Introduction
Anywork is a medium sized firm based in South West of England. It was formed in 2003 and specializes in providing services in plumbing and maintenance. Over the years, the business has built a strong customer base in the areas of its operations. Every fourth house in Devon returns to Any work for their repair service needs. The company has successfully evolved over the years due to its best practices in customer services making it easier for the customers to register complaints and get the solutions 24 hours a day. The company has efficient and well-drawn HR policies for attracting, hiring and retaining customers. The practices of businesses in two vital areas of absence management and employee relations have been critically analyzed in this paper.
Absence management is very vital for the smooth working of the organization, particularly for the firms like Any Work where customer satisfaction is driving force behind the success. The organizations are very much concerned with the absenteeism as increasing off days by the employees are at the opportunity cost of the valuable firm resources, customer satisfaction and morale of the workforce. Growing absenteeism is a deterrent to the overall efficiency of the business (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 2013). Each year companies spend huge amounts on the employee absence from the workplace, particularly due to the medical reasons. The trend of sick leave is highest among the workers’ unavailability at the workplace for their jobs. It is pretty much higher in public organizations as compared to the private ones (UK Government, 2015). Therefore, the businesses try their most to control the burgeoning level of employee absence to use their resources in a more directed way that leads to the success of the company (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 2013). A similar issue has been presented in the case under study. An employee named Abigail Brown has been remaining absent from her work repeatedly in one month. Previously she had been a well-performing employee, and her appraisal has been satisfactory. The line manager has expressed the concern of the organization by putting the matter in writing and informing Ms. Brown about the increasing day off and enquired the reason for not showing up at the work repeatedly. At the same time, the line manager informed her about the possible disciplinary action that can be taken if she fails to ensure regular attendance.
Issues Related to Absence Management
The case under discussion shows that the taken steps were not satisfactory for the proper absence management given the guidelines that literature on effective employee absence management provides. There were more than single hurdles in the whole procedure of writing to the employee, her non-compliance to the code of conduct and the final disciplinary action letter written.
Firstly, the line managers can play an important role in monitoring the employee attendance, recording their absence and ensuring regular work routines of the employees. It is one of the responsibilities of the line managers as well stated in the job description. The line manager in the case under discussion has done a part of its job very well. The manager has kept a record of the absenteeism of Ms. Brown as clearly indicated by the letter written to her. The manager has discretionally kept a record and stated in the letter the absent days to the employee as well. The manager has also expressed his positive emotions about the health conditions of Miss Brown and supported her as well so that she may improve her attendance at the work. However, the lacking factor here was not keeping a record of the points associated with absenteeism and beforehand information flow to the employee that reaching a certain point level in the absence of work can lead to disciplinary action. The disciplinary action guidelines also do not mention such clear guidance regarding some days or absenteeism points that may lead to the enforcement of disciplinary action. Similarly, an effective way of decreasing sick leaves is welcome interviews. The line manager has conducted such interviews with the employee, and it has been stated in the letter as well. However, one thing lacking is the sick pay arrangements that have not been mentioned anywhere in the whole case (Darr & Johns, 2008).
Secondly, it is the responsibility of the employees to inform the line managers in case of absence of the work. Even in instances of sickness, the responsibility of intimation of inability to attend job lies with the employee. Ms. Brown has shown non-compliance to such act. She must have used the technology like SMS, email or phone to inform her line manager about her absents from work. Another barrier that was observed in this case was the possible invalidation of the health insurance. The large organizations now provide health insurance policies and benefits to their employees as a part of their employment package (Darr & Johns, 2008). One of the major reasons behind this act is to decrease sick leaves for proper absence management. Such arrangement has not been found in case of Any Work
Employee Relations
Employee relations refer to the cooperation or relationship of employees and the employers for the collective benefit of both the parties. The success of the businesses is dependent on the better employment relationship between the employees and the employer. In the given case of Any work, the issue presented shows that the interest of Ms. Brown has contradicted with the interest of the firm. It is the interest of the business like Any work to maximize the worth of the company and the wealth of the shareholders. The company strives for the better customer services so that they can always retain their valuable customers and can be best in the market. The interest of Ms. Brown is to excel in the organization, ensuring a promising future with ample chances of growth for her. Initially, both the parties went well mutually cooperating with each other. Ms. Brown did well in the job and was provided with a positive feedback from the management.
The conflict arises when there is a clash of the interests, or the conduct of one party is not desirable or expected by the other party. In this case, the reason for the clash was growing absenteeism by Ms. Brown due to her medical conditions. She has been diagnosed with Diabetics and has not been able to maintain a balance between personal and professional life. The interest of the organization got hurt as due to unplanned leaves; they have to arrange extra workers to fill her place that incurred more cost as well as declining customer service. Moreover, due to increased frustration and pressure of her medical condition she misbehaved with her line manager and one of the customers as well. It was considered a grave act of misconduct that led to disciplinary actions. Such actions are effective in managing the conflicts (Kalleberg, 2000).
In this position, the HR manager should favor the position of Ms. Brown as she has been a valuable asset to the organization. She has performed well in the past and has an added benefit of knowing Polish as well. Moreover, her reasons for staying absent are genuine. However, she was unable to improve despite the warning and ill-performed with the customer. Such actions can hurt the image of the business in the market and can lead to dissatisfaction among the other workforce. For this, she the HR manager might give her a final written warning and a sick pay leave so that she may go through counseling and proper diabetes treatment. This action will lead to increased satisfaction in the entire workforce, particularly in Ms. Brown. She will be motivated that the employer feels for her and values her services.
The other factor of misconduct with the line manager publically before the other colleagues might affect the decision of the disciplinary action committee. Moreover, the harsh language with the client on the phone may also affect the decision negatively. In corporate world business strive on a single policy of “Customer is King” and they struggle to provide royal treatment to their customers as well. Such misconduct with a customer might lead to a stigma that the business has stopped valuing its customers that may lead to losing a loyal customer (Wilkinson, 1999).
If the company retains Ms. Brown, it may lead to increased motivation and satisfaction among all the workers that their employer considers them as an asset. However, if based on the instance of misconduct, the company decides to dismiss Ms. Brown, it may lead to losing a valuable. However, this dismissal will not have any legal binding or implications for the business. The equality act 2010 protects the employees against discrimination based on nine elements or factors (Act, 2010). However, misconduct and absenteeism are not on the list of these factors. Therefore, the dismissal of employees due to ill-treatment with fellow workers, line managers, and customers can never have any legal implications for the business. Similarly, this law does not protect the employees from dismissal due to the absence from the work (Act, 2010).
In my opinion, Ms. Brown should be retained as an employee of the company as her record shows her aspirations of growth, dedication and willingness to devote her for the betterment of the business. Moreover, her illness will not affect the job environment of the colleagues as it is not contiguous as well. The company will not have to make permanent arrangements to accommodate a Diabetic employee.
Conclusion
The crux of the whole matter is that absence management and the focus on employee relations has gained much popularity in businesses aspiring to grow. The companies like Anywork practice policies to favor their employees as well as safeguarding their interests. However, there are certain loopholes in the policies that have been analyzed step by step in the paper.
References
Act, E., 2010. Equality Act. The Stationary Office Ltd., London.
Darr, W. and Johns, G., 2008. Work strain, health, and absenteeism: a meta-analysis. Journal of occupational health psychology, 13(4), p.293.
Kalleberg, A.L., 2000. Nonstandard employment relations: Part-time, temporary and contract work. Annual review of sociology, pp.341-365.
Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M., 2013. Employee—organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic Press.
UK Government, 2015. A million workers off sick for more than a month. [online] - Press releases. Available at: <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a-million-workers-off-sick-for-more-than-a-month > [Accessed 2016].
Wilkinson, A., 1999. Employment relations in SMEs. Employee relations,21(3), pp.206-217.
