It's about getting ahead of the issues, rather than waiting for them to happen. There are a lot of things you can do - having clear policies around sick notes, or taking leave to care for dependent family members for example, or having clear conversations when new staff come on board around what happens if someone is taking inappropriate leave. It's also doing a bit of cross training to give people in a small team an understanding around a range of jobs, so they can fill critical gaps occasionally if a need arises.
Also, a lot of small businesses might not be using technology as effectively as they can. Technology is reasonably cheap and accessible these days, so you should think about how you can use technology in situations like when staff are caring for a sick child, so they can effectively access the office, but from home.
How about the issue of presenteeism? What are some strategies owners can think about to mitigate that?
I think we've got the answer now on illnesses like colds. Whenever you see someone coming in with a cold, the other staff will tell them to go home, because they don't want to catch it. But I don't think we've got the message yet on people who are overtired, or perhaps ailing in other less visible ways - like they've hurt a leg in a sports game - that still mean they won't be much use when they turn up to work. Just because someone's at work it doesn't mean you're going to get a day's work out of them, and that's an important point for people to understand.
Once company owners are alive to that, they need to give permission for people to take some time off. And it might not be a full day; you can make arrangements where they might take a few hours off then use technology to work from home. A bit of flexibility goes a long way.
But presenteeism can be hard to manage because people often won't admit they're feeling tired or off colour. So having a safe and open environment where people can own up to that and then get something done about it is important because it's entirely possible if they don't it might be a health and safety risk. It also means you're more likely to have loyal staff members because they feel they're being accommodated.
Stress is another factor that can play into these issues. What can be done to minimise the effects of that?
A lot of stress in the workplace is not just about overwork; the bigger part is about a lack of control - people feeling stressed because they're not sure about what they're supposed to be doing, or feeling unable to complete their task, or that their boss doesn't seem to understand what they're trying to do.
What small business owners can do in that context is make sure when they give a task to someone that they've got the tools to do the task, that they understand why they're doing it, and what the task means in terms of creating the wider success of the enterprise.
For a lot of these issues it seems communication is key, and perhaps small businesses have an advantage here because they're getting messages across to smaller teams?
I don't think small business people should take it for granted that just because they have a small team that everyone will know what's going on. Often small business people are expert at a thing - so they're an expert mechanic, so they'll start a mechanic's business, for example - but that doesn't necessarily make them either good business people or good leaders. And good leadership is often about good communication.
Simple things like weekly team meetings, showing staff the numbers, getting staff to talk about problems they've had in the workplace, making it safe to ask a question - all those things are massively important. Don't think that just because your staff members might be sitting right next to you they will magically understand what you're thinking.
