Fighting the Plague of Too Many Sick Days

When an employee calls in sick, that can impact both staff and patient. And when it's a lot, you might as well hang out the closed sign. The idea is to show up and work, right? The radiology team in South San Francisco had this problem, so they created a survey to assess employee understanding of sick days. They created new policies around sick leave, tardiness and "dangling" (failing to clock in and out). Then they rewarded employees in compliance with a gourmet lunch. After two years, the average number of sick days per FTE fell by nearly 3 days.

Here's What Worked

• Surveying employees about attendance policies
• Creating guidelines around sick days, tardiness and dangling (not filling out time cards)
• Rewarding successful employees with a formal lunch

What can your team do to reward and recognize one another?