What Is The Current Practice Of Absence Management At A Large Local Authority (2008)

Absence Management Practice – The purpose of this HRM dissertation is to outline the research findings in the case study of Birmingham City Council (BCC) where it examines the practices of this organisation, their approach against absence and what possible methods are used to tackle absenteeism. The literature review concerns with three main areas that have to be considered to manage absence effectively. Firstly, it provides details of measuring, monitoring and bench-marking work place absence behaviours. Secondly, identifies the causes of absences and what strategies can be used to due to the problem of absence.

The literature review identifies the evidences of practices in managing absences that are helpful to assess the current practice of the case study organisation. The author has employed a case study research method focusing on learning about the organisational process by using secondary data collection method. The research concludes that the BCC focuses on the ‘softy’ strategies such as well-being concerned approaches rather than using disciplinary policies to deal with absenteeism.

Findings also show that some current practices at the BCC could have a positive impact on absence management, such as the approaches of measuring and monitoring absence, well-being strategies, flexible working schemes and effective IT systems. However, the findings also identify the limitations of effective sickness absence management program at the BCC which include the lack of training for line managers and the lack of effective mechanism to identify the underlying causes of absence.

• 10,000 words – 58 pages in length
• Excellent use of literature
• Good in depth analysis
• Well written throughout
• Ideal for HRM, CIPD and business students

1 Introduction

2 Literature Review
What does absenteeism mean?
Measurement and monitoring absence
How to measure absence
Bench-marking
Causes of Absence
Personal factors
Organisational factors
Sectional factors
Strategies to manage absence
Attendance incentives
Organisational control
Disciplinary policy
Disciplinary procedure
The role of line manage

3 Methodology
Secondary research method
Advantages of using secondary data
Limitations of using secondary data
Reliability of secondary data

4 Findings
Measuring and monitoring absence
How to measure absence
Monitoring absence
Bench-marking
Identifying the Cause of absence
Preventive control
Well-being concerned strategies
Flexible working policies
Disciplinary policies and procedures
Issuing notifications of concern
Return-to-work-interviews
Targeting
Defining the role
The role of line manager
Supportive actions

5 Conclusion and suggestion
Conclusion
Suggestion for further research

Reference

Bibliography