In the first two parts of this triptych, we showed you the costs and risks you face with absenteeism, as well as the areas where you could make savings.

In this third and final part, we will explain how you optimize influencing absenteeism costs through an appropriate approach for your organization.

Part 3 of 3: Integrated approach to absenteeism

Approach and design of absence policy: what to look out for?

In a previously published article on our website “Health policy more important than ever!” we told you about the importance of implementing an integrated health policy.

The conclusion was that an integrated approach that focuses not only on sick employees but also on those who are not sick can help prevent absenteeism and at the same time increase the employability of your employees.

We explained that absenteeism costs consist of a variety of separate issues, such as payroll costs, absenteeism regulations, subsidies, fines, as well as insurance premiums and dispositions from the IRS. However, these topics are inextricably linked, and in order to effectively save on absenteeism costs, it is necessary to have a complete understanding and overview of the entire situation.

To do this, you need a helicopter view of your position, costs, collaboration partners, strategic policies and goals of your organization. We call this approach strategic absence management.

Strategic Absence Management

Integrating strategic absence management into your organization is an excellent way to realize tangible savings while shaping the employee journey within your organization. You achieve the best results when the chosen solutions fit the organization’s financial goals.

A strategic policy that considers all aspects answers the questions:

• Who do you want to be as an organization and who do you want to be as an employer?
• How do you avoid unnecessary costs?
• How do you best utilize the workforce and shape prevention?
• How do you counsel sick colleagues and dare to look to the future together and discuss it with each other?

The side of the employer, who is trying to keep costs down, and that of employee, who wants to complete his career healthily and receive income, are two sides of the same coin. By aligning these, you know what you have in common!

In addition to a dose of conviction, guts and support, as an HR professional you need knowledge of the entire playing field to shape your integrated strategy. In doing so, you will also need services or products that match your organization’s environment and goals. Then the trick is to combine the knowledge of the whole with your organizational strategy and at the same time apply it at the case level.

Specifically, when you oversee your finances and risks around absenteeism, you can set longer-term goals. At the same time, you can develop an approach to work with in already ongoing cases of absenteeism. In this, there is no right or wrong construction, as every organization is unique. What does exist is a more or less adequate design, and a more or less optimal result.

Insure

You may wonder to what extent insurance plays a role in saving on absenteeism costs. Insurance covers certain risks and brings benefits, such as reimbursements for interventions and reintegration.

Insurers also often offer services to mitigate damages or comply with legal requirements. This takes a lot of worries and also costs out of your hands. However, even if you have insurance, it pays to use the right comprehensive approach to reduce absenteeism and prevent any subsequent premium increases.

Partnerships

For a number of things such as insurance and health and safety services, you depend on external services and products that support your strategy, for example, because you do not have the knowledge in-house or because there is no other way. It can make a big difference which supporting and implementing parties you engage for this purpose.

We advocate thorough inventory, research and analysis of the design of your absenteeism infrastructure in order to then optimize it.

Consider the following options:

• to carry or not to carry your own risk
• to insure or not to insure
• Bringing knowledge in-house or (temporarily) hiring externally

When your HR policies are aligned with your organization’s goals, you can design your infrastructure accordingly, align your processes and connect the right collaboration parties and products. We can advise you every step of the way.

Want to know what’s best for your organization?

Kröller Boom oversees the entire and complex playing field you face as an HR professional and knows the knobs you can turn to work toward the goals your organization has set.

Our specialists are happy to help you in the areas of strategic HR policy, absence management, social security, health and safety services and sustainable employability.

Want to seek advice on shaping an integrated health policy, or on developing a successful absenteeism approach?

Then contact Ike and the specialists from Kröller Boom’s Corporate Wellness team:
corporatewellness@krollerboom.nl
.