Managing Personnel and Human Resources - Essay Example

Student Name: Tutor: Title: Managing personnel and Human resources Course: Introduction Contemporary organizations are successful upcoming organizations that are mainly knowledge-centric. In these organizations, businesses do always take place in environments in which employees conduct research, make vital decisions, and develop products based on the results attained from their work. To achieve institutional success, the contemporary organizations need to employ a coterie of knowledgeable workers. However, employee absenteeism cases have drastically risen up to their highest level since 1999. This has proved to be a big problem to the management and the supervisors within the contemporary organizations. It is believed that employee absence normally puts more pressure on other present staff members. With employee absenteeism, the ability of the present staff to give better services to their customers is usually compromised. It is therefore essential for contemporary organizations to find ways in which employee absence can be managed. This paper therefore seeks to assess the ways in which contemporary organizations can manage employee absence. Ways in which contemporary organizations can manage employee absence There are several ways in which organizations can manage employee absence. One of the ways to manage employee absenteeism is by conducting return-to-work interviews. Recent surveys done nationally have shown that this is the most effective tools in managing employee absenteeism. Organizations therefore should provide its supervisors with enough training on how to conduct the interviews. The return to work interviews enables the supervisors to update the employee on work issues during his absence. Similarly, it enables the supervisors to check if the employee is well enough to continue working (Peterson, 2010). The interview should be conducted as promptly as possible, after return of the employee. The employee should be given a chance to explain the reasons for his or her absence. This also gives the supervisor a platform to explore issues the employee may have and that might have resulted to his or her absenteeism. Most employees will want to avoid these situation especially if their reason for leaving was not genuine or convincing enough. Employees do always understand rules and may not want to feel threatened into compliance. To avoid this they will prefer staying at their work places, than facing their supervisors (Peterson, 2010). Another way to manage absenteeism in the work place is by putting in place a clear and updated absence policy for the organization. The policy should be followed to the latter by the human resource manager. It should state clearly the rules that should govern the process of leaving and returning to work. It should also state the consequences the absent employees will face for taking unauthorized leaves. The policy should clearly explain when absence can be termed as authorized or unauthorized (Barry, 2010). Developing a clear absence policy is quite helpful to the organization. It improves the performance and productivity of the organization. Developing a clear absence policy also promotes a sense of equity among the workers, since anyone asking for a leave must have a genuine reason regardless of their position in the organization, or even personal relations with the management. It is believed that, with clear absence policy, organizations can easily monitor the time frame for the leave. Clear absence policy assists the management to know when the leave starts and ends. This therefore makes it easier for the organization to arrange leave for every employee in the organization at different dates (Barry, 2010). Most employees go for sick leaves. These are common in all fields of work although some cases are not genuine. Therefore in order to manage these false cases, it is important for the organization to keep records for sick leaves. Keeping the sick leaves records assist in determining the sickness patterns. For example, it is expected to have increased sickness cases during the Olympics or premier leagues’. In this case, it is very important for the organization to understand the effects of Olympics and premier leagues and control employee absenteeism. Organizations need to note the sickness pattern and come up with an effective policy that will manage employee absenteeism during events such as premier leagues and Olympics (Peterson, 2010).It is important to keep records of sickness absence so as to avoid same employees going for sick leaves over and over again. The records will make it easier for the organization to manage employee absence and avoid such instances of only particular employees going for sick leaves. Incorporating other activities that are fun and entertaining is another way to manage employee absence in an organization. This normally provides employees time to relax and entertain themselves, thus making them love the working environment. It also gives employees a moment where they don’t actually have to think about work. Therefore, the management should be in a position to organize parties and tour for the workers. This will assist in team building and in making the employees love the work, thus reducing cases of absenteeism. As a way of making employee relax, contemporary organizations should provide its workers with offs and leaves. In this case the employee does not have to go to work. It is a schedule for them to rest. The employer should be little flexible when it comes to the duties and expectations of every employee. It is okay to provide room for mistakes but not to entertain them (Spurgeon, 2007). Employees should not be stressed as it has proved to enhance long term employee absenteeism. It is believed that most cases of long term employee absenteeism are due to stress. Survey results have shown that a rising number of employers have reported a rise in stress related issue of absence in the work place. Managers should consider adjusting the working hours, and being more generous in terms of rewards and compensation. This in turn will encourage free will in the employers as they work. There will be fewer cases of stress and depression. The company‘s productivity will definitely rise to good numbers (Murray, 2006). Surveys done nationally have proven that employee absence has a negative effect on an individual company and the economy as a whole. In the year 2008, an employee absence cost 629 pounds on average. This however was a slight drop from 2007 which was an average of 666 pounds per employee. Over the years only 41% employers have asked to monitor the cost of employee absence. This means that very few companies actually know the impact of employee absence. It also means that their management techniques are not utilized or are not even known. Most of the employees give false reasons and excuses for their absence. Research shows that 15% of all cases of sickness mainly are not true. It is up to the supervisor to know when it is necessary to give a leave and when it is not (Huczynski, 2012). Another way of managing employee’s absence in an organization is by introducing technical knowledge to the company. To make sure that the levels of productivity keep improving, many companies should invest in the use of technology to upgrade their human resource performance. Putting in place human resource software can greatly influence the way employers use their resources. Employers will tend to use them more efficiently in providing management information. It will also be easy to provide reports for every employee; they will improve the way they understand how to deal with individuals or teams. This is highly effective especially where the absence of employees is a serious issue (Spurgeon, 2007). The importance of establishing technical knowledge in the company is that, the human resources systems can be used in spotting trends, automate absence, provide detailed reports and aid in ensuring processes are adhered to, to the latter. It will give moral support to other staff members since most of the workers go to work. In this way the productivity levels are very likely to escalate. However this does not mean that e technology can replace effective human resource and payroll policies. On the contrary it only works as a booster of the policies put in place by the payroll professionals and the human resource managers. The human resource managers can be freed from the heavy burden from their administrative roles and be in a stronger position to make other contributions to the company (Spurgeon, 2007). The other most crucial factor of managing and reducing absenteeism in the organization according to (Donald, 2009), is by running the organization fairly and appropriately. These can be done through motivating the employees and engaging them in important aspects of the organizations. It is also vital to create positive attitudes and relationships with the employees and even the subordinate stuff. It is advisable to appreciate diversity of each employee regardless of any disparity they may have. Most employers tend to despise their workers disregarding the fact that they are the most important part of the organizations. Such employees will tend to be very miserable at their work places. Making the employee feel important is very profitable to the company. Employees tend to have very high productivity if they are comfortable in their places of work. Being comfortable implies that employees are happy and cheerful, free to interact with their superiors, are free to rest for a little while when tired and are well acquainted with every situation the company faces. Recent studies by towers perrin have shown the link between organizational success and employee well being. The results after a twelve months study of 50multinational companies showed that, companies with high levels of engagement of employees were more productive than those that did not engage employees fully. This means that a high number or employee absents was related to high levels of non engagement of the employees to work issues (Donald, 2009). Conclusion In conclusion, all organizations want to prosper and have very high productivity levels. For this to happen, it is necessary to have good management from the managers. However, it is important for the staff employees to be fully committed to their jobs. Every organization should have ways to manage the level of employee absenteeism from their companies. These ways should be carried out effectively to attain good results. The human resource managers should put in place policies that reduce unplanned absence. They should emphasize on authorized leaves. They should also have effective monitoring of absence by establishing return to work interviews with their employees. They should also engage their employees in the activities affecting the organization directly. It is advisable for them to adjust the work schedule and duties given to their employees. This is to enable employees visit their personal duties, jobs and activities without fear. Making the employee feel valued in the company by frequently compensating and promoting them is equally an important factor. All these factors have a positive impact on the organization. The basic line is improving the productivity of the company and curbing lose for the company due to absence in the work place. References Cushway, B, 2010, The Employer's Handbook 2010-11 an Essential Guide to Employment Law, Personnel Policies and Procedures. London: Kogan Caruth, D, 2009, Staffing the contemporary organization a guide to planning, recruiting, and selecting for human resource professionals. Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers Huczynski, A, 2010, 1989 Managing employee absence for a competitive edge. City: Pitman. Peterson, f, 2010, Health and wellbeing good practice guide. Norwich: TSO Murray, P, 2006, Contemporary issues in management and organisational behaviour. South Melbourne, Vic: Thomson Learning Sims, R, 2002, Managing organizational behavior. Westport, CT: Quorum Books Spurgeon, P, 2007, New directions in managing employee absence: an evidence-based approach. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Read More