We’re delighted to announce that we can now help our clients work more efficiently and productively by providing them with Microsoft SharePoint solutions and services.

Part of the 2007 Microsoft Office System, Microsoft SharePoint creates a single, collaborative workspace where employees can view and share ideas and information, create and manage documents and electronic content and collaborate with each other, no matter where they are.

We can help companies plan and develop a strategy for securely implementing SharePoint, and can smoothly handle every aspect of the implementation process.

To find out more about our SharePoint solutions and services, contact the Systems Valley team.

The latest CIPD absence management survey contains some interesting statistics about  employee absence during the recession.

Nearly four in ten of the employers surveyed said that the economic downturn had increased their organisation’s focus on reducing absence levels and costs.

However, fears over job security during the recession do not appear to have led to a reduction in the levels of absenteeism. Only 12% of surveyed employers said they had noticed an increase in the number of people coming to work ill in the last twelve months, while 67% said there had been no change in this respect.

You can download the full report here.

Systems Valley’s state-of-the-art, offshore facilities are situated in Kerala, which boasts the highest concentration of science and technology graduates in India. Our development centre also neighbours two prestigious Indian technology institutions: the National Institute of Technology  and the Indian Institute of Management.

That means we cherry-pick our offshore software developers from a rich pool of highly-qualified and technically-skilled talent.

Click here (link to form) to book one of our developers. Or find out more about outsourcing with us.

As discussed in earlier blogs, absenteeism can have a substantial impact on your bottom line: damaging productivity, efficiency, customer service and employee morale. But what is the most effective way to tackle the problem?

The types and causes of absenteeism vary greatly from employee to employee, so any organisation looking to tackle absenteeism would be well-advised to adopt a wide range of approaches.

But five proven techniques for reducing absenteeism are:

• Adopting policies that offer employees a stronger work-life balance, such as job-sharing, home-working and flexi-time
• Introducing mentoring, counselling and fitness programmes to help combat employee stress and burn out
• Enhancing employee motivation through training and development opportunities
• Conducting mandatory return-to-work interviews after illness
• Offering incentives that recognise and reward good attendance, such as allowing staff with perfect attendance records to leave early on the last Friday of every month

You can read more about how to tackle absenteeism by downloading this free white paper.

Local authority employees take an average of 13.5 days off sick a year, at an annual cost to the taxpayer of approximately £4 billion, a new survey  has shown.

But despite the costs of public sector absenteeism, in 84% of the local authorities surveyed, absence management was left to line managers and middle management, with only 7% of local councils believing the issue should be examined at director level and incorporated into the authority’s business strategy.

The Benenden Healthcare Society, which conducted the survey, commented that reducing absence rates within local authorities by 20% could result in savings of £800 million.

You can read more here.