Absence Makes the Bottom Line Wander

DESCRIPTION:

Absenteeism costs Canada’s economy roughly $15 billion a year. Meanwhile, HR professionals scramble to build effective attendance management programs as absenteeism continues to climb. Why are so many employees staying home “sick,” and how can you keep yours happy and on the job? This session will help you design a program that maintains attendance and maximizes your human capital.

A comprehensive approach to managing absenteeism involves going beyond simply responding to individual situations. It requires taking a proactive and systemic look at the organization overall: measures and tracking, organizational culture, employee assistance programs, wellness issues, structural supports, performance management and supervisory engagement.

The reasons many organizations lack a comprehensive approach to attendance management include lack of detailed benchmarking data by industry and occupation, lack of internal data, lack of internal expertise or will to act on the issue, lean or under-resourced HR departments, the absence of metrics, the perception that little can be done in influencing employee health, perceived privacy barriers and poorly trained supervisors.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understand and appreciate the impact of absenteeism on company costs
• Examine the drivers of absenteeism
• Gain an awareness of the impact on various sectors of the economy
• Learn a holistic approach to solutions that are proactive rather than reactive
• Explore methodologies for aligning stakeholders
  

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Janice Attersley has been a practicing human resources professional for over 25 years and has held senior-level portfolios in both private and public sector environments in Alberta and Ontario. She has done master’s-level course work in community health and executive management and is a frequent speaker on issues related to health productivity management. Attersley’s career has included leading the recruitment and occupational health function for a large Canadian municipality of over 12,000 employees, designing and delivering a national recruitment initiative for a major oil and gas company and providing leadership to the career services function at a major Canadian university. She also served as a mayor's administration liaison officer in a large municipal operation.  Attersley is an active volunteer in the community, serving on the board of trustees of the Lakeridge Health Corporation, and is currently the vice-chair of the Lakeridge Health Whitby Foundation.  She currently operates her own consulting firm in Whitby, providing a wide variety of HR services to clients in southern Ontario.