How I manage the impact of sickness in my restaurant

‘Daaaaaddddd, The cat’s been sick again!’?

Eurgh, it’s that time of year again…?

Endless evenings spent scrubbing the carpets whilst simultaneously chasing an animal who would rather tear off your face than go outside to do her ungodly business.?

We are in that period when the Great British weather can’t quite decide between the early dawn of Spring and a new Ice Age.?

The snow has hit this week. (Yay, screams my inner child!)

That annual smattering that brings the entire country to a grinding halt. Of course, any more than 3 flakes in any rolling 72 hour period usually signals the end of life as we know it.

Yesterday was our opening party for our new restaurant, where all manner of local folk were invited to join us for an evening of miniature cocktails, prosecco & nibbles. There were even a few minor celebrities on the guest list! You know, that one from Love Island…

And what an evening it proved to be!?

The drinks were flowing, the music thumping and almost every guest in the venue was up on their feet joining the impromptu dancing.?

But, the day didn’t start off quite so smoothly! A mixture of ‘so-called heavy snow’ and seasonal illness had left our team utterly depleted.?

When day broke, we were expecting 25 of our team on site for the event, however, by 10am this number had dropped by 30%.?

8 of our team had phoned in either sick or snowed in, significantly higher than the levels I generally expect from day to day.?

So what can we do about it?

How do you manage sickness and ensure that your team doesn’t take the mick on a regular basis?

Simple…

• Establish a clear policy on the reporting of all absences including lateness and sickness.?

• Hold every single staff member accountable to this policy - once you get the buy- in from everybody, the team will help you to police it and distinguish genuine illness from the common hangover.?

• Always complete a return to work for all absences - this ensures your team is aware that any & all absences will be investigated by the MOD.

• Create a culture of rewarding great attendance and include this in your monthly/quarterly meetings.?

• Offer full support for all genuine absences and explore potential flexible working arrangements where appropriate.?

There are many other different ways of keeping sickness rates low in the workplace. Ensuring mental health support is in place is another important point to add to the list.?

The unfortunate truth is, there is no one size fits all solution.?

People will always have different views about what is or isn’t an acceptable reason for their absence.?

I have found that throughout my career, the leaders who have the lowest rates in their teams always do 2 things…

1. They follow the points above, as a minimum!
2. They treat people like people. The complex animals that we all are.?

It's worked for me so far!

Ciao, x