It’s hard for your organization to thrive when workers are absent. But it’s inevitable that people are going to get sick from time to time. When employees call out sick, you’re losing valuable productivity. But do you want them to come in anyways and risk spreading their illness to others, resulting in even further productivity losses? It’s a real conundrum.

What’s interesting in the US is that federal laws do not require organizations to pay for sick leave, which is very different from most developed countries. Although many state and local governments are beginning to look at legislation in this area, organizations who rely on hourly workers who only get paid for actual hours worked are more likely to experience the problem of workers coming in even when they’re sick, which can lead to even more losses if others get sick as a result.

Organizations who rely more on a mix of salaried and hourly workers aren’t any less prone to the challenges of sick time. Projects get behind schedule when people call out sick, and organizations often expect other employees to pick up the slack to get back on track, which could result in substantial overtime costs for some workers and the stress of trying to get more done for other workers.

This doesn’t even get into the problem of employees using sick-time for purposes other than recovering from illness. Parents of young children are often in the difficult situation of having to stay home to care for sick children using their own sick time even though they aren’t sick themselves.

If you’re having problems with managing sick time, the first thing you need to do is find out what the most common reasons are for excessive sick time. One way to do this would be to conduct an employee survey that guarantees anonymity so that workers can be honest about their use of sick time. Gaining insights about sick time use from the employee perspective is absolutely essential. Some of the various scenarios you’re likely to come across include the following:

• Authentic illnesses.
• Illnesses driven primarily by unhealthy lifestyles (though most won’t admit it).
• Caring for family members who are ill.
• Not understanding company sick leave policies.
• Overall disengagement from work.
• Lack of understanding about the benefits and value of work.
• Perceiving that the organization doesn’t offer enough recognition for employee contributions.

Managing leave time in your organization can often become not only a challenge, but a downright hassle causing you unnecessary stress and anxiety. Here you are on the CaptureLeave website, so go ahead and explore how the CaptureLeave solution can make managing leave time easy for you and your organization.