Hi
I'm interested to see if any of you offer incentives for staff who aren't off sick for a full year. I know this can open up all sorts of other questions regarding discrimination etc but the companies I have worked in they have always been well received.
What we offer currently is under review and there is a potential that it gets scrapped or an alternative is put in place.
We currently offer the following;
If staff have no sickness they have 3 extra days holiday given to them
If they have 1 day they get 2 days extra
If they have 2 days they get 1 day extra.
This goes down well within our business however it does encourage staff to come in with colds and we have had to send staff home once or twice but this is rare. We also have the issue of how do you control staff that can work from home or who are based off site. Should they be included?
At my previous company we did a raffle and for all those who weren't off sick got given bottle of wine and a chance to win £1000 holiday voucher and 2 weeks extra holiday which was brilliant a real motivator to maybe go into work rather than take that 1 day sick.
Anyway as always look forward to hearing your ideas, thoughts!
Thanks in advance
Rachel
Replies
Hi Rachel,
I also like the raffle idea - I might steal that!
Some of our line managers aren't great with updating the system when someone is off sick though, so we would need to control this better, but it seems like you've got it under wraps!
Great idea!
Toril
That is my concern with introducing attendance awards as well Toril. Our workforce is widely dispersed across 7 remote centres, as well as quite a few that work out on the nature reserves. As such, it can prove difficult to keep up with sickness reporting - quite often the person rings their manager, who tells them to take the day off, logs it at their centre but then doesn't tell reception at Head Office.
It's really just a case of tightening up on procedure, and then we would be in a position to consider attendance awards - but personally I would have to be absolutely sure that our reporting system was completely watertight before attempting it.
Certainly something for me to consider in my research for my HR project on rewards and benefits!
Steve
Hi Rachel
All we have in terms of Attendance Awards is a Congratulations letter from the CEO that is sent to all staff who have had 100% attendance over the year. I think this is well received as it's a nice little "thank you" from the company (we include a bit about how their attendance contributes to the company's visions & ability to achieve our objectives etc) but it's not a huge deal. We do not have the generosity of your company of extra holidays!
I like the idea of the raffle though, i reckon it could be a good motivator!
If you are going to have Attendance Awards they have to be applied fairly across the workforce or you'll get some disgruntled people. People who work from home or are based off site should be eligible too, they cannot be seen to be at a disadvantage due to their work location. If you're concerned that you cannot "prove" they're at work then that's a trust issue & something completely separate.
If you want to remove the current Award scheme then you'll have to go down the route of consultation with staff & trade unions & most likely need a good business reason for doing so to explain it to your staff as well as something else to replace it to keep up motivation levels. It might be worth doing some questionnaires or focus groups to find out what they think of the current scheme & what motivates them / what they would like to see in the future. Then rewrite the policy which includes the clause you mention below.
Jill
On another note, how would we go about removing this as there is no clause that says the Management have right to review remove it if they see fit?
Any advice?
Hi Rachel,
I'd suggest the best way to remove it, if that is the decision reached by management, is by having a consultation phase of 28 days or so. This gives staff the feeling of being part of the decision rather than it simply being forced on them. They may suggest other options that have not been considered previously - again, helping them to be part of the process and making the transition easier.
Hope that helps?
Steve