The number one reason for employee absence is illness. It’s frustrating getting the call that a valued employee can’t make it in today due to illness. But, what can we do? If someone’s ill, we can’t tell them off. We can’t tell them to come in anyway. All we can do is hope they get better soon.
But is there anything we can do to help prevent this sort of thing happening? After all, employees spend most of their waking hours at your office. Surely there are some things you can do to help keep them healthy?
Have a fair illness policy. There are many employers out there who impose very strict measures when it comes to sick absence. They require notes from a medical professional for every little thing. They dock pay from employees who can’t be at the office. They treat employees calling in sick with suspicion. This is usually all in an effort to discourage false reports of illness among employees.
But, the inevitable consequence of this is that employees who really are ill end up coming into the office. They don’t want to deal with the hassle of going to a doctor for a minor, brief illness. Or perhaps they simply can’t afford to lose that pay. So what happens? They come into work and inadvertently spread germs around. More people get ill, and you end up having to deal with even more ill people that you started with. So, having a good, fair policy when it comes to sick leave is actually a good way to keep people healthy.
Give the office a deep clean. Offices get filthy. We often underestimate just how filthy they can get. Think about your home; dust and germs just naturally start setting up home. That’s why we have to clean so often.
Sure, if your office is like most offices then you’re probably getting it cleaned every night. But, this is generally just a quick vacuum and a wipe down of the desks. The fact is that you want a really thorough, deep clean in order to keep the office as hygienic as possible. You should consider looking into some commercial cleaning technology. Maybe one weekend a month you could have the office properly cleaned from top to bottom.
Encourage healthy diets. Wait, what? How can employers have that much control over what their employees eat? Well, the truth is, you don’t. But, diet is so important to general health and the ability to keep illness at bay. So if there’s something employers can do, we should give it a try, right?
Many modern offices have a lot of quick snacks on hand. There are vending machines in many commercial buildings. But, many offices I’ve been to have sugary snacks out for all employees to share. There are even refrigerators filled with free soda! Let’s consider cutting down on the availability of these. You could get fresh fruit delivered to your office instead. Want to give it a try?
Paola Ramirez
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