Birmingham City Council wages war on staff absenteeism

May 6 2009 by Neil Elkes, Birmingham Post

It will enable staff to check their own details, book holidays, arrange training and view their personal development records from any PC, with the right security codes as well as allowing managers to note sickness absence without having to contact the HR and payroll department.

And means that all absence is recorded faster and more accurately than before - key as Coun Rudge is trying to cut the average sickness level from 15.6 days per employee to the council’s target of 9.7.

Keeping absenteeism down has been a persistent problem for the public sector and successive initiatives have failed to make an impact.

Coun Rudge said: “Now it will be much easier to investigate problems and deal with them.

“There will be no hiding place for managers or staff. That does not mean we won’t be unsympathetic in certain circumstances, but we will be able to identify those areas which cause concern.”

Many of the jobs being lost initially will be in the HR department, where staff are currently in the ‘transactional’ roles of taking details and information from managers in remote offices.

With this information now entered on a single computer system their jobs are redundant.

But as for all redundancies, the council believes it is big enough, with a large enough turnover to be able to offer the majority a suitable role elsewhere, with extra training if necessary.