As new ONS figures show reduced sickness absence, we ask, are employers just scaring sick people back to work?

It seems an ironic question for an absence management software company to ask, but as a new ONS report shows the lowest recorded absence levels since records began in 1993, it is important that employers ask themselves honestly whether any change in sickness absence is down to fear and presenteeism trends rather than a healthier workforce.

Many larger organisations have simply 'toughened up' on their absence management policies for dealing with staff sickness, rather than investing in systems which would deliver more support for unwell staff and distinguish sickies from genuine employee illness.

Here's how HR News reported the issue, with comment from Activ Absence's absence management expert, Adrian Lewis:

Minor illnesses most common reason for sickness absence

Minor illnesses (such as coughs and colds) were the most common reason for sickness absence in 2016, accounting for nearly a quarter of all sick days (24.8% of the total days lost), closely followed by musculoskeletal problems (including back pain, neck and upper limb problems) at 30.8 million days (22.4%).
11.5% of sickness absence was attributed to mental illness (including stress, depression and anxiety) which resulted in 15.8 million days off sick (11.5%).

Older workers and public sector workers taking less time off

Those with the highest rates of sickness absence included women, older workers, those with long-term health conditions, smokers, public health sector workers and those working in the largest organisations (those with 500 or more employees).
Reductions in sickness absence rates over the last 2 decades include workers with long-term health conditions, workers aged 50 to 64, and those working in the public sector, with public sector organisations responding to calls for them to tackle absence after traditionally higher rates than those seen in the private sector.

Staff need to be healthy, not scared and sick in work

Absence management expert Adrian Lewis of Activ Absence gave the figures a cautious welcome, but expressed concern about possible presenteeism where organisations have implemented new absence management policies without investing in new technology.  He said:

“It’s great to see any reduction in sick days, most notably in the public sector.  We know that this has almost certainly come from concerted efforts to manage sickness absence better, and we’ve enjoyed working with our public and private sector clients to put the tools in place to support sick workers more effectively.

“My concern is that some employers are still not be getting the balance right – it’s not just about improving the figures, we want staff to be healthy, not scared to take time off.   Many employers have ‘tightened up’ on policies without any analysis or investment in tools to give meaningful data.  

"I recently heard of a public sector employee with pneumonia, clearly too sick to work, who was afraid of being disciplined under a sickness absence policy, so went into work anyway.  Ironically, the sickness monitoring system being used by that organisation only measured long term absence and could not even identify the ‘odd sickie’ trends which are far more disruptive to the business.
Presenteeism is a very real concern.”   

Nation of ‘mucus troopers’

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady agreed, saying:

“We are really a nation of mucus troopers, with people more likely to go to work when ill than stay at home when well.

“Sickness absence rates have fallen steadily over the past decade, and let us not forget that working people put in billions of pounds worth of unpaid overtime each year.”

Statistics are not always accurate

Adrian also expressed concern about how organisations calculate sick day statistics, saying:

“Many manual spreadsheets and payroll-only systems do not give accurate estimates of staff sick days anyway, so for some organisations these figures will be a guess at best.  In my opinion, a proper automated absence management system with good reporting tools will not only accurately measure absence but will also distinguish between employees who swing the lead and identify those genuinely sick employees in need of support (not discipline).

“The right systems need to be followed up with best-practice HR policies, such as conducting return to work interviews, even for short term absence – with the focus being on support, not judgement.  The resulting analytics can also be used to identify opportunities to improve staff health and wellbeing – and can help make sure your benefits strategy is aligned with these goals.

“Any strategy to reduce sick days should never include scaring genuinely sick people back into work.”

Could double ‘Black Fridays’ impact staff productivity in Welsh SMEs?

In Wales, Black Friday is the last Friday before Christmas, and the most popular night for office parties.

It’s thus called because historically, miners coming out of the pits covered in coal (and therefore black) would hit the town for a drink after work. As time has passed, the tradition is endemic in many Welsh industries, but spare a thought for the emergency services who find it incredibly hard.

This year is looking particularly challenging – with double the usual challenges.  That’s because many business owners are unwilling to hit the town on the Friday before Christmas Eve, so many of the parties have been booked the week before – however, most of the staff seem so far to be regarding this as an ‘extra night’ of partying and have made their own plans for the following week.

Trying to make plans for our own team meal was challenging – everywhere on both days was full, and that was before the end of October.  A friend who owns a bar in Cardiff is rubbing his hands with glee!

Whilst it’s indeed, great for hospitality, as an HR Software specialist, I see the other side of workplace Christmas parties.

On the day itself, HR sees increased holiday requests to get ready early, and hit the beer before the rest.  It’s easier if you have HR software with a built in leave planner, like Activ Absence, because you can restrict leave during busy periods using the system.  However, that’s not a common scenario in Wales.

Doing it over the phone or with a wall planner, faced with 10 leave requests all at once, lots of pleading faces, and 10 sob stories, managers can easily feel overwhelmed and just give in, leaving the office short staffed, or say no to some, leading to accusations of nepotism and a bad atmosphere when everyone is supposed to be socialising.

Then, after the party, there’s almost always fallout.  The faux pas, the post-party photos on social media, the well-intentioned teasing that got out of hand, incidents, allegations and alcohol fuelled arguments - the scenarios that mean HR rarely relax at staff parties.

Even if managers get through all that unscathed, Black Friday almost always heralds the start of a winding down at work that can escalate into further sickies, poor performance and a general lack of care among those who have to work up until Christmas Eve.

Normally, we are only talking a day or two, but with most Welsh businesses hitting the town a week earlier than normal, there’s a full week of potential low productivity followed by, in many cases, more partying at the end of it – I doubt there will be many minds focused on work in the week in between – and then, on the next party Friday, it starts all over again.

For managers, it doesn’t end there.

After the Christmas break, there’s more people-challenges because it’s a new Annual Leave Year.

Tech can really help here, but there are only a few SMEs who have invested in absence management software in Wales (it’s a different story over the border).

While all the other staff are chatting about what they had for Christmas, HR will therefore have the annual joy of merging spreadsheets and manually calculating the end of year leave report, deciding who can carry what over to the next year, who did and didn’t use all their holiday and what next year’s leave allowances are for every member of staff.  These annual leave calculations can be complex for part time workers, and it typically takes 4 or 5 days in organisations with 100 staff or more.

Of course, not everyone has an HR Manager – small business owners are often left to figure it out themselves.  They, too, would really benefit from a system like Activ Absence which takes some of the pressure off at this challenging time of year. A new appraisals system is also probably on their wish list, so that when appraisals meetings start, usually at the end of January, they aren’t passing bits of paper to and fro and are actually delivering performance reviews that deliver improved performance!

There are lots of new rules expected for 2017, especially about contractors, pay rates etc. expected over the next 12 months and a looming Brexit, so without an easy way of communicating staff policy handbooks using software, managers could also be facing a long wait at the Photocopier.

For those managers who don’t get Santa’s software wishlist, this December is  harder than most – so we hope that staff will not judge them too harshly if they aren’t celebrating quite so loudly as everyone else.

As for those who are reading this thinking “I will do better next year”, it is still possible to get cloud based HR software in place by 1st January – and it costs less than you may think.

Either way, I wish the people who keep welsh businesses running a very Merry Christmas, and hope you escape the double Black Friday unscathed.

Here’s to a prosperous 2017 (and a Six Nations win) for Wales!

Adrian Lewis

HR in October - the calm before the perfect storm

My colleague came into work this morning telling me that her car’s warning light for ice had come on during her journey to work, as the temperatures outside hit below 4 degrees.

Looking out of the window you’d never believe it, it’s a beautifully sunny day – but winter is fast approaching, along with the end of the annual leave year. It’s usually the time of year when software providers see an influx of enquiries from businesses keen to get new staff holiday planning and performance review software in place for the new leave year.

 I absolutely recommend anyone thinking about putting in a cloud based leave planner for January 2017 book a demo now, because getting everyone in the business on board can take longer than you think, and we know from experience that the end of year is a stressful time for HR Managers. October and early November represents the calm before the storm.

Come mid November, in companies where leave can’t be carried forward, staff get the heebie jeebies because they haven’t used all their holiday entitlement. It’s often only absent mindedness rather than deliberate, but nobody wants to lose their annual leave if they can’t carry it over.

They obviously can’t all take time off at the same time, so its a leave request race – and where clashes follow, particularly when there is a ‘no carryover’ policy, the HR Manager is like Solomon, stepping in to try and make as fair a decision as possible without leaving the business short staffed.

It’s a challenging time anyway, for other reasons. HR are often busy dealing with the seasonal fallout that follows a flurry of office parties – workplace scandals, disagreements that get fuelled by alcohol, social media challenges, staff turning up hungover and staff not turning up at all – and trying to find replacement cover at short notice.

As if they already don’t have enough to deal with, ‘flu season kicks in.  You’ll usually find the HR Manager sniffling their way through the day, unable to take time off when they are themselves unwell, because they simply have too much to do!

When they finally settle down in front of their Christmas Dinner, HR managers will have justified every penny of their whole year’s salary in one month, but those who don’t have a system in place will face a bigger horror when they return – the end of year annual leave report.

 All of this adds up to a very stressful period, and one that will be made worse if you’ve left it until December to start booking absence management software demonstrations.

We are here to help, and here to advise our customers – if you want new software for the next annual leave year, contact us before the storm starts to bite, and we’ll do what we can to help make next winter a little less painful.

Two thirds of UK Employees claim they work whilst sick, citing guilt as the reason

Two thirds of UK Employees claim they work whilst sick, citing guilt as the reason


Activ Absence Director Adrian Lewis comments on this story from CV Library.

Parents want workplace flexibility, not just shared parental leave, says Lewis

Over a year on from the introduction of the right to Shared Parental Leave new research has revealed that only around two per cent of fathers are taking this up.

Law firm EMW released figures this week that show that just 3,000 couples were taking up the new rights during the first three months of this year, compared with 155,000 mothers on old-style maternity leave and 52,000 of fathers on paternity leave.

Adrian Lewis, Director at Activ Absence said he wasn’t surprised by these figures as many

continue reading...

As Activ People HR launches the new Activ Appraisals Website, Adrian asks, are Appraisals a thing of the past?

Adrian Lewis is the Commercial Director for Activ People HR


Performance appraisals receive conflicting press. The need for them or otherwise is proving hard to settle in the HR world.

One minute we are being told that performance appraisals are dead, with the CIPD reporting in 2015 that 2/3 of businesses want to restructure the process and 1 in 20 businesses are planning to scrap performance appraisals altogether.

Skip forward 12 months and the CIPD are reporting on a CEB study that found employers who scrapped appraisals have seen ‘significant’ drops in productivity – so where does HR go next?

In my experience, many SME’s have never used appraisals anyway, but lots of them are saying they need to and they are looking for appraisals software to help manage the task.

As our blue chip customers speak to us about improving existing processes, most of the SME's I speak to have no formal structure in place for staff appraisals and it's high on their list of priorities. The new research and the UK’s productivity gap brings appraisals back to the table – but for many, introducing performance appraisals was ON the table anyway - and our new website, www.activappraisals.co.uk, is already receiving praise!

The Way we Were

The old, outdated model is definitely NOT the way to implement performance appraisals. With annual reviews linked to pay and the opinion of just one manager, both staff and managers simply found the process stressful and unhelpful.

In older structures, standards would vary widely from one appraiser to another and whilst the review should relate to a whole year, in practice it only related to the last few weeks and was purely based on the reviewer’s current opinion on the reviewee’s performance – records were either non existent or messy, goals were arbitrary and the endless exchange of Word documents created a challenge - and we wonder why it didn’t work well!

I’m not surprised some larger businesses scrapped the process – but the drop in productivity shows that scrapping them is not working either, so rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, the UK needs to tackle its productivity issues and start to engage their people in a constructive way. Those who have improved the performance review process are already seeing results.

Adobe succeeds with Process Reform

Software giants Adobe have replaced annual performance appraisals with a system of ongoing feedback - results are very encouraging.

An employee or a manager can request a “check-in” meeting every three months.

Before the meeting, the manager requests feedback from the employee, and also obtains feedback from their peers across different levels, including co-workers and other managers. The results give the manager a wider perspective on staff performance. The manager can then tailor their advice accordingly. The approach is collaborative, continuous and engages both sides. Group performance is also evaluated, leading to a more rational determination of group compensation.

The results speak for themselves: Since changing the process, Adobe have experienced a 30 percent reduction in voluntary staff turnover – which is rare in a highly competitive talent environment.

Automation can make it easier

Our Bridgend-based team recently celebrated the launch of a new version of our Activ Appraisals software, which helps businesses conduct more effective performance reviews. The same steps could be followed manually, but the automation makes it less time consuming and avoids a flurry back and forth of Word documents and emails.

Firstly, HR are able to set up a competency framework, so that line managers have a consistent standard throughout the business against which to assess employees.
Managers can choose the frequency of the review meetings, but employees are involved in the process, rather than just called to attend a review meeting.

Managers can still elect to do traditional annual appraisals if they prefer, however there are conscious changes which improve consistency within the process and more importantly, engage employees better. For dynamic employers keen to move towards a more frequent ‘Adobe style’ process, the system works brilliantly.

Managers can choose the frequency of the review meetings, but employees are involved in the process, rather than just called to attend a review meeting. Employee feedback is requested automatically ahead of the meeting, which the manager will have chance to review in advance. The system also allows managers to implement peer reviews, commonly called 360 degree reviews, though not everyone uses this feature.

Setting Smart Objectives

In order for performance objectives to work, it is universally agreed that they need to be SMART:

· (S) Specific
· (M) Measurable
· (A) Achieveable
· (R) Realistic and
· (T) Time framed

The Activ Appraisals system helps managers create objective statements in a SMART format.

Post meeting, managers can review or modify objectives at any time and employees are automatically notified. The system also allows employees to add their own SMART objectives and request training at any time, automatically notifying the manager.

Businesses using the Activ Appraisals software have praised its ability to improve the success of performance reviews. The ability to tailor the software to suit business processes is often praised by customers like Kleinwort Benson, although success is largely down to the improvements that the software makes to the process itself.

Encouraging an Individual Approach within a consistent Framework

Whilst software can help, the secret to helping line managers ‘get reviews right’ is to consider employees as individuals, encouraging dialogue and acknowledging and rewarding individuals whilst maintaining consistency in approach.

Focusing on an individual and taking their input consultatively recognises their worth and promotes a flexible approach and individual coaching – which usually produces better results.

Far from being dead, regular performance appraisals can be empowering and can leave an employee feeling more motivated and a vital part of the team. In a climate where competition for talent is hotting up, and the productivity gap is a constant challenge, I'd argue that not embracing some form of performance review leaves SME's missing a trick.

For the many SME’s who are struggling without them, I'm told implementing performance reviews is very much on the table.

Ready for sporty sick days? Research says you should be!

With some key matches scheduled during work hours, including this Thursday’s England -v- Wales match, the European Championship is expected to be the biggest cause of unauthorised leave in the UK during 2016.  Many organisations have conducted research ahead of the games, and the results for British businesses don’t give good predictions.

Research from ELAS last week indicated that 40% of employees would pull a sick day if they wanted to watch a sporting event in working hours.

Whilst this summer has more sporting events than any other, new research from Kronos has revealed that more than a third of employees (35 percent) expect Euro16 to cause more absenteeism than Wimbledon (18 percent) and the Rio Olympics (11 percent) combined – though the fallout from all three could be catastrophic.  Read more

Activ Absence expert joins industry call to tackle sickness absence

Britain’s manufacturers have today urged the Government to consider giving tax breaks to tackle the UK’s chronic sickness absence problem, to help employers to pay for private treatment for employees and ease the burden on an overburdened NHS.

The call was made today by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation on the back of the UK’s biggest business survey on sickness absence and ahead of a Green Paper on workforce health to be published this summer. The survey, published with Jelf shows that long term absence is continuing to increase while, at the same time, the NHS is proving unable to support the working age population by providing timely and effective rehabilitation and medical treatment.



Read more

Codel Software Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

Last Friday was the culmination of 10 years of hard work by the Codel Software Team, and our Directors, Richard and Adrian, took us out to celebrate.

It was an absolutely awesome night and on behalf of the whole team, I'd like to say a big thank you to our bosses, Codel is a great place to work and we're fortunate to be part of your hugely successful team.

Here's some pictures of the night:

‘Tackling absence? It’s all about reporting!’ say absence management experts.

There is much to celebrate for absence management software experts Codel, who this week celebrate 10 years of helping UK and international businesses tackle absence challenges with their software, Activ Absence.

It’s been a massive year for the team, whose 10th anniversary coincides with their best ever year which has seen turnover double and the company’s welsh workforce triple. They now have thousands of users in 33 countries – and growing.


Absence management expert and Commercial Director Adrian Lewis explained why the company has proved so successful:    Keep Reading

Sunburn, Food Poisoning, Absenteeism and Hangovers: Welcome to Bank Holiday Tuesday!

Guest blog by Adrian Lewis, Director, Activ Absence

I arrived in work this morning to find my Head of Marketing sat on the pavement outside the office looking somewhat like a lobster.  She informed me she had been dropped off extra early by her other half en route to his GP – both had spent yesterday on the beach with inadequate sun protection and he was suffering from sunstroke with nasty sunburn.  Naturally, he won’t be fit for work today, and given the number of pale people on the beach yesterday and a conspicuous shortage of suntan lotion bottles, I’m guessing he won’t be alone.  South Wales was fortunate to get beautiful weather over the Bank Holiday.

Bank Holiday Tuesdays have a high rate of attrition – even amongst managers with the best staff holiday planning processes.  Whether its down to the after effects of too much alcohol, too much sun or food poisoning down to badly cooked barbecue food, adding to delayed onset ‘Mondayitis’, I’ll hazard a bet that in many workplaces, there’s at least one empty seat today.  Of those that are present and correct today, there will be more than just a few staff dosing themselves up on caffeine pills, aftersun lotion and painkillers to combat excesses of one form or another!

Read More

10 Years of Being a People-Person in the world of Cloud Based HR software

10 Years of Being a People-Person

Old age is good, and whilst I won’t tell you how many birthdays I’ve had, our company is ten this year.  I’m proud to be here and to have a great team of people who work for us.  In fact, life in general is good, the first major holiday of the season kicked us into Spring last weekend – and we finally have the sunny weather in Wales to match (which I can assure you has been a long time coming!)

As the individual who manages staff holiday planning in our business, I can testify that a little bit of sunshine does wonders for increasing leave requests.  I’m luckier than most – as Commercial Director of a software business that offers cloud based leave planning and absence management software, I’m able to approve or reject leave requests with a single click.

I haven’t forgotten the old days of spreadsheets though, and I’m always impressed by HR Managers who still juggle spreadsheets and paper forms.  They somehow manage the intrusive phone calls and resolve the annual leave disputes without dropping any balls!  In a digital age with online calendars, where even birthdays are managed with Facebook reminders, its a little concerning that many of our largest businesses use spreadsheets and paper to manage holiday, leaving HR Managers stressed and with little or no analytics. Read More...

Embracing Flexible Working to Win the War on Talent

Adrian Lewis, Commercial Director for Activ Absence explains how businesses can embrace Flexible working and retain and attract more talent:

The importance of flexible working in terms of helping companies attract and retain employees is growing.

A recent survey from Direct365 showed that flexible working was the top benefit that UK employees wanted in their benefits package; with more than one in three (35 per cent) saying they would like the option to work flexibly.

In a job market, where there is near full employment, offering good flexible policies can help companies of all sizes compete for talent. According to a new report, Britain is on the verge of a flexible working ‘tipping point,’ as more people are shunning the traditional 9-5pm in the office for remote working, according to a new report by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation and commissioned by Citrix... Read More