Absence management has recently received considerable media attention with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, complaining that sickness absence within the public sector is unacceptably high. Tesco has decided that to control its absence levels, it will not pay for the first three days sickness leave in some of its stores, and both Royal Mail and British Airways have introduced financial incentives to tackle their sickness absence rates.

Indeed, virtually all organisations now have absence management policies in place but it is still clear that absence costs the UK economy many millions of pounds each year, estimated to be £11.6 billion by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Evidence indicates that time lost to absence across the UK workforce rose to 7.2 days per employee in 2003, the first rise in absence levels after five years of reducing rates. According to the CBI, employers believe that 15 per cent of absence is non-genuine, and similarly the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reports that around a third of employers believe that more than 20 per cent of absence is non-genuine.1 There would appear to be great scope for organisations to improve their absence and attendance management policies, but how should this be achieved? ...

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