Sick reports via an app: helpful or not?
The umbrella term Employment Self-Service entails that employees are able to do more of their administration themselves. Request digital pay slips, inspect their terms of employment, get a Bike Plan set up: employees are increasingly able to take matters into their own hands. In that context, the following question arises: would it be helpful to let your employees report sick via an app?
Seasonal flu: chat, app or IM?
Of course you can’t just call in sick through a chat function. Advocates of using apps to call in sick are suggesting input screens that ask all the key questions. For instance, the employee has to fill in when the sick leave starts, and when the estimated recovery date will be. Helpful?
Yes, but… major drawbacks
Many an HR-manager will be horrified by this idea. After all, this cancels out the part where you can have a personal conversation with the employee in question. What about concern and involvement with the patient? Moreover, it lowers the threshold for employees to call in sick. Canceling out the contact with the employee will also mean that the HR-manager loses most of the control.
Benefits?
A major advantage of reporting sick via an app is that the registration will be fast and efficient. When you ask most HR-managers, this is where the advantages of this modern way of working run out. But might there be more benefits to it? Widen your perspective, and see the possibilities. In some cases, registering sick via an app has its perks. For instance, when you have a self-employed person working for you. These employees work independently and are output-driven, but they are still affiliated to your company. Hiring a self-employed person means entering a collaboration instead of an employment relationship, and therefore, there are no real drawbacks to registering sick via an app anymore. But what about a traditional employer-employee relationship?
The solution: a happy medium
Most will agree that it would be best if the sick employee literally just calls in to say they are ill. From there on out, though, it would be great if the sick report can be sent to the HR-department digitally from the reporting manager – for instance by using a cloud-based registration system that is compatible with all mobile devices. The name of the employee, the time of the phone call, the measures that were taken, and any comments can then be noted down and reported to HR easily. In short: after the employee has had a conversation with their manager over the phone, the latter can send a short report to the HR-department via the app. That makes for a the perfect middle ground between personal contact and digital solutions!
Would you like to know more about the cloud-based leave registration system of Leavedays.com? Feel free to contact us!
