Solving absenteeism with evidence

Posted by Ricki Sharpe on November 28, 2007
Filed Under Leadership, Work Behaviour

Rob Briner, Professor and Head of the School of Management and Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London, gives a great example of how to apply evidence-based management principles to an absenteeism problem in a recent interview in People Management.

Because of his interest in stress and absenteeism, Rob Briner is often contacted by organisations who believe they have a problem with absenteeism caused by stress.

“The first thing I do is ask the HR practitioner two simple questions,” Briner said. “What exactly is the absence rate? How does your absence rate compare to norms for your sector?”

“I find it surprising if not shocking that only a minority seem to know the answer to the first question and almost noâ€one knows the answer to the second,” he said.

He goes on to outline the most relevant questions to which he seeks answers:

Do I know exactly what the absence level is?
Has the absence level changed?
Do I know what type of absence it is?
How does the absence level compare to norms for my sector?
Do I know who is absent and their positions and locations?
What exactly is the problem with the level of absence? Does it matter and in what ways?
What internal, organisational evidence do I have for the causes of absence?
How good do I think this evidence is?
What does external evidence from research suggest are the causes of absence?
How good is this evidence and can I apply it here?
What other causes of absence might there be here?
If the absence level is high, what is the external evidence from research about the effectiveness of interventions to reduce or manage absence?
Is the absence level so high it requires an intervention?
Will the benefits of interventions outweigh the costs?
How well do I think these interventions might work in my situation?
Might they have unintended negative consequences?
How will I evaluate the effects of interventions?

“While HR has made great progress in starting to engage with evidence it still has some way to go, as a profession and practice, before it can truly claim to be evidence-based or even strongly evidence-informed,” Briner said.

Try a quick quiz on How evidence-based are you?
Visit the Evidence-Based Management website.