How do you prevent your employee from frequent attrition?

On average, employees have one absence report per year. And usually this one lasts about one week. But what if your employee has been absent more often? In this document you will find some guidance and tips to prevent and resolve (long-term) frequent Sickness Absence .

Grip on frequent Sickness Absence

Frequent Sickness Absence sence occurs when an employee suffers three or more absences within one year. Thereby, frequent Sickness Absence can be a precursor to long-term Sickness Absence. Employers and employees are often unaware of this. It therefore makes sense to have structural discussions in order to keep a grip on frequent Sickness Absence and possibly prevent long-term Sickness Absence . You can do this yourself or with support.

A conversation with your employee

The goal of a conversation with your employee is to identify work-related factors and take actions to prevent another absence. After all, Frequent Sickness Absence is in many cases impressionable.

When do you engage in conversation?

Do not conduct a frequent absence interview until an employee is fully back at work. And not until the employee is fully recovered.

What is the purpose of the conversation?

Explain that you want to list with your employee whether there are modifiable factors in the workplace that can be resolved. And what actions you can agree on to prevent the next absenteeism.

How do you encourage awareness?

Put the facts on the table. Give the employee an overview of the exact periods. And discuss what unexpected frequent outages mean for work and immediate colleagues. It is important that the employee feels safe and not attacked.

A sample conversation:

"Let's sit down together and talk openly about what's going on. It's understandable that you've had moments of absence. I'd like to discuss what this means for your work and your colleagues, without judgment. Together we look for solutions to make sure this happens less often. Your well-being and success at work are important, and we want to support you in that."

Discuss the following questions

Are there things in your work that make you drop out faster or make it harder to do your job?
Does your private work balance play a role in this?
As an employer, what can I do to support you?
What can you do yourself to make sure you are less likely to drop out or do your job better?
What arrangements can we make together to address this?
Do you think additional help is needed? If so, what support would help?
Can you specifically name the periods of Sickness Absence so we can look at patterns and solutions together?

Forward

If the employee does not make a direct connection between frequent Sickness Absence and modifiable work factors, you can gently probe further. You look for the problem behind the problem. Consider:

Workload
Inappropriate behavior (bullying, aggression, harassment, discrimination, sexual attention)
Physical strain
Difficult cooperation or conflicts
Appropriateness of tasks to ambitions and skills
Work-life balance

Do not ask

Do not ask for medical details; this is not an employer's job.

The next step

The conversation should be followed up. This could be, for example, "Let's schedule a follow-up conversation to see how things are going and if there are any new developments. We put the agreements made on paper so that it is clear who is doing what and when."

Shared responsibility

You are jointly responsible as an employee and employer to address issues that may affect frequent Sickness Absence . Make a follow-up appointment if important points emerge during the conversation that need more attention, and to evaluate agreements made. In addition, it is important to record agreements together and to name who undertakes what activity at what time. In this way you can avoid misunderstandings and bear joint responsibility.

Easy access to additional support

In most cases, a good conversation is the solution. Sometimes it does not work, or it is too difficult to have the right conversation together. That's when it's nice to have extra help or support. This is possible with a three-way conversation with an employability coach or an intervention from the network of our partner Zorg van de Zaak.

Tripartite discussion with the employability coach

If you are in need of support and the situation is not complex, in many cases a one-time three-way conversation under the guidance of our employability coach is sufficient. In complex situations, the three-way conversation is used three times, during which a personal action plan is drawn up with the employee. We call this the Duurzaam@Work Plan. The Duurzaam@Work Plan is part of the employee's awareness-raising process with the goal of becoming sustainably employable. If necessary, we involve the company doctor when specific questions arise that only this professional can answer.

Interventions from the network

Often there is no single cause for frequent or long-term Sickness Absence, and further support is needed. Through the connection ZekerArbo has with Zorg van de Zaak Network, you can easily access a multitude of interventions through www.snelverwijspunt.nl. These are aimed at increasing employability, limiting Sickness Absence and making employees work healthier. For example, mind coaching can help with work-related issues and short-term trajectories in company social work in case of work-life balance problems. Of course, our professionals are happy to help you and can best advise you on the use of appropriate interventions.

Learn more

Want to know more about this topic? Contact your client team or employability coach after entering your company's zip code.