Managing_and_Communicating_Information

Managing and Communicating Information Produce a report analysing sickness absence in your organisation and make recommendations for improvement. Introduction: My organisation is a large secondary comprehensive school with over 100 staff. This includes not only teachers but support staff – made up of teaching assistants, admin staff, caretakers and canteen staff. Within our Absence Policy it states that our aim is to ‘help staff to feel secure and happy in the work place.’ All leave of absence is dealt with by the Headteacher in accordance with Education Staff Guidelines. Leave of Absence Forms must be completed and duties swapped (where necessary). For Personal Development Courses 2 week’s prior request for cover is required. Staff are encouraged to share information re home / work if it may affect their performance in work, so that appropriate support can be given. Support can also be obtained from Capita Occupational Health Service, which is the health service for all States Departments. All staff are required to take part in an Induction Programme. The Headteacher will consider each request for compassionate leave individually and sympathetically in accordance with guidelines. Urgent Domestic Distress – staff may request leave to provide them with time to care for dependants which working time will not allow i.e. ill children, breakdown of normal nursing care arrangements, burglary or serious damage to property. (this should not normally exceed 3 days or 6 days in any 12 months). When staff have unplanned absence they should ring in early as possible and leave a message on the answer phone and where appropriate send in work for the classes to be covered. After 3 days of illness a sickness certificate is required. A return to work interview will take place with the Headteacher or line manager for all absences over 48 hours. Should poor attendance continues this will then become a disciplinary issue and Staff Services at Education Sport and Culture will become involved. Staff are reassured that absence happens people become ill and not to worry about becoming ill. It is the organisations professional duty to monitor absence. The Bradford Factor is used to monitor absence in the organisation – if staff wish to know their Bradford Factor score they should e mail the secretary. Those staff with scores between 200 and 500 will have already had a series of return to work interviews. Those with over 500 will be invited for a meeting before the end of June to discuss attendance. On the whole the policy tries to explain that senior management expect that people will be ill occasionally, but what we can’t do is allow people to take time off regularly without expecting questions to be asked. 1. Know how to gather and select data 2.1 Describe criteria used in sourcing data It is important in any report to have the facts – you cannot argue with the facts! It is also important that the information is current and relevant. Absence is recorded in several different ways. If a member of staff is ill or cannot come in for a particular reason on any day, they should ring school as early as possible and leave a message on the answer phone. This is picked up by the person responsible for cover and input into our IT system (CMIS) which is used to generate a cover report for that particular day. Any planned absences will have been requested using a ‘Leave of Absence’ form. These entries should also be input into CMIS. It is most cost effective for our school to use cover from existing staff who have non contact time on that particular day. Should this not be possible because of staff shortages, we have a bank of cover teachers we can contact at short notice, should we need them. This data can be then exported from CMIS into an Excel data sheet where I will complete my report. This data is updated on a daily basis so will always be current. 2.2 Identify quantative and qualative Sources of data There are two kinds of information – quantative (hard data) and qualative (soft data). Hard information is usually factual, accurate and provable. It often involves numbers taken from a monitoring system. Within our organisation this would be absence records i.e. * Planned absences * Inset / courses * Daily absences – phoned in * Cover records As we only work school term time, annual leave is not something that affects our staff, although occasionally under special circumstances, term time leave is allowed at the discretion of the headteacher. The good thing about this type of information is that as mentioned earlier, you cannot argue with the facts. The problem could be ‘paralysis by analysis’ hundreds or reports being produced. These figures also do not take into account personal circumstances that may be causing these absences. If any member of our staff is absent for more than 2 days then a return to work interview with their line manager must take place. From this we are able to find out circumstances for the absence, where it is a recurring illness, are there problems at home or work that could be causing it. Through this interview both the member of staff and manager should be reassured. It is important not to push people, this will only make them defensive – don’t react to a situation – looks into the facts assumption is laziness and can be a recipe for disaster. The other type of data is qualative – this type of information would take into account personal circumstances and situations i.e. marriage breakdown, death in the family, problems with children – all these things could have an effect on the particular member of staff’s attendance records. Although this type of data does not have any hard statistics it should not be dismissed as it still has its own strengths. Both methods of data are complementing and contrasting. Whereas quantative would give us the data we needed as in how many people have been off sick, qualative research would ask why have these people been off sick' “Mixed methods can incorporate the strengths of both approaches, obtaining a more comprehensive view of the topic without limiting the data being collected”. www.ehavcom @ 1700hrs on 11/4/11 I personally think that for the type of data (absence) I am gathering it would be best to use a section of both methods in order to get a true picture of patterns and trends and why the absences are occurring. 2.3 Access data in line with legal and organisational requirements relevant to a work related activity. Our organisation uses the Bradford Factor as a means of measuring worker absenteeism. “Short term frequent absences reported n the day of occurrence cause more problems for managers than longer planned absences where replacement staff can be scheduled” www.Bradfordfactor.com @17.24 on 11/4/11. As stated in our policy we have a professional duty to monitor staff attendance and although we do realise staff members are likely to get ill, procedures should be followed. We also need to be fair to those staff with outstanding attendance. This is recognised by sending all staff with 100% attendance letters and a termly prize draw. The Bradford Factor used effectively can reduce absenteeism dramatically, serving as a deterrent and a method for tackling persistent absenteeism. Those staff with a Bradford Factor of over 500 will be invited to a meeting with the Headteacher. It is important within this meeting for the Headteacher or Manger to state that any information given will be strictly confidential. Meeting should be minuted and signed by all people present. It is also very important to take into account data protection. It is vital to remember that all staff have the right to see their file should they wish and therefore when adding any data to their file this should be taken into account and nothing should be put in there that you would not be willing to show them or say to their face. “If an absence record contains specific medical information relating to an employee this is deemed sensitive data and you will have to satisfy the statutory conditions for processing such data.” Data Protection Act 1998 The Bradford Factor can be utilised creating ‘triggers’ whereby certain actions are taken when an employee’s score reaches a certain point i.e. UK Prison Services uses the following triggers: * 51 points – verbal warning * 201 points – written warning * 401 points – final warning * 601 points – dismissed Taken from Le Rocquier School attendance policy Our organisation uses the following system linked with a degree of common sense! * 300 points – informal meeting * 400 points – formal meeting * 500 points – formal meeting Staff should be made aware that although we recognise that people get ill, but when absences are taken when not absolutely necessary it is likely to bring up there Bradford Factor Score. They should also be aware that should poor attendance continue then it will become a disciplinary issue and Staff Services at Department of Education Sport and Culture will be become involved. For these reasons it is vital that all absences and their reasons are recorded. This will ensure that should disciplinary action against a member of staff become necessary, all the facts are there and the organisation / manager would not be open to unfair dismissal! 2. Understand how to interpret data and information related to a work activity 3.4 Select data and information specifically related to the work activity. See appendix 1 3.5 Identify trends and patterns This chart and graph show that on average members of female staff take more sickness days than male members. In all terms but one female percentage of absence is higher than male. This could be because of looking after young children who are ill' This could also be related to pregnancy related sickness. In a US study by Dr. Mikko Laaksonen on why women take more sickness days than men it was stated. "In our culture, men are much more likely to use denial as a defence mechanism generally, and are less likely to acknowledge illness specifically." http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story on 19/4/11@ 22.35 Women could be more susceptible to stress as not only do they have busy work lives but often busy home lives too – looking after the family and home. There are mixed results for the absence teaching staff and support staff. This could suggest that the job of teaching may cause more stress as teachers obviously have a lot more contact with students. 2.3 Identify the impact of the trends and patters on future activities All absence has a great impact on the organisation. Although teacher absence may cause a more obvious impact in terms of teaching classes/ students, as mentioned previously we do have a bank of cover teachers that can be contacted at short notice. Also teachers in school with non contact time can be used to cover lessons; this could inadvertently put more stress on them! Whereas with support staff (which includes teaching assistants, office staff, canteen staff and caretakers) this is not the case. Should a teaching assistant be off ill, this would probably mean that some classrooms would have to go without a TA which again could put pressure on the teachers. The class may be more disruptive and have a great impact on the students. If a member of the admin team is away, it falls on the other members of the team to cover work and down to me as the Office Manager to distribute the work fairly. Although as mentioned, illness does happen and cannot always be helped, it is important for staff to be aware of the impact their absence will have on not only the other members of staff but the students. Continuous poor attendance could in effect cause more stress on existing staff, possibly leading to more absence and affect students in the classroom which could affect the school results overall! By using the Bradford Factor, this means we can record absence and sickness to provide an industry wide benchmark to which we can compare individuals. 2.4 Identify conclusions and make recommendations It is important that staff are aware of the impact that their absence could have on the organisation as a whole! Ways to make this happen and help improve attendance could be: * Educate staff on The Bradford Factor and way it works * Show staff statistics * Speak to staff – ask what methods they would use to improve attendance – this could be done through regular surveys * Regular department meetings – talk to your staff, know how they are feeling, sort any problems before they become bigger * Make staff that do have good attendance feel proud, prizes, letters * Make sure your organisation has a good working environment and that staff are aware they can always come and talk to their line manager * Management should be aware and understand the cause of absence; this can be done through return to work interviews. Below is a chart that shows the regular causes of absence Health & lifestyle factors genuine illness/poor health smoking excessive use of alcohol lack of exercise body weight | Workplace factors working patterns health & safety concerns travel times excessive hours | Attitudinal & stress factors job satisfaction career satisfaction intention to leave organisational commitment stress absence ‘culture’ | Domestic & kinship factors gender no. of children under 16 lack of flexible working arrangements | http://www.employment-studies.co.uk 19/4/11 @ 22.30 3. Know how to communicate the results of the information analysis 3.1 Identify the communication methods that could be used * Whole staff meetings * Regular Monday morning briefings * Regular e mails to staff * Presentations * Workshops * Training events * Department / Team meetings * One to ones * Publications * Regular bulletins * Reports * Staff appraisals Of course when taking into account these methods of communication you would also need to consider what is appropriate. If it was one particular member of staff that had attendance problems, you would not do this in a department or whole staff meeting! So on an occasion like this a one to one would be more appropriate. If it was a whole department that were having the problem, a department meeting would be ideal! To make the whole organisational staff aware of attendance as a whole, briefings and whole staff meetings are an ideal opportunity along with bulletins and publications. Sending out a regular, maybe termly attendance report would make staff aware of attendance through the whole organisation and not just their department. 3.2 Identify the target audience for the communication The best people to target with the outcome of the absence data would be the line managers and heads of department. In turn they will be able to communicate using the methods above to their members of staff. This way each manager / department head can focus on their own section in order to raise attendance. 3.3 Evaluate the impact of the communication It is very important to communicate the above information. It is important for staff throughout the whole organisation to be aware of what is happening through every level in order for them to understand what impact their poor or good attendance may have as a whole! Staff need to know that the organisation is working together to reach the same common objectives. Conclusion It is very important in all organisations that staff do not feel that they are kept in the dark! This often causes low moral! Staff need to feel that they know what is going on at all levels of the organisation. If you staff have a clear understanding of the company objectives they will in turn have more commitment to the business therefore raising productivity. Although it is good for staff to hear things directly from senior management it is also good for them to get feedback from their staff. “Apart from helping them feel involved with the business it is also enlightening for the management who get to hear things straight from the coalface”. http://www.mybusiness.co.uk 20/4/11 @ 2330 Performance management is also very important, not just once a year but regular intervals throughout the year, will help staff feel valued! Reflective Statement This module of Managing and Communication Information has been a very helpful module in regards to my actual role in my job. It has made me understand the importance of not only communicating information to my staff but to also listen to them! Not to presume things, to talk to them and find out the reason things are happening. If they are having a lot of absences or being late, rather than just presuming this is because they are lazy, to talk to them and find out the reason why is more helpful, they could be having problems at home or it may be something about their job that they are trying to avoid. I feel it helps staff moral all round when they know what is happening, not only in our own department but in the organisation as a whole and other departments. As mentioned previously senior management also like have input put from frontline staff, this is especially so in my place of work where SLT always ask our opinion in the front office. I will take a lot away from this module that I will be able to use every day within my place of work.