Buffalo Skiver is one of the Usual Suspects of poor attendance. He is the one who leaves early on a Friday and takes Mondays off to recover from a busy weekend. He will stretch his lunch break an extra half an hour whenever he can and slip off early when no-one is looking.

We’ve nicknamed our long term absentee Usual Suspect Wild Bill Ghost because no one sees him, he is like a ghost in the workplace. Usually when we start to work with a company, some number of ghosts always re-surface.

Learning to deal with the usual suspects will go a long way to solving any absence problem and here’s a starting point to getting it right.

Rick Arora has put together an infographic on the science of stress. It shows how varied the reasons causing stress can be and how the effects of stress are not just psychological but physical.

A phased return to work is a plan laid out for individual staff members who are returning to work after a period of long term absence (over 20 days or 4 calendar weeks).

Staying in regular contact with absentees can be tricky at best of times but it’s risky to overlook long term absence.

The return to work interview has been proven to be the single most effective tool for managing short-term absence. 

At this time of year when it is cold and wet outside staying home becomes more and more attractive and employees are more likely to rack up the duvet days. Dealing with short term absences in the winter months