Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder…..
Like many companies, at COA Solutions we have scaled down our internal recruitment as we tough out the worst of the economic downturn. Our acquisitions strategy has always made us mindful of the importance of running efficient processes to eradicate duplication of effort and job roles. By undertaking a common sense approach to our workforce we have avoided the brutal pruning seen at many other software organisations.
Whilst running on this lean basis demonstrates sound economic prudence and often provides a variety to our daily roles, a recent event brought home to me the impact absence can have on a business. This is particularly amplified at a time when a number of companies are looking at home working, job sharing and reduced hours options for their employees.
This week a member of the COA Solutions marketing team, who is managing two key events in the near future, came down with a nasty cold and has had to stay at home sick. As we ran through our weekly team update, it became apparent that some key actions were still outstanding. To address this we spent the latter part of our meeting reassigning daily tasks amongst the rest of the team until the original project owner returned to work.
Fortunately, the COA Solutions marketing department is of a sufficient size and possesses the necessary can-do attitude to ensure nothing obvious slips through the cracks thanks to our regular weekly meetings. Whilst my colleague’s absence gave me a headache as a manager (an extra hour’s discussion spent on projects that I hadn’t anticipated), at least as a department we could collectively foresee this potential shortfall, address it and plan around it.
It left me wondering what happens in businesses that are too big to have this kind of control, or where individuals are perhaps unwilling or not incentivised to cover other’s projects? What is the effect when one or more people are frequently absent? Does it cause stress or resentment, and what is the root cause of their absence?
When writing copy for various COA Solutions’ marketing campaigns, I frequently talk about ROI and explain how our time and attendance products and services can help organisations save money and time. However, this living example within my own team demonstrated first hand the real impact that absence can have on a department or business.
This week’s experience has also made be realise that it is key to have the right tools in place to be able to effectively analyse and manage staff absenteeism, find out its root courses and ultimately determine the impact it can have on a business’ bottomline. Without such tools, we can feel the impact of absence firsthand but struggle to measure its true, organisation-wide effects.
Tags: absence, Events, Marketing, recruitment, ROI