Attendance and Disability Management - Coursework Example

Attendance and Disability management Plan Author Affiliation Date Table of Contents 1.Introduction 2 2.Attendance and disability management 3 3.Attendance and Disability Management plan/program for a private company 5 i.Mission statement of both plans 5 4.Attendance and Absenteeism Program 5 I.Objectives of the plan 5 ii.Roles and responsibility of key stakeholders 6 a)Roles and responsibilities of employees 6 b)Roles and responsibilities of supervisor 6 c)Roles and responsibilities of HR personnels 6 d)Roles and responsibilities of senior management 7 iii.Supportive benefit program of Attendance and Absenteeism program 7 iv.Communication strategy of Attendance and Absenteeism program 8 v.Return to work policy 8 vi.Sick Leave policy 9 vii.Last Chance Agreement 9 viii.Claim Form 9 5.Disability Policy of Private company 10 A.Plan and Procedure of Managing Disability 10 B) Consent Form 11 C) Confidentiality Form 12 6.Evaluation and performance measurement of both Plans 13 7.Conclusion 13 8.References 13 1. Introduction All the employees whether of small organization or the multinational organization are facing various challenges. These challenges make the life of the employees difficult and their attention towards the work in the organization diverted and they feel uncomfortable during working hours. The challenges are numerous. It can be personal problems like dispute with the partner, financial strain and many other. Moreover, these challenges are not only personal, it can also be related to the organization and employer like a bad relationship with the sub-ordinates, less incentives and salary, inflexible working hours, appropriate working conditions, insecurities over contractual job and many others. These all challenges not only affect the performance of the employees, but it also increases absenteeism. These challenges need proper attention of the employer and the organization[Car05]. Many employees get frustrated and leave their jobs due to these challenges. When an employee leaves the job, it has a negative impact on the employee turnout. As, companies invest finance and time to train their employees to exploit their utmost potential and when an employee does not dive its best or leave the job it has a disastrous impact on companies' investment that it invested over the employees. For this purpose, there is a need to formulate or design an effective “Attendance and disability management plan/program to decrease employee disability and improve the attendance of the employees. In this report, the attendance and disability management have been explained and an attendance and disability plan for a private company has also been developed to understand thoroughly about the importance of attendance and disability management in an organization for the employees. 2. Attendance and disability management Attendance is used to measure the presence of the employees in an organization. The absenteeism is a term refers as the absence of the employee during the working day. There are two types of absenteeism, one is Culpable and another one is innocent[Cha14]. The culpable absenteeism refers to that absence for which the employee is responsible, he takes leave without giving any genuine reason. It can be said that for culpable absenteeism only employee is responsible because he remains absent from work by giving no reasonable excuse. The most common example of culpable absenteeism is when an employee fails to catch the bus because of his laziness. All absenteeism that based on irresponsible and unreasonable justifications are culpable absenteeism. The other category is non-culpable absenteeism, which is also called as innocent absenteeism. The innocent absenteeism occurs because of such a circumstance that beyond the control of the employee. It includes the leave or absenteeism due to illness and disability. The illness can of different kind like it can be physical or psychological. The nonculpable absenteeism has been always justified. Most of the organizations understands understand the need of managing attendance that why they design various plans to decrease the loss of that may occur from absenteeism. Despite of a number of initiatives of the employer, yet absenteeism and disability management is one of the utmost threat for the employer. Absenteeism has always indirect and subtle effects on the productivity of the company. It costs much to the organization. Therefore, absenteeism incurs continues challenges and costs for the employees and the organization[2AA01]. The challenges can be resolved and easily managed with the help of Attendance and disability management. Disability is a complex term that can be explained from various perspectives in different ways like in social, political, legal and corporate perspective. In an organization, disability refers as the issues related to physical and mental health of the employees. Such illness affects the attendance of the employees that leads towards an increase in the absenteeism. Attendance and disability management program can help in managing the employer and the organization to deal with the challenge of absenteeism. It increases the operational efficiency, financial turnover and employee engagement[Dav981]. Designing and implementing an attendance and disability management plan is a responsibility of human resource department of the organization. It comes under retention of the employee that is the significant component of the human resource management team. In addition, to formulate the effective attendance and disability management plan, there have been always a need to review the current or previous attendance and disability strategy. Furthermore, attendance and disability must be aligned with the corporate objectives and targets. The objectives of attendance and disability management should be clear and measurable. The identification of the main issue is the main concern and aim of attendance and disability management plan because no one can suggest appropriate solutions if the main issue does not get clear. Similarly, integrated approach is important in this regard because attendance and disability management can only work effectively if all operational, financial, operational and procedural division effectively integrated in all manner[She10]. Moreover, attendance and disability management plan also help to foster the employee engagement. As, employee engagement is an important component to achieve employee satisfaction at all level and employee engagement can only be achieved through clear communication and clear understanding of roles, responsibility and procedures. Thus, attendance and disability management program can be denied as the a program or a plan that is specially designed to facilitate the employee to deal with the disability of the employees by coordinating and taking into account the employee needs, enterprise need and work environment just to provide employee with good health and mental condition. It is the proactive program of workplace which allows the employer to support his employees and considering their needs to avoid losses and absenteeism. It increases the workplace satisfaction. Moreover, attendance and disability plan also highlights the weak points of the employer policy towards the employees. The attendance and disability policy can be viewed from three perspectives. The three perspectives are employee, employer and society perspective[Cou13]. The employee considers the attendance and disability program as a protector that taking into account all the needs and requirements of the employees that employees believe important for their lifestyle and health. On the other hand, the employer considers attendance and disability program as a need to increase the productivity of the company. The responsibility of the employer towards the plan to consider off the job health-related issues, consider personal their problems, estimate direct or indirect cost of employee absenteeism and foster those activities that increase employee engagement in the organization. Furthermore, attendance and disability management has another perspective of the society. The society considers attendance and disability policy important. Those companies who design effective attendance and disability policy, the reputation of that organization are always positive. The people of the society believe that employees are human not machines, they must be treated in a proper way. A school of thought that support this view of society is known as a humanistic school of thought that always supports the rights of employees and labor. Therefore, there are many advantages of an effective attendance and disability program for the organization and the employers. An organization can achieve high productivity and efficiency of the employee by decreasing the rate of absenteeism. It is designed and implemented by both public and private firms. The employer and the manager’s team are the key players of this plan. It is effective only when, it has clear and measurable goals and objectives[Cou13]. 3. Attendance and Disability Management plan/program for a private company To understand the importance and significance of attendance and disability management program, Attendance and disability programs of a private company has been discussed below. i. Mission statement of both plans Define an appropriate mission statement for an attendance and disability management plan is a first and important step. It reflects the main purpose of the plan. In most of the companies, the managers usually define the mission to clear the main aims and purposes of the programs[Tay06]. Thus, the mission statement of our company’s plan has been explained below. Mission statement: “The employees can only excel in a workplace if they are physically and psychologically healthy. So, making employees healthy to avoid absenteeism is the priority of the organization”. 4. Attendance and Absenteeism Program I. Objectives of the plan Objectives explains the overall vision of the plan. Every organization, whether it is public or private design its objective of its every single plan. It does not matter plan is related to any marketing activity or of disability management, defining its objective is an essential component. The objectives of attendance and disability management program are different than the other programs and plans of the organization because it is designed to considering the needs of the employees to make them involved and productive[Yor13]. The objective of our attendance and absenteeism is discussed below: Reviewing attendance of the employees and current tactics to deal with the absenteeism challenge Increase collaboration in different divisions to support an integrated approach in an organization Identify the role of various stakeholders Formulate an effective supportive benefit system To promote well-being of the employees Increase productivity and decrease absenteeism Implement effective communication strategy to promote the smooth flow of information Provision of counselling services for mental disturbed employees Implement an effective illness and disability management strategies Foster employee engagement in the organization Implement an effective accountability policy Implement an effective grievance resolution procedure Evaluate the current program and compare it with the former ones These all are the objectives of our attendance and absenteeism management program and these all objective should be measurable and clear. ii. Roles and responsibility of key stakeholders In our plan the roles and responsibilities of all employee, supervisor, human resource persons and senior managers have been clearly defined. It helps all the members of our organization to know clearly what their roles and responsibilities are and how they execute their responsibilities in the plan. a) Roles and responsibilities of employees The roles and responsibilities of the employees in our attendance and Absenteeism management plan are: Report all their leaves and absences. Request to supervisor for intervention services if something is not understandable and difficult to manage. Maintain communication with the supervisor and the HR manager. Maintain their attendance which is required. Give a genuine reason for the leave Engage in medical rehabilitation earlier to avoid absence in the working hours Provide appropriate and authentic medical certificates. Communicate with the counselling team if he faces any personal problem or psychological disturbance due to personal affairs. b) Roles and responsibilities of supervisor The roles and responsibilities of supervisors in the plan are: Promote the well-being of the employees Monitor behavior and interest of the employees Give appropriate task based incentives Introduce tasks that promotes employee engagement Evaluate and monitor absence Support the initiatives of the plans Communicate all important information to all employees Communicate about attendance with the employees and reporting if any employee take unreported leave. c) Roles and responsibilities of HR personnels The roles and responsibilities of the human resource personnel are: Promote and maintain a favorable working environment to protect the health and safety of the employee. Approves leaves on time. Train and give detailed orientation on disability management and stress management techniques. Give assistance of the attendance and support program. Monitor employee absence and make records of its arrival timings. Secure medical certificates in a confidential place. Provide assistance on employee assistance provider Securities all the medical certificates and their authentication. d) Roles and responsibilities of senior management Senior managers or senior management is one of the important stakeholder of many firms. In our organization, as it’s a private nature, it has many authorities are involved. Thus, senior management also has some roles and responsibilities our plan. The roles and responsibilities if senior management are: Like the other stakeholders the main responsibility of the senior management is to promote and maintain the working conditions that help in protecting the health and safety of the employees. Ensure high quality work and promote importance of efficiency in an organization Ensure the attendance of other stakeholders like supervisor and HR personnel. Keep records of all the employees and managers. Provide appropriate support in promoting implemented attendance and disability management plan. iii. Supportive benefit program of Attendance and Absenteeism program The supportive benefit program of our plan is the counselling services for the employees to ensure their well-being. Our therapy package plan which also our EAP (employee assistance program) is used to eliminate psychological disturbances that causes mental illness and leads towards absenteeism. Our therapy plan consists of two kinds of therapies. A rational emotive therapy and a group therapy. A rational emotive behavioral therapy will be offered to those employees who suffer acute psychological and mental problems like stress, anxieties and other mental disorders[Far14]. On the other hand the group therapy will be offered to those who are facing frustration and complexities in working and find no interest in the daily work and try to quit the job. The group therapy includes a psychiatrist and two senior managers and two other employees. The group of people gives advices and suggestion to employee after listening his problem. For instance, an employee who is not punctual and hesitate in working on group tasks, in a group therapy a psychiatrist asks the reason for his behavior, then he will explain his problem and group of personnel note it and try to solve it just to retain that employee and make him productive for an organization. iv. Communication strategy of Attendance and Absenteeism program The effective communication strategy is a significant part of our attendance and disability management plan because communication at each level about the plan is very important[Yak12]. The communication strategy that we have chosen for our plan is integrated communication plan in which a group of senior managers, supervisors and HR personnel make a team and describes each detail of the plan to the employees like mission, roles, responsibilities and other health promotion initiative that have been selected for the employee in the plan. The group of personnel targeted the audience in the groups. The details would be communicated through brochures, billboard, presentations, meetings, conferences and special workshops. The aims, importance and objectives of our attendance and disability management plan should clearly understandable by the employees so that our company can achieve its desire outcome. v. Return to work policy The return to work policy is an important component of attendance and absenteeism plan. The return to work policy explains the steps that are necessary to evaluate the performance of the employee when he/she return after facing any injury. The return to work plan includes different steps like setting the goals, communicate actions that required to achieve that particular goal, time frame for achieving the goal and health care needs that can be required after evaluation. The evaluation is done on the basis of previous records of the performance of the employee. For instance, an employee who did the task in ten minutes before the injury or illness the return to work policy help in analyzing whether it is achieving the same goal in ten minutes or not. If not, then the manager can claim for further medical assistance and consult for the senior management to make the employee productive like he was before the illness or injury. The return to the plan is presented below: Return to work policy Employee Name……………………………………………… Supervisor…………………………………………………….. Objective to achieve…………………………………………… Nature of the job………………………………………………. Starting time of the job…………………………………………. Ending timing…………………………………………………… Length of the job Work done in how many minutes before the injury/illness………………after…………….. Limitations………………………………………………………………………………….. Comments of the supervisor……………………………………….. Date………………………………………………………………… vi. Sick Leave policy The sick leave policy of the private company of Qatar is totally based on the labor laws of Qatar government. Article 82 of the labor law of Qatar explains the sick leave policy. The sick leave will be granted to all the employees of the company, but after first three months of the commencement of the job. The time limit of the sick leave is maximum two weeks. More than two weeks sick leave will not be granted to any employee. Sick leave will only granted on genuine reason. The full paid leaves granted to all employees. If an employee died during his sick leave the company will provide full compensation and remuneration for which he entitled for[Qat04]. vii. Last Chance Agreement According to article 58, 59 and 60 of Qatar labor laws, which explains the power of the employer against the violation of disciplinary action the Last chance of the private company of Qatar has been formulated which is: Last Chance Agreement In lieu of terminating employment of an employee for the serious violation of company’s attendance and absenteeism policy provides the employee a final opportunity to continue the employment Qatar private limited…………………………………………………………. Employee Name……………………………………………………………… Descripting of violation……………………………………………………….. Supervisor’s name…………………………………………………………… Chance details………………………………………………………………... Human Resource Director……………………………………………………. Date…………………………………………………………………………… viii. Claim Form The Claim form is an important form of the Attendance and Absenteeism program through which a manager of the company can record the attendance and absenteeism rate of each employee. The claim form enable the manager to take decision whenever it is required by consulting the senior management of the firm according to the article 58 of the Qatar’s labor laws. Claim Management Action Plan Form A) Employee information Name………………………………… Employee no…………………………. Contact No……………………………. Job title……………………………….. B) Return to work Probability Expected date of return to job…………………………. Chances to return……………………………………… Job modification required or not………………………. C) Current Status Total work absence during last six months D) Functional limitations Lifting…………………… Sitting……………………. Psychological…………….. Bending…………………… Reaching………………….. Standing…………………… Others……………………... E) Comments……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5. Disability Policy of Private company The articles 108,109, 110,111, 112,113,114 and 115 of Qatar’s labor laws for private companies which describe on the work injuries and compensation procedure. The disability plan and procedure have been formulated. Our disability policy consists of two parts. The first part explains the plan and procedure and the other part explain the consent form and confidentiality forms and its details. A. Plan and Procedure of Managing Disability Disability is of two kinds mental and physical. The mental or psychological disability or disturbance will be addressed by our therapy plan. On the other hand the physical disability will be managed by our two centers. The company’s own disability center is the center on disability which is managed by the team our company. If an employee injures during the work or become ill, all the treatment will be done in the company’s own disability centers. On the other hand, in our plan we have also decided to outsource the disability management center of the third party because there are many diseases that can be difficult to manage from the current staff. Thus, there is a need to hire or outsource some expertise to manage such a disability that cannot handle by the company’s staff. In such a way, through this initiative employees can get more facilities and through this way a company can promote the well-being and safety of the employees that is the main concern of our plan[Mat12]. In our disability management plan, our company has selected two processes of resolution regarding disability of the employees. Formal and informal processes[Gri12]. Our company gives full compensation to those employees who died while working. Moreover, the private company of Qatar is also entitled to inform the members of the family of the family if any injury happens during the work. Similarly, those employees who sustain a work injury, a company is liable to bear the medical expenses of that employee and provide full compensation if he wants to take medical facilities from any other medical center. As article 109[Qat04] of labor law explains that our company provide full paid leave to all those employees who become disabled while working and they are under medical treatment. On the other hand, the policy of handling the employees while disability is an important part of the disability management policy. The company first of all try to satisfy the employees by giving them full paid leave. Furthermore, the company also bears the expense of medical treatment. Lastly, the counselling of the disable employees are also given to keep their moral high and counselling also help to recover from psychological illnesses. Thus, in this way our company manages disability. B) Consent Form The consent form is a permission that gives a right by an employee to the company to carry out his medical treatment. It also describes who is entitled to the information about the medical reports of the employee. The sample of our company consent form is presented below: Consent form I…………………….gives consent to: (Tick the appropriate option below) Disclosure my illness to disability support team Disclosure my illness to the outsource disability management center if required Disclose the information about the illness and treatment to my program director A) Consent of holding information Company’s doctor Disability management officer B) Consent to disclosure Disability office Company’ manager Safety officer Family or friend Other (Please specify)…………………………………… C) Consent to the disability management team to forward the details of medical reports to further examination if required: I give permission to the disability management team to send my medical report out of the company disability management center for further examination. Signatures Employee name………………………………. Date…………………. Department…………………………………… Date…………………. Position………………………………………… This form will be kept: …………………………………………………………………………………. (Staff member please mention where you will store this information) C) Confidentiality Form The confidentiality form explains the consent to Non-disclosure. The example of Company’s confidentiality form is presented below. Confidentiality form Consent to Non-disclosure I…………………………………………………………do not give consent to disclose my disability to whom which I did not mention in my consent form. Signed Date: This form will be kept: …………………………………………………………………………….. (Staff member please mention where this information will be stored) 6. Evaluation and performance measurement of both Plans In this step of the attendance and disability management plan, the return-to-work process for each employee will be monitored and evaluated by the employer. Through the evaluation of return-to-work will explain the degree to which an employee is considering his disability significantly. If the employee doesn’t come in the specific period of time it means mental or physical issue is aggravating. Thus, it will also raise many concerns of the company. In addition, the evaluation of our whole plan will also be done annually by evaluating and morning the attendance records. If the employee turn out and absenteeism decreases, it means the plan is effective otherwise it will need improvement to achieve the utmost efficiency and productivity of the employees. 7. Conclusion To sum up, it can be concluded that attendance and disability plan is an important plan to achieve employee satisfaction. The absenteeism is a big challenge that is being faced by the many companies around the world and it is only because of lack of employee satisfaction. The effective plan can not only achieve satisfaction, but also high productivity and efficiency of the employees. The effective plan for a private company has been discussed in this paper such a plan can decrease the disability and its related frustration and can improve the attendance of the employees. 8. References Car05: , (Overholt & Papile, 2005), Cha14: , (kumar & K.P.R.Rajesh, 2014), 2AA01: , (Arnold B. Bakker, 2001), Dav981: , (Harrison & Martocchio, 1998), She10: , (Shepell Research Group , 2010), Cou13: , (Council on Workplace Health and Wellness, 2013), Tay06: , (Tayside, 2006), Yor13: , (York, 2013), Far14: , (Faramarz & Marzieh, 2014), Yak12: , (Yakun Inc, 2012), Qat04: , (Qatar Government, 2004 ), Mat12: , (Mathews & Clark, 2012), Gri12: , ( Grievance Resolution Policy , 2012), Read More