline extended period of absence of employees. In addition to this, it will also help mangers
to gain an understanding about how to influence or convey staff members to not take leave for
longer time period. In order to manage absence, training for managers and human resource
managers is important as it will help them to maintain a good relationship with employees so that
they can enjoy their working and did not think of to take leave from the organisation.
9

3.0 Critique of the literature review
The above literature review clearly analyses the viewpoints no major three methods for
management of absenteeism at the workplace and is a great tool that is helping in, management
of employee’s absences. But while making a comparison of it can be interpreted, from the above
discussed some of the methods that one of the best methods of managing absenteeism at the
workplace is Return to job interviews. Christopher F. McLaren, Robert T. Reville and Sent A.
Seabury, suggested that there are certain solutions such as focus on modification of the work
providing a modified workstation and equipments these will lead to reduction of the overall
schedule changes and help employees in coping up with their injuries as they will be provided a
different job in the similar or may be different department.
On other hand, Marie Jose Durand, felt that comprehensive return to work process and work
absence management that has to be designed by organisation. There were views that there must
be a broader policy related to job retention and Health Promotion of employee that has to be
implemented in the overall workplace prevention of employee absenteeism eating time for
mental illness and all these have to be implemented in the organisational policy.
Where as Trinh Tum, Kelly Maguire and Theebika shanmugarasa provided a view point
that is the employee attitude that plays a very important role towards well being and health of
employee and it has to be positive. Liars agreed that there is a link established between
employee’s attitude that has to be really positive to increase the overall contribution of employee
and proper health. Also felt that over the definition of organisation the hand of employees who
they can increase by enhancing the satisfaction employees by following the legal obligations that
is most important part to be played by employees invest in health and wellbeing of employees.
On the other hand, the view point of Acas, (2015), the company is facing some
challenges while implementing flexible working hour such as increase in recruitment cost,
increasing in training that occur high cost to company and negatively influence on the overall
revenue level of an organisation. In addition to this, Lucy Fitzgerald,(2019) said that providing
flexible working hours decline mental pressure of employees and increase their productivity
level. It is beneficial for companies to provide such option as it raises efficiency and profitability
of an organisation.
10

As per S Bevan and S Heyday, one of the solutions to decline absenteeism is allow
employees to participate in the decision making, providing healthy and positive working
environment and career satisfaction. Whereas, Graham Brown, said that providing training to the
line mangers is the best solution as it decline absenteeism, develop self-confidence and allow
mangers to maintain good relationship with all the staff members. On the other hand, Militain
BV, state that it is important to provide training to line managers as it enable them to gain an
understanding about the reason of absence and resolve them in an effective and proper manner.
This method can be used by higher authorities of Tesco in order to manage absence of
employees in a proper manner. By the assistance of return to job interview, the company can
gain an insight about the reason of absence that will help in order to decline the absenteeism rate
effectively.
3.1 Justification of the research selected
The research is useful for the investigator in order to gain the knowledge and insight about
absence management method. Companies use this method in order to decline the absenteeism
and turnover rate. After conducting literature review, it is determined that there are various
solution in order to reduce absenteeism of employees prevailing in the organisation. The
solutions are flexible working hours, Triggering system, training to managers and so on. For
conducting the research, secondary sources is used such as journal articles, newspaper, online
source and so on. It is analysed that data collected by this source is from experts and they
develop secondary data after analysing it properly that is the main reason to select secondary
sources. The Journal articles has studied in order to conduct the research as researcher through
proper investigation develops this paper.
3.2 Advantage and disadvantage of research selected
For performing the literature review, secondary research has used by the researcher. It
include collecting data from various sources such as Journal articles, newspaper, online publish
and many more. The advantage of secondary research is it is a time consuming and cost effective
method. Moreover, researchers through proper investigation collect this data in an appropriate
manner. On the other hand, it is a past data, which sometimes does not draw valid and reliable
conclusion. In addition to this, sometimes the data is not based on the current trends, which is not
beneficial to conduct the study. The qualitative and quantitative research method is use by
11

investigator. Qualitative method is define as data which has collected through observation,
interview and so on. Quantitative data is gather by the help of questionnaire, survey and many
more. By the assistance of secondary sources, the researcher is able to develop positive output of
the particular topic.
3.3 How could it be applied to businesses
The investigator used both primary and secondary data collection methods in order to
gain knowledge about the absence management methods. For primary data, questionnaire is
develop which is design to for 100 employees and interview question is prepared for mangers
and senior authorities. From the literature review, the solution is find out for declining
absenteeism rate that can be apply to business in a proper. This will help companies to decline
turnover rate and increase their profitability in an effective manner.
4.0 Presentation of the findings
The presentation of findings will take place by using bar graph and line graph. This section
will cover advantage and disadvantage of line graph and bar graph.in addition to this, how and
why this graph will use by researcher along with example is given below in this section.
Key stakeholders
Stakeholders Level of interest Reason for interest
Line managers Medium The line managers take
interest as there is need to
decline absent percentage or
rate of the organisation.
Customers Low Effect customer service
provided
Employees Medium To enhance skills and
productivity level.
Higher authorities or senior
managers
High The reason for interest is to
satisfy customers and
develop brand image in an
effective manner
Company High Global human resource
12