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Positive Absence Management Absence is the largest unplanned expense companies face daily. We cannot avoid absences and they are very distracting to managers, use a disproportionate amount of management time and often fail in being covered if an informal cover plan is used irrespective of the effort involved. The use of a formal cover arrangement carries a cost but the income generated by maintaining operations is much higher. C-Desk Technology has worked with many organisations round the world, to help them manage their shift operations more effectively. A large part of this work is about managing Absence. We help companies understand their Absence Rate, and then help them create the policies and procedures to ensure that Absence never affects their operations. Every company has to have an absence policy to cover key workers. The policies are all very specific to a company, but all have a similar framework. One of the aims of the cover arrangements is how to motivate the staff to provide the cover. As every individual is different, it is often difficult to find a single solution acceptable to all, and so a menu of rewards is often set up. Money and Time Off In Lieu (TOIL) are the main parts of any reward structure. When deciding what sort of absence cover arrangements an organisation should have in place, the shift pattern/rota used needs to be considered. How you cover for an eight-hour shift is very different to covering for a 12-hour shift etc. Your Absence Rate will tell you how many hours you need to anticipate will be required to cover for absence next year. When planning a Cover Arrangement policy you will also need to know how these absences will occur. Our e-book “Understanding your Absence Rate” is filled with tables to help you plan your absence strategy better.

These tables can be used to answer the following questions: • How many absences will occur per year? o The total number of absences per year o The total number off any shift o The total number off any day • What is the maximum expected absence from any shift? o How many shifts will have 0 absence o How many shifts will have 1 absence o How many shifts will have 2 absence, etc. • How many people on call to ensure that 90% of the time we will be correctly staffed? o If 70% of the time no one is absent, 25% of the time one person is absent, therefore 95% (70%+25%=95%) either one or none will be absent o Hence one person on call • Using one person on call, on how many shifts would we be short per year? o Looking at the tables you can add up all the times in one year more than one person would be absent • Using one person on call how many times would they be used per year? o Looking at the tables you need to add up the number of times anyone is absent. This is because if one person is absent then the on-call person will cover. If two people were absent, the on-call person would cover the first absence. This sort of analysis is vital for ensuring you have the correct number of staff when and where you want them. Understanding your Absence Rate is the first step towards controlling your Absence Costs. To find out more please contact us.