Human Resource Blog

HR Advice

What are some of the best ways to manage an employee who never seems to be working due to illness or short term disabilities? When they do return to work they are asking to take vacation time or attend leadership training’?

These are issues that many employers face, although often they do not all occur with the same employee! Which makes this answer lengthy — sorry!

The first issue you need to address is attendance. Many times we assume that the employee knows what our expectations are, when they really do not.

Ideally, you would already have a written attendance policy that clearly states how much time off is *acceptable.* For example, if you grant 7 paid sick days per year, then 7 absences per year would be acceptable. That means an employee who was absent 3 days in 3 months or 5 days in 6 months, would be issued a verbal or written warning because the employee is on track to be absent 10 or 12  days per year. If you do not already have a policy in place, now is the time to write one. You will need to enforce this policy with all your employees, but it sounds like only this one has an attendance problem.

Second, you should sit down with the employee in private and train or retrain the employee on this policy. Let the employee know what your expectations are in terms of attendance (and reporting procedures, if that is an issue.) Have the employee sign  and date a copy of the attendance policy so you can prove this conversation took place, but it does not count as a disciplinary warning. Do not present this as a threat (*if you keep calling in sick, I am going to fire you!*) instead, present this as your expectations for all employees (*We expect employees to be absent a maximum of 7 times per year.* — or whatever.) Take this step even if the employee has far exceeded the maximum number of days absent.

Be sure to praise the employee for something that he or she does right, before and after the attendance conversation. When the employee works an entire week without an absence, praise him or her. This may feel phony at first, but employees respond better to positive reinforcement than to punishment.

(You mention short term disability. This will depend upon federal and state law, and your company policy. However, if the employee is taking time off under FMLA or a similar state law, you cannot count that time as an absence for disciplinary purposes. If your company is too small for FMLA, and you have no formal short term disability program, than you can count these absences. Post another question mentioning your state and number of employees for more info.)

If the employee is absent again (and it exceeds your absenteeism policy), then write her up. You can and should write the employee up even if she has an excellent reason for being absent — like the swine flu. You are not saying that she is taking time off frivolously. You are simply saying that she is not meeting your expectations for performance in her job — a minimum factor in good performance is showing up!

If the absenteeism continues, after 3 written warnings (again, regardless of the reason), terminate the employee. Most employees will not let it get this far — and if she does, you do not need her anyway.

If you pay for leadership training, think carefully before investing any money in this employee. However, if the employee is otherwise qualified, you may want to use training as an incentive. Let her know that you could not recommend someone with her attendance record for leadership training. However, if she has no more than 1 absence in the next 6 months, you will revisit the issue.

Vacation should not be a factor here. It is not good HR practice to punish employees by withholding benefits, especially benefits they have earned. You should grant this employee vacation on the same basis that you would if her attendance were good.

The final step you should take is to proactively start looking for someone to replace this employee — just in case. Discretely put out feelers at professional organizations or other appropriate venues, that you may be hiring soon. (However, do not mention this to the problem employees coworkers until she has had 2 written warnings.)