In smaller businesses, one employee absence can have a noticeable impact on the workplace. Common challenges include financial pressures, gaps in the workflow and skill shortages. While two or three weeks of leave are relatively easy to manage because they can be treated as annual leave, longer absences can be more challenging. Work redistribution can overburden remaining staff, and it can be difficult to find cover – especially for specialist and senior roles.
“We have one individual due to go on to maternity in the next month, and they are at a senior level, but in a unique role, which is a challenge in itself. Because when they’re off, who else can do that? The answer is no one.” (Magdalena, Medium business employer)
SMEs thus need to be resourceful when managing absences, and early preparation is crucial to effectively support employees during parental leave.
Redistributing work internally was the most commonly used strategy for covering absence among participating SMEs in our study. Reorganising tasks should consider the skill levels of different team members and can be taken as an opportunity to delegate more mundane tasks to more junior tasks. In highly skilled teams, bringing in a student or graduate to gather work experience can be another option, which provides development opportunities and might lead to recruitment in the future
“We don’t hire replacements, we kind of spread out the roles within the team. Obviously that is…an intense time for the rest of the team to take on those extra roles and responsibilities while someone is out of the business.” (Rachael, Small business employer)
Temporary and permanent recruitment: Due to the cost and time involved in securing cover, most of our participating SMEs did not view (temporary) recruitment as a realistic option, and other approaches to managing staff absence were more common. Overhiring and multi-skilling – add link can be a good strategy for minimising the risk of workflow disruptions for lower-skilled staff and jobs with a higher turnover.
“We have a very simplistic rule that we have three people trained up on any jobs and then, if you have one on holiday, one sick and one leaves… you don’t get caught out.” (Mike, Small business employer)
Did you know? Employees are also often concerned about how their role will be covered during their absence and by whom. Particularly in case of longer periods of leave, they might also worry that they will become redundant and are not expected to return to their jobs. Involving them in the absence management can help make them feel valued.
“I don’t want anyone to cover me in case they can spin it that this person does a better job than I do and I’m not needed.” (Olivia, Small business employee)
