Time and Attendance Systems to become increasingly important for sick leave management

Time and attendance systems could potentially become increasingly important within every company as leaders of the British Medical Association want the time an employee is off work because they have certified themselves as sick to be doubled from one to two weeks before they need to see a GP, in order to relieve the strain on overstretched GPs, a recent news report has been able to find.

Requiring a sick note after one week takes time away from patients who may need appointments more, according to Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the BMA's GP committee.

Vautrey speaks before the BMA debates a motion at its annual conference on Wednesday which "demands that certification of fitness to work ('fit notes') need not be done by a medical professional and that there should be an extension of self-certification for illness from seven to 14 days".

Doctors also want the law changed so that other health professionals such as midwives, physiotherapists and senior nurses, can also sign sick notes. But organisations representing employers rejected the call and warned that it could lead to more people staying off work falsely claiming to be ill.

"Federation of Small Business members are concerned this change could lead to a rise in absenteeism,'' said Mike Cherry, its national chairman. "Fit notes are an important check in the system, and smaller firms would not want to see them undermined."

Tensor Time and Attendance Systems can streamline sick leave monitoring and management

Tensor plc supplies an extensive range of solutions designed specifically to help employers thoroughly monitor and manage absence, with our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporating a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.

Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual's or a department's absence records.

Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness. As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

WinTA.NET supplies the relevant managers with information on employee's absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you'd like to find out more about the Tensor workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.