Absence: Unwanted presence

Absence management is the perennial HR issue. The CIPD’s latest absence management survey report, in November, found that almost all employers (82 per cent) now record their employee absence rate, and the average across all sectors – 7.7 absence days per employee a year – is one of the lowest recorded. That figure may seem high to many, but that’s because of persistently high levels in the public sector (9.6 days on average). With imminent public-sector cuts, absence rates are likely to go down further still. So has absence management finally been cracked?