Absence management

Absence management, also known as leave management, is a combination of employer policies, procedures, or programs designed to handle employee leaves of absence and minimize the impact of those absences on the employer. Absence management programs aim to maximize productivity by supporting an employee from initial absence through return-to-work and stay-at-work plans.

In 2015, the CDC Foundation estimated that physical injury or illness costs US employers $225.8 billion annually. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that depression cost employers an additional $44 billion annually. The reasons and costs for employee absence have been well studied for decades. Since the early 2000s studies have increasingly consider the reasons and costs for presenteeism which occurs when workers who are not fully productive still attend work. Injury, illness, stress, anxiety, or depression can diminish productivity, imposing increased costs on the employer and potentially impacting others in the workforce.

To balance the costs of absence with the health and well-being of the workforce, companies rely on absence management programs to explicitly track and manage the cause and costs of absenteeism.