The Euros have kicked off, with the opening ceremony held on Friday 14th June. At this point, your team is either thriving or on the verge of being knocked out! Major sporting events, holiday seasons, and national holidays often lead to unexpected absences that can disrupt attendance in many businesses. With Crown’s Time & Attendance system, you can effortlessly track and manage “suspicious absences,” whether they align with major sporting events or follow declined holiday requests, ensuring a clear and accurate picture of your workforce's attendance.
Employee absence is a fact of life for all organisations. What might seem like a minor issue can snowball into much bigger problems without effective management, especially when absence rates are higher than usual. Without clear visibility into the extent of absenteeism in your team, it can quickly become problematic, reducing operational efficiency and profitability while increasing the workload on remaining staff.
Players are under contract
When employees join an organisation, they agree to work to a contract of employment, which commits them to make themselves available for work at the times specified within their contract. Irrespective of national events, such as the Euros, they commit to make every effort to present themselves in a state such that they are able to work (watch out for overindulgent celebrations!).
Use all tactics available
All organisations should have a clearly defined absence policy, the ultimate goal of which is to keep unplanned absence to an absolute minimum (Try to avoid last minute substitutions! Although our clever new scheduling capabilities can help you decide who to bring on). This should range from return-to-work protocols, to defined disciplinary procedures, to proactive measures to keep absence rates down (e.g., the offer of flexible working arrangements).
Use as many options as you can to fit with requirements, remind employees that they have the option to take annual leave. When time off is planned in advance it gives planners a better opportunity to adjust schedules and manage tasks more smoothly (and put the best team out from the players available!).
Having the right software solution in place is crucial. The best workforce management systems give organisations the visibility and control they need while making sure absence policies are upheld.
Ultimately, there are a few major areas for businesses to target in order to reduce absences and mitigate the impact of absences that can’t be avoided:
- Identifying suspicious patterns of absence that may indicate staff are “gaming” the system (see the timetable below)
- Following up on every instance of absence to gain as much information as possible
- Accurately recording absences to reduce payroll error
- Rearranging shift patterns and work schedules quickly to accommodate for absent staff
- Creating a working environment where illegitimate absences are less likely to occur
- Being consistent. If you let the odd “sickie” go this could make it difficult to meaningfully enforce any action or sanctions on future occasions or to others.
For good morale, organisations may want to provide every opportunity to allow those that wish to, to follow their team, but they will also want to remain productive to agreed service levels.
It may be possible, depending on operational requirements, to screen key matches in the workplace or by radio during working hours, or have enhanced flexibility for employees to take a break from work and watch a match and then be required to make up lost time.
A planned approach is the best option. England and Scotland group fixtures (and possible following games, fingers crossed!) are shown below. However, you may need further understanding and monitoring of other teams given the wide multinational makeup of the UK workforce who could support other teams. Also, whatever your approach, the last point of being consistent must be adhered to, for fairness and equality. This means avoiding discrimination.
![Euro Schedule 2024](https://blog.crownworkforcemanagement.com/hs-fs/hubfs/G%20(1)-1.png?width=1414&height=916&name=G%20(1)-1.png)