Absence management in FM

When individuals fail to turn up for a shift, it doesn’t matter whether the service in question is catering, cleaning or maintenance – you cannot deliver it effectively. Sometimes that has serious consequences. If an office cleaner fails to turn up, the environment might stay grubby for a day. If absence means a hospital ward isn’t cleaned frequently enough, or a prison is understaffed, that puts people at risk. In any case, when you fail to deliver the people who constitute your service, your contract can be in jeopardy and you can face performance fines.

Absence can happen for many reasons – from minor illness, musculoskeletal problems, accidents and long-term health issues, and mental health problems including stress. All employers are being increasingly affected by demographic changes such as ageing, obesity and rising levels of diabetes – adding to the pressures.

Absence is often an early indicator of associated issues and frequently leads to parallel health cases and HR cases including disciplinary, grievance and other employee relations matters – all to be managed concurrently.

Managing the health of FM employees

Facilities work of all kinds can be demanding and physically strenuous, with role-related health risks that can range from possible exposure to cleaning chemicals, to working at height. Team and line managers must stay aware of individual risks and health issues when workers are often remote or customer site-based, especially when processes are manual, and workers may have little forewarning of a service task they may need to undertake.

It’s time to do more than the minimum.

Putting health at the centre of your workforce strategy is key to reducing the risks and costs of absence, retaining and attracting the staff you need to thrive.

Doing more than the minimum means getting proactive and monitoring health constantly and consistently, not just reacting. You need accurate data, smart insights and appropriate platforms – and your standard HR and enterprise systems were never designed for either.

Can you answer all these vital questions about every employee?

  • Are they fit for work?
  • Are they at risk?
  • Have you checked?
  • Can you prove it?

HR case management in FM

The facilities industry is a challenging environment for its HR professionals when it comes to keeping a clear and complete oversight of all the types of HR cases. Whether they are dealing with disciplinary, grievance or performance cases, that’s not easy when so many of the team often work off premise at client sites, or are on the move delivering services – not to mention the high numbers of shift and part time workers in some areas of FM. It can be hugely difficult for HR to maintain full view, manage the flow of case information and communication, let alone connect HR cases with associated issues such as employee absence or health.

Empactis HR Case Manager helps you connect up your HR service across the organisation so they can focus on adding value, while line managers are better supported to help and engage with employees.

How Empactis can help FM providers

The Empactis platform can help FM service providers to:

Explore them for yourself below – or contact us to discuss their potential value to your organisation.