The Melbourne Cup and a mysterious spike in Sick Leave?

Today's Industry Search Bulletin has reported that Victorian employers have raised concerns about the tendency for workers to call in sick today as the Monday before the Melbourne Cup public holiday.

Mysterious spike in Sick Leave this week?

While many employees take a legitimate four-day weekend by applying for leave, many also tend to fake an illness, VECCI workplace relations policy manager Alexandra Marriott said.

"Anecdotally, we see from year to year that there are quite significant unplanned absences or sickies on that day," Marriott said. "It is a difficult problem to address because employers have limited capacity to assess the authenticity of a day of sick leave."

Marriott said it was difficult to put a figure on the costs associated with absenteeism on the day before the Melbourne Cup but said it created reduced productivity and engagement. But taking a four-day weekend using allocated annual leave was good for parts of the economy, particularly tourism, she said.

“Unplanned absenteeism is a major concern for many businesses and employers must consider both the direct and indirect costs incurred when an employee is absent”, said Jamie Fitzsimons, Marketing Manager at Mitrefinch Employee Management.

Direct costs are the benefits paid to the employee to provide income during an absence i.e. Sick, holiday and vacation pay as well as a disability benefit. However the indirect costs associated with unplanned absence are typically ignored or poorly tracked yet they can have a considerable impact to an organisation’s bottom line.

Some indirect costs include;
• A decrease in productivity, resulting in missed business opportunities or reduced customer service
• Fees of the temporary staff required to cover for the absent staff, or overtime costs for other staff covering for their absent colleagues
• Weaken morale of staff forced to cover for absent colleagues, may have a knock-on effect, establishing a culture for “chucking a sickie”

So what can you do to control the impact of absenteeism?

As the old saying goes, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.

Organisations need to have an effective means of measuring staff absence in place, enabling them to assess the extent of the issue and decide the best means of tackling the problem.

A Time and Attendance system can monitor and record patterns of absenteeism, sick leave, and productivity, allowing you to establish any regular patterns or sudden unexplained changes.

For example, the Mitrefinch Time and Attendance solution, includes advanced Absence Management functionality allowing employers to profile staff by absence tracking. The system measures how the work absences of individual employees impact your business - by recording the number of absences and the duration of each incidence and providing a ‘score’ for each employee.

With this information readily and quickly available, management can identify workers suspected of abusing sick leave and possible absenteeism trends – allowing them to deal with problem areas before they do any more damage to the organisation’s bottom line.

So if you want to enjoy your Melbourne Cup festivities without having to worry about a loss of productivity for the rest of the week, give us a call today on 1300 884 831 or visit Mitrefinch to find out more about effective Absence Management.

(Sources: “Melbourne Cup holiday sees spike in VIC worker sickies” - http://www.industrysearch.com.au/News/Melbourne-Cup-holiday-sees-spike-in-VIC-worker-sickies-55621)

Building a Better Payroll at the TAPS Annual Workplace Review

Mitrefinch Australia were pleased to be involved with the recent Sydney Payroll Expo, as part of The Association of Payroll Specialists’ (TAPS) Annual Workplace Review Event, which took place at the Sydney Showgrounds last Thursday and Friday (October 20-21).

This year’s Workplace Review, Australia’s biggest and longest running payroll conference, had a “Building a Better Payroll” focus and was opened by Keynote Speaker, James Valentine, who provided an entertaining, yet thought-provoking session, on “Change is the only Constant”. The educational seminars that followed provided attendees with detailed information on topical issues such as; Paid Parental Leave, NES Leave, Superannuation, Terminations, Long Service Leave, and Preparing for an Audit.

Building a Better Payroll - TAPS Annual Workplace Review

Completing the day's festivities, the infamous TAPS Theme Dinner, complete with some interesting entertainment and costumes on show, provided attendees with an opportunity to network with other payroll professionals and unwind after a long day in the classroom.

Day two of the conference was split into different educational streams: Payroll Essentials and Advanced Payroll, ensuring that all attendees’ information needs were met. New Horizons Learning Centres provided an Excel Masterclass, while other sessions addressed Unfair Dismissal, Balancing your Payroll, Expats, Fringe Benefits, and a fascinating session on Payroll Fraud (we were assured that attendees were shown how to effectively manage the risks associated with payroll fraud and not how to get away with doing it!)

The Payroll Expo, which ran in conjunction with the Conference, provided attendees with an opportunity to learn more about the very latest payroll and HR technologies, and the tools available to help them become more efficient, accessible and cost effective.

As such, Mitrefinch were pleased to showcase their biometric employee time and attendance management solutions, as well as iPhone and mobile applications for effective employee time management and job costing for remote staff.

In addition, Mitrefinch Consultants were on hand to demonstrate how their mitrefinch employee management solutions have enabled some of Australia’s leading organisations to reduce payroll costs and associated administration, improve payroll accuracy, and achieve superior planning and control of employee schedules and jobs.

The Mitrefinch team now look forward to featuring at the TAPS Melbourne Workplace Review which will take place at Hilton on the Park on October 27-28th. To register for the event contact TAPS on 1300 711 240 or visit www.workplacereview.com.au

Alternatively the Payroll Expo is free to attend on the Thursday afternoon, so feel free to drop by and visit us at Stand 8 (we'll have some more of the popular Mitrefinch Jelly Beans to give away!).

Are you monitoring Employee Absence and Leave? Maybe it's time you did!

An interesting article in HR Morning recently caught my eye and effectively highlights why organisations should maintain an accurate record of employee leave and absence.

The article in question reported that Douglas Rydalch, a Sales Agent for Southwest Airlines, tried to bring an Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) interference case up against his former employer.

Rydalch had a back injury that would flare up on occasion, and when it did he’d take leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).  While that’s all well and good, his injury seemed to flare up just before, or after, his regularly scheduled time off — particularly around public holidays.

For example: He used FMLA leave in conjunction with July 4, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, as well as around his birthday. All up, he took FMLA leave in conjunction with regular days off at least 35 times.

Understandably, Southwest were beginning to get suspicious and began to monitor Rydalch’s FMLA use. And when he again took leave on Dec. 26 and 27, they terminated him for abusing FMLA leave and violating the company’s attendance policy.

But not to be outdone, Rydalch returned serve by filing a lawsuit against Southwest for FMLA retaliation and interference.

However the case didn’t last long and a federal court quickly threw out his lawsuit – as Southwest’s thorough documentation of Rydalch’s leave requests provided them with a very strong reason to believe that he was abusing his FMLA privileges.

Therefore, the court ruled Southwest was well within its rights to terminate Rydalch.

As HR Morning advises, this case serves as a good reminder to organisations to keep accurate records of employee leave requests. Then, if leave abuse is suspected, management will be able to show in court it has legitimate reasons for taking action against the offending employee.

Read the full article here

An Employee Time and Attendance system is a powerful tool for analysing and managing employee time and attendance.

By recording unplanned absences, holidays and other leave (compassionate, parental etc...), a Time and Attendance system builds a complete Employee Absence Profile which can be viewed on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. While a Group Absence Profile allows you to analyse absence for a specific team, department or site.

By measuring the work absences of individual employees a Time and Attendance system can identify how these absences impact the organisation’s overall productivity, while real-time colour-coded reporting allows supervisors and managers to quickly identify potential problem areas and plan work schedules according to available resources, skills sets etc…

If you’d like to find out more about how an automated Time and Attendance system can reduce your company’s absence rates and boost productivity contact Mitrefinch Employee Management today on 1300 884 831 (Australia) or 09 363 9557 (NZ).

Our Free Guide to Choosing a Time and Attendance system is also available for download online.

Mitrefinch to feature Time Tracking Solutions at The Association of Payroll Specialists’ Payroll Expo in Sydney and Melbourne

Mitrefinch to feature Time and Attendance Solutions as part of TAPS Payroll Expo

Once again Mitrefinch are pleased to be associated with The Association of Payroll Specialists’ (TAPS) and their Annual Workplace Review Conference and Payroll Expo.

As Australia’s longest running payroll related event, last year’s conference attracted over 250 delegates, and due to increasing demand from members, TAPS have decided to bring the event to Melbourne, in addition to Sydney this time around. 

With a “Building a Better Payroll” theme, the conference boasts an impressive educational line-up with a strong emphasis on recent changes to legislation, as well as educational sessions related to; Fringe Benefits, Leave, Superannuation, Terminations, Expats, and an Excel Masterclass. 

Following on last year’s success the “Payroll Expo” will also make a welcome return, providing attendees with an opportunity to learn about the latest payroll technology and tools to implement best practices, operational efficiencies and cost savings. 

“Mitrefinch are delighted to be associated with TAPS and the Payroll Expo again this year, and we are especially looking forward to exhibiting at our first Melbourne event”, said Jamie Fitzsimons, Mitrefinch AsiaPac Marketing Manager. “We will be on hand to demonstrate our range of mitrefinch biometric time and attendance solutions, as well as our new mobile applications for effective job costing and time management of remote staff.” 

The Sydney event takes place on October 20/21 at the Southee Complex, Sydney Showgrounds and at Hilton on the Park in Melbourne on October 27/28. You can catch Mitrefinch and their innovative mitrefinch time tracking solutions at Booth 14 (Sydney) and Booth 8 (Melbourne). 

For more information contact Mitrefinch direct on 1300 884 831 or visit the TAPS Workplace Review website