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What can schools do to better support staff wellbeing, reduce absence, save time and money, and increase retention?
taff Absence Management Ltd, or SAM, provides software that reduces the impact on administration and budget,
while improving the support available to staff. Kathryn Birch, Managing Director of SAM, shares her tips for improving staff retention, and reducing costs.
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Communicate your attendance policy
Educate staff on the absence process and the support available. Once this is clear and is being tracked, with support offered, absence rates are reduced. Tracking absence and being able to see when triggers are being hit enables you to take action quickly.
Monitor trends Once you track trends in absence
across the school, you can address issues, make improvements and plan for peaks. Being able to drill down information to illness category, staff type, time periods and line managers helps to inform what action to take. If you are a multi-academy trust, having the ability to view and compare absence across your schools is essential for effective leadership. Understanding where your absence costs come from enables you to save money and reinvest your budget.
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Triggers for short- and long-term absences
You will have different triggers outlined in your attendance policy
‘SAM has revolutionised our
sickness-monitoring procedures. Our ability to track individuals at every stage and produce detailed notes and professional reports
is already reaping benefi ts’
Simon Bulmer, Business Manager, Hugh Gaitskell Primary School
ABOUT SAM SAM is an online staff absence management software for
schools and MATs that tells you who’s hit triggers, when tasks are due, centralises all documents and provides reports. An annual licence to SAM costs from £495 +VAT per year. Use the online calculator to estimate how much your school could save. For a demonstration of the SAM software, call 01924 907319 or go to
staffabsencemanagement.co.uk.
FundEd SUMME MMER 2018 21
and the support needed will differ. Setting reminders for short-term absence tasks can help staff return to work more quickly. Long-term absences are usually classed as a period of four weeks or more. Obtaining an occupational health report, and then arranging a long-term absence review once received, can help support the employee in their return to work. You should make sure the report is refreshed regularly. Tracking these cases will help managers apply the correct process.
employee to ascertain their current state of health and readiness to return, and anything you can do to facilitate their return. Conduct a return-to-work meeting for all absences. Consider if reasonable adjustments can be made, such as changes to duties or working hours. If you use software like SAM you can assign meetings to managers and set reminders to ease the administration.
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Offer support services Offer occupational health services. Being able to arrange an appointment quickly means employees get access
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Utilise welfare meetings Carry out regular reviews with the
to support sooner and feel valued, and often the stress of the situation is reduced. Consider making counselling services available, holding stress- awareness briefi ngs and wellbeing sessions or providing fl u clinics.
training to your leadership team and department managers to ensure that everyone is following the same procedures and all staff are receiving the same support. This should help leaders spot issues earlier and better support staff. Consider providing stress management training for employees.
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Save time and costs by using a software system Effective absence management can be time-consuming and diffi cult to keep on top of. Using software such as SAM reduces the amount of time required in collating the information you need to support your staff. SAM centralises all documentation, including meeting notes, return-to-work forms and fi t notes, making preparing for meetings easier. Proactively managing absence can also reduce insurance premiums. Our clients have seen on average a 40%* reduction in absent days by applying effective management, and this in turn has reduced supply costs and improved education standards in the classroom. One client saved £47,000 in 18 months.**
Educate leaders Provide absence management
* Average reduction in absence days of 40% taken from autumn and spring term results across 10 schools that have effectively used SAM since Sept 2015. **
staffabsencemanagement.co.uk/bradford-school-saves-47546-using-sam/
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