Employers 'failing to grasp extent and cost of staff absences'

Employers could struggle to make improvements to their absence management practices by failing to recognise the true impact that staff sick leave has on their organisation. 

A study by Aon Hewitt has found that many organisations are unaware of how many working hours are lost through staff absences and how much this could be costing their business.

A poll of 185 employers in the UK, representing a combined workforce of 650,000 employees, revealed that 32 per cent of businesses do not know how many days employees are absent through sickness annually, while of those who could give a figure, 60 per cent were not very confident of its accuracy. 

Furthermore, more than half of the respondents said they do not measure the total cost of employee health issues, including absences, while 14 per cent did not know whether their organisations measured costs relating to health. 

James Kenrick, healthcare consultant at Aon Hewitt, said that employers who fail to report on these type of measures are likely to find it hard to improve on the way they handle staff absences. 

"There is a widespread lack of knowledge among the UK's employers about levels of absence through sickness and the wider costs of healthcare. This suggests a lack of focus on absence rates and on health generally," he said. 

"It is clear that there is a need for healthcare measurement and for tangible improvement on the current situation - but without an accurate picture of sickness absence and healthcare costs, employers will struggle to make and measure improvements." 

The survey also suggested that a lack of integration between absence management and healthcare strategies could be compounding the issue. With 13 per cent of those polled revealing that they view the components of their benefits programme completely separately from staff absences, while 36 per cent said they are only loosely related. 

"In our experience, once management is aware of high sickness rates and the corresponding costs, it takes only a modest degree of intervention to bring rates down swiftly," added Mr Kenrick.

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.

Celebrating all things Payroll this March

With the launch of the National Payroll Awards and National Payroll Week (NPW) just around the corner, March has well and truly become Payroll Month!

For the majority of us, we don’t think twice when our wages are lodged into our bank account or we receive of pay slip at the end of the week or month, and rarely do we need to converse with the Payroll department.

While Payroll is often overlooked, it is one of the most highly regulated functions within a business. Compliance with complex Federal and State legislation, terms and conditions of employment and business policy is critical, and if that’s not enough Payroll Officers are often asked on a regular basis to pick up other roles. 

Yet, despite all these challenges, the Payroll team must remain focused and accurately process our pay on time, every pay run.  

However, during NPW it is Payroll’s time to shine! All over Australia, Payroll staff are encouraged to celebrate their profession and spread the word about the important role Payroll plays in their organisation.

As part of the week’s festivities, the Association of Payroll Specialists (TAPS) are running a Poster Campaign and Photo Competition. In addition, the Payroll Ambassador Award ($1,000 prize from ADP) is up for grabs.

For full details see: http://www.payroll.com.au/npw.html

But wait, there's more! Entries for the Inaugural National Payroll Awards are also open up until 23 March. Prizes include $2,500 for the 2012 Payroll Professional of the Year and a prize pool of up to $3,000 for the 2012 Payroll Team of the Year.

To enter, CLICK HERE or visit the Australian Payroll Association online for more info.

“At Mitrefinch we are big supporters of National Payroll Week, and are delighted to acknowledge the fundamental role that payroll plays in every business”, said Jamie Fitzsimons, Mitrefinch Marketing Manager. 

“Payroll is an extremely important component of every worker's life. Yet, the challenges involved with processing our pay is something that many of us take for granted.”

"Having qualified payroll personnel as well as a user-friendly system to help automate payroll processing can significantly reduce error, offering huge cost savings".

Mitrefinch’s Time Management Solution, TMS, is used on a daily basis by payroll teams and HR professionals. TMS can automate the calculation of hours, rates, awards and entitlements and this data can be easily passed through to the organisation’s payroll or accounting system – cutting payroll processing time and costly errors.

To find out how Mitrefinch Time and Attendance Solutions can make your job a whole lot easier contact us today on 1300 884 831 or sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Are you Australia's Best Payroll Professional?

Does this sound like you or one of your colleagues? If so, it's time to stand up and be recognised!
The Australian Payroll Association have announced that the Inaugural 2012 National Payroll Awards are now open for entries.

The awards will recognise both individuals and teams for their hard work and dedication to the payroll function in their organisation. The outstanding work undertaken by an organisation's Pay Office is often overlooked, and the Australian Payroll Association aim to rectify this through their nationally recognised awards. 

The total prize pool is $5,500.  Winners of the team and individual categories will receive a beautiful trophy in recognition of their achievement and acknowledgement in the Payroll News eNewsletter

Entries close on 23 March and the payroll community will have until the end of National Payroll Month to view and vote for the most worthy winners.  The winners will be announced on Thursday 5 April 2012.

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to be recognised as a team or individual for your immense contribution to payroll in your organisation.

Prizes include $2,500 for the 2012 Payroll Professional of the Year and a prize pool of up to $3,000 for the 2012 Payroll Team of the Year. 

To enter, CLICK HERE or visit the Australian Payroll Association online for more information.
See terms and conditions for more details.

Confident that your staff are being paid correctly?

Maybe it's time you checked your payroll reports as yet another company has been caught out for allegedly underpaying it's employees.

This time, the operator of a Gold Coast pizza shop is being prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman for allegedly underpaying 27 employees almost $20,000.

The employees in question were aged from 20 to 37 and several are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, employed as cooks, kitchen-hands, customer service attendants and delivery drivers.

The workers were allegedly underpaid their minimum hourly rates, overtime rates and weekend penalty rates, with one staff member allegedly underpaid evening work allowances.

It is also alleged that the outlet owner, Mr Murphy, failed to comply with a Notice to Produce documents issued by Fair Work inspectors during their investigation.

Under the Fair Work Act, employers must comply with requests from the FairWork Ombudsman to provide employment records relating to employees and former employees.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said the decision to prosecute was made because of the involvement of vulnerable workers and the employer's failure to rectify the matter.

Read the full article online at Payroll News

How can you safeguard your organisation from a potential Fair Work investigation?

Ensuring that you are compliant with different pay scales, penalty rates and modern awards can represent a major headache for many organisations, with other recent workplace cases such as Toys 'R' Us, highlighting the importance of effective Award Interpretation and Time Management processes.

An automated Employee Time Management System takes the stress out of employee allowances and entitlement calculations via an in-built, fully customisable Award Interpreter.

Easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties, ensuring consistent application of your business rules. A direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors.

Reports and Employment Records can also be generated quickly and easily should you be asked to produce them as evidence by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

If you would like discover how your organisation can benefit from more efficient Award Interpretation and effective Employee Time Management contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 931 or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Excessive Overtime may be linked to Depression

The current economic climate is forcing many white-collar, public sector workers to spend more time at work than the typical 9-5. 

However, this could have a damaging impact on their mental wellbeing, with a recent study finding that working 11-hour days on a regular basis can more than double a worker’s risk of depression compared to employees who typically work an eight hour day. 

More than 2,000 British civil servants who had no mental health problems were researched when the study began in 1991. Six years later, 66 cases of major depression were found in the workers after they received mental health screenings. Men and women who worked more than 11-hour days had a more than twofold increased risk of depression, compared to employees who spent less than eight hours at the work. 

Marianna Virtanen, a study researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health believes that a variety of genetic, physical, and emotional factors can make a person vulnerable to depression. At the workplace, the prolonged stress felt by people with long hours is one of the contributing factors to depression. 

Dr Virtanen believes that: “Long working hours are likely to be related to less time to relax and less sleep. It is also possible that excessive working hours result in problems with close relationships, which in turn, may trigger depression”. 

Signs of depression can be found in trouble sleeping, feeling stressed, being irritable and dissatisfied, or lacking pleasure in those things that usually make you happy. A depressed person can also be less efficient at their job, make more mistakes than normal and have trouble getting organized or concentrating. 

It is important that managers use the data collected by their time and attendance systems to monitor not only the contracted hours of their staff but also the extra hours that employees put in to complete projects. 

Armed with this information you may be able to justify hiring additional staff or bringing in contractors at times of increased activity, or at the very least acknowledge the effort being put in by your team - perhaps introducing a Time in Lieu scheme or incentives for those that put in the hard yards? In the long run, this ultimately benefits you as a motivated and happy workforce generally means increased productivity! 

What's more, if your employees are having to frequently work extra hours without compensation you could have a potential lawsuit on your hands. (See blog Post: "Aussie Workers are being forced to work extra hours without compensation, how could a Time and Attendance System help you avoid a potential lawsuit") 

There are many more benefits of using an automated time and attendance system, visit our website to find out more or feel free to contact us directly on +61 2 8762 7888 or sales@mitrefinch.com.au 

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9038507/People-who-work-11-hours-are-twice-as-likely-to-suffer-depression.html