Sick leave abuse

As a company you like to be able to provide employees with a great benefit of paid sick leave. However, how do you prevent employees from abusing the benefit? It is not uncommon for employees to use sick leave the same way they use their vacation time. The first and most important part of preventing sick leave abuse is to make sure you have a policy in place that outlines in clear and detailed language the circumstances in which the leave can be used. Secondly this has to be communicated well to all employees.Employees need to know how to report absences, what to do if their supervisor is unavailable, and identify situations that require medical documentation.

This communication can happen in a series of formats, whether through a company handbook or in-house training. You want to make sure that if the policy is provided inside of a handbook that it is pointed out and clearly defined and explained to employees as they are hired. If you provide on the job training, make sure you include some kind of seminar that outlines your policies to your employees. Make sure that you provide opportunities for employees to ask questions for clarification on any of the policy details. In addition to the first time introduction you should take time to remind employees of your business' policies frequently through staff meetings, memos, etc.

The next thing you need to have in place is a supportive and unified management. Your administration needs to be on the same page for how they will handle infractions to your policy. You can't have some administrators look the other way while others employ consequences to infractions as strictly as policy dictates.

If you have employees that have excessive absences, require that they bring in written verification from doctors. Have them approve extended absences with you in advance for circumstances like surgery, etc. Make sure that supervisors or administrators track absenteeism and verify reasons for it. Take time to analyze causes for this absenteeism.

Some of the most common abuses for sick leave is a feeling of losing a use it or lose privilege. Other causes of abuse have to deal with characteristics of family life, health issues like obesity and smoking. Employees that struggle with obesity and smoking take off more sick leave than their counter part employees. As an employer you need to take a look at some of these aspects when dealing with employees and sick leave abuse.

In a study done in 1997 the average number of annual paid sick leave days ranged from 11.2 days after one year of service to 21.1 days after 25 years of service. Individuals that were new to their jobs took off fewer sick leave days for reasons possibly due to fear of job loss, being younger in age and health related issues. Those that had stuck around with their companies for 25 years were found to take off more time.

In that same study, results showed that the average number of sick days used per year by a salaried exempt employee was found to be 3.8 days. Salaried nonexempt employees were found to use and average of 5.6 days. Non-union hourly employees were found to use an average of 4.8 days and union hourly employees were found to use a high average of 5.5 days per year. This would indicate that individuals who feel more invested in the company are less likely to use sick leave time. As a company you have the option to provide sick leave time for only full-time staff if the abuse is excessive in areas of hourly employees.

Finally, a more positive approach to avoiding sick leave abuse is to provide some mechanism of reward for employees that don't use their sick leave. In education, schools provide awards to children with perfect attendance, so why can't businesses do the same.Allow them to cash in their days for monetary or other type rewards. Positive reinforcement usually works best in any situation.