Things happen, and your team will be late or absent. But when does it become a problem, and what can you do about it? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Alan Twigg, president of Bent Ericksen & Associates, to help you navigate and address chronic attendance issues that are happening in your practice. To learn how to get your team to show up for you and your patients, listen to Episode 984 of The Best Practices Show!
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Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“There's a small group of people that really make this a big problem for everyone. I mean, every employee is going to get sick every now and again. Everyone that's got young kids is going to deal with young kids being sick, or daycare issues, and all of that — that's normal. But then, we've got the people where there's always something. It's always something. There's always the kid who is sick, or they're sick, or, ‘My car broke down,’ or, ‘My dog is sick,’ or whatever it is. There's always something. Those are the people that grind you down. They also have a big impact on the rest of your team because the good employees — the people that really work hard to show up on time, fight through the traffic, leave early, whatever it is — they see that this person is showing up late or missing work a lot. The strain is on them, the strain is on the patients, all of that. So, it's a big deal and it's a really important thing to address, even though I know we're still in this tight labor market and people are scared of confronting someone, ‘What if they quit?’ and all of that stuff. It’s a big deal and it’s a really important topic that we've got to address.” (2:43—3:55) -Alan
“One of the absolute most critical things when you have someone who is late or absent is you need to document what the reason is for the absence. There are general categories, and we don't need to get into the nitty-gritty of exactly what their diagnosis was, like was it this condition or that condition. It's just, we need to know. For example, were they sick? Did their car break down? Was it their kid that was sick? Was it that their kid didn't want to get up on time and get to school? Did the employee sleep through their alarm? We just need to get a sense of what we are talking about here. The reason for that is that we have to know what category this falls under because if we're covered by one of these state, city, or county mandatory sick leave rules, they have a list of criteria. We need to know, first and foremost, whether this absence falls under one of those reasons. The reason why that is so important is we need to know, fundamentally, which category we're in. We're either in a category where this absence might be protected, or we're in a category where it's not protected.” (6:46—8:03) -Alan
“Can I require a doctor's note? Should I require a doctor's note? The thing I'll say on that is, be careful. And it's be careful because there's a lot of nuance with that. Number one is, there's an element of trust. If you're requiring a doctor's note, especially if someone is only absent one day, two days, it can very much feel like you don't trust them, that you think they're lying. So, you want to be mindful of that. The other thing is that if you require them to go and see a doctor, in 99% of cases, you actually are on the hook where you have to pay for their time — in a sense, wages — while they're going and seeing this doctor and getting a note. You may also have to pay for the test or the cost of the doctor's visit, and a lot of folks don't think about that. They think that, ‘Oh. Well, I can just require them to go see a doctor.’ But basically, that's requiring a medical examination — and that actually does fall under some wage and hour protections. So, you need to be really careful about that. There's also some nuance around, is the doctor's visit covered under your health insurance plan? Are you paying for the health insurance plan? The whole thing gets really messy.” (9:49—11:07) -Alan
“Oftentimes, people will read an article in the local newspaper or something, and it'll say something like, ‘All employers now have to give three days of sick leave per year,’ or four days of sick leave per year. A lot of times, people will think, ‘Oh. Well, cool. I give a bunch of PTO already, so I must be automatically in compliance. I'm good. I don't need anything.’ But that's not the case. These states set out all kinds of rules about who is eligible, when they're eligible, what they can use it for, what happens at the end of the year, what happens at termination, doctor's notes. All of these things come into play, and that's why you've got to have a policy that breaks all this stuff down.” (12:06—12:43) -Alan
“In general, there are two different policies. One policy is a general policy around attendance. That's just putting people on notice that if you have excessive absenteeism or excessive tardiness, that's a problem. That is grounds for disciplinary action up to and including termination. That type of language needs to be in there because a general attendance policy is going to cover a little bit of everything. It covers: my dog was sick, my kid was sick, I was sick, the car didn't start, my husband was talking to me, and I lost track of time, whatever it is. The second policy would be the sick leave policy or the PTO policy. If you are covered by state, county, et cetera, rules, then that policy needs to be written according to what those particular rules are. Creating that type of policy on your own from scratch is a lot of work — I'm not going to lie. You've got to look up what your state statute is. You may have to look at the actual text of the bill. You may have to look at your state's FAQ page, if it's published online. Then, you have to tease apart, what applies to me? What doesn't apply to me? And you've got to write your own policy. It's doable, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and it may be prone to error. So, that's one of those areas of HR where, if I were you, I wouldn't reinvent the wheel. Work with someone like us who can create that for you.” (13:22—14:50) -Alan
“If the person has time available, and if the reason for the absence is covered under the policy, in general, what we say for the most part is, let them use the time. Put it on payroll, and just move on. Don't worry about doctor's notes. Don't try to track or figure out, were they really sick? What exactly was their fever temperature? How do we really know their kid was sick? Don't worry about that. Just let them use the time, because once it's used up, then we're in a different category. Now, we're talking about, okay, we can take action. Now, we can document it. Now, we can potentially move forward with disciplinary action.” (17:59—18:39) -Alan
“At some point, you're sitting down with this person and you're basically saying, ‘Your chronic absenteeism, your chronic tardiness is a problem.’ You're relating it to the impact it's having on the rest of the team. You're relating it to the impact it's having on the patients. It's basically then going down a classic discipline path where there are verbal warnings, there may be written warnings, and then, ultimately, it may be a termination offense. A very common question we get is, ‘Can I establish a set policy? That policy would say if you're absent two times, it's a verbal warning. If you're absent three times, it's a written warning. If you're absent four times, it's another written warning. Then, you're on probation. Then, you're on double secret probation. Then, it's termination,’ whatever it is, some very rigid policy. We do not recommend that because those types of policies are too strict and they come back to bite you.” (18:42—19:37) -Alan
“We want to be mindful of our good employees and the impact this is having on the good employees that are not showing up late, that are not showing up absent. Because ultimately, yes, we're in a tight labor market. Yes, I know that people will say, ‘Well, I don't want to confront this person because what if she gets mad and then she quits?’ I understand the rationale of that. I understand that losing a team member and being short-staffed would be a problem. The bigger problem, though, would be that we let this person be chronically late or chronically absent, and it causes our good employees to leave. Now, we're stuck with only mediocre and bad employees and employees who are late, and we've lost our good employees. That's the worst-case scenario that we really want to be preventing and being mindful of. So, yes, it's a problem. Yes, we're in a tight labor market. You've got to still have these conversations that really need to be had.” (29:20—30:18) -Alan
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:38 Alan’s background.
2:26 Why this is an important topic.
3:55 Mandatory sick leave, explained.
6:16 Document the reason for an absence.
9:46 Things to know about requiring doctor’s notes.
13:00 Attendance, sick leave, and PTO policies.
15:22 Categorize the reasons for absences and tardies.
17:52 Let them use their time.
20:34 Don't solve your team members’ problems.
23:50 Your employee says they're sick, but . . .
27:02 Leave of absence, explained.
28:02 Being chronically late versus chronically absent.
30:22 Final thoughts.
31:44 More about Bent Ericksen and how to get in touch.
Alan Twigg Bio:
Alan Twigg is the president of Bent Ericksen & Associates. For over 10 years, he has guided thousands of clients and consultants through the ever-changing world of HR and employment compliance. He is a speaker, consultant, and author who is passionate about bringing education and peace of mind to such a confusing topic.
As a strong proponent of symbiotic employer-employee relations, Alan is passionate about teamwork and positive work cultures, with an emphasis on long-term personnel retention and employment compliance, where his solutions-oriented outlook excels.